Deadwood and Sturgis

Saturday’s scenic drive took us through several old western towns in the Black Hills, west of Rapid City.

Our first stop was Hill City,

a touristy little town where we had lunch and I found a quilt shop to visit.  From there, we headed north through the hills and around a few lakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We reached downtown Deadwood, and were surprised to see that it is a gaming town.  There were casinos lining both sides of the street, along with hotels, restaurants and bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We probably would have driven straight through, but right as we were driving into town, they were blocking off the main street and setting up for a gunfight demonstration.

The main character explained that their gunfights were historically accurate, based on documented newspaper accounts from 1876.

 

This guy is the newspaper reported who recorded the event,

and of course Wyatt Earp was there!

The fight erupted over a game of poker – somebody accused somebody else of cheating!

The gunfight took all of 60 seconds, and left two guys dead on the street!

That was the end of the gunfight!  I’m not sure if these re-enactments are a regular thing in Deadwood, or just part of the “Days of 76” that is going on this week . . . but it was entertaining!

From Deadwood we drove through Boulder Canyon,

and on to the town of Sturgis . . . home of the famous motorcycle rally.

The rally is coming up in August, and we won’t be here . . . thank goodness! 

Tom did get himself a Sturgis T-shirt, though, and we added ourselves to the giant rally photo from 2012!

We continued out of town to the famous Full Throttle Bar . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it looked pretty harmless this weekend, but I wouldn’t want to be here during the rally!