Came Across Something More Annoying Than a Huge Generator...

[JunkMan]

We're vendors at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We only get 5-6 hours of sleep each night and work 12-16 hour days. I can't believe that a NASCAR race could even come close to the noise at the "Buffalo Chip". After the concert ends at 2:00 am, everyone moves over to "burnout bridge" to watch the fools smoke their tires. Not only do you have to deal with Harleys with straight pipes, cheering crowds, and loud music, but the smell will make you sick.

The vendor camping area is about 1/4 mile from the bridge, and if the wind is just right, the dust and burnt rubber form a cloud that will choke you, not to mention cover evey inch of you and your camper. Sometimes this goes on all night, but even when it doesn't, there are a large number of riders that are up at the crack of dawn to start all over.

When we get home 10 days later, we can't sleep in our house because we are deafened by the SILENCE!

We've been doing this as vendors for about 15 years now (another 5 or 6 on the other side of the fence), and every year when it's over, we swear that we'll never do it again.

They just announced that the Steve Miller band is playing on Thursday night. Toby Keith & Tim McGraw are also on the line-up, and theres 4 nights that they are still negotiating with other bands for. Four months to go before we do it all again, we can't wait!

[Nitetimes]

JunkMan Sounds like a good time, I really want to get out there some year, just hasn't been in the cards yet.
I can relate to the smoke in the air, the first year we went to Michigan it rained for 3 days and the smoke from the campfires was so heavy you could barely see and it hung right about eye level, stayed that way til it cleared up on Sat afternoon. Talk about a serious case of red-eye. But it didn't put a damper on the partying tho.

[JunkMan]

[quote="NitetimesI really want to get out there some year, just hasn't been in the cards yet. [/quote]

It's like nothing that you've ever experienced before! Just the sheer number of people and motorcycles, not to mention the concerts and other activities, make it like a Disneyland for adults.

Of course, if you're not into bikes and partying, stay as far away from South Dakota as possible the first two weeks of August. I really feel sorry for the poor tourist that just happens to pass thru here and doesen't know it's rally week. We always run into a few tourists who want to know what is going on, with all of the bikes and such in the area. We always try to look confused, and ask "what do you mean?, it's always like this".

[DANL]

Hey Larwyn, maybe you could line your interior walls with that weird sculpted foam padding that they use in anechoic chambers. That might cut the snoring down to a pleasant "white noise" for the neighbors. Maybe even lull them to sleep.

Shhhh...

[asianflava]

Having lived in Daytona, I know what both NASCAR and bike week is like. I can say that the bikes are worse because no matter where you are in town, you hear them. My dorm room was next to the airport which is right next to the track. Nothing to shield the sound except for the vast expanse of runway. We would get to hear them running all night when they ran the Rolex 24hour race. Although it's not like being in the infield or Main St., you actually kinda get used to it.

[LeeB]

I wish I had room to bring my cannon to Minden the last time it was fired in town at a black power rendezvous, we were in the middle of town with all the police and people around cheering me on. When it went off it set the motion alarms off in the bank 2 blocks away it was great but the police ask us to please move it outside of town in the future. What a way to meet all your neighbors???

Lee