Sioux Falls

At Sioux Falls, South Dakota, there is a nice KOA campground with a long grassy section catering to bikers. Red and I, anxious to be out on the Great Plains, were running late one day and pulled in after dark. There were already five or six tents up, and a great, blazing log fire in a common pit. We put up our tent, smoothed out our bags, ate a dinner of warmed up beans and franks, and then wandered over to the fire – to get us some of that cherished biker camaraderie..... I counted two Wings, three Harleys, a Kawi Vulcan, and even two exotic-looking Guzzis with weathered soft luggage. A half-dozen riders were standing around the fire, drinking bottled beer and talking and laughing softly. They nodded to us and we took our place in the ring.

A little while later, a nice-looking early Chevy Corvette, Pearl Yellow, glistening with wax, rumbled sweetly into a car camping site across the road. The occupant, dressed in filthy jeans, a sleeveless denim vest with a patch, and a wallet with a chain, got out and walked toward us.

“Hi y’all! Howse the two-wheeled crowd tonight?” He grinned at us, his grey pony-tail bouncing, a half-empty pint of whiskey clutched in a greasy hand. “Nice day for a ride, huh,” he asked, tipping the bottle back.

“Yup,” one of the Harley boys said. He nodded at the Corvette. “Nice Wheels.”

“Ain’t they, tho, bro,” laughed Pony Tail. “Mine...my baby. Been workin’ on the damn thing for years..... takin’ it to the Black Hills Corvette Rally in Rapid City this weekend.” He squatted on his heels, and then looked up at us and grinned. “Figure on gettin’ me one of them cute little trophies!”

We all nodded our heads like bobbleheads on a shelf.

“I prefer dearly the bike, however....,” he said. “ Know what I’m sayin’? Love bikes. Love ridin’.....Got me a old shovelhead....if ya like my Corvette, y’all oughta see my Harley Shovelhead! Twenty-five coats of hand-rubbed lacquer!” He grinned at Red. “Like lookin’ into yore lady’s eyes!”

The Kawi rider looked at Pony Tail.

“Ya goin’ to Sturgis this year?”

Pony Tail’s face grew solemn. He took a long pull at his diminished pint, swallowed noisly, and then spat into the fire.

“Naw....fuck it! Ain’t ever going there again!”

“Why not, “ I asked.

Pony Tail looked up at me for a moment, and spat again into the fire.

“Ain’t no good there no more..... last year, my brother an’ me show up. Rode all the way in from Milwaukee.... just popped open our first beers and sittin’on the scooters......checkin’ out the street...ya know what I’m sayin’?”.”

He fell silent for a moment, while Kawi rider threw a new log on the fire and kicked at it with his boot. Sparks showered out into the night.

“Anyhow... there we sit, the brother an’ me, and this humungous damn motorhome pulls up. Brand new...that sucker must a’ been 40' long! But it don’t bother me none, I seen that before......”

He took another pull on his bottle, finished it, and dropped it into the grass.

“Then these two dudes come out in matching leathers! But that don’t bother me, I seen that, too...”

He grimaced at the fire.

“Then these two fools let down a ramp at the back, and backpedal down two new white Heritage Springers! Both white! Both brand new! Goddamn rubber’s still got the stickers on ‘em! But that didn’t bother me none, I seen it before..........!”

He fell silent again. For a long time. Finally, one of the Guzzi riders asked him in accented English, “well, what finally did bother you?”

The Pony Tail stood, angry.... he kicked his empty bottle into the flames.

“What bothered me was when one of them little posers went back in and came out with a tent and sleeping bag! A fuckin’ tent and sleeping bag that he commenced to tie on the back of his Springer! That bothered me! I ain’t never seen that before!”

The prairie wind moaned, picked up, and pushed the fire over in another direction.. Sparks again danced on the wind, and vanished in the night.

“And so I went up to the little pussy and I asked him, ‘Hey! You ever sleep in that bag?’ And he said, ‘no,’ and then I said, ‘Hey! You ever pitched that tent?’ and he said, ‘no.......’ “

The Pony Tail raised his arms to shoulder level, palms to the sky.

“And so then I said, ‘so what in the fuck are you doin’ that for’...... and the dude looked me right in the eye and said, ‘for the look!’”

The Kawi rider snorted, but the rest of us stood silent, staring into the dancing flames.

The Pony Tail sighed. “Fuckin’ Sturgis..... ruined.....ya hear what I’m saying?” He looked at us all in turn, and we nodded. “Some fuckin’ things...well.... some fuckin’ things they should just leave alone. Damned if they shouldn’t just leave things alone.”

The fire danced at our feet, and above our heads streaked a falling star