Tomorrow I am off to Sturgis, SD for the Sturgis Motorcyle Rally. I am a bit nervous for several reasons. Primarily, because I am not used to camping and haven’t done it in several years and I have scheduled 2 different dates for Aneko (the other therapists that I am taking along with me) to show up to my house so that we can pre-pack for this trip. On both dates, Aneko did not show up (or call me to tell me that she wasn’t showing up).

Also, Aneko is not very familiar with "chair massage"- which is something else that I wanted to show her before we got there (and she has never camped in her life- this should be real interesting). My other therapist friend Denise originally was supposed to attend this with me, but she got real sick so we asked Aneko to attend this in her place. Let's be a bit positive now.... I have a weird feeling about it - but, I will try to remain positive.

I would like take this opportunity to thank those wonderful people that helped me to make this trip possible: John Wiley & Peggy (the camping package rocked), Terri Baca (for being great support), Tom Burnsed (for lending me the tent for Aneko to use), Denise Vanderport (for everything!!!), Pam Rosenberg (for the wonderful candles!), Faith (for the cool t-shirts and the camping list- it came in handy!) & Devota (for the air mattress which will probably save my back) and to anyone else who I may have forgotten that gave me good camping advise. I hope it all goes well-wish me luck!

August 3rd-6am Sunday

Yahoo!! Welcome to Silicone/Saline City!!! There are so many women with boob jobs here-no joke! Plastic surgeons must be making a fortune off of this shit! Well, we made it and survived the first night of Sturgis. This place is a trip! Aneko and I arrived yesterday from Austin, Texas to Rapid City, SD around noon (by plane) and we got the airport shuttle to take us (along with 2 other therapists that flew in) to the Glencoe Campsite in Sturgis, SD. Unfortunately, the shuttle driver was a bit anxious to return to the airport when dropping us off at our campsite, that he dropped us off (at our site) less than 6 feet from a main road running through the camp site.

Later, we find out that this part of the road is referred to as "titty alley". So if you can imagine, I am less than 6 feet from the street (varoom!) and bikes are going down it constantly. The reason why it is referred to as "titty alley" is because in the evening before it gets dark, people ride on bikes up and down the road naked or flashing (no joke- I even got photos for the non-believers and the intrigued).

Upon being dumped by the shuttle driver to our new spot (home), we made pals with 4 guys that have set up camp across from us a few days earlier. They are all in the Marines—we will refer to them as "The Chippendale Guys"-kinda cute! (Of course they all have Harleys) One of ‘em is originally from El Paso- he goes by the name Gonzo. His real name is Gonzalo, another Mexicano in the hood (not too many of my Mexican brothers are in South Dakota)- I am thrilled!!

They were so cool to us—they immediately realized that I needed help setting up 2 tents ‘coz Aneko knew nothing about setting up a tent (at all), and we looked like we did not know what the hell we were doing (which was half true- I knew what to do, but I needed Aneko’s help which was totally unavailable). So, they handed me a cold beer and took over setting up our tents and dining tent (they rocked!). We were better off than the other 2 therapists that we shared a shuttle with (Yana & Mapowana - Mapo for short). Yana’s brother forgot to give her the poles to the tent – so they were screwed! One guy even promised to take me for a cruise on his bike (now that should be fun!) We already owe them all a massage for being so cool to us- and they are looking forward to it too!

After we arrived, we had a meeting with Massage Magazines owners Judy and Robert. They are cool (actually, everyone with the magazine was cool!) they brought their 2 teenage kids to help out. And get this, they got this ’63 Healey (cool antique car). I got photos of it for my friend Biscuit (in Austin, TX) who will wet himself when he sees this! I am hyped! Today we start our 1st day of massage- wish me luck!

Luckily, Aneko and I arrived to Sturgis alright. Unfortunately, since we got on the first plane Aneko has not stopped complaining! I really hope that she starts enjoying it and stops whining. Oh, the ice chest that I fed-ex’ed to myself (here at Sturgis) has not arrived yet and we may not have it for 2 more days (coz today is Sunday)

But on another note, you may be surprised to know that some of the other therapists have named my tent "the condo", coz it is 2 dome tents that are connected. It has a living room, that has 2 chairs and a table. And a bedroom, that has an air mattress-ha! Of course I had to put up ‘glow in the dark stars’ all over the inside of it (to make me feel like I havent left home-ha!) It is bad ass!

There are SO many motorcycles!!! I have to sleep with earplugs and an eye mask on (it sometimes works.) otherwise, I cant sleep with the bikes going beside my tent all night long—the noise and the headlights keep me up. Sometimes even the earplugs are not enough. A guy who is camped next to the Chippendale Guys has a huge sound system with him and played The Doors and ZZ Top all night long last night for EVERY camper to hear (Very Loudly!). In case you did not know this, I hate The Doors! How obnoxious! That on top of the noise of all the bikes!?!?--this is going to be a very interesting camping experience!

Oh, you L7 gals would be happy to know that you hit the nail right on the head when you guessed that there would be a lot of bad rock bands out here! I will keep you posted as it progresses! On Saturday, the World Wrestling Federation is going to be here! Now this should be some real White Trash Fun! I would love to massage in that crazee circus atmosphere! Dennis Rodman is supposed to be here with them—we will see!

I have noticed that SD has a very large Indian community-that is real cool! There are also Indian Reservations in the area. It would be cool to check one of them out-I could only hope to be so lucky.

Well, I need to shower- and brush the sweater off my teeth and get ready to massage by 8am—so I better start the walk to the showers. Wish me luck!

Tuesday August 5th-8:30pm

Oh man, are things taking a turn!

1st off: Today I decided to take a day off –good thing too! There are some things going on here. Aneko is now my main problem. Yesterday, I decided to wake up early and walk (1 mile) to the Sturgis Massage Teams site here at Glencoe Campgrounds.

On the way these 2 cool twin sisters pick me up and give me a ride on their cool bike (its a total "she girl" bad ass cruise with a flat place to sit in the front and back). One is them is a massage therapist too- her name is Karen. And they were so sweet, Karen got to meet Robert (the massage magazines owner) when they took me to the site and she was thrilled and Robert signed a magazine for her.

Well since I woke up very early (and left early), I did not wake up Aneko before I left my tent. I did not know at the time that it pissed her off. But, she did not pack an alarm clock (nor did she purchase one in Sturgis). But, I also feel that waking her up every morning is not my responsibility. Since we have been here, she has done absolutely nothing at the campsite (at all) and I am the one that got her tent for her, shipped it here (overnight) and got the guys to help me set it up I even paid for the shipping ($45). She never even said "thanks"! (grrr-Ok, gotta remember to be positive-I need to have positive thoughts!)

So, now we are at the Massage Site (in downtown Sturgis) for our first day of work. Aneko is still contantly complaining about everything, and for some reason I am trying to be cool and I am biting my tongue and not saying anything to her about it. Some of the other therapists and I are talking to people as they pass by our site trying to get people to come in for a massage—Aneko refuses to do this and she is getting more and more upset because she is not getting any clients (but, she is not trying to get any eigther). That went on all day long.

That was yesterday….. Today, the therapists that did not make any money yesterday are upset at those of us who did and we decide to "rotate" the customers, that way all the therapist have the same equal opportunity to make money. The only problem with that was, the therapists that were bringing in all the customers the day before were back at it again today and now they are giving their customers to the therapists that are not helping to get any customers.

Later in that day, (still at the site) I met this foxy guy. His name is Bill and he is from L.A. (actually from Glendale), and he wanted a massage and it was her turn to do a massage. But he wanted me to do it—which pissed off Aneko. So I asked her if it would be alright to trade out and I took the massage and he asked me out on a ride for that evening -oh yeah!. Later that evening I met up with Bill when I went out with Debbie (another therapist) and Aneko to check out the other massage site at Hog Heaven Campgrounds and then go Downtown on Main Street for dinner.

Oh-by the way, I failed to mention that Aneko is wearing this 4 piece opalesent pink leather bra and thong’ish looking thing that she bought earlier that day. She looked great in it too and she wore it well—but she covered it up in a denim shirt (acting all modest).

When we met up with Bill downtown, we went to the Roadhouse Café (it sucked real badly—I sent my food back) and he wanted to take her for a spin down Main Street on the back of his bike (Soft Tail Purple Harley with flames-cool!). She goes on his bike and he gets to a corner and we (meaning me and lots of strangers) snapped photos of her. She starts acting stupid and screaming at people to stop photographing her. Mind you, this is after she has already stood up on the back of the bike.

After the ride, Bill and I walk the girls to their car and we take off for Spearfish (and it was a cold ride too!). He tells me that we will probably get pulled over by cops ‘coz his tail light is out and there were LOTS of cops out in force. We got pulled over twice! Both times the cops were cool and let us go, but the second time the cops stopped us they were even cool enough to escort us to our destination to avoid being pulled over again in downtown Spearfish.

Now this is where things start to get weird……

I stayed in Spearfish last night with Bill (in a house- not a tent! Yipee!). He gave me a ride back this morning and he goes to Aneko’s tent to say good morning to her and then he takes off. I am hanging around "the condo" (my tent) and Aneko starts asking me for hairpins. (By the way, she did not pack any camping equipment- only clothes. So she is now dependent on me for lots of things and I am trying to be very cool about it and help her out). Luckily for her, I had bobby pins—I don’t know why, but I did (stop laughing!). She came over and got them and later on I stop by her tent (she is shaving her eyebrows now), and starts bitchin’ me out for taking photos of her on the back of Bill’s bike the night before (huh?).

Then she starts freaking out - screaming and yelling at me saying that she wants the photos & the negatives and she wants them right NOW! And starts demanding that I get these photos developed right then and there and give them to her. Mind you, I am in Sturgis, SD- where the hell is a photo lab? Now she is yelling at me, thinking that I am going to blackmail her with these photos (huh???) Does she really think that I have a lot of time on my hands for this kinda stuff, and that I live for psycho-drama or something?!

So now I am trying to reassure her that I would never do something so stupid as to blackmail someone in the first place, and that I don’t even know how she came up with such a screwed up idea. But I told her that I would be happy to give her the photos when I develop them (of course!), but they are not going to be developed anytime soon ‘coz I don’t know where to get them done in Sturgis and I have about 15 other rolls of film that I would like to get developed first. But, when we get home I will get them developed and I will give them to her. (I have to admit, I wanted to crack up when she came up with the idea that I would blackmail her-huh?)

Now she starts to freak out and starts yelling-calling me a bitch….(blah blah blah) and starts getting mad at me for not waking her up the day before (remember when I said that waking her up was not my responsibility?).

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?!?!?!

After Aneko’s freak out, I walked to the Massage Site (here at the campground) and spoke with Judy (the magazine owner). I was actually feeling like I should ask Aneko to just go back home to Austin since she seemed miserable here, but Judy talked me out of doing that. She is so cool!

Instead, I decided to have a productive day. I made a phone call to Denise (back in Austin) and gave her the scoop (especially since she was "originally" supposed to be here with me instead of Aneko—thanks a lot Denise, you owe me one big time for this one!). Made some other calls. I bought a styrofoam ice chest (that Aneko later kicked a hole in). I took a cab to the Downtown post office and sent out postcards, bought a backpack (which was hard to find- I left mine in Austin). I tried to find a bookstore, but I found out that Sturgis does not have any bookstores (go figure!) Later I took a bike ride with one of the Chippendale Guys to buy booze for the others - I went out to lunch and took a 4 hour nap. (yawn!)

It is so unbelievably HOT that the heat had melted the candles in my tent and is making my glow-in-the-dark stars that I have put up in my tent fall off in the middle of the night! Its not surprising for me to find glow-in-the-dark stars in my hair when I wake up in the mornings-ha! (They hurt when I have to pull them out too!-ha!)

Bill was going to come by and see me- but, hasn’t shown up yet. Probably still having problems with his tail light- who knows! Well, I feel the need to take a walk to the restrooms and then to the showers now.

Wed. August 6th- 7am

Last night (in the evening), I made pals with the couple that kept me up the first night with the loud ZZ Top and Doors music. They totally realized that they were being assholes and apologized (saying that they were drunk). They seem to be pretty cool (they sure can drink tho). So now I am friends with my fellow ghetto neighbors (they have an RV). We all sat by the side of the road this evening and watched the freak show together on "titty alley". Bikers were riding nude, bikes were burning rubber, ect…I tried to take plenty of photos tonight ‘coz I know that my friends would never believe it. Insane in the membrane!

Later on that night, this guy shows up to my condo wanting a full-body massage. His name is Steve Goldie he is a tattooist from Wisconsin. He loved his massage and he was very nice. I am getting ready for a long 9 hour day of massage now! I am going to light my curandera lucky flame candle that I brought with me and hope for the best!- wish me luck!

Thursday August 7th-midnight

Lost my pen- writing with a sharpie. Camping insects: Crickets and Spiders. The crickets are constantly trying to jump into my tent (sometimes making it)

Surprisingly, everyone but me is getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. In Austin, I am always being attacked my mosquitoes! But, I haven’t been bit one time here- amazing!

Tonight the Marshal Tucker Band is playing at Buffalo Chip Campgrounds (its located up the road- pretty close by—NO! I am not going!). Last night it was Ted Nugent. I actually went to see Ted Nugent last night with Bill (believe it or not). What a trip!

First off, at Buffalo Chip you can ride your bike all the way up to the stage (which a lot of bikers did do) and instead of applauding, the bikers just reeved up their motors (loudly). It was so damn cold too! Bill totally digged it- I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I am really not a big Ted Nugent fan. But, I have to admit that it was kick ass rock -n- roll and I am sure that it was probably the best show that they had out there. Ted Nugent’s politics regarding gun control, brotherhood, hunting, Bill Clinton, Janet Reno (that was cool), and Sandra Brady were expressed through out the show—and the bikers ate it with a spoon, they loved it!!!

I am real happy that I checked it out—it was probably the only decent show during the whole event. All the music that I am hearing in the bars all sounds the same. But, I was surprised to hear a band yesterday do a cover of an Offspring song at an outside stage yesterday (sponsored by Camel Cigarettes).

Friday Night (lost track of time)

I think tonight is The Guess Who at the Buffalo Chip tonight. I might have my dates mixed up—who knows, I have no plans on seeing them eigther! I am sick of living by the road! Today I moved my tent with Jill’s help (she’s another therapist that I have become good friend with—she is my soul sister). We moved it to another site by Rick’s tent (another therapist). Yana and Mapo moved their tent to that same site and they finally got poles shipped to them for their tent. They seem to be much happier now-ha!

New insects are now added to the old list: Mosquitoes, gnats and some different wild looking spiders! The crickets are still around too.

Work at the massage site is DEAD and no one is making money (kinda scary)! I started walking around to the vendors and massaging them for some extra cash—its working well so far. I should have started doing this days ago. I think some of the other therapists are looking for other work as well. Bill leaves tomorrow for LA. He came by the massage site to say good bye to me (that was cool of him).

Tomorrow is the Worldwide Wrestling Federations wrestling event.

My new goal: To massage Dennis Rodman—wish me luck! I heard that he is here in Sturgis and there have been lots of Rodman sitings. He actually showed up to the Massage Site that I work at for a massage, but he showed up after we closed down for the day.

Saturday-11:30pm

Oh my GOD! I am so sick! Its rainy and cold (45 degrees) and I am not used to this weather! Jill told me that I feel feverish (shit!- just what I need). I found out that this happens to be the coldest place in the nation today (my damn luck!) I accidentally overdosed on my allergy medicine too-but I still attempted to go out to do a massage for a vendor tonight! Luckily for me, they weren’t there ‘coz I am too sick to be working on anyone in this condition.

After finding that my vendor was a no-show, I walked to another vendor and bought a leather jacket (I did not bring a warm coat with me and I now have an excuse to buy a leather jacket). After that I want to the Broken Spoke (a local bar) to wait for Rick to pick me up for a ride to the condo. I was to impatient to wait and took a cab. I missed the wrestling event too (bummer). So here I am at the condo sick as a dog. Luckily for me, Rick was cool enough to lend me a blanket! So here I am sick, cold, and living in a tent (yuck!)

I failed my only big goal: to massage Dennis Rodman! (shit! I hate it when I fail at my goals!!!) OH well, its not the first time-ha!

Monday!

Ahhh—I made it! I am writing from the Rapid City Airport! I am awaiting my plane to go home (with a layover in Minneapolis). I am still sick, but its not as bad as it has been for the past 2 days. Yesterday, all the therapist took off (including the folks from the magazine). Aneko took the tent down (I am sure that she had someone help her) and left it in a box at the magazines RV site for me to take home. I haven’t seen her for 2 days, but she is here at the airport and hasn’t even come over to talk to me. 2 (or 3) days ago she gave Rick a message to give to me saying that she was leaving Sturgis and going home (to Austin). I am a bit surprised to see her here at the airport. I knew that she had attempted to get an eariler flight out earlier in the week and it was impossible, but when I got the message from Rick-I figured that she found a way to fly out early (who knows!).

Yesterday morning I decided that I was going to Rapid City and get a hotel room, chill out, watch TV and marvel at the fact that electricity and plumbing does exist (and catch up on phone calls and clients). Just as I had made up my mind that this is what I was doing, Jill shows up in her truck and I invite her to come along. She’s no fool and jumped on the offer so we helped each other load up and we hit the highway.

I sold my tent to the cab driver that was driving me all over Sturgis for $100.00 (plus, I needed the cash for the hotel room)- I have no desire to camp again any time soon. Plus, the cabbie was thrilled to be the new owner of "the condo". (I also had a coupon for an extra night free at the Radisson, so Jill is staying the extra night tonight and chilling out.) Plus, the cab driver probably got rich off me while I was in Sturgis-ha!

The very first thing I did when I got in the hotel room was to jump all over the beds (and then take a shower-ahh!). Jill and I then went out walking around the town and had dinner in a real restaurant (with a waitress and table cloths- which is a hard thing to find in Sturgis). Afterwords, we saw a bad hypnotist show last night at the hotel’s bar and Jill made friends with 2 guys there that showed up at our room to hang out later on that night.

This morning, I went walking around Rapid City and I found a bookstore! I couldn’t help but to buy 4 books. Its a pretty neat little city. Jill was feeling sick this morning, so I picked her up something to eat (that she will not puke up) before I had to be at the airport. She is the greatest, I have really enjoyed her company and I will miss her.

I am a bit tired and broke (and still a little sick), but I am very happy to be going home! I don’t know if I am ever going to go back to Sturgis for another motorcycle rally, but it was definitely an experience! I am happy that I went and that I managed to snap 5 rolls of film. But if I ever mention that I want to go camping again, someone please remind me of this camping event and change my mind.

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