[ExI] sturgis rolls on

spike at rainier66.com spike at rainier66.com
Sat Aug 8 13:19:00 UTC 2020


 

The annual huge bike rally at Sturgis South Dakota is going forth.

 

The Sturgis crowd tends to be older people in general, the 50-something and
60-somethings being perhaps the mode.  Several of my biker friends are going
this year.  Sturgis is a biiiig deal to that crowd, their much-anticipated
relatively low-cost annual vacation.

 

The theory is that outdoor transmission of covid is rare, but this is a
special case.  You don't really have enough cargo capacity on a bike to
carry your own supplies and be self-contained for even a week, the way I did
on my recent 3 week trip with a camper, so they will be at restaurants and
hotels.  The crowds at the Sturgis events are very closely packed, which is
clear from the photos my friend sent.  Some are wearing masks outdoors,
looks like about maybe 20%.

 

The hotels are booked solid, so it will include some tent camping as that
rally always does, but pleeeenty of eating indoors at restaurants.  The
biker crowd isn't known for caution or for following orders, which is good
because South Dakota has taken a mostly hands-off approach: their governor
hasn't mandated masks or shut downs in general, but she did shut down public
schools (which makes sense.)  A lot of South Dakota is Indian reservation,
so the chiefs make their own rules on both schools and restaurants on the
rez (haven't heard how they are doing.)

 

I just got a note from one of my friends who is there now who has been going
to most of the Sturgis rallies for the last 30 yrs, says they are having a
blast.  They cancelled the opening ceremonies, but the party goes on full
throttle.  Sturgis is on my list of to-dos, but haven't done yet and mighta
stayed back this year out of abundance of caution, even if I hadn't been
busy with other matters.

 

There is a risk that if there is a huge outbreak at Sturgis, those bikers
come from every state in the union and they will be riding back home next
week.  We science-minded sorts will get some fresh useful data in a coupla
weeks from tens of thousands of mine-canaries on bikes.

 

Good luck bikers.

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