Wow, sounds like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is another huge success this year. If you've never been there, a couple pieces of advice: 1) Go at least once! and 2) Get ready for cycles, cycles, cycles everywhere!

Somebody asked me if I'd ever been to the Rally. Well, having lived 'next door' in Rapid City for fifteen years, yes...yes I have. But this isn't about me at the Rally (we'll save that for another time, maybe). No, this is about some words of wisdom I gave my kids a whole bunch of years ago.

This goes back to when my two young'un's were, well, young. We're talkin' the 8 to 10 to 12 year old range. They have kids of their own now, so you do the math. It was 'a while back'. They'd be out in Rapid City with me, and we'd do all the fun tourist type things. Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the huge water slide park outside of town, up into the Hills, all that.

And then I'd take them for an afternoon to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Or maybe I should be more specific: Main Street of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. No, I didn't venture them out to the concert at Buffalo Chip and we steered clear of some of the establishments in town.

But Main Street, that's where I'd stroll with the two I call my own. Soda's and snacks in hand, they looked everywhere with open mouths. Yep, there's a lot to see at the Rally, and probably some things they can't un-see. And that's all good. And through it all I had just four words of sage parental advice:

Don't touch the bikes!

I had a vision of Jeremy or Jessie thinking that bike right there is so cool, touching it, and setting off a domino of bikes down the street. Crash, clunk, clank, kaboom. And then the owners of those bikes coming up to me and me hearing the same thing before I hit the sidewalk...Crash, clunk, clank, kaboom.

Well, bless their pea-pickin' little hearts, they listened to their old man just like they always did. Sometimes did. OK, did once in a while. They didn't touch the bikes.

To this day when we all get together and Sturgis happens to come up, they talk about how Dad said to be sure and don't touch the bikes! And then they laugh. It is a great memory.

But I'm thinkin' someday before long they'll take their own family vacation and bring their kids to the Black Hills. And if it's a certain time of the year, they just might swing into Sturgis for the Rally.

And I'm bettin' I know what they'll tell their kids.

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