Black Hills Motels Prices $$$kyrocket! (Rapid City, Spearfish: rental homes, hotel, house)

[Jim Stokes]

Just got off the phone seeking a cheap motel in Rapid City and Custer for 3 adults. Cheapest was (maybe) $90 plus tax in Custer. Rapid City wants nothing le$$ than over $100 a night.

We have decided then to be happy campers at $10 night.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Jim Stokes

Just got off the phone seeking a cheap motel in Rapid City and Custer for 3 adults. Cheapest was (maybe) $90 plus tax in Custer. Rapid City wants nothing le$$ than over $100 a night.

We have decided then to be happy campers at $10 night.

When are you going? The Sturgis Ralley is soon. So everything will be booked. But I just did a check on Motel 6 in Rapid City and it is $62 a night for two adults. $65 a night for two adults and you get a micro fridge. haha

but motels in Rapid City are booked tight during the Sturgis Ralley. Matter of fact, so is Hill City, Custer, Spearfish, Belle Forche, everywear.

Unfortunately, so are the camp grounds.

Sturgis and Spearfish have been advertising on the radio that all rv spots are booked however "There's always room for a tent."

[Jammie]

Have you checked out the prices of the cabins? The fully equipped ones are as expensive as a motel, but they do have some with no AC and no heat and that would be fine this time of year. I believe last year they were only charging 35 a night.

[Jim Stokes]

No, there ARE motel rooms available! That's not the problem. The problem is that The Black Hills thinks it's New York City and so want to charge as high as $375, 200 and 100 plus buck$ a night.

So that's not true that "motels are booked tight." I checked. But I did give it the old west try. & thanks for the tip on a cabin and the that lone cheap motel in Rapid.

TBH ain't that big a deal. We got a fanastically low rate on a hotel in SooFoo. So we'll got hang out in at the jazz joint on Phillips Avenue at night. Go to the chinese joint up the hill for their special. Look for wagon wheels in the big park. See the old lady at the book store on Phillips Avenue. Then head for the Palisades.

Thanks again, pardner.

[Jim Stokes]

Why in heck the bikers chose Sturgis is beyond belief! But then human beings don't often make a lot of sense, anyway.

Gotta telly you-all about an adventure we had some years ago. We thought we'd be smart and take a "short cut" to the Badlands instead of going from Custer waaay up to that cut-across road from Rapid.

The detailed map we had "clearly" showed a meandering road that included such colorfully named towns as Torn Shirt and Red Shirt, going through the reservation. Some wiseguys must have turned the signs in different directions. We got lost. Then we finally wound up at the last ranger station and water hole on the official road around the Badlands.

It was sort of like hiking your way through the Pennine Way in Great Britain. Except you don't get a free glass of ale at the end of the trail.

Thus: beware of country roads and country road maps.

[ElkHunter]

Sorry I gave such bad info. It was only friendly advice offered due to what I've experienced in the past.

I lived in Rapid City for 18 years. I've spent the last 32 years going down there to visit my folks. So I've hunted a motel a few times. I've always found that they were all booked tight during the ralley. Wasn't aware that "This" year, they had some openings. Might be the fact that there's a lot more motels there then in past years.

As to "Why would bikers get together?" Well, it's called comaraudery. Old friends meet up, old relationships, a chance to show off your iron, a chance to see new iron, the list goes on. It's a chance to take a vacation once a year and drive your bike in the wide open spaces. Camp, fish, sight see and then meet up for a party.

Originally, the ralley was in Beulah Wyoming. But it moved to Sturgis many many years ago because Beulah had no accomadations to offer. Sturgis did. But back then, we're talking only a couple thousand bikers. Now, the number is much more.

[Jim Stokes]

Pardon me for being so sassy. We'll spend 2 nites in an incredible deal on a motel in SooFoo. So we'll spend 2 nites there, then one nite tenting on the old Pinnacles campground. Then on to Duluth.

We're taking a chance that MN 169 into Mankato and down to I90 is open. They'd been tinkering with that wonderful diagonal that saves lots of miles taking horribly noisy 35W to I90 and doing the right angle. Also that scenery is very ho-hummsy. The "169 cutpast," as we call it could be THEE way to go to SooFoo in the future, since SooFoo is a bona-fide banking and biz center. Scenery is fantastic. The river is very close to the road. Now if we could river 75mph without MN Highwaymen fiddling with "repairs," 35W would be the forgotten way to SooFoo.

Also maybe we'll be lucky to get at least a HINT of fall foliage for a movie for cable we've been working. We need some add'l fall scenes. We can also shoot lots of alts along the way, etal, and tint the frame. Oldtime movie trick. And if there's drought, that will turn greenery to autumn in a hurry.

Despite the so-called drought here, the foliage is all green, the creeks are full and so is the Mississippi. Only "drought" is the lawns. That's just vanity. It all comes back with a decent rain. It's really the heat, not lack of root-reaching ground water.

[ElkHunter]

I69 should be good to go from Mankato South to I90.

I get road reports and they list about 5 construction areas but all are North of Mankato. The first one being on the North end of town. But all the rest are way North. Nothing else listed. The report I get has been fairly accurate in the past.

[DannyBanany]

Jim Stokes-

Have you considered looking at rental homes and rooms to let? I'd bet if you look in the rapid City Journal, they'd have TONS of people advertising for people to stay with them during the Rally... we were thinking about doing it one year because we have a large basement with a bathroom and kitchenette, but then the thought of strange, unknown, biker-ogres in the house was too much.

People may want you ESPECIALLY because you are not a biker!

[Jim Stokes]

Ohmygosh! Creative idea! But we only wanted to stay four days! And we like things simple and stupid. We beat our brains out enough at work. In fact we did a movie for cable about a couple who hadn't taken a vacation in many years, only to encounter wilderness spirits! We shot that at the Palisades {Pinnacles}. It's called "Terror At Outlaw Creek." But I digress, pleasantly.

Wife and I are the campers. Heck, we'd pitch a tent and sleep on the ground for a week. Then go to a motel and clean up. The holdup here is that we're bringing a daughter, who really isn't into camping.

So that's the schtick.

It would have been great to get some shots of the Black Hills for movie stock footage.

But hey, wife and I have aleady decided to camp in TBK June next year. We have the Golden Pass for any national parks. And we always buy a South Dakota parks sticker each year.