Monday we hit the road toward Mount Rushmore with a bunch who hadn't witnessed the majestic splendor. We peeled along 385 towards Keystone and Hill City. It's one of the coolest roads I've encountered, thrashing thru Pactola lake and Sheridan, the old submerged town. We cut through the back way of Hill City and road 16, the cool way. Funny, we met our friends from Paramount and BMC, on that stretch of fresh asphalt, so we all hung out at the carved Presidents. Time was running out, so we decided to head over to Crazy Horse monument and leave Custer Park and Needles highway, for later on, in the week. We should have known better.

The famous CrazyHorse painter and friends.

It was funny to see Crazy Horse at Crazy Horse. It was getting late so we headed back to the Bikernet headquarters/Caribbean Custom's house to get ready for our annual BBQ and a surprise wedding (NOT MINE !!!).

Cutie on Indian Larry's Discovery ride

The Saturday before there was a party, for the Discovery ride, up at Full Throttle. The two new Build-Off bikes were on hand for people to ogle (well, not both since Indian Larry's bike blew a valve on the way in), but you get the picture, everything was kind of calm till Billy Lane hit the burnout pit, mayhem, chaos and destruction followed.

I was snapping away when I saw a puddle of oil underneath Billy's bike. Then I saw the oil filter rolling on the ground. There was too much noise, too much smoke, and the crowd was going wild. I grabbed a broom and tried to poke Billy, to no avail. He stopped at last, installed the filter, some oil and went back at it. I heard the heart wrenching sounds of the motor blowing as I walked away. Like when a plug is gone or a piston's unleashed and cases split in two. I don't know, if it was the smoke, but Deacon (from Pro-Street in Oahu), had tears in his eyes, and I don't think it was the blinding smoke.

Deacon with the gray beard, from Pro-Street, Oahu.

Tuesday we were ready to hit Spearfish Canyon and then head towards Rapid City, to pay a visit, to our friend, Michael Lichter and check out his exhibition. One of the guys showed up, for the ride, with a few teeth left on his belt and we proceeded to change it. Between one thing, and the other Deacon got to fix a motor, a tranny and change a belt (plus other various knick -knacks). It was getting late so we piled in a cage and burned out to Rapid. Some of the guys decided to visit local bars. We had to haul ass to the Journey Museum and haul ass back to our BBQ.

Author/photographer, Michael Lichter, at Journey exhibit signing books.

Michael was very busy signing books. The bike exhibition was all about old school choppers. Some very cool stuff was displayed. That's when we received the call that one of our friends had gone down.

I have been running to the Black Hills for 8 years, with a lot of friends from Puerto Rico, and been lucky not to experience accidents until this year. I guess, 'cause we always ride in groups, and try to make our mark, on the map, before nightfall. But this year we were dealt a bad hand. I'll avoid the details. The party did not happen, nor the wedding. They were lucky to survive, but it was a nightmare for all of us.