The incessant rumble of motorcycles from I-90 reaches the quiet of the ranch. Sturgis draws a huge crowd for it's annual rally, and this year the prediction is for a million bearded, bare skinned, bandanna-wearing bikers to visit. Traffic jams, loud vulgarities, over-crowded facilities, over-worked law enforcement, wrecks, wailing ambulances, and incarcerations are suddenly common in our peaceful world.
The venders and tattoo artists are waiting, rubbing their fingers together in anticipation of huge crowds and money to be made. Many Sturgis locals have moved out. And the rest of us stay off the roads and stay out of the Hills until rally days are over and the same rumble that brings the bikers in can be heard taking them back home. Sadly, some go home in body bags. Fatalities are high this year. DUI arrests are high. Drug busts are common.
And now that you have this picture in mind, consider what our lovely lady, Jolene, (from my book My Lady) thinks as she unwilling comes to South Dakota on a Harley during the Sturgis rally. Jolene, who loves to ride her horse Tango and is happiest on the family ranch, finds the noise and rabble almost unbearable. To add to her misery is the nagging fear that the man she loves has ulterior motives for dragging her into this mess. And it gets worse.
When she confronts him with his strange behavior, they have a ferocious argument. It gets physical as he slaps her, and she, with country girl grit, slaps him back and accuses him of-----murder. Her main thought, after she locks herself into her room and hears him leave, is to escape. She's scared, and she's praying. And she runs to the sanctity of the prairie.
Such are the thoughts that came to mind many years ago when we found ourselves driving through a mass of motorcycles on I-90. Who knows why a writer's mind forms a book around one little incident, but that's the way it was, and Jolene and Dexter, and her other loves, are forever immortalized in a book.
Have a good and Godly day, and be careful on the roads!
My Lady is available on amazon, barnes and noble, and Tate Publishing. It's also available in local stores, and from my web site www.prairieflowerbooks.com
