Dakota Days - Bikers and back ache

Day Eighteen.  Thursday 5 August 2004

"I am now stupidly bored of digging.  We get up early, go to the site, dig for hours, then come back to the motel.  My back seriously hurt today, it feels all knotty and tense, probably the result of bending over and scraping dirt for hours.

I got our trench's first significant find today - the end of a bone tool!  But much more interesting things are happening across the site, where human finger bones and teeth may have been found in Tris' trench.  Alan and Adrien are acting more-and-more suspicious, and Tris reckons there is a human burial underneath it all - he's sure they will be asked to stop digging soon.  It's all a bit hush-hush, and if it turns out there are human remains here, the whole site will need to be shut down until formalities are completed, including the dead person's tribal leader collecting the remains for a proper burial.

There are a lot of bikes in town recently, all passing through towards Sturgis, for the big Sturgis Bike Rally.  It's quite interesting seeing all the bikes and the bikers, and there was a bright pink one outside the motel this morning.  Lots of bikers seem to sleep at this motel, must be because it's so cheap.  I don't know when the Sturgis Rally begins, but the number of bikes suggests it's getting closer.  I tried to get some photos earlier, but kind of feel cheeky taking pictures of other people's bikes... And the bikers are so scary, wouldn't want to cross them!"

Day Twenty.  Saturday 7 August 2004

"A lie-in was blissful, and I went to work today feeling a lot more awake, fit and healthy!

But what a shite work day. Ok, it started off alright with doughnuts for breakfast, but it got worse and worse.  We stayed until 8pm because of the Harvest Moon Festival.  Rich people, who had donated money to the site, had a chance to look around and have wine, buy art and so on.  We were the other attraction - and it felt like being in a zoo, all these people looking down on us as we pretended to carefully dig when actually, most of us could think of somewhere else to stick our trowels.  I listened to the speeches going on above us.  Adrien, who didn't like the whole idea anyway, was the only person who mentioned us.

The only thing cheering me up was that Torquay had drawn their first match of the new season, away at Bristol City, 1-1.  It's a great result because we've only just gone up, and City are probably favourites to win it this year.

After a shower in the evening, I felt better, and headed out with Tris, Angie and Dan to the cinema.  We saw 'The Village', which was quite a good film, with a clever twist when you realise that the people aren't really living 100 years ago, but are actually in the modern age.  It's just that they're isolated in the woods, and only the elders know.  A day off tomorrow, so we're going to toe Middle Border Museum, if it's open..."