As many of you know, Sturgis lost a legendary haunt early Tuesday morning of this week to a devastating fire. This week, I dug through my photo archives to share our best memories of the Full Throttle Saloon.
Inside the front doors.
Stage to the right.
Main bar.
The bus!
Looking west.
Angieland, home of the Ass hats!
Stilt girl!
OMG LOL!
Looking south towards the stage.
Jacques, Bill, me and Pat
Me and Fajita Mike!
Emit, their resident miniature donkey.
I’m still thanking God he survived the fire and is doing fine.
In 2011 I had the opportunity to photograph bikes for American Bagger magazine and attended Paul Yaffe’s Bagger Nation at the Full Throttle. Movie cameras were following Michael and Angie around as they filmed for the next season of their reality show on TruTV, at the time.
Those close to us know that our trip out west to Sturgis is the epitome of our lives. This news hit us hard, because now, for the first time ever, there is a sad memory attached to South Dakota.
Though we never experienced the full on craziness of the Throttle, we always made it a stop every trip to visit during the day, exploring and taking in the view from every level. It was a very, very cool place to visit.
This loss has left a hole in our hearts and itinerary that will take some getting used to. Our prayers are with the FTS family as they figure out the path ahead of them. We can only hope that next summer will bring a new chapter along Highway 34, one we can start from the beginning.
It was certainly a unique place and it’s a shame that it has been destroyed. Luckily no one was injured and hopefully a new ‘iconic’ biker bar can come of it (even if it won’t be the original FTS.)
VStarLady recently posted…What Kind Of Blogger …
[…] If you’re not familiar, the Full Throttle Saloon is a huge biker bar in Sturgis, that comes to life every rally week in August with bikers from all over the world. This is the new Throttle. Sadly, the original bar burned to the ground on September 8, 2105. I recapped our visits to the original bar, which you can read about here. […]