Wrap Up 4

Well, as you may have noticed I'm not one to put my thoughts on paper but I'm going to try and tell you about our trip because it was a trip that every one should experience and one I'll never forget.

Everyone has pretty much said it all as far as the points of interest (Tom is a great tour guide) and the interesting people we met (mainly because Maryann is so good at breaking the ice.) but for me it was the fact that here I was on this motorcycle riding across this beautiful country of ours seeing the beautiful countryside and the wildlife that goes with it. I was in awe of the differences there were along the way from rolling hills to lots of corn fields that were so perfectly planted that it was like a big wave rolling along I started getting dizzy watching, oh and the Badlands and Devils Tower what about Mount Rushmore and oh! oh! and oh! too many more to put down but all wonderful to see. I had the camera in my hand most of the time while we were on the bike and I've been known to fall asleep on the bike sometimes so doing this kept me alert not that on this trip I would have fallen asleep and I really tried to take as many pictures as I could that would show how I saw things but that was Impossible because for one it's hard to focus on things when your traveling at 60 mph and a picture just doesn't give you that feeling of the wide open spaces you experience when traveling on a motorcycle.

The wildlife that we encountered was a big plus for me since I love animals. From the silly little prairie dogs to the big herd of buffalo that traveled in front of us and behind us on the road (missed the best of these pictures because I was toooo excited). Oh ya! there was this cat in the campground in Deadwood that we camped in that Maryanne started calling Evil Knevil because when we first saw it was on the other side of a very wide creek and as we watched him he crouched down and got his little feet going as cats do before they jump and over the creek he came we were all amazed because it was a very very wide space he jumped over. We saw wild donkeys and mountain goats and lots of deer and horses and cows. So along with all the other wonderful things that were already mentioned I want to say that the best part was being able to travel with two of my closest friends and my wonderful husband who was the one that finally convinced me that I had to go on this fantastic adventure.

Thanks you guys, I can't wait till our neeeext adventure!

Sandy

P.S. That could not have been me because I heard it to and besides I don’t snore.

Wrap up 3

Wow what a ride!

The ride was made even more special having Sandy along. Up until about two weeks before leaving she wasn’t going with us.

Experiencing this beautiful county on a motorcycle is incredible experience. Cruising along with the road whizzing by under your feet, wind blowing on your cheeks, and all those smells. Riding with the best of friends makes the ride all the more special.

Traveling off the interstates we saw so many forgotten towns that were bypassed by the big interstates. Just like the movie “Cars”. Cody, Nebraska comes to mind with an older mechanic working under the hood of a 1956 Ford in front of the garage, with a rack of tires, and old bicycle outside Sandhills Automotive Center. This little town of 177 appeared to have been stuck in the 50’s or 60’s (Check out the pictures on Day 6).

There were so many highlights such as the Badlands, which are as awesome as I remember from my family’s trip to Idaho in 1979. The ride through the Needles, Devils Tower, Spearfish Canyon, Custer National Park with the buffalo, and of coarse Mt. Rushmore. How about the ride to Huelett, WY via Montana and having two fighter jets doing a fly-by over the highway on the way to their bike week. Getting the free barbeque pork sandwich, baked beans with hot peppers, and nacho chips. Bikes doing a burnout in Rochford. Stugis seeing all the bikes lined up on the streets, and all the t-shirts. Deadwood was one of my favorite places, just to hang out, seeing all the bikes and watch the people. Not only the downtown but the hill, the ride up the hill to the campground. Catching up with Tom’s cousins in Saloon 10 and swapping stories.

How many people asked about our beaded seats? How do you like them? Where did you get them? Yes they are great, they really work, 5141 miles and no “monkey butt”. I think we should get a commission on these things.

We have some great ideas for future rides, a couple to add could be, a ride along the coast maybe to the Outer Banks, a trip through The Smokey’s, take a trip down the Dragon, or as Tom said a adventure through some of the back roads of New England.

Of course this ride will be a hard trip to out do.

Wrap up 2

For those of you who ride, I think I can speak for all of us that you should consider doing a trip like this. Do not be intimidated by the distance. If you choose the right roads and have enough time to do it, it will truly be a rewarding journey. Comfort? Sure, our legs got antsy, but we stretched plenty when we stopped for gas, which was quite often. And no, my butt is not sore. My seat is really comfortable.

For those of you that don’t ride, a trip like this could as easily be done in a car as well. It wouldn’t be quite the same, as bikers tend to readily talk to each other whenever there is an encounter. When traveling by car we don’t typically see this type of camaraderie.
One of the best parts of this experience for me was meeting the people we met and listening to their tales of where they had been and what they had seen. For me, it gave me a glimpse of the possibilities in the years ahead for other adventures. This truly was an adventure. Everyday we got on the bikes I would wonder, where will we go today? Who will we meet and what will we see?

An adventure like this is not a passive activity. You really must make an effort to reach out to your fellow travelers and to those whose towns you are passing through in order to take away something valuable from the encounter. Sometimes this is easier said then done. For those of you who know Tom, you would be quite impressed with how often he does this. I was!

So, grab your good friends and plan something for next year. It is well worth it and I look forward to you taking us along!

Wrap up

“It’s not the destination, it’s the ride”

A few years back, Harley Davidson used this slogan in some of their advertising. I think this one sentence sums up what motorcycling and traveling in general is all about. Yes, our goal was Sturgis but that didn’t turn out to be the highlight of the trip. Whether the actual destination is Sturgis, Myrtle Beach, Milwaukee or Meat Cove, Nova Scotia it is mainly the things you see and the people you meet along the way that make the trip memorable.

Heading out of Sturgis and all the way back to Albany, NY on I-90 we passed hundreds of cars, trucks and motorhomes heading home with bikes packed into trailers or strapped into the back of pickup beds. I’m sure they got home quicker than us and had a more comfortable ride with their soft seats and air conditioning but I feel sorry for them because they missed out on the challenge and sense of adventure we got from riding.

When we get together over a beer or two and talk about the trip to Sturgis, we won’t be talking about all the bikes we saw in the Black Hills or how great the bars or vendors or pretty girls were on Main Street. It will be the small things we saw and experienced that we will remember and laugh about: the “free” campground in Ohio and the early morning fog when we left; riding across the Mississippi for the first time and how tired we were when we got there; all the beautiful, well kept farms of Iowa (no, we never did got bored looking at all that corn); pie for breakfast with Judy the cranky waitress and the missing statue in Kimballton; the too talkative Lewis and Clark tour guide; Crofton, Nebraska with its beautiful Argo Hotel, the bar with two old-timers, the worlds least knowledgeable bartender (“We don’t have any DARK beer and what’s in a Jack and ginger????”), its 6 legged pig and paddlefish; the double decker bridge over the Missouri in Yanton, SD and the lone American flag sitting way out in the corn field. We’ll wonder what is happening in Monowi-maybe a new family will move in some day to take over for Elsie when she is ready to retire or maybe the state will just have to take the sign down when nobody is left to run the tavern. We’ll remember the long stretches of range land with herds of cattle gathered around old weather-beaten windmills. Desolate, lonely and beautiful. We’ll laugh about our short trip down the washboard dirt road in Sparks, Nebraska and our swim in the Niobrara River later (is the cracked helmet still hanging in Scott’s garage?). The dream catchers we bought from the young Sioux woman at Wounded Knee will remind us of our short visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation and the huge fields of sunflowers in full bloom. I’m sure we’ll even be laughing about the day we got lost in the Badlands and the $20 “donation” I made to the Deadwood PD.

It even seems that many of the highlights of Sturgis itself didn’t take place in Sturgis. Getting out into the smaller towns in and around the Black Hills helped us meet some different people and see some great scenery. Places like Nemo, Rochford and Huelett are not to be missed. The smaller bars and restaurants like Wild Bills, the Boars Nest, Moonshine Gulch Saloon and Saloon No. 10 have just as much character as the bigger well known places in Sturgis.

The only question is where do we go next? It’s tempting to go back to some of the places we’ve already been to. Nova Scotia was so nice that we want to go back with our wives. But there are too many places we haven’t seen yet. Maybe we’ll try West Virginia’s mountains and explore the Ohio River. The Kentucky bluegrass and horse country is a possibility or a loop around the Great Lakes. There are even a lot of back roads and small towns closer to home in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine we haven’t ridden yet. The southwest and even Ireland are places we want to see sometime in the future. Any other suggestions?

I hope you all take the time to explore in your travels too. Take a little extra time on your next trip and get off the interstates to explore all that small town America has to offer. Instead of McDonalds or Applebees or the other chain restaurants take a ride into town and look for the local diner or café. There are bound to be a few interesting people to chat with and some excellent regional specialties to try. Look for that offbeat local festival or oddball attraction and see where it might lead you and who you might meet in the process. Remember it’s not always about the destination – you’ll get there soon enough. It’s really all about the ride.

The Ride Home (cont.)

Shippsewanna, Indiana to WINDSOR, Mass 781 miles

Indiana (cont): Nice sunrise, we were on the road before it came up.

Ohio: They have the nicest rest areas. Big, clean, modern. Lots of truck parking, which looks really cool at dawn with all the trucks lined up with thier running lights on.

Pennsylvania: We just ran a short stretch thru PA along Lake Erie but long enough to run into a grumpy old guy at the gas station. He yelled at us to move the bikes away from the pumps while we were grabbing some food when there wasn't another customer in sight and there were 4 other open pumps. Of course that was all the encouragment we needed to slooowwwly get ready, paaaaaack up our fooooooood, put on our helmets, waaaaalk around the bike, kiiiiiiick the tires on the trailer and then honk the horn and wave as we rode off. It was a nice welcome home from the the friendly folks of the Northeast.

New York: No time to stop in Buffalo for wings, next trip..., northeast drivers are worse than Illinois drivers.

Mass: We finally made it home, it was a long ride but worth every minute. Total distance travelled was 5141 miles!

Wrap up to come-stay tuned.

The Ride Home

Deadwood to Blue Earth, Minnesota 530 miles

South Dakota: HOT, HOT, HOT. Lunch at Al's Oasis.
Minnesota: Green, green, green! Saw only 1 of the 10,000 lakes, felt cheated. Town of Blue Earth made up for it- FREE camping at the county fairgrounds AND a 60 ft tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant.

Blue Earth to Shippsewana, Indiana 580 miles

Wisconsin: Boring, ugly interstates (sorry Willie G.), lots of bad Illinois drivers.
Illinois: Chicago BITES! 57 miles in 2 hours. Bad traffic and real hot.
Indiana: Nice sunset.

Tomorrow: Home??? We'll see...

One more for the road...

Day 13; 200 miles +/-

Today was our last day in the Black Hills. We had a great time revisiting some roads we really enjoyed and seeing some new sights. We headed north to Belle Fourche (pronounced Bell Foush; I think). This was a big livestock sales town, back in its day. Today it was full of bikers even early in the morning. We took 212 west and stuck our toes into Montana. We got off and walked around, just to make it official. We stopped at the state line and took the obligatory picture of the “Welcome to Montana” sign. While there, Tom noticed the state line bound. I went over to check it out and noticed that there was a state highway bound laying on the ground that was never set. It had a brass disk on the top; a very nice 6”x6” bound that was all of 6 feet long. I asked if we could take it home as a souvenir. Well, it is still laying on the state line if anyone else is interested.

This ride took us through some really “Big Sky” country. There are definitely more bikes on the road now. We did see some stupid people doing stupid things, cars included. When the terrain is right, you can see lines of bikes all over the place. But, it definitely is not bumper to bumper traffic. Each place we stop we hear stories of arrests and other mishaps. Thankfully, we haven’t witnessed anything.

We ended up at Hulett, for the second time this week. However, today it was quite different. The place was packed as it was “No Panties Wednesday”. Boy, did we see some sights. We also got a free lunch which included the best roast pork sandwich we’ve had in a long time. They were giving the lunches away! While waiting in the long line in the blazing sun, we were treated to a motorcycle jumping show. That was really exciting. Three guys jumped some 45 feet into the air on their bikes and landed on a ramp 75 feet away from the jump. While up in the air they did all sorts of crazy things like twisted with the bikes, held on with one hand, one guy completely came off of the bike with no hands on it and for a finally, one guy did a 360 flip with the bike (head over tail). That was really cool.

We left there and headed back to Spearfish Canyon and rode that beautiful stretch again. We then took Scott down the 14 mile road to Rochford, which he had missed on Monday. There were all sorts of burnouts going on there and very interesting people watching. We then went back to Deadwood hoping for a meal but the all you can eat buffet we heard about wasn’t what we thought it would be. So, we hung around for a bit and watched the bikes (again!!). It was really crowded.

Back at the campground after a great burger at Wild Bills and we are freezing. It is just like a summer nite in Windsor. We start the long trek home tomorrow morning. We figure that this leg of the journey will be really boring without much to write about. We will be travelling on Route 90 from here all the way home; how boring is that? So, we probably won’t be doing any more entries until we return home on either Saturday or Sunday. So see ya until then.

People Watching...

Day ????

We've been away so long, I forget what day it is.

We spent most of the day in Sturgis again, getting a feel what its like on a busy day. Lots of bikes with 4 rows of parking all the way down Main St but no traffic jams going in like we see at Laconia. Up there it can take over an hour to get to Weirs Beach if you get in the wrong line of traffic.

We just sat and watched all the different people and bikes going by. One of the people who wandered by was my cousin Rocky. Of the thousands of people what are the chances that we'd see him again. Its amazing what you can see. We also checked out a few of the hotspots and listened to some music. Towards afternoon, some T-storms came through which slowed down the action a bit. The storms were nowhere near what we saw the other day though.

We took the back way home from Sturgis, down through Vanocker Canyon and through Nemo. The canyon ride was great, nice and twisty and great views. We got home in the daylight for a change and got some laundry done-starting to get things ready for the trip home. Had a late dinner at Wild Bills Saloon just up the road- they have awesome burgers!

Good-bye Sandy!

Day 11; Just hanging around

Today we said good bye to Sandy as she had to return to the Berkshires to go back to work. We will miss her! After she packed her bags with everything Scott could fit, they left for the airport in Rapid City. Tom and I then headed for Rockford, a small town west of Deadwood; population 25. By the map, there was only one blacktop road heading in so we headed west on west out of Deadwood on 85, I think. It was 14 miles in and on the way I was thinking, wow, this is really out of the way, what could possibly be going on here? Well, there was a lot going on.
The center of the town was at the intersection of two roads. There was a general store, which was full of artsy stuff and owned by two women from Minnesota; they called it the Rockford Mall. A saloon, which was started back in the mid 1800's and looked every bit as old. It had tons of old baseball hats stuck to the ceiling. I guess people come and donate their hats to the collection. Tom tried to get me to add my Hill hat to the collection (I don't think he likes it), but I didn't . And, Rockford had a firehouse with more bays then Windsor so Tom was really impressed.
We sat on the porch of the Saloon for quite a while and watched all sorts of interesting things and characters. We met folks from Minnesota who kept us entertained and watched guys doing wheelies and other guys driving down the street while standing on their seats. Just crazy stuff.
We then met Scott in Deadwood after he saw Sandy onto the plane. Deadwood was much busier then the last time we were here. Again, we sat and just watched the people and looked at the cool bikes.
We watched a moron on a gold wing park his bike so close to another bike that there was no way the other bike could get out. The other bike had a license plate with "Rednec" on it so we thought this should be interesting. Then, this other guy pulls in on the other side of the Gold wing and was way to close to him. What a bunch of idiots. We all sat on the bench and had a good laugh with two other guys.
We met up with Tom's cousins in the Saloon No. 10 shortly thereafter. Rocky and two other friends drove out from CT with the bikes in tow (straight thru in 36 hours!) and Donato and his wife flew into Rapid City. It was nice to see everyone. They had spent a very busy day seeing Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, the Iron Road and Needles. They must have been flying to see all that. It sounds like they have a very aggressive schedule planned for their week. I hope it works out for them especially since Donato's wife told me she can't spend more than one hour at a stretch on the bike! Hmm... it mite get ugly.

Out and About...

Day 10: Black Hills tour

Today we made the rounds of all the Black Hills highlights. We started out in Rapid City at the Harley attractions. Hog pins, stunt riders, free jerky and a display of all the 08 bikes. There are lots of changes going on with bigger motors, 6 speed trans, ABS-pretty impressive changes.

We then went to the Fiirehouse Brewery for lunch. It's a cool restaurant set up in a 1909 Rapid City Firehouse. As we were finishing up, a party of three came in and sat down at the table across from us. They looked kind of familiar and after a minute we realized it was Willie G, his wife and maybe his grandson. For the non bikers, thats Willie G. Davidson, as in Harley-Davidson. Willie G. is the grandson of William A Davidson, one of the original founders of Harley Davidson. It was an unbelievable coincidence, pretty cool. We got a quick picture so we wouldn't bother him and checked out his bike on the way out- A Screaming Eagle Ultra Classic Electra Glide.

From Rapid City we rode all the scenic drives - Needles Highway, Custer State Park and Iron Mountain Road. We rode 18 miles of the Parks Wildlife Loop. It was HOT and all we saw was a few scraggly antelope and prairie dogs. Pretty disappointing. Just a couple miles from the end the buffalo appeared. It was great. They were running along the road creating a massive traffic jam with bikes and cars stopping to gawk at them. They went barreling right across the road as if we weren't even there. A bit farther down they gathered in a big clearing and there had to be 300- 400 hundred of them. Hard to imagine they used to travel in herds numbering in the thousands. I think everyone was impressed by the sight of them.

Needles and Iron Mountain are small, VERY twisty roads thru the mountains with cool narrow tunnels and corkscrew bridges. Three of the tunnels on Iron Mountain frame Mt. Rushmore off in the distance as you drive through them. Some pretty impressive planning and engineering.

We ended up at Mt. Rushmore, a sight everyone should see in their lifetime. It's a very patriotic place and makes you feel good about living in this country. While waiting around we talked with some older couples out on vacation, one of them had lived in Williamstown, MA at one time. It was funny getting their impressions of the Rally. They pretty much showed up with no idea that they would be in the middle of 400,000 bikers. "Oh all the traffic and noise!" We stayed for the closing programs and lighting ceremony. Again, something everyone should see.

In all it was a pretty busy day.

Here's a question for the foresters that are reading. We are wondering why they stack up the slash in a recently thinned stand like a t-pee. There are many of these piles and they are very close together. There's a picture in the photo album to see what they look like. What would be the reason, any ideas? Thanks.

Hotter than the Devil!

Day 9 Devils Tower
Today we ventured farther away from camp and traveled to Devils Tower in Wyoming. We went up Route 385 to Deadwood and then headed south on 85 thru the Black Hills. Lots of long hauls up and down. As we crossed the state line we stopped for a "Kodak Moment" at the state line sign. There were 4 firefighters from Arlington Texas doing the same thing so we took pictures for them and they took pictures for us. They told us about home for them were it is typically in the 100's and very dry. However, this year it is much cooler and they've had nothing but rain. They said it gets so hot there that the blacktop practically boils on the road. Boy, remind me to skip Texas in the summer. They did tell us that there is a really nice riding along the Rio Grande where it is somewhat cooler.
Onward we traveled to Sundance where when we stopped for gas I checked our messages and found that Chelsea didn't have water at the house and the phone was out. Seems we had some severe storms last nite at home (just like here!). So, we got hold of a neighbor and he got the water going for us (thanks Bruce). I was quite relieved to hear that we didn't have to have a new well drilled!
We lost Scott and Sandy for a minute, then we met up again and journeyed on. We left the Black Hills and got back into the flatter lands where we saw many fields that were recently harvested for hay and one that they were currently harvesting wheat. It was a really hot ride and everything looked really dry again. Then we rounded a bend and there it was-Devils Tower in the distance. It was very dramatic sticking up in the middle of all the flatlands.
We got closer and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. There were tons of bikes making the same pilgrimage. We spent a little bit of time there and Sandy communed with the Prairie Dogs (see pictures). Then, onto Heulett where there were tons of more vendors set up. We ate at a little restaurant (same one Chel!) that had air conditioning. It was quite a relief to be in air conditioning, sort of, and we enjoyed the highest buffet we have all experienced. If you were short, you definitely had problems here.
We continued on to Aladin, population 52, (or was it 15) and then headed down to Route 90. We only took Route 90 for a short spell, thank god because it is sooooo boring (how will we survive the ride home which will be nothing but Route 90). We stopped at a local watering hole to cool off again and eat tons of peanuts. Then Tom took us down thru Spearfish Canyon which was breathtaking. The walls of the canyon took off from the edge of the road in many places and just went straight up. The lines of bikes coming and going was getting pretty continuous now. The best part was that it was much cooler so we started to come back to life.
Back at the campground we saw a bike arrive with a sidecar that had a yellow lab sitting contentedly in it. Molly is from St. Louis and went across country earlier this year. She has ridden in the Rolling Thunder ride which are groups, mainly vets, that ride from all across the country to the Wall in DC. She sits in the sidecar, harnessed in with goggles on! All told, she has ridden over 65,000 miles! Wow.
So far the traffic and crowds have not been bad. One cop told us the crowds were less so far and that they are typically at their peak by Tuesday. By then, it will be a continuous stream of traffic and he said that you may wait up to 1/2 hour to make a left turn. Wow, that sounds like fun.
I'd better close as it is starting to sprinkle.....till tomorrow

Got the T Shirts!

Day 8 Sturgis

Today we reached the ultimate biker destination - STURGIS. It wasn't a very busy day so we were able to drive right down Main Street and get a feel for the layout before the massive crowds show up this weekend. It was a lot like any other bike rally except BIGGER, with lots more vendors and more choices of restaurants and bars. We spent the day shopping for shirts and pins and stuff with lots of rest stops for people watching.

Some interesting people we saw: A guy walking around with a rat on a cat on a dog ( see the pic), a guy from Washington packing his bike with so many T shirts it looked like his luggage would burst at the seems, a John Deere chopper, a half dressed 52 year old woman walking down the street, a pin up model with the most beautiful blue eyes you can imagine a skeleton riding a chopper who wanted to take Sandy for ride and a great rendition of Thats Amore! by a huge burly biker in the Karaoke bar. It was a really fun day.

As we got ready to head back to camp we could see a rain storm off in the distance. It started to sprinkle so we thought we'd wait a bit for it to pass. It wasn't 5 minutes when a gully washer of a T-storm hit. It was raining in buckets and there was a river running down Lazelle Street about a foot deep. Glad we waited to leave!

It cleared up just as fast as the storm came on and we could watch the massive thunderheads off in the distance with all kinds of cool lightening running through them. It was another slow ride home with the wet road and darkness coming on. We watched the sky lighting up like a fireworks show from all the lightning in the distance.

Another thing we've noticed since getting to the Black Hills is curves and hills in the road. It is a little strange going through all the twisties after 2000 miles of all the straight as arrow roads we had coming through the Great Plains.

We changed the settings on the Blog so you can all leave comments without registering. Something got changed by accident-sorry about that.

Deadwood

Day 7, Interior SD to Deadwood SD, not too many miles.

Today was a slow day. We stayed at a KOA campground last night and met some very nice people. It is always interesting to hear where others have been and what sights they have seen. After a leisurely breakfast we headed back through the badlands for one more look. The landscape changes so drastically with the different angles of the sun. We met a group of bikers from Pennsylvania. Two of their group had a very interesting story to tell. They left home a month ago and headed across the country to Alaska. They made it all they way up to the town where the ice road truckers leave from. All told, they put 13,000 miles on since they left. Part of their journey took them over 400 miles of dirt roads. When we heard this we all looked at eachother and laughed. Two days ago we began down a dirt road, with very severe washboarding, and we didn't make 400 feet because our teeth were chattering out of our heads! Wow, we all bowed down to these guys. To top it off, one of them was 60 years old and has to have surgery on his knee, due to an injury before he left, the day after he gets home. They certainly made our trip look like a jaunt to the corner store.
We stopped back into Wall Drug again since it was closing when we got there last nite and we missed a bunch of things. Scott and Sandy got to sit on the Jackalope (see the picture!) and we got the free ice water, which is how Wall Drug got started. It is a really neat place with tons of touristy things to look at. It is really a step back in time to the old time roadside attractions.
Then it was back to I90 and headed west to Rapid City. Scott and Karen (his GPS lady) lead us today. They took us thru the suburbs of Rapid City and we headed north on Nemo Road to Deadwood. As we climbed in elevation the landscape turned green, it had been dust bowl brown. The fire hazard is very high here.
The black hills are a new landscape for us. It is so different from anything else we have seen. We are not used to seeing grass continue clear up the mountains to the top. The frequent wildfires keep the understory to a minimum so the forest is very parklike. You could tell that this area has been burned many times. More recently, there was a 300 acre fire on Nemo Road and we saw many makeshift signs along the road thanking the firefighters.
We arrived at our campground, just south of Deadwood, and luckily our sight was available as we arrived one day ahead of schedule. So, after a nice relaxing afternoon, we headed to Deadwood for the evening to check it out. We didn't do any gambling, it is a real big gambling town. We just walked around and had dinner and listened to a local singer and his really bad jokes. We also learned that Wild Bill Hickock was killed 131 years ago today in Deadwood. We visited his gravesite too. Tom found a great piece of deadwood from Deadwood to take home as a souvenior (to add to his tumble-stick) and Sandy got mad at him because she hadn't found anything yet. Well, she left the cemetery with a nice piece of deadwood from Deadwood too.
Thanks for leaving us comments and we look forward to reading more from all of you!
Tomorrow.....Sturgis.......

Should have taken a right turn at Alburqurque

Day 6 Valentine, NE to Interior, SD - Way too many miles!

We spent the morning riding through the sand hills of northern Nebraska. No pretty pictures here, a very stark, almost desert like landscape. The type of place the old west cowboys wouldn't want to get stuck in without a horse. We were on US 20 for a stretch, it has a very different look than US 20 as it goes through the Berkshires!

By noon we were into South Dakota and onto the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation. This is the second largest and most impoverished reservation in the US. Conditions were what you might expect in a situation like that. We stopped at the sight of the Wounded Knee Massacre, a sad moment in the history of both the Sioux and the United States. A teacher giving a talk to a group of young kids at the mass gravesite was telling them that it is important to visit, remember and honor the victims of such tragedies because such things are still happening today and remebering the past might help stop them from happening in the future.

We had lunch in a Tex Mex place in Kyle, still on the Pine Ridge reservation. Once we were done we had about a half hour ride to the campground on the edge of the Badlands. After one wrong turn, that half hour turned into about 2 hours. Towns are so spread out here that it takes about 20 miles before you realize you took a wrong turn. We were low on gas so we had to take a new route out to I-90 t fill up. In all it was about an 80 mile detour in the blazing 100 degree sun when we should have been sitting around the pool at the campground.

We finally made it and got set up, had dinner and took a ride through Badlands National Park just as the sun was setting. The Badlands are just unbelievable. I can't even describe them- just go to the pictures to see for yourself. We made a stop at Wall Drug- touristy but fun all the same.
The ride back to camp was dark and slow with lots of deer on the side of the road.

Tomorrow we finally get to our destination in Deadwood. It will be nice to not have to break camp every morning.

Little Bikes on the Prairie

Day 5 Crofton, NE to Valentine, NE 227 miles

After a great breakfast and a late start we made our way to the Lewis and Clark Visitor’s Center north of town. On the way we stopped to take a picture of a small hog farm where they actually had hogs outside on the dirt. With today’s factory farming, I didn’t think anyone did that anymore. We spent an hour or so at the visitor’s center and hit the road around 10:30 - VERY LATE!!!

We headed out on Nebraska Route 12, The Outlaw Trail. 20 miles straight aways without the slightest curve in the road and small towns showing little signs of life. Today was our first experience with the prairie winds you hear so much about. We had to lean the bikes into the wind to keep going straight. Nothing too extreme but the wind would throw the bikes around a bit, especially when an 18 wheeler passed us in the opposite direction going about 75 on a small two lane road.

There aren’t too many highlights today. It was a lot of open grazing land, immense acreage, open rolling land and lots of sky. Some might find it boring but it beats the traffic, McDonalds and billboards you’d find on the Interstate. It was cloudy for most of the morning which was a help. At 95 degrees, we would have been scorched by the sun.

One place we did stop was the small town of Monowi, Nebraska. How small was it??? The highway sign leading into town reads population 2. That was before Rudy died though, leaving only Elsie for a population of 1. Elsie runs the world famous Monowi Tavern which is a bit weather worn and very comfortable. She has beer, pop and snacks and the best burgers in town.

We ended up in Valentine, one of the largest towns in the area at a small campground on the Niobrara River. We took a dip in the river, very warm and refreshing after a day on the road.