By the way, we did make it home

I know I've left you all rather high and dry with the vacation blog so today I will finish the adventure.

Dave pulls out the map each night and we plan our route for the next day. This is a tentative plan, leaving plenty of room for changing our minds about roads, towns, etc. Our plan for this day was to take the Spearfish Canyon Road up to Spearfish, South Dakota, and then head west into Wyoming to the Devil's Tower. You will notice there are no pictures of Spearfish Canyon here; they are all in our memories. Take my word for it, it was so beautiful, green, the creek following the highway nearly the whole way, lots of curves and twists. The only thing disconcerting were the signs: Falling Rock, and the loose rocks at the side of the road that were big enough to...well, you know! The weather treated us well: cool in the morning and heating up in the afternoon. Coming out of the canyon into Spearfish, the scenery just kept getting better.

Neither of us had ever been to Wyoming before and we braved the highway (75-80 mph)to Sundance, Wyoming. From there, we took a very scenic road to the Devil's Tower. My dad used to hunt deer there. I always pictured the area with nothing around it for miles, like it might have been before it was settled. Of course, it has been a national monument for over 100 years so there are a few businesses and homes around! Not too much though. Lots of ranches. You don't smell cows when they are on a ranch!





It may look as though the top was cut off and put back on askew. That would be a problem with downloading pics from the camera; not so much the alien theories that are floating around.


We were a couple of weeks late, but we made it!!


Remember the sunflower fields I talked about? We stopped by the road and the fence was open at one corner of the field. Sunflower fields will just make you SMILE!

Here is something else to make you smile today:

“Buffalo are dangerous. Please, do not approach”

This had to be the old papa of the herd. He stayed behind until all of the young'uns were ahead of him. He was the biggest one and at times he was no farther than 8-10 feet from us.



Pronghorn


Stockade Lake

Day Four: Custer State Park Wildlife Loop

The Ranger at the gate to the park reassured us that the buffalo were out in the park. Not more than 1-2 miles into the park, the buffalo were on the road and alongside the road. Not just a couple either; a herd! Fences? We don’t need no stinking fences! You just slowly idle by them as they saunter their way down the road. We took many pictures and video clips we hope to share. After following and sharing the road for about an hour, we decided to hang back a ways and were fortunate to see a small herd of pronghorn running down the hill to a flat area for grazing, maybe 10-12 or so. It seemed one male was the one in charge and kept the others in line, herding them back to their small circle. We watched them for a while and all of a sudden, a white tailed doe came into the area for grazing.

We decided to try to get past the herd of buffalo. Very carefully (and some pops from the Road King), we passed those we had followed for so long. A couple of curves ahead, there was another herd at least as big, grazing at the side of the road. We saw even more throughout the park. Custer State Park has the largest number of buffalo in the US.

The roads were perfect for riding; lots of curves and hills (really big hills), beautiful scenery at every turn with the promise of seeing buffalo, pronghorn, prairie dogs, burros, whitetail, mountain goats, etc.

We rode the loop so we would end up leaving the park and heading up Needles Highway:

“On the Needles Highway (SD 87), you'll experience hairpin curves, pigtail bridges, and narrow tunnels that wind in and around massive granite pinnacles and rugged terrain. With views of a variety of spires and outcroppings, the highway is considered one of the most scenic drives in America. At the end of one tunnel, you'll be treated to a spectacular view of the Needles Eye, a granite spire bearing a 3-4 foot wide slit that reaches 30 to 40 feet in the air.”

Needles:


My computer does something to the pic to mess it up but we're still cute!

A rock face picnic area called "Hole in the Wall".



The first of 3 tunnels cut through the rock. The next two got even narrower!

Continuing the Adventure

Day Three: Wall Drug Day-Day of Rest
Took it pretty slow and easy today. Weather was isolated thunderstorms, which is totally different here than in CF. First real activity was to take our grasshopper riddled bikes to the carwash and blast those suckers off with the power wash. Back to our cabin due to an isolated rainstorm.

Wall Drug has evolved and it hasn’t taken millions and millions of years to do so. Now, they have 4 entrances along a long block. There are so many shops that you would need days to get through them all if you looked at everything. We started at the far end and shopped while it rained (again). Found some cool stores & some that equal the “crapalogs” I get at Christmas time. Of course, you can’t buy much when you’re on the bikes cuz there isn’t much room to pack (picture Dave smiling). We ended up at Badlands Bar for a beer and some awesome pizza, which gave us the energy to go back to the cabin and take another rest/nap/read.

Evening took us to town for a look-see around town, which is smaller than Readlyn and half trailer park. I suppose some of the people here are just here for tourist season work. We had an Aussie guy selling cowboy boots, a Russian waitress, Italian waiter….
Watched another big storm roll in from the northwest at dusk from our front porch. While Dave was trying to move his bike to a better place in case of hail, I had a grasshopper jump up inside my pants leg up to my knee and freak me out. Dave hasn’t seen me hop around like that before. Ah, nature.






Day Four: 50 mile wind

Fifty miles from Wall Drug to Rapid City on Hwy 90, which is really the only route choice you have that is direct. “I suppose the Badlands have something to do with that,” says Dave.

Wind that made us ride down the road at this angle: //. Wind that lifts the helmet off your head and practically chokes you by the chinstrap. Wind that changes it’s mind: north – no – south; but a steady crosswind to keep you on your toes. Wind that blows your mouth open making it pretty hard to breathe. Wind that makes you work and isn’t fun at all….but we only had to endure 45 minutes. At least we weren’t being pelted by grasshoppers. Hehe

Dave says:
The folks at Black Hills Harley in Rapid City convinced us that the winds weren’t nearly so bad in the hills, so we ventured up Hwy 16 towards Rushmore. We chugged up the twisty road towards the monument and the ride was beautiful. Cool, bright sunshine, fresh air, winding through the Black Hills. Man.

The first thing I saw on the mountain was Washington’s face through the trees – took my breath clean away. We did the touristy thing – took lots of pictures, watched a movie in the visitor’s center about the building of the monument, ate some ice cream and just gawked at the four men on the mountain. It is truly awesome to see with your own eyes.

People come here from all over the world. I was surprised by the number of foreign tongues I heard. Kids come from overseas to work at the park and the souvenir shops too. Lots of them. The British kid selling western wear at Wall Drug. The little Russian girl waiting tables at the Badlands Bar, the two kids making ice cream cones at Mt. Rushmore – Italian? Bosnian? Couldn’t tell for sure…

We motored over to the Crazy Horse monument-in-progress. It’s only 17 miles from Mt Rushmore and is awesome in its’ own right. This thing is HUGE. It’s been under construction since 1948 and probably won’t be finished for another 30 years.



Here is Dave: "I'm squishing his head..."




I really didn't have much knowledge on The Crazy Horse Memorial until this day. This is one of the coolest sites I've ever seen with Native American artifacts from all over the country. bead work, quill work, chief headdresses, eagle feathers, bear claws, etc. Another fact is that this is a memorial of The People...not the government. This monument is NOT federally funded but has been carved with donations from various sources, including private citizens. They say they will never accept federal funds, even though it's slower going. I highly recommend this day to everyone! -Lo

Our South Dakota Adventure

August 17, 2009
Day One:
295 miles from Hwy 58 & Viking Road, Cedar Falls (8 am), Iowa to Parker, So. Dakota…plus 20 miles to Freeman, So. Dakota (5pm).
Interesting things along the way:
1. Storm Lake has a Lighthouse (and a beautiful lake)
2. Cleghorn isn’t a good place to get something to eat or find a restroom.
3. Saw 3 arms of a wind generator being transported….huge!
4. Saw a wind farm of at least 75 generators
5. Saw an older wind farm that had bases more like a traditional windmill but blades similar to the current ones.
6. A bird nearly hit me in the head.
7. Saw a crop duster (or two)(or three)
8. Very few motorcycles on the road today
9. Some folks just love to talk to motorcycle riders :o)
10. Freeman has a 72 year old man who rides his bicycle around and around town, talking to strangers (us). We asked directions to the liquor store and he beat us to town and met us at the corner to show us the way. Speed limit 20 mph: he passed me and went around Dave at the stop sign, then pointed to the street for us to leave town again….
11. Gin & Tonics with real limes, summer sausage & sharp cheddar cheese…yummmmmy

Day Two:
Interesting things today include:
1. Highway 44 is the best way by far. There were miles I could only see Dave and me on the road.
2. Winner, South Dakota is the seller of the winning ticket equaling $232,000,000 (give or take…) to a 21 year old man. They haven’t seen him since winning about 1 week ago.
3. The smear of bright yellow in the far off landscape? Fields of sunflowers. Vibrant yellow sunflowers, tilting their faces to the sun.
4. Miles and miles of farm land, like Iowa; then you top a hill and the rolling hills, cattle, horses……
5. Grasshoppers feel like a hardboiled egg when they hit your shins.
6. Grasshopper guts are gross.
7. Grasshoppers are really juicy.
8. Rode across the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Incredible country.
9. The Missouri River had to look IMPOSSIBLE to cross 130 years ago.
10. I want to see the United States on a motorcycle, with Dave, of course.
 
Dave says:
11. Luckiest cat in the world. Don’t know how I missed him… Just going into Wanblee, SD on the Rez
12. We came about 300 miles today from Freeman, SD to Wall. There were times we rode 10-15 miles and never saw another soul. Ya gotta love the two lane blacktops. 65 mph speed limits and towns are about 40 miles apart. Interstate travel time without the traffic and hassle.
13. No McD’s, no WalMarts, no Applebee’s – ate a hot beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy at Joie’s Café in Winner. Sure beats the heck out of fast food. Made a couple of new friends in Winner – a really friendly little town.
14. We just rode over one of dozens of hills – and we went from prairie to Badlands in a hearbeat.
15. The Badlands are incredible – almost like being on another planet.
16. The Badlands Loop is a great ride – I feel sorry for the poor caged people in their cars and RVs – they’re missing ¾ of the show.