Howdy Mike! Good to hear from you!

As I recall, our last gas stop before Rapid City was White River. And yeah....I don't recall seeing a gas station between the two at all.

 

you run into the same situation on the north end of the state heading to Sturgis. After Pierre, better keep a close eye on it.

 

Paging Nevada Bob, paging Nevada Bob,
Hoping you have recovered well enough from the holidays to draft another segment of your story.
Carry On Sir !

 

Good story, so far, Bob. I've had to stop in Mission for gas. UGH.

 

Day 4 - Picked up the bike and headed out to the Black Hills

I woke up early to go fetch some early morning joe. I took the UTV because I wanted to get my last use, and also, it had cup holders so I could bring some back for Cheryl in style. Waaaay cooler than the Highlander. There's a nice coffee place just down the road that I go to when I'm in town on business - Sturgis Coffee Company. Locally owned by a rider and fellow gun enthusiast. I don't get political in my Road Reports, so I'll just say I enjoy firearms and people that shoot them. The sign on the door says "Your firearm is welcome here" was a good sign......literally. And the coffee is good too. Nice and strong. The nice woman (I'm assuming wife of the owner) took my money, and the pretty young lady (daughter probably) brought me two hot to-go cups of joe.

Back at the hotel with some caffeine coursing through our veins, we planned out our day. Drop off UTV - Pick up Street Glide - Drop off Highlander - Go have fun. Dropping off the UTV was easy. Nice folks and we were on our way fast. We made the "short" ride into Rapid City to the dealership. The bike was ready, but I was a little unhappy with the bill. I had bought the service agreement with the bike, which in theory covered all the scheduled maintenance up to 20k miles. What they don't tell you is that not all places charge the same amount for a service. Apparently Black Hills charges more than the average, so the plan I was on left a $100 balance for me to pay. I wasn't going to argue with them about it, but it didn't sit well. I've had three services done at three different dealers around the country and no one ever charged me extra. Oh well.

After we dropped off the Highlander we headed straight for fun. We chose the Rushmore area as our first loop. We, like so many before us, just used the maps you find everywhere showing the good roads -



You can get them everywhere and they're pretty handy.

We headed to Keystone and stopped for an early lunch. We wanted to get some miles in uninterrupted. I don't recall where we ate, but it was unremarkable, so I won't bother looking it up.

Keystone is pretty touristy. And you hear these damn things buzzing around the whole time -



They also had an "impromptu" gunfight in the street to promote some sorta wild west show. I guess I'm just not fun because I found it more of a nuisance than entertaining.

We ate quickly and hopped back on the bike well before noon. It was going to be another hot one. We did the ride up to Rushmore.......and kept right on going. I've never actually gone in to the grounds proper, preferring to ride and see it from pullouts and lookouts. Once past Rushmore we decided to head to Custer State Park. As you can imagine (or already know) the riding is great. It's mountainous so it's a lot of curves, climbs, and descents - ideal riding. It also features a "Grizzly Picnic Area". Uh......Nope!



Oh yeah.....and tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels -



And as mentioned - pullouts for scenic views.



Because it was a Friday, it wasn't too terribly busy. Sure we got behind a slow moving car or two, but the polite ones would wave us on by. The scenery is quite varied - mountains, with nice curvy roads....



...and then you'll find yourself in a meadow with buildings.



We weren't the only ones out having fun -



Horse trailers and equestrians were all over the place.

And the Camaro club, many of whom were staying at the same hotel as us, was out touring as well -



Eventually we came to a traffic jam which always means there is an animal somewhere. Sure enough, Buffalo were crossing the road.



I like wildlife as much as the next guy, but sitting on a motorcycle, totally at the mercy of a 1500 pound animal with a brain the size of a baseball makes me uneasy. For the moment they were far enough away. But I shut the bike down just in case. But soon they decided to meander in our direction. Cheryl was nervous, but she just snapped away and we tried to remain still. This old guy looked like hell. He didn't smell too good either -



Some younger Buffalo came nearby too. We were hoping Daddy didn't see us as a threat -



After probably 15 minutes the line of cars in front of us finally got moving and it was back on the road. Riding through this portion of the park is very nice. Lots of meadows and various wildlife -





Some less wild than others -




to be continued...........

 

Just FYI, 2 of the burros in Custer park had to be put down due to internal injuries sustained in the wildfire this past year. The others are still under critical care by veterinarian at offsite location.
Their recovery is optimistic.

 

That's going to be my back yard in a few years and the time isn't going fast enough.

 

It really is an amazing place and hiking the trail at the base gives you a perspective you can’t get from the road. There is a theater showing vintage footage of the workers and history of the Memorial. You should visit it and I don’t think you’d be disappointed. The ice cream cones are pretty good too.

 

I guess it's safe to assume you called them posers for trailering their horses instead of riding them?

 

The route we took so far was 16 out of Rapid City and then 16a past Rushmore. That ran us into Custer State Park, which is a big loop. Once we left that area we headed up 87 towards Needles and Hill City. But not without a little drama first. At some point there was a gate that with park attendants checking stickers. I got ours at a self service station entering the park and stuck it to the windshield. It's one of those post it note type stickers where there is adhesive along a narrow strip at the top. It seemed okay, so I pretty much forgot it was there. Made all the easier by the fact that it had flown off the bike unnoticed somewhere along the way. I explained to the crotchety old guy at the gate that I had, indeed, purchased the ticket and that it blew off somewhere. I get the feeling he didn't like riders because he was a total *******. He insulted us by telling me he had no way of knowing if I was lying or not and wanted more $$. We had some back and forth for a bit, sitting there on a very hot bike in the very hot sun, which did nothing for my demeanor. This guy was not giving in. So I just asked how to get the eff out of the park because I'll be damned if I'm going to hand that ******* one dime. He told me to take a right at the intersection. I said **** you very much, and we took a right.......went a block, pulled a u-turn and went the way we intended.



As mentioned, it was hot and getting hotter. Must have been about 2PM. We came across a nice shady spot with a general store and pulled in to get some Gator-Aid and water. Turns out the "Great Race" was passing through. This old Bugatti wasn't feeling so well. It was dumping coolant out the front.



We had seen a few vintage cars running around, but didn't realize that it was part of an event. Pretty cool to see, but not so great for the Bugatti team.

We continued up the mountain, gaining elevation rapidly.



We decided to check out one of the many overlooks. The views are awesome. Certainly better than we captured with the camera -



Cheryl wasn't feeling the love for any photo sessions including her, so she decided to be goofy in hopes that I would give up. Not a chance -



We got back on the road after our brief photo shoot. Plenty to see along the way -



Not a Bugatti, but still part of the Great Race -



The water looked very tempting. We were hot!



These folks weren't part of the Great Race. Just out for some fun -



As you approach Needles, the scenery goes from this -



to this (not sure what happened there - forest fire?)



Pretty soon you start to see spires -



And next thing you know, you're there -



It definitely makes for an interesting ride -







And yes, more tunnels. Some quite narrow -



It's an interesting situation because obviously there is room for only one vehicle. I have no idea how RVs get through those narrow tunnels, but they do. People seem to have it figured out though. Everyone pauses before entering, then proceeds if it's clear. Here's a rider waiting for us to clear the tunnel -



Cheryl thought it was great fun riding through the tunnels, letting out loud whoops once inside. It was pretty funny. She had never been there and it was fun to share it. She set the camera to burst and I made a gif of one of the tunnels -



Sorry if I crashed your computer with that one.

To be continued........