This will take 2....

Sorry that I didn't get a post out last night or this morning......I hit the perverbial wall after we made our destination, and had something to eat....had all of the intentions of getting it done last night...same for this morning, but we had some plans to work out for the next few days, a long ride ahead today and not much time to get this put together.  All that to say, I will be posting two blogs tonight because we have packed a lot of adventure in the last two days.

South Dakota Interstate 90

Rest stop along SD Interstate 90

Aug 4 - The Best Western we stayed in Murdo, SD last night, reminded me of the BW we stayed in at Gila Bend, AZ a few years ago...without the crazy clouds, train tracks and Italian restaurant of course.  We got up in the morning and headed directly to the Interstate as we had a bit of a ride to get to Sturgis/Deadwood and Mount Rushmore....and by a little I mean about 200 km......with high cross winds. Let me tell you that this was the toughest ride I have ever had.....it was killer on the hands, not because of gripping but because counter-steering into the wind and keeping your throttle steady with the same hand was difficult.  We were rewarded by the beautiful scenery, the open land and getting ahead of a weather system coming up from the south and with what laid ahead.

Sturgis was busy with bikes coming in from all directions.  I assume it is busy most times anyway but this week-end is the big bike rally held there every year...I heard they had something like 150,000 bikes last year as it was an anniversary year.

Beyond the entrance - cobblestone, old buildings and bikes!

Deadwood was a nice ride from Sturgis...we saw lots of bikes along the way as the roads are in the mountains with lots of twists and turns.  We stopped at the historic Deadwood street and took a pic at the entrance...the whole street was cobblestone and old buildings....was really cool as there were bikes parked all along both sides of the street.  They really cater to all bikers here.

We finally headed south to Mount Rushmore....strangely we both thought oh this would be really nice to see but were pleasantly surprised to find we were really glad we went there.  It is more amazing that I thought...we snap-chatted a happy birthday to Mary Ann with Mount Rushmore as our backdrop.

Crazy Horse

The Boys!

We headed to our last stop to see Crazy Horse which is being carved out at another rock face not far from Mount Rushmore by the great grandson (not sure how far back the generation but do know it is the same family).  This is not yet finished but as the skies started to darken we thought we would make a quick trip there as it was on the way.  As we paid our "donation" the lady at the entrance indicated that they had closed the mountain tour as there was lightning in the area.....just as she pointed to Crazy Horse a big bolt of lightning came out of the sky and down in behind the mountain. We drove in, pulled over, pulled out the iPhone, took two pictures and took off lol....now who's Crazy?

And the fun didn't end there.....we were headed out the other side of the mountain as we wanted to close the distance to Yellowstone National Park.  We have been discussing the last couple of days whether we would go there or not and were still undecided, mainly due to timing and location.  As we started down the mountain pass, the lightning lit up the sky again and about half way down this huge mountain pass, the cold front hit a dirt patch on the side of the road ahead of us, and then hit us....luckily we saw the dirt fly first so we were expecting it...and as Larry said..."this ain't going to be pretty".  We got past this very quickly and unscathed only to meet up with the rain that followed....now, most people would think the rain would be the worst part, but far from it...we had been riding in 36 degree temps all afternoon.  It was hot and sunny...hot we were, sunny not so much. The rain came down easy and then a little harder, and so did the temperatures....17 degrees was the coldest it got to as it rained.  We were actually getting cooled off and it felt good.  We also knew we would ride out of it which we did...as we crossed the South Dakota/Wyoming state line, it was back up to 30 in no time...when we arrived in Gillette, we were all dried off, warm and sunny again!

Parts of this trip have been challenging and that wasn't unexpected.  The rewards are many, especially if you can be patient and just keep moving forward.  Much like life itself.