September 29

This morning we chatted a bit about our plans.  We were now 5 days out of Huntsville, and in the area that we wanted to see.  Now that we were in the west, what else did we want to do, and what did we have TIME to do?  We talked about heading further west, to Yellowstone, or even all the way to Glacier National Park.  In the end, we decided that we would stay in this area for one more day, then head south to Colorado.  We could make the other places if we pushed it hard, but this trip was not about pushing it…it was about taking our time and enjoying ourselves.

That resolved, we wanted to see what the Black Hills had to offer.  Trent had suggested that we ride the Nemo road up towards Sturgis.  My map and my GPS did not agree, and what we found on the ground did not seem to agree with either of them, but we finally found the road that we were looking for and had a great time swooping through the rolling hills and green forests.  It was nice to see lots of big trees after a few days on the grasslands of the Plains. 

We took a break at a gas station where Nemo Road intersected 385.  There was a 1950’s themed store there, with Elvis music playing, old restored cars sitting around, Marilyn Monroe statues, all sorts of Americana.  It was a cool place, and practically abandoned.  I went in to use the bathroom, nobody in sight, I could have stolen everything in the place and no one would have known!  I am sure it hops earlier in the year. 

We then backtracked to Nemo and took Vanocker Canyon Road into Sturgis.  As we were descending into the valley on some switchbacks, a young man came tearing up the hill on a 600 sport-bike, leaning off, trying to drag a knee…no helmet, t-shirt, shorts.  I wondered if he would ever see 20.

Sturgis looks pretty much like any other little town around here until you give it a second look.  Then you see that a lot of stuff is themed around motorcycles.  Motorcycle museums, motorcycle bars, motorcycle this, motorcycle that.  We had fish and chips at a place called Gunners (which was supposed to be famous, I had never heard of it), and the waitress told us that in July, during the rally, there are more than 500,000 people in town.  Let me tell you, I will NEVER be in Sturgis in July.  That town would be crowded if you imported 500 people, much less 100 times that many.  Not my cup of tea.

Lunch eaten, we headed back out of town on 14A and did the Spearfish Canyon loop.  This was the best riding of the trip so far.  The canyon was very pretty, lots of sweeping curves, and traffic was pretty light.  Bet it gets crowded in July!

At Spearfish we headed north on 85, where I missed my turn to the west on SD-34 and had to turn around and backtrack a couple of miles.  Destination: Devils Tower.  The route took us into Wyoming and to the little town of Aladdin, where the store had no running water, but did have a corrugated metal outhouse.  We also passed through Hulett, where Trent said that the real outlaw bikers go, because “they don’t get hassled there”.  It was pretty quiet that day.

Around 3:45, Devil’s Tower started peaking up over the surrounding landscape.

We were there by 4.  A very cool sight, and as with most natural wonders, pictures just don’t do it justice.  I walked through the Visitor Center, then went out to join Eric, who was chilling on a bench, watching some climbers descend from the summit.  As we sat there, a German guy walked up and started up a conversation.  He had an older BMW back in Stuttgart with over 120,000 miles (not kilometers, we had him specify) on it.  He and his wife were on their 7^th trip to the US, this time for 16 days, just tooling around in a rental car.  Seems that America is as interesting to Europeans and Europe is to Americans!

We made some pictures of prairie dogs on the way out, then headed for I-90 to slab it back to Rapid City. 

A Rangerette had told us that it would take two-and-a-half hours to get back to Rapid City.  We walked into the hotel an hour and forty-five minutes later.

We didn’t speed, she was just wrong.

We had dinner at a crowded Ruby Tuesday’s a few hundred yards away from the hotel, and discussed plans for the next few days.  In bed around 10.

About 300 miles today.

Next

Home