2010 - The Black Hills Run -SD

The weather didn't look very promising this morning. A large line of storms and showers were moving up from central Nebraska and heading right into our planned route. We suited up just in case and rode about 140 or so miles to Ainsworth with just a few drops of rain along the way. We continued into the sand hills. It was a cool cloudy ride with clouds hanging low on the hill tops. We decided to stop and remove the raingear. After a stop for lunch at a local diner (Lamplight) in Valentine NE, we continued west and climbed to about 2800 feet as the country opened up to rolling dunes and big sky. In South Dakota, we noticed the sky beginning to get really dark. As we got closer, it was apparent that this monster of a storm would cross our path. We stopped at the hwy 20/61 intersection to Wounded Knee and contemplated the situation. After checking Doppler and talking to a local Lakota Indian lady, we decided to deviate and head into Pine Ridge where we took refuge at a convenient mart.. Doppler was showing hail, so we prepared for the worse and took cover. We were lucky, no hail came, and the storm moved through quickly. We didn't go back to the original planned course, deviating further to the west. Unfortunately, that path was blocked because of recent flood damage about 10 miles out and we had to backtrack to take another road that was under construction. Several Indians were helpful in helping us find our way, and one of them even escorted us on a route around the construction. Just after we got around the construction zone, the sky cleared and the temperatures dropped, probably somewhere in the low 70’s. The sky turn deep blue and white puffy cumulous clouds drifted overhead - a classic Western sky! At last we arrived on the Western rim of the Badlands, and the Black Hills could be seen to our West. A tiring day, but also great ride. We made it, we’re in Rapid City! 1,563 miles by my odo…can’t wait to ride tomorrow in the Black Hills!

We basically hit some highlights of the Black Hills area today. It was a cool day for the most part, with very little humidity. It's getting late and tomorrow will be another sun up to sun down day of exploration so I haven't taken a great deal of pains to comment or arrange todays photos. I'll be updating this file later.
It was a perfect riding day, and that's about all I can say about that!

This morning we headed up to the Deadwood / Lead area. We missed a couple of turns but once we got on the selected route we found that it wasn't paved all the way through to Nemo road (our intended route). Once we back tracked and found Nemo road it as a great ride through pine and fir forests and high country meadows. We picked up hwy 385 just south of Deadwood but instead of going into Deadwood we headed west into Lead, an old gold mining town. The worlds largest gold mine, The Homestake Mine operated here until 2002. After a lunch across the road from the mine we head down into Spearfish Canyon. We arrived in Deadwood early afternoon, checked out a few shops, and had a few beers. We ended the day in Sturgis, having bought a few souvenirs, watching the people, and dinner. We made the run back to the hotel in Rapid City after dark. A great day overall, even if we did get lost a couple of times

Today was an interesting day. Over the past few days my bike had been acting funny, coughing and backfiring at times, especially when cold. We visited Rapid City Harley this morning so, I decided to have it checked out. At first it looked like it could take hours to get it looked at. Not only that, I expected to take a big hit in my wallet. The rest of the group took off into the Black Hills while I stuck around at Rapid City. Susan and I decided to run up to Sturgis and drop in on the HOG reception and get a ride pin. On arriving back at Rapid City they had just dropped my bike off the stand. As it turned out, it was only a corroded connector on the fuel injector. They cleaned it up and also replaced the plugs (though plugs weren’t the problem). We were back on the road by around 1 pm and caught up with the others in Keystone, just a few miles from Mt Rushmore. From there we did the Iron Mountain road for the second time, then up the Needles highway to take our Black Hills final ride. We ran back to the hotel with showers bearing down all around but we arrived ahead of them by about an hour.
In bed early tonight because it will be a long ride tomorrow - The run to Devils Tower in Wyoming.

The final day (for us) at the Black Hills Rally. Today we spit up, John, Gail, Jeff and Susan spent the day in Sturgis. Greg, Susan and me took off to Devil's Tower Wyoming, and ended the day in Sturgis.
Probably the nicest day of the trip, hot in the sun but nice and cool in the shade. The sky in Wyoming was a deep blue making for a most enjoyable ride. We spent the rest of the day in Sturgis, watching the crowds, and just relaxing. Finished the day with a nice dinner in Rapid City and turned in early to rest up for the return trip.

Warning!! Some (maybe one or two) pictures may be inapproriate for younger viewers.

The heat is unbelievable! I have never ridden in any temperature this extreme. After this, anything else will be tame. The early morning portion of the ride was nice, MO Hwy 7 was an undulating road with plenty of curves. As the day progressed we got into the more populated areas. The increasing heat and traffic started to wear us down. We managed the best we could, stopping about every 50 miles and drinking lots of fluids. Still, it wasn't enough. After 400 + miles today we arrived in Paducah Ky well done. At 9 pm it still fells like 93 degrees. In some towns we saw bank thermometers indicating over 100! In bed early tonight, it's going to be another cooker tomorrow.
I miss the Black Hills

This is it, the final day. It's really hard to blieve that it's already over. We started out around 7 am from Paducah Kentucky to try and take advantage of the cooler morning air. Dehydration has been a problem for the past couple of days. We burned the road to Lebanon Tenn were we split up, John and Gail headed home, while Susan and me took a side trip to to Jeff and Susan's farm for a brief visit. Susan and I left Jeff's and headed home along hwy 70 and stopped in Cookville for lunch before hitting the Interstate for home.
All said and done, 3833 miles of highway, much of it two lane blacktop. Traveled in eight states, counting our own.