TODAY'S TALES: 

We sure must be living right...beautiful morning as we ate an early breakfast and got on the road early in anticipation of lots of things to see today.  We were forecast to have severe thunderstorms after noon in the area of Rapid City and as it turned out, it pretty much built on the east side of Rapid and we could see it after we passed Mount Rushmore but it headed east from there along with tornado watches in the strong stuff.  So we all got in behind the storm as it had moved on...we were in beautiful skies all day...just another great day on the bike.

The weather wasn't the only thing that was perfect today...the scenery was fantastic!  Today we left the the rolling grasslands with its endless waves of greenish brown grass and began climbing up into areas of pine and prairie, with buffalo grazing in the cool morning temperatures and prairie dogs barking at us as rode by.  Before we got to the tree level, we rode through open range territory in Wind Cave National Park, a sanctuary for 350 bison--of which we probably saw 50 of them today but they were mostly off on the horizon.  In years past, they've been right up against the roadway...we missed that today.

The morning was cool in the low 60s...perfect conditions for critter watching.  As we entered Wind Cave National Park, we started to see wild life everywhere.  Just as we entered the park we saw a mule dear watching us ride by virtually unfazed by our presence. These creatures are used to pesky tourists by now I'm sure.  Bet they go home every evening and tell their significant other that they saw 50 tourists wearing tight lycra and riding a funny contraption that wouldn't eat grass. 

We also passed an enormous prairie dog colony before exiting the park.  There were thousands of these appealing rodents (no, they're not canines; got the "dog" name simply because of their bark) standing tall over their dens or scurrying around to evade the ever present cameras that were trying to catch them in their environment.  Bison, prairie dogs, deer, elk, Black hills, trees, wide smooth shoulders, Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore memorials . . . sensory overload all day.  All in all this day was high on the scale of tough riding day due to the climbing, but this has been one of the most pleasurable days we've had on the trip, simply because of all the wildlife and the scenery...right up there with the Tetons, just different.

As I said above, our route went by the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Most of the riders just went to the entrance gate and took photos but a couple went in to see the museum and read about the progress of finishing the monument.  The gate guard said the workers were about 3 feet from the part of the mountain that will look like a horse when they cut all the material away that doesn't look like a horse. 

From Crazy Horse, we descended before turning on to SR 244 which took us around the back of Mt Rushmore.  This route is not nearly as strenuous as coming in from the south on hwy 16 and then climbing up the 10% grade to get to the park.  The road also goes right by the side of the faces and you can see George Washington's profile just before getting to the visitor's center.  It was pretty crowded as you can well imagine, but the riders enjoyed the break in the riding and a chance to visit one of our famous national landmarks. 

After the visit to Rushmore, we screamed down a 10% slope into Keystone, a tourist trap of the highest order complete with a wild west gun fight on the main drag as we went through.  The only problem with the descent was the 35 MPH speed limit posted on the road...shucks, it was a great descent to let it go...but alas, the town at the bottom required us to keep it under control all the way down.  Last year riders did the tourist thing in Keystone and rode to the top of a mountain on a ski lift and then slide down a concrete chute to the bottom.  Looked like fun, but I never have time to do that sort of thing.  I'm not sure if anyone did that this year.

The final 20 miles to the motel start off with a big climb out of Keystone...and after everyone had let their legs atrophy for a couple hours visiting Rushmore and then descending into town, the shock of strenuous climbing was a real pain.  After the 3 mile climb to hwy 16, the remaining miles were mostly downhill and a couple great descents that top out around 50 MPH.  You don't need fresh legs to enjoy that kind of descent. 

Tomorrow we have a short day . . . only 57 miles.  The weather is supposed to be great again so we may sleep in.   Not sure of the winds, but we'll probably still have headwinds for a couple more days.  The late start time will give us a little time to recover from today's climbing and rest for our two long days into Pierre and Chamberlain, 115 and 95 respectively.  Most of the hard climbing is behind us for a couple days, but we'll still go up and down for the next couple days.  The riders will be thankful; they need a break from the tough days.  See you tomorrow if we survive Wall Drug. 

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