Day 4 - Custer, South Dakota to Keystone, South Dakota

A Crazy Horse funeral and a Rushmore hail storm

   We wound up at Custer last night, so this morning we'd planned on riding out to the Crazy Horse memorial.  The hotel clerk as we were leaving, told us that today was a free day at Crazy Horse because the CEO (Ruth Ziolkowski) of the monument operation had died. She was the wife of the sculptor who started the monument.

   We showed up at her funeral...seriously !

   The gatekeepers passed us through, the parking lot attendants parked us on the front row, and when we walked into the main museum, there were ushers to tell us where to go....and the coffin.

   We were not in our normal funeral attire so I for one felt a little uncomfortable. Plus, I had helmet hair.

I told Kat it was time to go visit the rest of the grounds. 

   The Crazy Horse memorial looked awesome and maybe in the next couple of centuries it might be completed.

The funeral

Ruth Ziolkowski at rest, complete with top viewing window.

   We said adios to Crazy Horse since we didn't know any Lakota for good bye...

   On to the Needles highway. All I knew about the Needles were the narrow tunnels. I had no idea about the huge monoliths and breath taking beauty along the route.

 

   Our next stop was Mount Rushmore. We wound up staying there for about three hours because of storms rolling through complete with hail. One of the park rangers also rides a GS and gave me some tips on highways to ride in Wyoming.  

With the weather still looking rough we decided to go ahead and get a room at Keystone.  We stopped at one hotel and it was a little pricey.  So we saw another hotel with a great advertised price, we checked there and those rooms were not available but had some really high priced rooms. No thanks.  So, back on the bike and it started to rain. By the time we got checked into an affordable room we were wet again.

 4 for 4.

   

Day 3 - Broken Bow, Nebraska to Custer, South Dakota

From Sandhills to Black Hills

   Woke up refreshed and ready to roll out of Broken Bow. I walked outside to the aroma of feedlots, I guess our hotel was near one.  Didn't faze me though, my Dad always said that manure smelled like money, so I walked over to McDonalds and got breakfast.

   Hwy 2 that we were traveling on was marked as the Sandhill Journey.

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  So far we had only seen the sand hills off in the distance to either side of the highway.  Hwy 2 also followed the BNSF railroad tracks and we saw plenty of coal trains carrying there loads east and empty trains heading back west to Wyoming.

  

   This flat road continued for another 50 miles or so before we gently started gaining elevation. We were finally in the sand hills.  The Middle Loup River traced it's way along the highway and railroad tracks creating beautiful green valleys between the rolling hills.

   Hwy 2 did have it's share of tar strips for quite a ways. Every 12 feet a bump. Sometimes it got so rough I had to slow down to the posted speed limit.

   At Alliance we turned north toward South Dakota and rolling green farmland as far as the eye could see.

   We crossed into South Dakota in the middle of a road project and they had taken down the state sign so no " Entering South Dakota" picture.  Made our way through the pretty little town of Hot Springs, SD and on to Custer State Park. I had heard this was a pretty place, but words failed to compare. Custer State Park is absolutely beautiful,  the herds of Buffalo and occasional Pronghorn are icing on the cake.

   Just about the time we were leaving the park a thunderstorm developed and we got soaked by the time we made it to Custer and a hotel. That's 3 for 3 on getting wet. Check in with us and see if we get wet tomorrow.

Day 2 - Arkansas City, Kansas to Broken Bow, Nebraska

Don't worry it will air dry !

   We left Arkansas City around 8:30 with plentiful sunshine. As we rolled north by northwest the clouds got heavier,,,

   We made good time on a Sunday morning, getting through Wichita with virtually no traffic, then on to Hutchinson and heavy rain. We donned our wet gear and rode on, indifferent to the water barrage. It only bothered Kat because she couldn't take pictures. We finally ran out of the rain around Nickerson, Kansas.

There at a convenience store we met some fellows that really put us adventurers in our place. They were bicyclist riding from the east coast to Oregon. That is what I call a true biker.

   Then at Sterling, Kansas (I think) we were flagged down by a passing motorist.  I thought the worse, I was dragging a camera behind me, or I had a flat, or I was streaming oil....  We pulled over and the guy got out of his truck and ran over to us...he stuck a 20 dollar bill in my hand and said "I'm an adventure rider too, buy a tank of gas on me." and with that he turned back to his truck and left. Wow, super, super nice act of kindness !! 

   We continued through the heartland and loved all of it.  I think Kathy got tired of taking pictures of barns and that's saying something.

      

   We saw a great ball of twine at Cawker City, Kansas.

We also went to the geographical center of the United States...

                                     

   We entered Nebraska and went through Red Cloud, Hastings, and Grand Island. We hit highway 2 and finally called it quits at Broken Bow.

Tomorrow we go to South Dakota....can you say buffalo ?

Day 1 - Terrapin Neck, Arkansas to Arkansas City, Kansas

   Started the day off with dropping the bike while putting it on it's center stand. Just a little top heavy. Sorry no pictures of that. 

   We left home around 9:30 this morning. West through Prescott, Nashville, up through Dierks and over to Wickes. On to Mena, Heavner, Poteau, Sallisaw. We took hwy. 59 north toward Tahlequah  then on to Kansas.

   In Kansas we headed toward Arkansas City and met up with a nice little storm. We stopped to put our rain gear on about 2 minutes too late. On to Arkansas City and a hotel for the night.

Loaded

Oklahoma Wildflowers

Woot

Storm coming

Tomorrow, further north to Nebraska !