Day 20- July 11

Day 20: July 11th 33615 miles on the odometer

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant was pretty good. I am disappointed, however, to find out they didn’t give me the discount on the room. We are not on the road particularly early, but at least we’re not running late as usual.
The ride is hot and very windy. We spend most of the ride on 20 north just hanging on and trying to stay in our lane. 16 east is a better ride, and welcome relief for a little while. The bit through the Bighorn Mountains recharges our batteries so we are ready for I-90. We exit on 14 to catch 24 and Devil’s Tower monument. It isn’t all that impressive from the highway, and we almost decide to skip it.
I am glad we don’t. We enter the park and discover it is MUCH more impressive up close. Not so much for its size, but the almost perfect geometric shapes and lines. We spend a good bit of time checking out the visitor’s center. I wouldn’t want to spend a week here, but it is most definitely worth an hour or two of your time.
We then head to Sturgis. We plan on spending some time in the Black Hills, and figure that’s a great place for a couple of “bikers” like us to start. This is the first place on our trip that we are considering relocating too. I’ve never been a huge fan of Texas, and we discovered just how unlivable the place can be when Hurricane Rita took out our power for a week in August a couple of years ago. There is absolutely nothing you can do to cool off when the power is out. Ceci doesn’t want to leave the south though, so this was our compromise. It has a much cooler climate, but is still part of the south as you can tell from the name: SOUTH Dakota. We intend to find out now if indeed this is the place for us.
We pass more small herds of pronghorn and bison, and lots of prairie dog towns. The prairie dogs all look at lot smaller than the ones I used to see in the Texas panhandle. Not much else to see in the desert though. The roads are mostly uninteresting. We are still battling the heat and wind all the way to Sturgis.
It is pretty hot, not much cooler than what we’re used to seeing in Houston. I don’t care what other people say about a dry heat, hot is hot. A dry 80 degrees is much better than a sticky 80 degrees, but there isn’t any difference when the temperature bests 90. We arrive with plenty of daylight left and temps closer to 100. We check in at a Days Inn and start doing some research. First we find a cabin to rent for the rest of the week in Custer, more centrally located. Then we look through all the local real estate magazines. Hmmm, prices are not so great. Land is nearly double what it goes for in Texas. It doesn’t appear that jobs around here pay double though. We may have to look at relocation plan “B.”
We are early for the madness that will happen here in a couple of weeks, good planning on our part. It’ll be nice to ride and check out the place before all the posers and partiers crowd the place up. I’m sure the locals look forward to the economic boom, but I want no part of the mayhem. There are still quite a few bikes around, but unobtrusive and just enough to let you know you’re not alone. Ceci is quite amused with an H-D parked next to us at the hotel that is equipped with a pet taxi for the dog. Not your usual chrome and loud pipes farkling. Cool.
I note with some interest that mid-grade unleaded here is cheaper than regular 85 octane gas. Interesting. We fill up the bikes and ourselves at the gas station/restaurant next to the hotel, catch up on some laundry, and head to bed eager for tomorrow’s activities.
We covered 371 miles* today, and arrived at our destination with time to spare. Not bad.