Today was a travel day. Stopped by Devil’s Tower. Went through the parking lot 5 times and gave up! Mob city- and very small parking lot. Could not even get to the visitor’s center. Disappointing. We are in Sheridan, Wyoming for the next two days to do some riding we hope. They had 18 inches of rain yesterday. Tonight severe thunderstorm warnings for this area. Hope not.

Weather predicted severe thunderstorms and quarter inch hail so we took the truck today. As it turned out was a nice day. We rode up to the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road. Great motorcycle roads but not when your two up and traffic is bumper to bumper which it was. Would have been very frustrating. Had to pay a second 20.00 entry fee to Custer State Park because the tag was on the bike and we had the truck. Damn. It was pretty neat to drive through a tunnel and as your going through Mt Rushmore is framed before you. The man who developed this road had a vision that took in the views. He certainly was successful. Saw more prairie dogs!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Took the dogs with us today. We went to the Badlands along 40 miles of gravel roads. Saw hundreds of prairie dogs. No buffalo today. Stopped at a prairie sod house from 1909 that Mr & Mrs Brown homesteaded. One of the few original in existence today. What humble beginnings. Cost $80.00 for 160 acres after living there 5 years and cultivating 5 acres. Turns out that in this area 160 acres can only support grazing for 8 cows. Can’t imagine the struggles. When you drive through the Badlands the landscape looks like another world. Stopped at the visitor’s center for lunch. Lingered for a bit to enjoy the sunshine. Just a nice leisurely ride. Went back to Mt. Rushmore for the night time closing. Was busy but not overly crowded as we had expected. The ceremony was not (to us) as awe inspiring as it used to be. Wish they sang our national anthem the way it was meant to be sung. No enhancements please. It was nice to see our veterans brought on stage. All of you who know me know how I feel about the military. i. e. the Army brat I am.

Another day of riding. Went to Sturgis only to find out almost everything closed. Partly because it was Sunday and mostly because a lot of places only opened during Sturgis event. Rode through Deadwood – busy place – looked like fun but could not stop – it was getting late. Rode through Spearfish Canyon. All new roads. Beautiful. Met a couple our age who have a trike with a small pop up attached. They have been camping all over including Alaska. Amazing. Of course it rained today while we were on 90. Got hammered pretty good for about 20 minutes. Fortunately it cleared up. Seems to be pretty common around 4 o’clock. Just a nice easy day of riding through beautiful country

Went riding today. We went to Mt Rushmore. Lots of changes since we were there 32 years ago. New gateway lined with flags of all the states. A museum, new amp theater. Really nice. Parking was only $5.00 and good for a year. Very busy but not a mob. Went to Crazy Horse. They wanted $20.00 and not much to see so did not go in. Then went on to Custer State Park. Took the wild life loop. Brand new road so nice riding. Then there were the 🦬 as in a whole herd that decided to cross the road. Took them 45 minutes to cross the road. After about 20 minutes we were over it. Finally put the kickstand down and waited in 86 degree heat. Needless to say there was quite the backup of traffic. It was interesting to learn how the park manages the herd. Saw wild donkeys who were nice enough to stay on the side of the road so all could pass. We also saw one line prairie dog! All in all a nice day. And we ended with a lovely 🌈 over our campground

It was a travel day today. Did about 450 miles. Of course as soon as I started to drive had to go through 25 miles of construction. But I did it. Stopped at the famous Wall’s Store. Way to commercial. Not like we remembered from 32 years ago. A few of the attractions inside were “closed for the season”. I imagine it’s like every where else – staffing issues. Alan reminded me that the last time we came here with the kids the rear view mirror fell off our first suburban because it was so hot that day. We are in Rapid City ND for the next 3 days. Crazy Horse is only 36 miles away. And we are at the base of the Black Hills. Hope to do some riding the next two days. Found out this campground has only been opened 2 months. Explains why so basic. Can’t even buy a postcard here. But lucky to have found a spot. Three different campgrounds said the were booked for the season. Had no spots at all.

Still in Jackson MN. We were walking around the park and talking to our rv neighbor who happens to have a farm 10 miles down the road. He is retired from farming but took us on a tour this afternoon on his 4×4. He rents his land out to another farmer. Saw 600 pigs in a barn. Could not see them all to take a picture but sure could smell them! It was interesting to learn about a different way of life. Then saw some cute little calfs. Nice easy day. On our way to Rapid City tomorrow.

Nice easy ride today. Saw a sign that said SPAM museum. Who knew there was a museum for SPAM in Austin, MN and it was free. Nice little CLEAN town. Museum was actually amusing and interesting. Had no idea how many kinds of SPAM there are. Did you know that Guam is the biggest consumer of SPAM. You know now. Spent about an hour.

Also, this was our neighbor last night

Tomorrow is a down day. One of the campers invited us out to their farm for a tour. It’s about 2 miles away. We are supposed to go on their quads. The have 3 dogs so they must be ok!

This was an “oops” day. The plan was to pack up, drive about 50 miles to a national cheese museum (Wisconsin is all about cheese) then drive about another 200 miles and see where we were. Except started bs with the neighbors, then Alan could not find his credit card, just got late so we thought we would unhitch go to the museum then spend another night here. Great plan except about 20 minutes into our drive someone (maybe me) realized museum closed Mon, Tue and Wed. Bugger. So shopped at Walmart. Then found Besse the cow. We will start over tomorrow!