Monday, August 9, 2010, the morning dawned with beautiful clear blue skies and temperatures in the low sixties headed for a high of 92 degrees. We departed Rawlins, WY headed for Keystone, in the Black hills of South Dakota. We got 200 miles under our belts before noon. It was a terrific ride across the Wyoming great plateau right up until the time we realized that Bob must have been in a "zone" and missed the turn off from the interstate and was motoring on alone without us. The oversight was soon rectified and we were once again a party of five "east bound and down."
Apparently coal is still in great demand in this country because we rode by the Thunder Basin open-pit coal mine for ten minutes. There were miles of railroad cars and a steam shove in the bottom of the pit that could scoop up your house and move it!
I was beginning to look like we would arrive in the Black Hills in time to tour Mount Rushmore and cruise the wild life route in Custer State Park. Didn't happen! About 100 miles short of our destination we were flagged down by a young lady in a yellow hard hat waving a red flag--road work ahead. How long is the delay, we asked. Fifteen minutes the response. Thirty minutes later the pilot truck arrived. We were told to ride on the narrow three foot wide shoulder to stay off the freshly oiled and graveled roadway for twelve miles at 20 MPH in a ninety degree crosswind--very challenging and tiring.
The last 150 miles took us four hours, including a quick photo op at the Crazy Horse Monument. In lieu of arriving in Keystone by the anticipated 2 PM, we didn't get into Keystone until after 5 PM, where we met up with Jack, our sixth rider. Although there were black skies over the Black Hills we didn't get any rain all day. We unpacked and checked into our hotel and beat feet for supper in town at the Balcony Bar over Main Street above the Red Garter Saloon. Buffalo burgers and BBQ buffalo were featured.
We returned to the hotel and applied some spit polish to the dirty scooters. In doing so we met nice chap from Niagra Falls, NY, a retired cop, Rich Calieri. Rich gave us a name in Niagra Falls for a hook-up on the Maiden of Mist boat ride at the Falls. Thanks Rich!
Some of us ended our evening with a dip in the jacuzzi. We're going to visit Mount Rushmore in the AM and fore go the Custer State Park ride altogether for a day in Sturgis at the motorcycle rally. Afterall, you can never have too many motorcycle T-shirts, I always say.
Apparently coal is still in great demand in this country because we rode by the Thunder Basin open-pit coal mine for ten minutes. There were miles of railroad cars and a steam shove in the bottom of the pit that could scoop up your house and move it!
I was beginning to look like we would arrive in the Black Hills in time to tour Mount Rushmore and cruise the wild life route in Custer State Park. Didn't happen! About 100 miles short of our destination we were flagged down by a young lady in a yellow hard hat waving a red flag--road work ahead. How long is the delay, we asked. Fifteen minutes the response. Thirty minutes later the pilot truck arrived. We were told to ride on the narrow three foot wide shoulder to stay off the freshly oiled and graveled roadway for twelve miles at 20 MPH in a ninety degree crosswind--very challenging and tiring.
The last 150 miles took us four hours, including a quick photo op at the Crazy Horse Monument. In lieu of arriving in Keystone by the anticipated 2 PM, we didn't get into Keystone until after 5 PM, where we met up with Jack, our sixth rider. Although there were black skies over the Black Hills we didn't get any rain all day. We unpacked and checked into our hotel and beat feet for supper in town at the Balcony Bar over Main Street above the Red Garter Saloon. Buffalo burgers and BBQ buffalo were featured.
We returned to the hotel and applied some spit polish to the dirty scooters. In doing so we met nice chap from Niagra Falls, NY, a retired cop, Rich Calieri. Rich gave us a name in Niagra Falls for a hook-up on the Maiden of Mist boat ride at the Falls. Thanks Rich!
Some of us ended our evening with a dip in the jacuzzi. We're going to visit Mount Rushmore in the AM and fore go the Custer State Park ride altogether for a day in Sturgis at the motorcycle rally. Afterall, you can never have too many motorcycle T-shirts, I always say.
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