The original plan was to head west and see how close to California I could get. Well in three days I could get there, but it wouldn’t be a fun trip. It’d be three days hard and fast travel. So I shelved that plan and decided to head up the Black Hills area. There’s some nice country up there and a few interesting things to see as well.

Coming from Colorado that meant I had Wyoming to contend with and not just any Wyoming, eastern Wyoming. I really don’t have anything against Wyoming, there’s deinitely some beautiful coutry there, but there’s also some god awful flat expanses of land. Straight roads are not your friend. Well they may be yours, but I don’t care for ‘em.

After about half a days travel, I left the pavement shortly after Bill, Wyoming, in favor of some range roads. Not a bad choice. If the road has to be straight, at least mix in some dry river bed crossings and herds of cattle in the road. I stopped for a bit of lunch at the remains of civilization. I wasn’t that far from civilization, but it was kind of interesting to poke around in the rubble a bit. Did I mention how flat it is?

I spent the afternoon wandering around the plains, getting lost thanks to the maps I had being incredibly innacurate. I guess that’s a side effect of American culture. Not enough people are interested in the back woods places so the map making companies don’t bother. Or maybe I just need to find a better map maker. Still, no harm done. As long as you don’t run out of gas before you find civilization again.

At the one rally I’ve been to, I mentioned how I would like to get a larger fuel tank for my GS. One of the other rally goers just looked at me and said, “What do you need that for? That tank is plenty big!” Well he underestimated where I like to ride. 200 miles between gas stations is not enough. There were some diversion in that range I would have liked to explore, only I was getting low on fuel and had to get back to civilization. Those roads will have to wait for other adventures.

I found food for the bike and with daylight waning I pressed on towards the north east corner of Wyoming. I had planned to camp over night and was hoping to go see Devil’s Tower before the sun set, but my wandering around the range had taken more time than I anticipated. So I went straight to my campsite near Sundance and pitched the tent. There would be plenty of time to see Devil’s Tower in the morning.

The next morning I woke to the patter of rain drops on the tent. It wasn’t full on raining but it was starting to spit that wonderful substance. I quickly consumed a cold breakfast and stowed my gear for the day’s ride. No sooner was I on the road than it began to rain in earnest. Not a hard pooring rain, but a gentle shower.

I puttered over to Devil’s Tower National Monument, and almost didn’t bother getting up close. I thought if I kept moving I would get out of the rain. It’s a good thing I decided to go ahead and stop, since I wound up in the rain all day long. It’s definitely an interesting site, although after all these years of seeing it in the movie “Close Encounters” it actually looked smaller that I had imagined. Still very cool though.

I wound my way through the hills into South Dakota and actually wound up in Sturgis. Wrong time of the year I know, but I actually did that on purpose. I’m not much of a crowd person anyway. I stopped long enough for lunch, and to get some strange looks, and then I was back on the road.

I wound my way towards Mount Rushmore and I have to say I was impressed, despite the rain. They’ve got an interesting visitors center with all kinds of stuff about the history of the place. It was definitely worth the trip, and I think I have the rain to thank for it being relatively crowdless. Still, I think I’ll have to make the trip back sometime when it’s sunny.

From there I went on to the Crazy Horse Monument. This one is still a work in progress and for me just as interesting as Mount Rushmore. I was amazed to find out that it’s being built entirely from donations. There’s a lot of history to it as well, and I recommend it.

The day was winding down and I was faced with the decision; find a campground, or find a hotel. Well with the rain still falling and the thought of a nice hot tub beckoning I did the logical thing. I got the hotel room.

There’s not much to write about my last day. All things have to end sometime, and I find myself increasingly father from home when it comes time to head home. I left myself a day to get back home before the start of the work week. That meant high speed travel through Nebraska and Eastern Colorado. Not exactly picturesque or interesting, although it does give one time to think about where one’s been and more importantly, where the next journey will lead.