Morning musings:
Settled down to sleep last
night to clear skies, 75o, and noisy neighbors. Woke up this morning to a heavy mist, 56o,
and noisy neighbors. Last night heading
on dusk, maybe 8 twenty somethings pulled up in a van, piled out like one of
those old Volkswagen ads and set up about 6 tents just across the way. Some of them stayed up late into the night
talking loudly and then some were up at about 6:30, talking loudly. Two words for people who need to be the life
of the party telling stories while having a camping experience: Sound carries!
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‘Mr. Chuckles’ and his band
of merry makers were packed up and headed out by 7:45 a.m., chatting and
laughing loudly the entire time. I
wonder if they ever get the opportunity to talk while riding in the van….
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This heavy mist is really the first bit of
precipitation we’ve had on this trip.
Oddly both our phones are indicating that the temp is in the mid-50’s,
which feels about right…and that it’s sunny, which is definitely wrong.
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Evening update:
It was a 3 layer day starting
out …the top layer being my rain jacket.
And gloves felt good, also. By
the time we left for the Badlands the misting had stopped but the rain jacket
stayed on just in case the sky felt like precipitating again, plus it's a
good windbreaker.
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Today was a day for riding through
the Badlands National Park. This is the 3rd time Kim and I have made the Badlands Loop together; I’ve actually
been here 6 or 7 times and the look is different every time. Both the time of day and the condition of the
sky affect how the rocks look. On our
way in today it was more foggy/misty than cloudy and while the rock colors were
more muted, the rock formations really stood out with the fog/mist as a
backdrop. On our way back the sun was
peeking out occasionally and that really made the colors of the rock layers
stand out. A highlight of the morning’s
ride was seeing two bighorn sheep up on a rock formation, one standing at the
very top and one just a bit lower laying down on a ledge. Then we watched as the top one picked his way
down the rock to join the other one. There's always something new to see....
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OMGoodness! We totally played tourist today at the Badlands
Ranch Store where for $1 a person can buy a small bag of unsalted peanuts to
feed to the local prairie dog community.
We bought the peanuts and I took too many pictures…typical touristy
behavior. 😏 These
prairie dogs are very fat and while not entirely comfortable with humans, are
not afraid either. We bought the peanuts
and we spent about 30 minutes trying to get them to take one from Kim’s
hand. The closest we got was having a
peanut snatched off the top of my boot.
As we were thinking about
getting back on the road, a bus full of senior citizens pulled up and they disembarked,
most of them passed by us standing at our bikes. Several asked if we’d gone to the Harley
Davidson 115th birthday celebration in Milwaukee. No, we had not. A couple of gentlemen had a bike story they
shared. I asked what group they were and
what their destination was...they were an Honors Group from a church in
Wisconsin taking a tour bus out to the Black Hills area. They were now heading back home. Well, I don’t know the reason they were the Honors
Group but I figured out the reason they were asking about Milwaukee. State pride in the manufacturer of our rides. 👍
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We didn’t intend to take I-90
into the town of Wall; we intended to 240 to Hwy 14 into Wall, but 240 suddenly
turning to gravel made the highway look pretty good. Spent a few hours in Wall then headed back
into the National Park to finish the loop and head back to camp. We took our time, stopping to see some more
prairie dogs that weren’t nearly as fat as the group over on the other side of
the park and a couple of groups of female and juvenile bighorn sheep. I think
the sheep must have been the park herd because the majority of them were
wearing radio collars. Saw a spectacular sunset as we neared the
campground…stopped to get a picture but trees may have mucked up the view.
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For supper tonight we had bison
burgers with our Swiss cheese, beans and potato chips. Last two night have been hot dogs…the change
of pace was nice.
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Kim went up to the camp store
this morning and came back proudly showing off the new ‘sharp thing’ he bought
and telling me all the particulars about it: It was handmade by a knife maker
in San Diego, the blade is made out of a repurposed metal file, it comes with a
leather sheath, and so on. I don’t get the attraction and in my opinion he certainly doesn’t need another knife but what do I know? 😏
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Small town of the Day: Interior, SD…population 67
It was not a travel day so we only saw two towns in the loop we made
through the Badlands, Interior and Wall. Interior has a population sign…Wall does not, although it does have the massively advertised Wall Drug.
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Friday miles: 76 miles
Total miles: 1,353 miles
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