Morning Musings:
Crawled into bed at 11:30
p.m.---temperature was still 76o with a warm breeze. While I complain about how hot it’s been
while riding, it has been nice sleeping weather. According to local gossip and the weather report, that’s all about
to change.
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Went to sleep last night to
an owl hooting and woke up this morning to some raucous crows. Such are the joys and annoyances of tent
camping.
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We didn’t have any firewood
for a campfire last night…we got back at about 8:30 p.m. and the office closes
at 5. So we sat at the picnic table by
lantern light and further discussed our options for today. Now that Larry’s bike is behaving as it
should we talked about the time line of leaving. Main concern is that the weather forecast
doesn’t look favorable for camping beyond this afternoon. Small chance of rain this afternoon…that’s
not too bad. But the larger picture
shows rain starting later this evening and continuing throughout the night with
the temperature dipping into the 30’s.
And Friday’s high is only expected to be in the high 40’s. Not what you want to hear when you’re
camping…or on a bike.
So we’re breaking camp today
then heading to Hill City Cycle for an assessment of the clutch situation. Kim received a text from the owner last night
saying to bring it in at 10 when they open and they’d get on it. Since the situation has improved, hopefully
it’ll be a quick assessment and we’ll be on our merry way.
After that we plan on riding
the Wildlife Loop and maybe see Mt. Rushmore, maybe not. But the overall plan
is to get out of here before the weather changes on us. We can get on down the road, get a motel or a
KOA cabin and stay dry tonight. Might
have to brave some colder temps tomorrow but we have layers of clothing to put
on to deal with that.
Time to get packing up.
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Evening Update:
Mechanic at Hill City Cycles totally
agreed with Kim’s Plan A, flushing the clutch line. Said he would have done the same. And when Kim told him his theory on why the
clutch started working when the bike got moving, he agreed with that too. So we were back on the road by 10:30 a.m. headed
for the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park.👍
Got a distant view of Crazy Horse on our way to Custer State Park. There has been progress made since I was there in 2019…the hole underneath his arm is opening up.
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Custer State Park: Saw a herd of buffalo off on a
hillside safely away from the crowds but still where they could be seen. How thoughtful of them.
It was a few degrees cooler
today and the prairie dogs were scampering around their habitat areas prompting
people to stop on the road to take pictures of the cute little critters. Which meant we also had to stop even though we
had no interest in taking pictures. The
park should make turnouts so traffic can continue to flow in that area.
The donkeys were also traffic
stoppers…literally because they walked out in the road and made vehicles stop.
Then they went from vehicle to vehicle hoping for a tasty morsel which some people
were happy to hand over. Sort of like
seagulls but cuter.
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Then it was time to head east. Since our objective was to stay ahead of the
rain we opted to run I-90. That was the fastest
way to put some distance between us and the big green cloud on the weather
radar. However, we encountered hellacious wind as soon as we got on the
freeway. Got off at the exit for the town of Wasta which had a gas station, an
RV park and a bar/restaurant…and not much else.
Wasta was
founded in 1903 with a population of about 155.
It has seen a steady decline over the years. The 2020 census puts it at a population of
65. But
we needed gas and decided to get a late lunch at the Wasta Bar. No menus available but the bartender/waitress
rattled off what they had: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken strips, fries and
pizza. Ordered a burger and fries; it was
one of the best tasting and cheapest burgers I’ve had this entire trip.
After eating we talked about where to stay…closest
KOA with an available cabin was in Mitchell. It was a good drive down the road
so we knew we’d be getting in after dark but that’s okay, we were staying in a
cabin. No tent set-up tonight! But none
of us figured we’d be rolling in about 9:30, maybe an hour and a half after
sunset. That was way too long to be
riding in the dark battling the kind of wind that was pushing against us, trying
to rip our heads off and knock the bikes over at the same time. It felt so good to arrive at camp and get off
the bike knowing I didn’t have to get back on it for a solid 12 hours! Now here’s hoping we don’t have to fight the
wind tomorrow.
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Thankfully the wind today was
warm and while I was fully expecting the air to chill when the sun went down,
it didn’t. It was still 77o
when we pulled into campground at 9:30 p.m.
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This was our biggest day for
mileage. That’s impressive considering
we were riding around Custer State Park at about 25 mph until about 1 o’clock.
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Our stop at a Murdo, SD, gas station was memorable for a couple of reasons. First, the wind blew Larry’s gas cap off his seat into the path of a truck that ran over it and smashed it. Stuffed a rag in the gas tank until he can get another one. And second, there was a baby muskrat wandering through the parking lot of the gas station. After wandering under several vehicles at the pumps (including our bikes) it walked into the corner of sidewalk by the building. Took a moment to scratch itself oblivious
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Today’s miles: 383
Total miles: 1714
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