Day 36 (6/14/12): to Wasta, SD

Mari in the Black Hills of western South Dakota.

The beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. 

Yeah, we know all about cross winds and headwinds!

We stopped at a gas station in Grand Rapids, SD, inquiring how to get on a secondary road. A crash investigator gave us directions, and we hoped we wouldn't  meet him on a professional basis investigating a crash with us.



Prairie of western South Dakota



Lots of planes were flying over us as we went by Ellsworth Air Force Base.

    

  

Terry at Wicksville Community Church, which is open 24 hrs a day.  We filled our water bottles, used the bathroom, and enjoyed the lower temps inside the building. Wonderful.





Once we were back by the freeway, the signs for Wall Drug were everywhere.

 69.5 miles.Total: 1783.5 a long day, 12 hours with a 3 hour layover in Rapid City for bicycle repair, and looking for a frontage road to stay off I-90. Found one. Hot. Met a resident 'Joe' on the road. He told us of a small church 10 miles down the road, unlocked, where we could cool off and get water.  We did. Camped.



Day 35 (6/13/12) - Full layover day in Keystone, SD

Mt. Rushmore, as seen from the road as we biked towards it from Keystone.

Mt. Rushmore through Mari's bike frame.

Terry and Mari on the road to Mt. Rushmore.



Mt. Rushmore



Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore

With our bikes at Mt. Rushmore

Gutzon Borglum's studio for creating Mt. Rushmore figures.

Day 35. (6/13/12). Layover day in Keystone. Rode up to mt Rushmore. Fantastic.
8 miles daily. Total: 1713.7.

Day 34 (6/12/12) to Keystone SD

Terry, Parsley, and Clifton!

Hometown reunion with Parsley and Clifton!

Parsley and Clifton



Pactola Lake

 Daily: 24.5 miles. Layover near Mt. Rushmore. Total 1705.7. I had my first flat tire (to Mari's 3), 2 miles outside of town.  We met bike tourers from Iowa, and had dinner with EP (Clifton Poris), a good friend of Mari and Erik, who was teaching on SD, at Allen, on an Indian reservation.

Day 33 (6/11/12) to Whispering Pines near Silver city on Hwy 395.

Daily: 48.8 miles. Total 1681.2 total miles.

Mari at Deadwood.  There is not a grocery store in Deadwood!

Mickelsen bike trail, which proved to be a big time waster of the day.  We eventually got off the trail and turned back, to start over again at Deadwood on the highway. 

On the Mikelsen bike trail.

Mikelsen bike trail.  It was lovely, but slower going than the highway. Mari wanted to keep biking on the bike trail, but Terry wanted to get off it.  We got off and went to a grocery store, which lifted Terry's spirits.

Nearing Whispering Pines, near the road by the turn off to
Silver City.

Birch groves!  Mari loves them.

Short mileage, as we had a route disagreement about following a mountain bike trail for 50 miles, starting at 2 PM.  This did not work, as I did not have adequate food for this duration of a trip in the back country, on the spur of the moment.

Day 32: (6/10/12) to Spearfish S.D.

At the Devils Tower KOA

Looking out from the tent to Devils Tower.  What a camp site!

Mari and Devils Tower

Terry and our Devils Tower campsite

Our awesome campsite at the Devils Tower KOA. What a view from the tent.

Heading towards Hulett.

Turkey vulture?

Telephoto of Devils Tower

We stopped to take a break, and there were about 10 cattle milling about. After about ten minutes, all of these cattle had congregated, and were just staring at us.  I was glad for the cattle guard on the ground between us.  It's a little unnerving to have a herd of cattle just staring at you.

Mari is HAPPY to have a little post office on a Sunday morning to do some charging on her Blackberry.

Love those red rocks of Wyoming.

South Dakota for Terry!

South Dakota for Mari!

Belle Fouche, the community closest to the geographical center of the United States.

Mari at Belle Fouche, geographical center of the United States.

Terry at Belle Fouche, geographical center of the United States.

Terry rides his bike into Spearfish, vs last year's entrance to Spearfish in an ambulance. Way to go Terry!

KOA campground. Daily:66 miles. Total: 1632.4 We stopped at Spearfish Hospital, where I spent 4 days last year after my bike crash with a lacerated liver. I gave 3 cards and 3 cans of Almond Roca candy for different areas of the hospital as appreciation.

Day 31 (6/9/12) to Devils Tower, Wyoming

Yay, Devil's Tower is the place we never made it to last year.

Rather desolate out here.

Pronghorn antelope.  They are so much fun to watch.  They spring up and down when they run, and they leap over fences so gracefully.

Love this photo.

It's windy, as usual.  Mari with her stash of fresh fruit from Moorcroft.  First cherries of the season!

Mr. Bull

Devils Tower to the left.  A steer to the right.

Rumble strips, Terry's nemesis.

Terry reenacts (but with cheerfulness this time) his fall last year, somewhere around this spot.  It earned him a night in the intensive care unit and a couple more days in the hospital, with a lacerated liver and internal bleeding. Beware of the rumble strips.

Terry and DevilsTower.

Terry and Mari with Devils Tower.

Mari with Devils Tower

Mari, Terry, and Delpha. Terry and Mari were just locking up the bikes and coming in to the restaurant, and Delpha was coming out.  She stopped to talk with us, offered to treat us to dinner, and Delpha came back inside with us for food and conversation.  Such fun!

Devils Tower KOA campground. Daily 33.6miles. Headwinds all day, including steep hills leading up to Devil's Tower.  Short Day of 7 hours. Total  1566.4 miles.We stopped at DT View Cafe for dinner, and met Delpha outside, who came back inside to give us directions for the next day. She was very pleasant, bought us dinner, had just retired, and lived in Gillette. She may move to Kaiser Oregon soon. This section of the road, about 10 miles before DT was where I crashed last year.  I took it slow this year, and staged some photos of me near the 2011 crash sight.  So far, I have not even tipped the bike over!