With the bikes
Crazy Horse
Profile of George (Mount Rushmore)
DeadwoodI have always said that I do not like doing "touristy" things when I go on trips. After this past weekend, I need to change that statement to say that I do not like going on trips and doing "touristy" things during tourist season. Late August is a great time to go anywhere because school has just started and roads trips are mostly over for the year.
We left on Thursday morning bright and early to head out to Keystone, SD. We had to drive though WY to get there. I have nothing nice to say about that state. I'm not a scientist (or engineer or whoever figures this out) but I am am pretty sure we could power the entire nation with the wind in Wyoming. I should definitely check into that. Ridiculous. Wyoming was windy as crap and hot. The wind felt like a space heater blowing directly onto me. When we hit South Dakota, the wind slowed and the temperature dropped. Which is another thing. Everyone told us that SD is hot and humid this time of year. Not this past weekend-it was in the 70's and gorgeous. We totally lucked out. We got to our hotel in the early evening and just hung out the rest of the night. It had been a long day of riding.
Friday morning, we rode to Deadwood, Sturgis, and Rapid City. If anyone decides to visit South Dakota for any reason, I strongly advise staying in the Black Hills. They are beautiful. Reminded us of Colorado actually. Sturgis, we are pretty sure, only exists for the Rally. The rest of the year, the city is run down and full of empty buildings. It was pretty gross. Granted, Sturgis was only a few weeks ago, but it was a ghost town. Rapid City? Meh. Nothing great. Deadwood was so cute. We all liked it. The whole feel of the town was great. We caught lunch where Wild Bill was shot and then rode up to the cemetery where he is buried. They had a hot rod thing going on also, so there were a ton of cool cars everywhere.
Saturday we went to Jewel National Cave where we took a lantern tour. Basically, they take you in the cave, with just a lantern, to show you how it would have been experienced back in the day. It was really interesting. It lasted about 2 hours and we went up and down a ton of tiny, skinny stairs, crouched through some openings, and sucked our guts in to get through some narrow passageways. A lot of fun. On our way back we stopped at Crazy Horse. The size of the project is astounding. If you don't know anything about it, check it out here. If you are from Colorado, the whole idea and process of CH reminds me of Bishops Castle. A crazy family wanting nothing to do with the government building something "great and significant". Great and significant takes on a different meaning when talking about Bishops castle though. Crazy Horse was really amazing and really frustrating all at the same time. The face took 10 years to complete and it was done in 1997. That is still all that is completed. I don't think I will be here to see the finished product. Shame really. After we were done there, we went to Mount Rushmore. It was about 5 minutes from our hotel, which was cool. Here's a fun little fact. All of Mount Rushmore fits into the head of Crazy Horse.
Sunday, it was time to head home. It was pretty uneventful aside from the fact that all three of us got pulled over by the State Patrol and we missed 3 tornadoes by about 20 minutes.
I never realized how much the wind can take out of a person. I am completely exhausted from the trip. The Black Hills are amazingly beautiful and it was a memorable trip to say the very least. Photos to be added soon.
8 comments:
You kind of flew past that part about the State patrol. Expand on that thought a little.
should have warned you about the "great" state of Wyoming....
Sounds like fun - do you ride your own bike?? It is so beautiful in that area but I agree, Sturgis pretty much is on the map for one week a year and nothing great about Rapid City. Deadwood is one of my favorites.
S-ha ha. Really wasn't that exciting. We were going about 78 in a 65 and he pulled all of us over asking if we could slow down until we got to the major highway. Everyone was mad that I didn't take a picture of all of us pulled over. He was really cool actually.
M-Thanks for the heads up! ;) WY sucks!
No sir-I do not ride my own bike. I sit my ass on the back of Kenny's. Do you?
Great pictures. That looks like so much fun. I love the picture of Kenny smoking the pipe, reminded me of Roger.
Ok Kenny I know that the do rag is cool and all of that but what holds your head together if you go sliding down the highway. I'm not skeptical of your driving abilities its the other assholes that are on the road that I worry about. Looks and sounds like you had a good time. Wish I could have gone along. What Pipe Patti?
I quess I was privey to more pictures than are shown here. Aren't you on her e-mail list? I'm pretty sure Kenny wears a helmet. At least he used to and I hope he still does. Although his hair is a little wind blown looking. What up with that??
These pictures are on the one day we did not wear our helmets. We do majority of the time! We only went about 30 away non-helmet day. That's explains the windblown hair ;)
Nope, I sit my happy little ass on the back too (although not this summer)
I've talked about learning to ride & getting my own for the independence factor...but we'll see.
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