After leaving Iowa, I travled north and west to South Dakota, stopping in Nebraska along the way. I was surprised at the highway system in Nebraska as it was really bumpy for most of the trip - especially in the Omaha area where anything over 55 mph threw things around inside the HH as if the road was angry being put to work.
At any rate, I eventually arrived in the Rapid City, SD area where I stayed at the campground at Ellsworth AFB. The park had recently undergone an upgrade and the site was not only level and clean, but had a great view of the surrounding countryside. Having it close enough to the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, and all the rest was an added bonus. And, as usual, the cost of staying at a Military CG has it's own advantage.
My only negative observation, and one I revisted throughout SD and later WY and MT, is that there are a million and one hills everywhere...drove me and the Hula Hut nuts with the transmission kicking in and out of overdrive so much, but, what cha gonna do, eh?
Before I get into specifics, let me just be clear on this....the Black Hills were awesome, just amazing, and I was more than disappointed that I didn't have the bike with me for this portion of the trip - more on that later.
GEO Center of the United States - (well, not really, but close)My first day running around the Black Hills included a trip to what was supposed to be the location of the GEO Center of the US. It turns out that it's close - actually it's located in a farmers field about 3/4 of a mile from the marker - but it was an interesting place none-the-less. It's located in the small town of Belle Fourche, SD. Worth the trip, just to say you've been there, but there's not much else to see around there.
My next stop was Sturgis, yeah, had to do it, bike or not. Since this was my first visit there (and no, it was not bike week) I was really interested to see how the place looked, and how the people acted while there was no real "weirdness" going on...wrong assumption.
Although the drive is beautiful out there, and man, there were bikers everywhere, the area of Sturgis was really somewhat disappointing. Perhaps it is because of my upbringing in Florida (where fleeching tourists is an art), but I was really disappointed in the commerical aspect of the place. I'm not sure I was expecting that part, and it was everywhere you looked for 50 miles around Sturgis, it seemed like every business was there to seperate bikers from their money in some respect or another.
One other aspect of Sturgis that I wasn't prepared for was somewhat funny - it seemed like I never ran across a biker that didn't qualify for AARP for the whole week I was in the area. At first I thought it was just my imagination - yet, even when I was trying to find younger bikers, they were few and far between! The funniest aspect was seeing bars, resturants, and biker places with "Welcome Seniors" and "Sturgis Bike Rally" signs hanging side by side. The irony of the whole thing? If I had had my bike with me, I would have been one of those seniors out there on the road! Oh my.
One of the places I was really looking forward to seeing was Deadwood, SD. I'm not sure I can explani the reasoning other then to say I just like historical places where history took a decisive turn at some point. Deadwood has that with the history of George Custer discovering gold, the indians being pushed out by people swarming in from everywhere, and all the drama that evolved. The HBO series from a few years ago didn't do it total justice, but it made it entertaining. The drive to get there is spectacular and the town itself is nestled in this small valley with a river running close by and surrounded by shear mountains and narrow passes. Beautiful country.
All over town are signs linking it's past to significant events. How accurate are they? Who knows, but it makes a nice touch.
There's much more to produce for this part of the trip...but I'm already tardy with posting this, so I'll post this section and start working on the remainder shortly.
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