Friday June 27

Pictures for today are posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daveste99/FridayJune28

and here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daveste99/20080627

Hi everyone,

There was a huge thunder storm that woke us up about 3:30 this morning. I was nervous about this activity and what we might encounter on our ride today. However, when we got up from our 6:30 wake up call, it was dry and mostly clear. We gassed up and hit I-90 before 8:00AM today.

We rode for many hours and for quite awhile we dodged the rain clouds we saw all around us. However our luck ran out and we ran into moderate rain for about 30 minutes. We finally got to an off ramp in Chamberlain, SD and donned our rain gear once again. We waited a few mintues as the rain abated some. We took off and crossed Lake Francis Case on the Missouri River. In just a few miles we got off the freeway to get some breakfast at Al's Oasis in Oacama, SD . The food was really good and we got into a conversation with a couple of guys from New Jersey who had never been out west before. It was interesting to hear their experiences of seeing the vast open lands in SD, etc.

We had a good breakfast and as I was checking the bill before paying I realized that the price of the coffee was only a nickel! That was cool!

Also, we started seeing signs for Wall Drug in MN, at least 300 miles before reaching the town of Wall.

We left our rain suits on when we left the Oasis but as luck would have it, it never rained again and we drove into clear blue skies across SD. After a short while, we stopped and removed the rain grear once again.

The 30 minutes of rain on this day is the only bad weather we will have had for over 4,000 miles of travel on the motorcycle. What luck!

The wind was extremely violent and relentless today and it was a long, tough ride due to the high speeds and dodging the semis. The wind was blowing the prairie grass and it looked like waves on the ocean. Everything is green and lush. I had no idea that SD looked like this!

Finally, we started seeing signs for the Badlands. We exited and rode to the park entrance and paid the $10 to ride the loop road.

The Badlands are badddasss!! Wow!! Beautiful!!

We finished the loop and rode into Wall to see Wall Drug. We had our $.05 coffee and a fresh made $1 donut before walking around the entire series of stores. What a place that is!

Once again we jumped on I-90 and headed towards Rapid City, Sturgis and Deadwood beyond. The ride from Sturgis to Deadwood is a very nice and twisty canyon road that climbs some elevation to the town of Deadwood.

After checking in and getting to our room, we quickly cleaned up and walked the mile or so into town for dinner. We had heard about the restaurant called Jakes which is owned by Kevin Costner. We had dinner there both having the filet mignon. It was very good and the restaurant is the only 4 star in the town. Afterwards, we gambled all of $20 in his casino, quickly losing it in a slot machine.

We walked back through town and to our hotel where we finally got to bed at about 10:00PM. That was a long day!

Dave and Karen