6000+ miles in 16 days

[wwells]

We just returned from our summer excursion. Interstaes from Nashville, TN area to near De Smet, SD. Then whatever roads were necessary. Our first night was at George Wythe SP in Waterloo, IA.

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The stop in De Smet, SD, was to see one of the homeplaces of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prarie). That seemed to be important to the Princess.

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, came next. We stayed at a KOA there. It was really comfortable.

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When we left Mitchell we rode to Custer State Park in SD. We stayed 3 nights there. On the way to CSP we went thru the Badlands...
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_cIa3723Hk2E/Sl8MoRoGO-I/AAAAAAAAGGs/06Dc6uaAfJE/s512/100_6729.jpg

Then on to the requisite stop at Wall Drug for our free water...
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Then to the campsite.

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What a place to visit. While there we rode the park, all around Sturgis, Spearfish, Deadwood... all of those roads. We saw Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Wind Cave NP, Jewell Cave, etc. One of the sites we saw was the Mammoth Site. It was amazing!

On the way around CSP one morning we were charged and chased by a Bison Bull!

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I'm really glad the Gold Wing is not under-powered! The encounter almost required a wardrobe change.

I'll put up more later...

[Ripshod]

What a great trip! Looking forward to seeing more.

And it's always great to see another Noah devotee. That looks like a 16 footer.

[Black and Blue]

:Popcorn

[bigTom]

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing!

[bvail]

I stayed at thew Mitchel KOA last week. It was a nice place. One downside is that they had just laid down 3/4" rock on the tenting roads and it was very hard (scary) to navigate, so I kept my bike and camper on the grass as much as I could.

p.s. on a return trip from visiting relatives in Fergus Falls MN, back in the '90s, my wife suggested that we visit the homestead in De Smet. A really interesting place to stop, especially if one had followed Laura Ingalls books or the TV show. We were traveling in a well used (but good) 1991 Dodge Caravan. I had just left the museum/farm and got about 5 miles down the road (IIRC). I looked in my rear view mirror as usual and there was a big cloud of white smoke behind the car. I had recently had the tranny rebuilt and the new torque convertor let go. We were out in the middle of nowhere - yes, I found the middle of nowhere :eek: but we had pulled into an abandoned store just sitting out there and it had a working payphone. The engine was covered with red stuff - yup, tranny fluid was pouring out and I had to shut down the engine. I was able to contact someone who sent a towtruck out there. I think we were about 75 miles from Mitchell and got towed all the way there. There was only one room available in Mitchell and I was strongly advised not to stay there :o We borrowed an old car from the transmission shop in Mitchell and drove up to Huron - long drive for a decent room, but worth the trouble. I figured the shop in Denver would give the go-ahead for the unaffiliated shop in Mitchell to put in a reman tranny, but no, they wanted my car back in Denver, so get this: they sent a flatbed tow all the way from Denver to Mitchell and brought our car back to their shop. They had changed some parts vendors and wanted to diagnose the tranny failure - turned out to be the torque convertor, which was new. I then re-borrowed the old clunker from the Mitchell shop and drove all the way to Souix Falls airport and picked up a rental so we could get home to Denver. It was quite an oddessy, but we made it and the local transmission shop paid the entire bill, including the two cars we borrowed/rented. IIRC, they even paid for our room in Huron. They repaired the transmission and we drove the car for many years with no problems. Nothing to do with bikes or camping, but whenever I get near De Smet, I kinda get the Willies :p

[greybeard]

you sir set a very comfortable looking camp and it looks like a fine time was had by all and I thank you for shareing the pics with us" great job, good story"

[Sharpie]

:Popcorn

[Trailace]

Great start can't wait to read more. :Popcorn

[wwells]

Alright, I've rested a bit, worked a little and downloaded some more pictures. Where was I? Oh yes, CSP and the charging Bison...

We rode all of the roads around CSP, Sturgis (before the party started), Deadwood,
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cIa3723Hk2E/SmKHkEZNetI/AAAAAAAAGgA/aHQewUAlfYk/s512/100_6973.jpg
Spearfish, Mt Rushmore,

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cIa3723Hk2E/Sl_TzPVsBsI/AAAAAAAAGS0/O0k1LPED13k/s512/100_6904.jpg

Crazy Horse Memorial
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and left for Devil's Tower...
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There were some people climbing that thing! I'll stick to something safe... like riding MC's in a world of cages. A fellow can look at a rock just so long so leaving we headed for the Little Bighorn Battlefield National PArk or Monument, whichever it is.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cIa3723Hk2E/SmKPBy06koI/AAAAAAAAGls/aKBPCtYxctE/s640/101_7099.jpg

This was very moving. The visitor's center had a video and the ranger followed up with the story and explanation of the issues that led to the event. The drive through the battlefield was moving.

We spent the night in Hardin in a KOA Kamp Kabin. This time we were pretty hot and the Princess said it was going to happen. She wanted A/C!

Gotta go and work up some more pics...

[wwells]

What a great trip! Looking forward to seeing more.

And it's always great to see another Noah devotee. That looks like a 16 footer.

Yessir... it is the 16 footer. I love it!

[Ironheadziggy76]

Looks like we covered a lot of the same ground on my way to and from AK! Looks like you missed all the rain I hit in SD on the way home. Actually it rained on me off and on all the way home after I left MT, glad y'all had good weather.

[Mellow]

Good stuff, just got back from SD last month so it's all still fresh..