Rapid City, SD

[Pain]

I don't know if anyone actually noticed, but I have not posted any rustic roads lately. I purchased a 07 Ural Patrol to replace my K100 for winter riding duty, and my Fiancée (Heather) and I moved into a new apartment (That is what actually soaked up most of my time).

However, it is not like I went the month of May without motorcycling adventures. Her sister goes to school in Rapid City, SD and we decided to visit her near the end of her exams. Really, it was just an excuse to ride around out there, but whatever works.

The plan we developed was simple. I would ride of my xs11s, and she would take her sr250. We would leave Saturday afternoon, and reach Rapid City Monday or Tuesday. Her sister's boyfriend, who also rides, would come out on Wednesday with his truck and trailer (With his fz1 on board), and the oldest sister (Who does not ride). We would explore the area until Sunday morning, load the 3 bikes up, and hi-tail it back to Milwaukee, since we all had to work on Monday.

Good plan, huh?

I wanted to take my special, but this would be her first long trip on her own bike, and we were unsure of the sr250s ability to cross the distance problem free, so at the last minute the plan changed to my taking my standard, which has the full Vetter set up, so if something went wrong with her bike, we could finish the trip west 2-up, and her bike could be picked up by the others on their way west. I had spent a few weeks prepping my special for this trip, and the last minute change would prove to be problematic.

I worked overnight Friday, until 6am, and did not sleep well. I would be hitting the road with only 4 hours of sleep. Lucky for me, this was not particularly unusual. The plan for day 1 was only to reach the Mississippi, and spend the night in Prairie Du Chien. The bikes were packed, and we left at 1pm. We met my mom for much at IHOP (Heather had never been), and left Milwaukee county at about 130.

Our route took us on the interstate from Milwaukee to Madison, then hwy 18 to Prairie Du Chien.


On hwy 18, SW of Madison. We stopped for fuel and snacks, and were surprised at how windy it was. Her bike was in good shape, and we continued.

SW Wisconsin is full of cool sites and roads, but we were eager to be in Rapid City, and just continued on 18. We did stop now and then, including in Finnimore


Home of the Dinky. No, really.



Cute, isn't she?

We pressed on and reached Prairie Du Chien around 5pm. We headed to the Country Inn and Suites, since we have had good experiences with them in the past, but it was full. They did, however, help us find another room at AmericInn, which was right on the river.


A room is a room, I guess. They had a lot of channels on TV, but we never did watch them.

The desk clerk directed us to her favorite restaurant,

Which was right next to the hotel. There was a lot of formal wear in evidence too, so we were thinking it was Prom night.

And to wrap up day one, some food

Mine


And hers.

[Pain]

Day 2

Day 2 is where things started to go a little pear-shaped. Things started okay.


Both bikes started, always a good start. We were aware we might hit some rain, but thought it would only be in the eastern part of IA. Yeah, not so much.


This was the last picture from day 2. Not long afterwards the rain started. The sunvisor on Heather's Nolan came loose and had to be repaired on the side of the road (With the 18wheelers not really giveing us a lot of extra room.) The temps were in the uppers 40s, though I saw 53 once. And it didn't stop raining at all.

We reached Mason City, and stopped for fuel. We were both pretty miserable. We wanted somewhere to rest and dry out some, so I asked the gas station attendant where we could go and eat. She directed us towards the McDonalds. I asked for a nicer, sit down kind of place, so she then suggested Wendy's. It was just not our day.

We got to Wendy's (Which didn't have any booths), and took over a couple of tables with wet, dripping riding gear. They had hot cocoa, and we drank a lot. We sent a lot of text messages to Heather's Sister (Joanna), who helped us by looking at the weather. We decided to head north, get back on the interstate system, and head west on I-90. It would get us out of the rain, but we would still have high crosswinds. The temp would not go up, either.

We lingered at Wendy's for an hour and a half, and a fine puddle developed under our gear. Heather spend a lot of time in the womens room using the hand dryer, and changed clothes, since her riding pants had leaked a little.

We took I35 north to I90, and then turned west again. The winds were as brutal as we had been warned, and I cost us 30 minutes with a wrong turn. Heather just kep riding, though without any complaint. I am sure she was less than happy, but never asked to just stop, and always got back on the bike when it was time to go.

The goal for day 2 was Mitchell, SD, but when we reached Sioux Falls it was 8pm, and I decided it was time to stop. It was here that Heather really made me proud. I told her we were still 60 miles short of Mitchell, and she was surprised we stopped. We were both exhausted, though, and with night falling, I thought we had better just call it a day. It was 370 miles of extremely crappy conditions, and she had rode it without complaint, heated gear, and on a 250, AND was willing to keep going. And this was her first solo trip too. Talk about a keeper.

We found a Super 8, ordered pizza, and passed out. I told her I did not think we were out of the rain, and it might still be drizzling in the morning, she just shruggled. After the day we had, what was a Drizzle?

Sorry, no food pics. We were exhausted.

[Pain]

Day 3

As predicted, there was a light drizzle when we woke, but it was nothing like the day before and we packed up and hit the road without even mentioning it. The weather gods noticed, took pity, and by the time we got to Mitchell, the sun was out and the temps were in the 70s. The rest of the week passed with idyllic conditions, and I think that was because of Heather's attitude on the second day. Fate can reward good behavior, right?

Mitchell was where we changed from people on bike pounding westward, to tourists.


Zack lies his picture taken, but is it a little sensitive about his personal space.


the Corn Place was why we stopped there, even though it was not looking good in early spring


Heather helpfully pointing where we are.


Who knew that there was a BB court inside the Corn Palace?

The walls inside are covered with pictures of the Corn Palace over the years (The current one is actually the 3rd building). I like seeing the older cars, and then horses, and then dirt roads with raised wooden sidewalks.


We went across the street to what looked like cool a little diner

Jake and Elwood wouldn't lead us wrong, would they?

And we saw this guy

Who, as it turns out, was headed the same way as us, and we would meet him again later.

The food was very uninspired. Not worth even a digital picture, and we were back on the road.

Next on the hit list was the Missouri River,




Some learning for ya.


These things were at all the rest stops, I have no idea why.


Some more learning.


I was hoping for more of a bridge. We have higher, longer ones Downtown Milwaukee.


Reckless devil that I am.

After the Missouri it was not much farther until we reached Wall.


I took a lot of pictures there, since there is a lot to take pictures of.

Jackolopes are cool.


Heather found a tame buffalo to pet. Okay, it was dead.


Cool fountain thing out back. I took videos, but haven't loaded them anywhere.

Again I asked about good places for dinner, and we were directed to this place -

The Red Rock. It shares a building with Napa. the lady we asked said it had a good salad bar.


I guess a good salad bar has cheese, as well as lettuse.

I ordered the Chicken, since it smelled good, and that was all they offered to go. we weren't going anywhere, I just hoping that was their signature Item.


The chicken was excellent. Among the best chicken I have ever had, and more than made up for the salad.

We got a phone call from Joanna, seems she was expecting us at Rapid City for dinner, and our putzing accross the state irritated her a little. All well.


We got to Rapid City at about 9ish. Maybe it was 10ish. We were in a good mood, and had reservations so were unconcerned about the time. All in all it was a good day.

[Pain]

Day 4

We had 2 days for everyone else reached Rapid City, as decided we would explore some. Heather's rear sprocket was getting chewed up, so we decided to ride 2 up on my bike (which was also running poorly, but I figured I could nurse it along.) to Ellsworth Air Force Base, which has an air and space museum.



Another place with a lot of pictures taken. But there are a few that stand out -


72k feet, in a balloon. Wow.


ATGATT

Then there was this little, unassuming thing-


That would be a nuke.


Really big plane.

I took pic of every plane there. Well, most of them. I wanted to get the tour of the Minuteman silo, but we were there too early in the year, and too late int he day. All well.

The rest of the day was Joanna showing as around her school and shopping at Walmart for snacks. I went to bed early, since I had formed a plan for tomorrow.

[Pain]

Day 5

Day 5 I got up early, since I wanted to see Crazy Horse. Since it was unfinished, and Joanna had labeled it a tourist trap, no one else was interested in going, and I thought if I got there by 8, I could be back before the hotel's breakfast ended at 10.


Entering the Black Hills. Smokey says only you can prevent forest fires.

The bike was still running badly, and would not go over 60mph. There was also construction so I reached Crazy Horse at 815. The ride took a bit over a hour.



From the parking lot-


Not one cent of federal funding.

I watched a intro video/movie thing, that was really not that great. While I would recommend Crazy horse, I would also say you could skip the movie, unless you now noting about the project.


The 1/34 scale model


From the back.


The planned inscription. Yes, I know it is sideways right now, I will rotate it soon.

The place is full of exhibits about the life of the sculptor (His wife and family currently run the project)



Motorcycle porn. This one, and another HD, are being raffled off to raise funds.


A friendly kitty.


From the courtyard. All the views were awesome, and typically none of the pictures really capture them.

It was after 9, now, and I needed to head back to the hotel, and move fast. I picked up a few things from the gift shop, and tried to rush back. With the bike running bad, and increased traffic, I missed breakfast. Still, that is okay, and I just ate some leftover granola bars.

After the, er, breakfast, we headed to Sturgis.

Of course we had to go to Sturgis. They have -

If you are thinking about going to Sturgis, I would make 2 recommendations. Don't go during bike week, and SEE THE MUSEUM!!!

So many bikes....




Anyway, go there.

For lunch, the lady at the museum recommended The Loud American Roadhouse,

where we had Steak Tip poor boys. No pic, since I was really hungry at this point and scarfed it down. It was really good, though.

By now we expected Joanna's BF (Matt) and their older sister (Jenny) to be at Rapid City, so we headed back.

We got there, unloaded Matt's FZ1, and loitered for a bit. Matt and Joanna went to her school for something or other, and we took a nap. We woke up hungry, and Joanna, Heather, Matt and I headed off for someplace called the Firehouse.

Jenny couldn't quite get up after the 13 hour drive from Milwaukee

This pic being posted only because she specifically told me not to.

The firehouse had all you can eat ribs -

The first plate was delicious. I mean melt in your mouth good. The next plate was mirowaved re-warmed crap. I actually complained, it was so disappointing. It was okay, though, since I got to leave with the most beautiful woman in the room.

[Pain]

day 6

Day 6 started with Matt and Joanna on the FZ1, and Heather and I on Suffering, headed to the Needle's Highway, and other roads in the area that Matt, who had been out there before, found for us.


Matt and Joanna, looking all robot like.

I had my old camera with me, but it kept acting up, and we bought a new one in Rapid City. With 2 cameras, and Heather on back of the bike, we decided to let her hold the old camera and take pictures while we were moving.

Matt's FZ1 has twice the horsepower to weight ratio of Suffering on a good day, and with my engine issues on any sort of straight away or hill there was no keeping up. He was nice though, and didn't ditch us.




I would like to say it was better in the corners, but it wasn't really. Matt can ride, and the FZ1 is a fine steed.



Fun road.


We'll go there later.


We passed through Custer State Park, and found some buffalo. Heather didn't try and pet these.



Cool place. There is a group shot of us there, but Matt has it.


We headed back to Rapid City, since Jenny was there, and we kinda left her behind. The five of us were going to head to Mount Rushmore.

This was not a ride, we all piles into Joanna's car. I will share this pic, though

since it has Heather in it, and turned out well.

We all went back to the hotel. I know we did something for dinner, but don't recall what it was and there are no pictures, so???

Matt and I were not quite ready for the motorcycling to end, and we headed up to dinosaur hill (Really, that is what it is called) to take some pictures of Sunset.

Well, we didn't quite get there at sunset, since just driving towards the big dino on the hill really didn't work.


I'm not saying matt got lost, but there were several u-turns. All the roads were fun, though, despite the darkness, so it was fine.

Good to be away from the girls for a while too.


We did find it, and Dino hill is actually registered.


Rwwrrr


It doesn't look that big, when you are in it.

Pictures taken, we headed back to the hotel. Well, I did. Joanna had returned to school (She was still working on her finals, and some major project, it was taking much longer than she thought it would), so Matt headed there, and I returned to the hotel, to end another day.

[Pain]

Day 7

To start day 7, Joanna had to finish her project, and Jenny did not want to ride, so it was just Matt, Heather and me. After some talk and tire kicking, we decided Heather would ride her own bike, despite the rear sprocket.

The plan for Heather and I was simple. With Matt, we would Find Nemo, SD, and then loop around HWY 385, back to 44 and to Rapid City. Matt would not come with, as far as 385, and then go find some other roads. He would be back at the hotel before 5pm, so we could all head to the Badlands together.


To get to Nemo, you have to drive along Nemo road. A chore, I assure you.


Heather watching out for falling rocks.


A water stop. We were in the Black Hills, so there were no bad views.


We found Nemo, and nice touristy sort of town. There was no Gas station, so I guess it was good we filled up before leaving Rapid City.

We continued on through Nemo, still on Nemo Road, until we hit the intersection of Nemo rd and 385. There we found a surprise -



It was about 10 to 11, and we were looking for a bathroom, so we stopped. After some discussion, we decided to stop her for lunch at



Motorcycles on the roof, how could we go wrong?


Our lunch, mine is the hot dog, Heather had Chili Cheese Nachos.


She actually ate most of it, and didn't get sick. I am still surprised.


385 was fun, this is on 44, just west of Rapid City. The whole area was great.


Good looking woman, isn't she?

We got back to Rapid City, and the plan was for heather, Joanna, Jenny and I to go play Minigolf, while we waited for Matt to come back. Some communication problems had us waiting for Matt until almost 430, so we got to Minigolf later than we wanted.

Still, we played Minigolf, and headed back to Wall, planning on riding the Badlands loop west to east. I wanted a Buffalo burger, so we grabbed one before hitting the road.


Heather got this-

It was a taco of some kind, I believe.


We took a lot of pictures in the badlands, but night was falling. matt and I were on the bikes, and the girls in Joanna's car


Not seeing this area in daylight is one of the things I regret about the trip, and enough reason to head back out that way.

It was complete darkness when we finished the loop. We all headed back on I-90, limited by the reduced speed of Suffering. I was getting annoyed with it, but there was nothing to be done about it.

We all made it back to the hotel without incident, calling it a night.

[Pain]

Day 8

Our last riding day, the plan was to ride the Wildlife loop in Custer state park. Since Jenny was going with, Joanna and Heather would also ride in the car, Matt and I would be on our bikes. And we decided to picnic.


Matt is fast. And he might be showing off a bit.


I park badly

The wildlife loop did not disappoint, even though Matt and Joanna said last time they went through they only say 1 buffalo and a couple burrows. We saw a lot more than that.


Like this sign.


Some buffalo hair.


These burrows we just kinda hanging out on the road. Burrows are not native to the area, and these are descendants of the original herd, brought to take tourists to Mt Rushmore. So, unlike the other wildlife, you can supposedly feed these. We didn't try.


You could get really close, though


That one looked a little angry, probably because we didn't actually have any food for them.

We did stop for out picnic,

Nice looking spot


Matt being adventurous.

My coat was latched onto my a huge bee

I sprayed it with WD40, and it slid right off. I didn't have anything else, really.


Then we found the mother load of Buffalo.


After this we didn't see much else that made us stop and ogle. Seeing the buffalo was enough.

The women in the car and I headed back to Rapid City, since there was a gelato place we wanted to stop at. Matt wanted to ride the Needle highway again, and said he would meet us there. With my bike running worse all the time, I decided to go with the car, though I did feel another stab of annoyance. I really do like the bike, but it was letting me down.

The Gelato was delicious, and we bough a bunch of truffles for later consumption (I had one this afternoon, actually). Matt showed up, and we headed back to the Hotel.

We dropped of the bikes, and headed back to Joanna's room to pack her things, as she was coming back to Milwaukee for 3 weeks. I ran to Walmart for road snacks, and then it was time to load up the bikes.

After the bikes were loaded, and before we could come back out with cameras to take pics, a small shower came through. Barely got everything wet, but gave us a great rainbow.



Then ate dinner, woke up early, and headed home. Suffering is waiting to visit the Shop to sort out its problems, and Heather is shopping for a larger bike. The Shop said her rear sprocket was the worst they had ever seen, and it is going to be part of a trophy at this year’s Rockerbox. Heather is supposed to get to vote on who gets it.

Hope you enjoyed reading, keep the rubber side down

[cruiser]

Great story and pics, Pain. And Heather, what a trooper!!

After our short meeting at Brag & Drag last year I've been following your rustic road adventure. I've been watching in my area and saw one north of me, Bufflo county? Perhaps if you make it this way we will cross paths.

[MartyA]

Hey Pain, nice story!

So THAT is the Heather you said you would rather spend time with instead of your XS buddies... OK I understand.

madbiker and I are riding out there end of the month, taking our wives. Thanks for the preview!