USA - South Dakota

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Our trip up to South Dakota was taking us away from our planned meeting with our friend, Sally, in Tenessee and so we had to be confident that the weather was going to be good as the miles were going to be very high, at about 1700, and that we would get there in time to meet her ! The weather forecast predicted a lot of sun in South Dakota for about a week and so we were optimistic but reserved !! The standard "peep-through-the-window-check" the following morning confirmed the weather forecast as correct and so we headed North East and made it to Bridgeport, still in Nebraska, by the end of the day. Not much to say about Bridgeport apart from it being a living museum to 80’s haircuts !!

The following morning we set off again and made it to Chimney rock, a famous landmark used by the early Pioneers when travelling out West. It is hard to remember in our modern World how hard and frightening it must have been for these early settlers.

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Chimney Rock.

Scottsbluff is another large landmark in the same area and so we also visited that, and this wins the worst signposted Landmark award for 2005. You may argue "Who needs signposts to a rock that big ?" ...... If you want to find an access point, you can´t as there don´t apprear to be any "officially". We finally ended up following our noses to a dust track which brough us to the bottom...but still no signposts !!

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Scottsbluff

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The All-American train. These are generally very very long-haulers.

The next morning we continued towards mount Rushmore. The weather was great again, and a chance meeting with some local people at lunch, got us directed towards the Toadstools national park and made us aware of Custer National park(In which is more than Mount Rushmore). The Toadstool national park was only a small detour on our route so we headed there straight after lunch. The "locals" were originally from Texas and the guy we spoke to was a retired Army Photographer who took the second photo of the Atomic Bomb being detonated.

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Seen on Cafe wall where met Texas ex-pat´s. We saw a lot of these signs.


We found the signpost for the Toadstool National park and the detour turned out to be on a dust and gravel road-it was a 14 mile trip over fairly rough ground on what was now becoming a hot day, but turned out to be worth it !

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The Road to the Toadstools.

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The Toadstools.

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It was a something out of a Star Trek movie set as you can see ,so being mature adults …..

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The site apart from the toadstool shaped rocks, was a site of fossilised bones, and these could be clearly seen in the ground. I’m not going to bore you how the rocks where formed so if you want to know then you´ll have to search google!

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Another of Americas finest ! This one was hauling in excess of 125 trucks !

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The plains of South Dakota.....stunning to see such huge wide open spaces.


We´d decided that Hot Springs was going to be our overnight stay. The town was ok and grabbed a Mexican dinner, hitting our beds soon after. We used the following morning to some washing(shouldn´t be necessary for RTW´ers! :rolleyes: ) and some bike maintenance(shouldn´t be necessary for RTW´ers! :rolleyes: ).

15th October

In the after noon we headed towards Custer National park and Mount Rushmore. Custer National Park was a great experience. It was like being in a Western movie with a feeling of Indians on every hill top and around each bend. All the roads were tight and twisty going up and down the hill-sides. Some of the engineering on the road was amazing with single lane tunnels and wooden trellis bridges.

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One of many tunnels we saw in and around Custer National park.

Custer park also has the highest concentration of buffalos and there were plenty around. I was busy as usual on the photo’s and was charged shortly after taking some photos for this website. I was in the wrong gear and the bike chugged away from the Buffallo at a rate not fast enough to match my heart rate. We risk life and limb for your pleasure but do we get sent envelopes stuffed full of money in appreciation… No.

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Somewhere close to my experience of being charged by one of them........I would say "my life flashed before me" but the experience wasn´t long enough!! ...

Leaving Custer Park we arrived at mount Rushmore. The carvings are very impressive and the whole site is well laid out and a very pleasant experience. There are photos and exhibits displaying how the whole thing was created.

In the six and a half years of work that occurred on and off between 1927 and 1941, Borglum(The Sculpter) employed almost 400 local miners. Some built roads, constructed buildings, ran the hoist house, generated power, took measurements, or sharpened thousands of bits for the pneumatic drills. Others set dynamite charges or completed delicate finishing work on the sculpture. Whatever their job, those alive today speak proudly of their work.

"I put the curl in Lincoln's beard, the part in Teddy's hair, and the twinkle in Washington's eye," says driller Norman "Happy" Anderson. "It still gives me a thrill to look at it."

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We saw this in the car park before we were admitted to the monument ! Only in America !

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Our first real view of Mt Rushmore

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This view shows all the debris left from the sculpting...messy blighters wern´t they !! ..My Mum always said to clean up after yourself....

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The shot for the album !!

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"Almost got it, just slightly to the right.....ahh......that´s it...just scratch a bit harder ...."

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"Ones they made earlier !"

The evening was spent in a Bavarian themed motel in Custer itself. It was nice to get way from the burger, steaks and fries for a while although dinner wasn´t German enough for my liking .

16th The next day we were back in Custer park completing a different section. The Needles pass. This road didn’t have one straight section. It was a good ride.

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The Needles in Custer National Park

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You gotta have roots man....(seen at the Needles.)

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Two of the best conditioned Mules I have ever seen, wandering across the road in Custer Park.

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....this one seemed to take a shine to John.....

From there we headed towards Deadwood, home of Wild Bill Hickok. The town was very disappointing it had turned into a modern gambling town with slot machines in nearly every building, including bars and café’s.

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Deadwood.......spoilt by "modern" gambling.

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Site of Wild Bills´s demise.

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Wild Bill´s resting place...next to Calamity Jane.

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The Cemetry...high on a hill above Deadwood.

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Reconstructed facias of Deadwood to show how it once was.

We visited the cemetery to see Hickok’s and Calamity Jane’s grave before heading towards Sturgis, home to North Americas annual Harley meeting- party zone, and the World´s largest Harley rally. The town was disappointing, apart from the big Novel bar’s there was nothing to say for the town. We only saw about 3 or 4 bikes in the time we were there! (All probably being repaired for next years rally! :D )

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Very large bar in Sturgis, home to the World´s largest Harley Rally with an estimated 500,000 attendees in 2005

17th Went to look at two underground waterfall attractions. The first was closed for the season and the second amounted to a tunnel with a partially obscured vision of a small waterfall at the end. The second was called Thunderfalls and about as exciting-interesting as watching your bath being emptied over the lawn-don’t bother visiting !!

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No, not Gotham City as you might have expected...but near the entrance to the first closed cave !

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Thunderfalls - an underground waterfall at the end of a 200 metre tunnel - "no more interesting than watching your bath being emptied overe the lawn"

In the afternoon we headed for the Badlands and dropped off at Wal Drug on the way. Wal-drug is an odd phenomenen to describe. It is a combination of a museum and shops under one, actually several, roofs. It has a lot of American History and the family owning it obviously had high connections as there are a number of letters and photos of and to the family to with various Presidents over the years. It was a bit commercial but there was a lot of historical photos there and all round, a worthwhile visit.

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One of the many exhibits seen at Wal-Drug

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Finally I get to stage my own revenge........

We moved on to the Badlands to see a vast landscape that looks like it could be Mars. We spent a few hours riding from spot to spot and finally sat watching the best part of a sun-set before rushing off to find this evenings accomodation.

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The Badlands.

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Waiting for the sun to set.....

Just behind the Badlands on the opposite side of the road we noticed one of the fields had been badly burnt-we wern´t sure if this was the result of a corn-stubble burning exercise or a careless ciagarette. The field next to it was un-burnt so we left with the issue un-concluded !!

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Field before burning in Badlands.

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Field after burning.

We rode through much more of the ’lands than we thought existed and could find no-where to stay…..more miles & very dark, still no-where to stay. After about one and a half or two hours we came to a small town which had a motel with a vacancy sign still outside. Delighted we ran to the front door to be ‘greeted’ by two 10/11 year old girls who informed us that all rooms were taken, I, almost weeping, pointed out that the sign read vacancy……….’all the rooms are taken’ was the response....from a 10 year old !! They assured us that there were plenty of motels 25/30 miles North of where we were…..unfortunately we wanted to travel East. It was late and we were very tired, so North we went to a large town called Murdo where we found the Sioux motel which offered bed and breakfast for about $48. We booked in and shot across to the local steak dinner before they closed.
 


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