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Published: September 12th 2012
Sunrise
Sunrise over the plainsGot an early start, 6:45 – 30 minutes before sunrise. The weather was excellent, not too cool, and no wind. It looked like we were going to have a great day. The scenery was gorgeous, and watching the sunrise over the plains was awesome. We took rt.183 to rt. 90 which was a great ride. About 15 minutes after we got onto rt. 90, we ran into wind – lots of it. Unfortunately, the wind was coming across the road which made it very difficult to ride in. We drove about 35 – 40 mph (speed limit 75) most of the time.
We decided to bypass the Badlands National Park loop because it was so windy. We Stopped in Wall, South Dakota, which is the western terminus of the Badlands loop, to get a stamp at the National Grassland visitor center. The visitor center was very interesting and informative – describing the ecology and recent (200 years) agricultural history. We had lunch at the Wall Drug Store, which is one of the touristiest places I have ever seen. We decided that as the wind had abated somewhat, we would go through the Badlands west to east, essentially backtracking
Rt. 183
Rt. 183 30 – 40 miles. We realized that we would never be back here and we might as well see it while we can.
I am very glad that we decided to see the badlands, they are indescribably awesome!!!!! We all took a lot of pictures, but they cannot begin to capture the spectacular beauty we saw. If you ever happen to find yourself in western South Dakota, I would highly recommend that you visit the Badlands National Park.
When I planned this trip, I thought that the Badlands would be about an hour’s detour off the Interstate. We spent several hours in the badlands, stopping about every 2 miles to take pictures and look at the scenery. We could easily have spent a whole day, but couldn’t because we didn’t start until afternoon.
We stopped for coffee at the eastern terminus of the Badlands National Park to relax and book a room in Rapid City, South Dakota. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there were no rooms available. We were able to find a room in Sturgis, South Dakota, about an hour north of Rapid City. From this point forward,
we will need to determine where we will be at least a day in advance, to ensure that we can find lodging.
The ride from the Badlands was very nice. The wind had died down, and there was very little traffic. When we reached the outskirts of Sturgis, the sun was setting behind the hills. We rode from a sunrise over the plains to a sunset over the foothills; it doesn’t get any better than this.
We only rode 300 miles yesterday, but because of the wind, it felt more like 500.
I have taken a ton of pictures, but have not been able to upload all of them yet. I will load a few on the blog today, and this evening I hope to get a chance to upload all of them to Picasa so you can see all of them. I bought a smaller camera that I can keep in my pocket, which will allow me to take pictures without having to get the camera out of the trunk. I have even been able to take some pictures while moving, but I’m not going to do that often.
windy
windy In the meantime, if you want to see the pictures Rick has taken, send me an email at
Davidc313@gmail.com and we will get you access to his pictures on Skydrive.
For those who don’t know, if you subscribe (no cost) to this blog, you will receive an email every time I update it. Just click on the subscribe button on the right hand side of the screen. I know you adoring fans have been spending all of your time watching our trip; this should allow you to carry on with your lives while waiting for an update.
For the record, Bill and I have moved on from politics to religion. I am beginning to think that he and I disagree on absolutely everything (except we both think this is a beautiful country and this is a great trip).
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Davidc313
David Cole
David's and Bill's discussion topics
Yeah, and I just sit there and listen to them "discuss" their views. Seems like more fun from my point of view than theirs... Rick