Day Seven - Badlands

We were on the road shortly after 8am today. The temperatures were in the 50s when we left, courtesy of the storms last night, hopeful of cooler weather for our day in the Badlands. We rode up 79 North to Rapid City and took 44 East straight into the Badlands.

SD 44 takes you into pretty remote sections of South Dakota. The road went straight for 40 miles with few turns and fewer signs of civilization.

About 60 miles east of Rapid City, we stopped on the shoulder for a leg-stretcher and a gentleman asked if we had jumper cables for a group of stranded bikers just down the road. Julie says that they kept our cables for 5 hours while we sweated in the desert, fending off plague-ridden prairie dogs and rare and elusive black-footed ferrets. In reality, they kept our cables for about 20-30 minutes.

During this time we met a man from Pasadena, Texas who was all too happy to show off his Mickey Mouse Fat Boy. Not only did he have Mickey Mouse rims and Mickey Mouse shaped backrest, his wedding ring and watch were the mouse theme. His clothing included Mickey Mouse patches. He’s apparently going to Disney World this September for the 19th time. We wish him well!

We finally were back on the road (the poor guy couldn’t start his bike after all, after learning, as if we didn’t already know, that jumper cables wouldn’t fix his problems). We entered Badlands National Park early at 11:30 and had lunch in the café.

After lunch, we road the 24 miles from the visitor’s center to the North Western park entrance, turned around and drove back to the visitor’s center and the park’s North Eastern entrance. The rock formations were spectacular as was the road that snaked around the rock formations and up and down the various elevations.

 

Shortly after leaving the Badlands, we dropped off Julie and Michele for shopping at the famed Wall Drug. The guys went over to the Minuteman Missile Historic Site. The guys headed back to pick up the gals, and we enjoyed ice cream before our 2 hour ride back to Hot Springs.

After nearly evading rain for the entire week, our luck ran out during dinner. The storms we had been watching on the radar for an hour finally caught up with us. It took 10 minutes to suit up for the 2 minute ride back to the Inn!

The temperatures today never got above 81 degrees, so we had an extremely cool day to visit the Badlands. The average temperatures in August are 91, so we truly lucked out. Total mileage today was about 330 miles. Tomorrow we visit Mt. Rushmore, visit the Crazy Horse Memorial and ride the Needle Highway.