Well, Wednesday, July 9 didn’t start off so good, in a way. We got to Moon Motorsports at 8:30 for our appointment and were taken in right away. I asked Josh (the service representative) about a strange fluid that (I found out then) had been weeping from under the water pump. He told me it’s a leaking seal on the inside of the pump. Well, this news wasn’t TOO bad since it was in warranty, and just. The K1600GTL has almost 34,000 miles on it already. It was more of an inconvenience since we needed to change some camping reservations in Rapid City, South Dakota and get it fixed at Moon the next day or take further chances and have the part at Sturgis BMW in a few days. I figured that I pushed my luck far enough since the first time I saw this blue-ish colored fluid was about 10,000 miles ago but I thought I had run over something! It really looked like gum or something like that. Since it never got any worse, I forgot about it once I washed it off. The next time I saw it was about the end of June but once again, it never got worse. But this time, what was the chance I ran over the same type stuff? Not likely. That’s why I asked about it.
Life really is about how well you handle Plan B. Our Plan B went like this- the folks at the KOA in Rapid City moved our reservation with no issues and we’ll be back at Moon in the morning. These guys at Moon Motorsports are GREAT! I saw they were busy and being an ‘unexpected’ customer, they were the best to get us in! If you are around Minneapolis, throw your business their way. They are a superb BMW dealer. Another upside was that we got to do some shopping! Moon Motorsports is in a really good location. We booked in at the Days Inn just about a mile away, there was a Walmart just down the road from the Days Inn and the Chatters restaurant was pretty good too! We restocked our food supply and got a replacement air mattress pump. Like most everything made in China, they don’t last very long. Ours made it a few months but died after our night at Pictured Rocks.
Thursday, July 10 found us at Moon early. I hoped that the engine would cool a bit before they had to get into the hot liquid of the antifreeze. Cynthia and I roamed around the showroom again and before we knew it, they were finished. It took all of 1-1/2 hours. We knew we had a fair distance to go to get to Pipestone National Monument in south-western Minnesota so we wasted no time in getting started. Basically a diagonal path, we started south on MN 25 first then west on US 12 to MN 23 and straight south. All the roads were in really good shape. We met up with a headwind and that made the drive a little less pleasurable. We just made it in time to Pipestone National Monument. We only had 30 minutes to visit.
Pipestone National Monument is a very mystical place. Visited by Native Americans from numerous tribes, all came there to quarry the pipestone that made peace pipes, as we of European decent know them. There have been 2,000 year old specimens found at Mound City in present day Ohio. By the 1700’s though, the Sioux controlled the quarries and distributed the stone only through trade. So, if you see any red-stone peace pipes, the stone came from Pipestone, the only quarry of this stone in the world. We took the trail to see the active quarry sites and visit places mentioned by the earliest French explorer, George Catlin in 1838. Quarrying is still practiced in the traditional way even today. It was a wonderful place to visit and full of history. It was nice to see some elementary school aged children on a field trip there! We highly recommend a visit! On our way back to camp we spotted Lange’s Café! I have never seen another business with the same name as mine. Turns out after talking to our camp hosts (who were also Lange’s) that the town is full of them, though none seem to be related to me.
We camped the night of July 10 but we revisited Pipestone in the morning before heading off south again to pick up I-90 west towards Rapid City. Friday, July 11 started good with light headwinds until we turned west on I-90. It was hot and windy for the first part of South Dakota. Just set the cruise at 75 and laid back and watched a whole lot of agriculture go by…right up till some weird bug flew into my right temple and apparently stung me. The crash hurt pretty good and the stinging added to the instant misery. I got some of the bug’s body out from under my helmet but didn’t bother to pull over and assess the damage. More on that later.
The skies were getting heavy as we approached the Badlands of South Dakota. I was hoping we would get the first of two sites in before we got rained on. We stopped first at the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. This one is easy to get to, it is right off I-90 at the Badlands National Park exit. The Minuteman Missile NHS was the product of the Cold war. Similar to the Titan Missile Museum we visited in Arizona, this area of South Dakota had 15 underground missile launch control sites. It is pretty hard to believe but there were 450 such sites around the U.S. We were glad we visited the missile site in Arizona because none of these sites are as accessible as the Titan site.
Next, and just down the road was the Badlands National Park. For centuries humans have been looking upon the Badlands as just that- badlands! Lacota knw the place as mako sica and early French trappers called it pretty much the same in French- bad lands. Formed about 75 million years ago when the plains were covered in a shallow sea, the Badlands are today a grayish-black sediment that was the bottom of that sea. Layer upon layer of creatures died and were deposited in the soft soil that is now exposed in formations similar to Bryce Canyon, but not quite as spectacular. The park has a scenic loop road that, unfortunately for us, was being tarred and chipped so travel the whole route was out of the question. This road passes many overlooks both into the buttes and across the valley into the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The scenery is wonderful! So is the motorcycling! The Badlands deserved a closer look and we recommend a visit!
Since we couldn’t complete the loop road which would have taken us straight into the infamous Wall, SD and Wall drug, we decided to take a somewhat back road through Interior, SD straight along SD 44 to Rapid City. Besides, our campground was located right on SD 44. The further along SD 44 we went, the worse the clouds looked. I made the prudent decision to turn around as we approached the storm with numerous lightning strikes getting closer and closer. We back-tracked the 40 of so miles to the national park and swung up onto I-90 hoping to pass the storm on the north. Nope, wasn’t going to happen. It POURED so hard that we had to take our speed down to 40 mph with emergency flashers going so people coming up behind us (still speeding along at 75) could see us. As luck would have it, the rain stopped as we approached our exit and stayed away while we set up camp. We were beat! It was a LONG day at 478 miles, the last of it so especially challenging since we were tired.
We woke Saturday, July 12 to partially clear skies and since we planned to be in the Black Hills area two days, we wanted to make the most of our stay. I got up before Cynthia and one look in the mirror and it was clear- that bug stung me good. My right eye was swollen pretty good and it and my temple were really sore. Cynthia took a better look at the situation and removed (finally) the stinger. I was hoping that would do the trick. Unfortunately, my eye wouldn’t get better and it took three more days to get back to normal. Even though I wasn’t feeling the best, the show must go on and we left early for our first stop at Mt Rushmore National Memorial.
I have been to My Rushmore a few times but it is just as inspiring now as it was the first time I saw it. If you haven’t been, you should definitely go. Pictures do not do it justice. There, I see a Founder, an Expansionist, a Conservator and a Savior of the United States. It is an awe-inspiring place that my words can’t do justice. I think it is one of the top 10 must see sites in the U.S.
By the time we left Mt Rushmore, the day really improved. The sun was out and it made the exploration of the roads and sites around the Black Hills that much better. We opted to take SD 16A (the Iron Mountain Road) south towards Custer City and onward to Jewel Cave National Monument. South Dakota 16A is a MUST drive!! Beautiful scenery, windy roads, a couple of 180 turns that turn up over themselves and a few tunnels thrown in for good measure! If you get behind a slow driver (as we did) you’ll have to pass in a no-passing zone or just sit back and relax. We opted for the no-passing zones since we didn’t have the trailer with us. Yes, the opportunities are that small. Just as we were entering Custer State Park, we ran into a heard of Buffalo wandering down the road. Cows with calves, bulls, the whole works AND the stopped traffic. There had to be 50 of them wandering along the road and in the road. What a great sight from WITHIN a car. Here we are, sitting still on the road with buffalo of all sizes walking past so close, we could touch them. It was both scary and exhilarating all at the same time!
Once free of them, we arrived at Jewel cave after another harrowing drive through some construction work on US 16 just before the entrance to the monument. Jewel Cave National Monument is made up of calcite crystals of all colors, shapes and sizes. The cave got its name from the many rooms and passages covered in jewel-like crystals. Some even sparkle like gems when you shine light on them. Of the rare formations are the rod-shaped frostwork and scintillates or underground sparklers of tiny quartz crystals. What a sight to see! Be sure to visit this cave- I’m sure they’ll have the road work done by then!
Next on our list was Wind Cave National Park, not too far from Jewel Cave but requiring a pass through the construction again! The tricky part was due to them pouring soft dirt onto the roadbed and them spraying it with water. A few passes by the grader and bull dozer and they flip the ‘stop’ sign from Stop to Slow. Well, it was good for us that the line of cars preceded us so the dirt got packed down but was still wet and slippery. We back-tracked a bit, but soon were on US 385 south. What a great road! If you want to know which roads in the Black Hills area we recommend riding, it would be- ALL OF THEM! This whole area deserves a two week visit.
For Wind Cave though, we opted not to go through it. Neither Cynthia nor I are ‘cave people’ so we passed this one up. The cave itself has quite a history that includes legal battles over ownership and what amounted to a family feud. If you like caves, you should take any of the great roads that head that way and visit. The beginnings of Wind Cave go back about 320 million years ago. This was the start of the eroding of the limestone that makes up the cave. Today, barometric wind studies suggest that only 5% of Wind Cave has been discovered. That’s pretty small considering it has been explored for more than 100 years! We jumped back onto US 385 south for about 18 miles and hooked up with SD 79 to get back to Rapid City. We were back in camp in time to relax and have a good dinner and some ice cream.
Sunday, July 13 was another great morning with warmer temps and clear blue skies! We left for Devils Tower in Wyoming a little later since Devils Tower is only 109 miles from Rapid City. All was going great until my cell phone which I had been charging, took leave of the bike and bounced down I-90 at about 75 mph. I pulled over and set the emergency flashers and walked back to retrieve it. Now, it is Sunday morning, outside Rapid City, SD and there is two travel lanes and the exit lane that my phone is lying in. That’s about 36 feet of highway. Nothing was coming till I started walking back to get it. Well, two cars drove by but the third just HAD to run over my phone, a three inch by five inch phone lying in the 36 horizontal feet of highway. What’s the chances of that!? Needless to say, it was dead. I picked it up and threw it in the trunk. We’ll deal with that later I thought.
We got to Devils Tower National Monument around noon. The entrance to the park has a prairie dog town that is pretty interesting to watch. We made our way to the visitor’s center at just about the base of the tower. Devils Tower was the site of filming for some scenes in Close Encounters. It’s a magical place. The tower itself is the center of a volcano and the surrounding land has been eroded away. All that is exposed is the core (lava) of the ancient volcano. There is a trail around the base and for those willing, you can climb the tower.
We had a picnic at the base and then headed back towards Rapid City but this time taking WY 24 as a loop back to I-90. We exited I-90 at Spearfish and went south on US 14A through Spearfish Canyon. This road is another MUST drive on the bike. It was so nice, I set the cruise at 35 mph and really enjoyed doing the limit! We came into Lead, SD from the south and continued on into Deadwood. This is another really nice old west town that has been mostly kept original. We found easy motorcycle only parking and headed straight to Saloon #10, the site of Wild Bill Hickok’s demise. Lucky for us, they were getting ready to play a re-enactment of the event. We got a front row seat at a table where Cynthia got picked to play the bartender for the re-enactment. What great fun! After a buffalo steak and a little sightseeing about town, we headed back to our camp via US 385 and SD 44. I must say, the routes up there in the Black Hills are absolutely wonderful as are the sites and attractions! If you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to visit. Tons to see and do!
As our last night in Rapid City drew to a close, we watched as the trailers towed by pick-ups creaked their way into the campground followed by the behemoths of motorhomes as they too lumbered into camp. Seeing them pass our bike and small trailer, we reflected on just how simple a great vacation can be, unencumbered by all that stuff….
We’ll be back soon with our next installment of our National Parks Tour! Stay tuned! Greg & Cynthia.