Rex's post from Day 5 (September 3)

Day 5, Wednesday September 3, 2014
Spearfish, South Dakota
255 Miles, 1644 Miles So Far

Today I decided to lead a group to Mount Rushmore. Let’s see Frank, Lance, Gary & Sheryl, Larry and Dennis my Tail Gunner joined me for another wonderful day of riding in the Black Hills,

We left the Hotel at 8:30 am with a temperature of 54 degrees. After going through Deadwood and Lead we continued on 85 which took us into Wyoming and then back into South Dakota.

We did run into some major road work after we passed Newcastle on Hwy 16 about 15 miles from Custer. It started off like it was not going to be any problems with hard packed asphalt BUT it turned out to be very trick gravel. Even though the gravel was medium in size it was VERY THICK! It will really wake you up and make you pucker a little bit. Waiting to be escorted on one lanes roads it took us about 30 minutes all together to get through it.

I was able to surprise Dennis when we got to Custer about 11am and took him to the hamburger place he wanted go to the day before called Black Hills Hamburger and Bun Co. That had to be one of the best hamburgers that I had ever eaten. It only held about 30 people and even though we got there that early it was already getting packed.

We continued on 16 to 87 another part of Custer State Park and Sylvan Lake which was absolutely beautiful.

We continued to Needle’s Highway which is full of one vehicle tunnels, tight switchbacks and huge rock and stunning scenery. I could not get over the clean air and the wonderful smell of pine and other types of trees. Lance had a good time trying to get a picture of a Chipmunk. What a wonderful road.

We then headed to Iron Mountain Road which like Needle’s Hwy but had LOTS and LOTS more curves and LOTS of wonderful switchbacks. It also has three wooden curved bridges that loop across a road beneath you that they call Pigtails it was very cool. As you pass through one of the tunnels you have a view of Mount Rushmore miles away. I think Sheryl got a picture as they exited the tunnel. We pulled over to a rest area and to our amazement you had a PERFECT view of Mount Rushmore which looked like at least ten miles away, we took some great pictures. 

We arrived at Mount Rushmore spent about one and half hours there looking and marveling over the enormity of it all. I have no doubt that a lot of people had sacrificed over that project, what a beautiful place.

It was about 4pm when we left Mount Rushmore and a few miles down the road that’s when my GPS started deceiving me and almost causing it’s separation from its holder and brief moment of being airborne. After two u-turns Dennis and I we were able to get us back on track on that marvelous Nemo Rd again. I’m telling you guys that Nemo Rd is the best.

We did have funny thing happen to us today, I don’t remember exactly where we were but on a long stretch of road I could see something way up there in the middle of the road. As we got closer I could tell it was a goat square dab in the middle of the road just standing there looking at us and blocking our lane. As we got within about 20 feet of him we stopped, I’m sitting here with all of these bikes staring at this one horned mangy looking goat who refuses to move. When I honked my horn and revved my engine he started scratching his hoof on the ground and bowing his head, he was definitely getting ready to charge us. So if you are thinking that we will give into this one horned mangy looking old goat well you would be correct we did we made a WIDE path around him before he could charge. The Darn thing won that battle. It was really funny.

We made it back to the hotel at 6:10 and 88 degrees after another wonderful day of riding with some wonderful people.

After getting cleaned I ordered eight hand tossed pizza’s for our LSR Pizza Night in the breakfast area.  When I order those pizza’s the manager of the pizza place said I order too much for 15 people he said it was enough for about 30. I explained to him that he did not know that group of guys like I do and after dinner we had only two pieces left over. We had a great time and the best part the club paid for it, WooHoo!!!!!!

Everyone again tonight must be worn out with all of this fresh air, beautiful country and twisties and switchback infested roads because everyone went to bed very early.  

Another Wonderful Day,
Rex