You ever have a nice drawn out plan and then rip it to shreds? That was us this morning and then again this evening.
We started this morning at breakfast. Originally, we were supposed to stay here in Keystone until Monday. We decided this morning to leave tomorrow and head East to cut down our trip to Omaha on Monday. Good idea. So we got the run around from Booking.com, Booking DOT YEAH. But finally they cancelled the room for tomorrow night.
Then we headed out to Crazy Horse. Ralph and Vaughn wanted to see how far along they have come since their last visit 50 years ago. They finished the head and there is a hole in the middle of the mountain. So basically, not a lot. Ralph thinks it will be done in 200 years. We visited the center, looked around the museum, and saw the observation deck. Then we were off to Custer State Park.
“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play.” We went to Custer State Park. It has an 18 mile Wildlife Loop. We drove along at a leisurely pace. We go to see the “Begging Burrows”. These are burrows that literally come to your car window and beg for food. We gave them a few pretzels. They finally left. We also saw one antelope, and one deer. We thought all hope was lost about seeing buffalo. We got to the last mile of the loop and there they were. As big and majestic as you would want to believe. They were magical. We got some pictures and proceeded on.
We took Iron Mountain Road to Deadwood. This road has 314 turns, 3 tunnels…blah blah blah. It is a popular run for the bikers. It is one of the reasons that the Sturgis Bike Week is here. Slow goings.
Ten miles from Deadwood, it started to hail and rain. Lots of bikers on the road, just leaning into their bikes, hating life on the highway. We finally made it to Deadwood. We had lunch and then Ralph and Vaughn went gambling. Let’s just say that Ralph may or may not own Deadwood now.
We were back in the garage, and Vaughn suggests we head to Sturgis. I quote a line from Steve McQueen that my friend Brian uses often. “What the hell else are we going to do today?” Sturgis is a small little town with a motorcycle rally next month. It is started to set up. It is ridiculous. You can feel the excitement in the air. We stopped at a shop to picked up some swag. It was right next to the town hall. Town Hall was pumping out music from the roof. While were there it was AC/DC and Maroon 5. They asked if we had the moves like Jagger.
We bought our shirts and headed back to Keystone. After taking a short break, we went to dinner.
Dinner is where we destroyed our plans again. So tomorrow, here is the new plan. Badlands, Wall Drug, Missile Silo, Chamberlain Observation deck on the Missouri and as far as we can drive. Monday, we are off to Kansas City for the World War I museum and Truman library.
Big days ahead, and we have 7 more to go. Stay tuned.
EDIT: So I just found out Lillian “likes” these blogs, but she doesn’t read these blogs. Seems deceptive. I wonder what else she says that she likes but really doesn’t care about? Pineapple? Cookies? Cucumbers? Hmmm….only time will tell.
72 and you. 