Weather is not a constant

So today was a day of touring, no forward motion. I spent the day dodging rain and trying to see the sights in South Dakota. Here I am with Washington's profile in the background. I did drive past the full-frontal of Mount Rushmore, but they wanted 8 bucks to park (and there was no where to stop and snap a photo from the road without getting my ass run over). When I rounded the turn though there was a pullover for free where you can see Washington's profile. Hey - I'm a kid from Queens, who spent hours at Laguardia Airport watching planes come and go when I was young, I don't mind the cheap seats for a photo op. Besides if you want to see a picture of Mount Rushmore, you can Google a hundred images (it looks pretty much the same everyday, I'm sure).


Ok - Here's a shot of the Badlands, and I have to say they are bad (in the bad is good kind of way). More on this below.


As I've finally figured out how to post more than one photo at a time (hey I only spent 15 years working in Technology - this shouldn't be so difficult for me, but I'm getting old in my old age) ... here's another shot I took at the Badlands NP. This place is good for the stark scenery.

Now for the actual posting - this morning it was raining, but fortunately for me I wasn't out in it. I was involved in a long conversation with a slow talker who works at the motel. He was very interested in the motorcycle and we had a talk about different bikes as he's thinking of buying one. I always like talking bikes, and I was munching on my toaster waffle (which if you put enough fake grape jelly on, almost anything would be edible, besides it was included in the price of my room and again, I don't mind being cheap ... as long as no one notices).

After our chat about bikes, I made the mistake of asking for directions out to Badlands NP, and explaining my idea for seeing the park, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, all in one day (as an aside I have to correct my earlier post where I mentioned the Sitting Bull monument - that's a few hundred miles north of here and I'm not going that far just to see one monument - I meant to say Crazy Horse, the in-progress monument, all along, I just got confused - OK, enough on that).

Mr. Slow-Talker says I can't see the park, and the monuments all in one day because the park is 2 hours ride from Deadwood and then a 90 minute ride from the park to Rushmore and 20 minutes to Crazy Horse and it's already 10:30 am. He starts to say how I'll need half an hour at each monument and I stop him to explain my idea of tourism.

Basically, it's roadside tourism. You see whatever from the road, slow down, maybe stop and take a photo or two, and you are back to 65 mph in under 10 minutes. That's how it's done. This trip isn't about stopping here, there and everywhere and waiting with a bunch of other people and their screaming kids to see something I can see from the road. This is about the road.

It's great to see Rushmore, and given that I'm all the way out here, I might as well go, but paying 8 bucks, so they can hawk t-shirts and postcards and crap at me while I wait for granny and grandpa to get out of my way for a photo ... that's for the birds. I'm happiest when I'm moving.

Slow-Talker insists I can't do it all in one day and that given the threat of rain, I ought to see the monuments today and do Badlands NP tomorrow. And another thing he tells me is this road I suggest taking from Badlands to Rushmore (State Route 44), he says it's not paved all the way and there are Indians out there (whatever racist bullshit that means). He further explains that when you hear of an accident it's usually on 44. I'm skeptical and then he admits that it's been 10 years since he was out that way, so maybe the road is better now (no shit Jack). As I don't want to ride the park with 200 lbs. of gear, I thank him for his opinion, but I'll work it out. I had been debating about staying in Deadwood another night so I could do the park tomorrow without my gear, but once my buddy S.T. said the magic words (you can't), well I sort of had to do it all today because, actually ... I can.

And so I did. I packed my maps, raingear and camera in a waterproof bag, strapped it and my fullface helmet to the bike and rolled out around 11 am. The sky was cloudy, but the rain had stopped and I looked forward to Badlands NP. I hit the interstate for about 90 minutes to get out there, all the while watching ominous dark clouds and lightening in the distance. I could smell the ozone heavy in the air, like spring rain. I stopped in the town of Wall, which is sort of required as there's a sign for it every 10 feet along the 100 miles or so of interstate 90, as it started to rain. I grabbed lunch there and tried to find a place to buy a cigar (I've been hankering for one since I saw a guy chewing on one the first night I was in Deadwood). There was nothing close to a decent cigar to be had in Wall, but the light rain had quit, so I gassed up and rolled out to the park.

More lightening and darker clouds loomed over the park proper. I couldn't see rain, but it's scent was strong on the wind. I debated about putting on the raingear, but decided to wait it out. I got into the park with my trusty pass and began the windy trip down through the center of the northern sector (there's a southern portion of the park, but the roads there are mostly unpaved and not suitable for motorcycling, especially in wet weather).

On and off the rain threatened. There were moments when big drops fell, but it never lasted, never really became move than just brief precipitation. Nothing like real rain materialized while I was in the park.

At the end of the road I came upon a visitor center and went in to relive myself before the long trip out to Rushmore. Now I have to explain something here. I generally take 2 or 3 pairs of sunglasses and / or goggles on a long trip, in case I lose or break a pair I always have at least 2 spare and I carry a clear pair of glasses for night riding. Today of course, I left most of my gear back at the motel, so I just had the one pair of sunglasses for the day. I didn't even bring the clear ones because I had the fullface helmet and if it got dark, I could always wear that for eye protection.

Now I'm at the pissor with my rain pants on (because I put those on at one point when it looked like it might actually rain), so I have to dig through the waistband of the rainpants then undo my belt and fly of my jeans. OK now I'm wrapping it up and as I dig around under the rainpants to do up my belt, my left arm lifts the sunglasses up out of my outer breast pocket of my leather jacket (where I stupidly only stuck one arm of the sunglasses and let them dangle instead of putting the glasses all the way in the pocket), and the glasses go right into the unflushed urinal.

And I cursed, then laughed. They're my only pair of eyewear, not to mention less than 24 hours new. The damn sun is coming out and I need tinted eyewear or my poor light blue eyes are going to be in pain the rest of the afternoon. So I fished them out and ran hot water and soap over them then rubbed them long and hard with a paper towel. Then I stuck them on my face and walked outside to saddle up again. How gross is that? I guess there are worse things in the world, but damn that was dumb.

If you're still with me - I rolled out of the park and found the infamous 44 with it's supposedly gravel sections and Indians. The sun came out strong (thankfully I cleaned those shades) and I ripped down 44 like a crazy-assed white man from back east. I didn't see a car, a bike, a truck, not a single person, for the first 20 or 25 minutes of the ride. It was glorious. I had the bike humming at about 80 mph on a long straight road with nothing and no one around for as far as I could see (which out there is pretty fucking far). I didn't see any Indians (and the road was well paved the entire way), but after a while a few cars and some bikes ripped past me going in the other direction. I felt free from the oppression of the dark clouds and the sun was warm on my face once again.

I made Rushmore (as described above) and set out for Crazy Horse. At Crazy Horse I did pay 5 bucks to park and take a picture, but I rolled in and out in under 10 minutes to meet my goal. Now I just had to make it back to Deadwood and all would be right.

Except the darkest of clouds were rolling in and lightening flashed repeatedly out over the hills. It was quite beautiful, but for the fact that it looked like I was headed right for the eye of the storm. I had some 75 miles or so to Deadwood and thought my luck might hold (as it had all day) and I wouldn't see more then a few drops here and there.

Well come the turnoff for 385 North, the road was wet as it had just rained hard and I pulled over to don the rainpants again (I had removed all the raingear just before leaving Badlands NP), to keep the spray from the road off my jeans (that stuff will quickly build to an uncomfortable wetness and your shins will get cold in the wind). I tooled down the road until I got stuck behind this broad with Florida plates on her RAV4. The spray from her tires was fogging up my faceshield and at the first safe place, I pulled past here only to see she had a map open on her steering wheel and she was trying to drive in the rain and read a map at the same time. People are a wonder sometimes.

With less than 30 miles to Deadwood the skies finally opened up and the rain really did come down. I pulled over, got the rain jacket and little booties out of the bag and put them on. This took about 10 minutes and by then the rain had slowed a little, but it was still raining. Normally I wouldn't care all that much about staying dry with such a short ride ahead of me, but as I only have one leather jacket and one pair of boots with me on this trip, I didn't want to get them soaked and have to ride in damp gear the next day (leather is great, but it takes forever to dry out).

By the time I got to my motel the rain had stopped the clouds had departed and the temperature had dropped some 10 degrees. But I was home (relatively speaking) and dry enough. The raingear got it's first real run and it performed very well.

The skies are clear and starlit this evening and tomorrow promises clear skies all the way to Cody Wyoming. I'll post from there and then Friday I'm on to Yellowstone NP.

Last thing - I want to say how much it means to me that people are reading and commenting on these posts. I'm having a lot of fun out here and only capturing about half of it in the postings, but I hope this is somewhat interesting to read (I, of course find it all fascinating, but I'm self-centered and egotistical enough to not only think that, but to say it).

Till next time.