Miles City, Montana to Rapid City, South Dakota

It's July 4th, Independence Day for the US. 

A cool morning greets us after the heat of yesterday afternoon. We head east into North Dakota and again fight a strong side wind until we turn south of route 85 and head to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Again there are miles and miles of plains with nary a building, tree or person in sight.

As we cruise through North Dakota, we run into a rodeo on the side of the road, so we stop for a few minutes. There are big rigs transporting horses and people, we see ropers swinging the big lassos, barrel racers, dust, all the bright colors of clothing on the riders and of course, the ever-present 'cowboy' hats. This rodeo is in the small town of Marmouth, a town that has seen better days as a short cruise down the one main street shows mainly boarded up buildings. The photo of the boarded up building is a bank built in 1918, so there must have been livelier times around here in the past.

We get to Sturgis, South Dakota around lunch time. Sturgis is home to the largest motorcycle rally in the country. The rally this year is in August, so we missed all the action, but got to see the town and imagine the place filled with the roars of thousands of motorcycles cruising the area, parked 4 deep on the streets, vendors everywhere, the town filled with people from all walks of life all connected by the love of the motorcycle. There are t-shirt shops galore, bars, casinos, restaurants, campsites, hotels... anything that caters to this crowd. People camp for hundreds of miles around Sturgis to enjoy the wonderful riding opportunities and camaraderie.

Sturgis MotorCycle Rally

There is also an excellent motorcycle museum and we spend some time taking in vintage bikes from the early 1900's up to the present.

The next part of the day's journey takes us into the Black Hills of South Dakota, through Deadwood, and along the Needles Highway, named for the rock formations that look like tall skinny needles.

On the Needles Highway there were several carved tunnels whose dimensions excluded wide and tall vehicles

Riding the Needles Highway is a MUST for all motorcycle riders in the area

On to Crazy Horse monument and Mt. Rushmore. The massive Crazy Horse monument is currently under construction.

It's getting late on July 4th and there must be a big event going on at Mr. Rushmore, for as we head there we see lines of cars waiting to enter the monument. We decide that the day has been long enough and we still have some miles to go to get to a hotel, so we stop by the side of the road and take a few pictures before heading out of the park.

Late afternoon; Left to Right: Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, Lincoln

We arrive at Rapid City to find that many hotels are booked up. We find a room at the Country Inn and Suites and get a huge room, and the hotel has the best breakfast that we've had along the way - a huge pot of oatmeal, fresh fruit, real dishes (we feel awful at most places where everything is plastic and thrown away.) Great start to the next day's journey.