Home, Home On The Range

Day 12- Since it's been a whole week since we've had Internet connection I have lots to catch up on! The pictures are actually in reverse order. After we left Billings, MT we braved the wind as we travelled to Wyoming. Made a stop to tour the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn, then to Buffalo (where some of my Dennis relatives are from) and finally made it to Fran and Sandy Bulawa's outside of Newcastle, WY. They treated us to a great dinner, visit and overnight stay with wonderful advice about our destinations. The next morning we found our way to Sturgis. And yes, we did survive! The nice thing about it was about half the crowd was gone so there were only 400,000 motorcycles instead of the 800,000. The Buffalo Chip was hopping to the Doobie Brother's the night we camped. We saw one tent flying across the fields as we pulled in so we put in extra stakes! We did all the sights (more pictures later John L.) in 24 hours then headed for the rest of the Black Hills. After a night in a hotel in Custer we decided to do some more camping. Our one night in Custer State Park turned into 4! We have been doing a lot of reevaluating of our journey and realized with the heat, wind, time in setting up and breaking down camp, we want to spend more quality time in these gorgeous areas. So, we have been in South Dakota for 6 days and may stay more. Custer State Park is the second largest state park in the country. We did all the "fun" motorcycle roads through rock arches, pigtail bridges, and gazed at a plethora of ponderosa pine, buffalo, big horn sheep, wild turkey's, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and prairie dogs. Numerous times we had to stop and wait for the buffalo to migrate across the road. The intercom system has come in handy for deer watch as well as me giving Mark directions! We did all the tourist things, Mt. Rushmore, the Mammoth Archaeological site, the awesome Wind Cave ( 200 feet under ground. 124 miles of maze in 1 square mile). We loved the Black Hills despite the cold evenings in a tent at 6000 feet! And yes, this cowgirl even had to wear her boots to bed one night). So, here we are on day 12. We moved into the Badlands and are staying in a campground in Wall, SD. Yes, the famous Wall Drugstore. Off to the Badlands tomorrow. We are happy and well.

Happy 27th Birthday Kyle!