June 11, 2018
Day 24 Belle Fourche
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Belle Fourche, SD
Eased into the day in our plush room looking out at Devils Tower. Of course we were up at sunrise and had to wait a while for breakfast, so we made our own tea and coffee and caught up on journals and pictures. Breakfast was again family style and included peanut butter and chocolate pancakes, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit and juice. The Devils Tower Lodge/B&B is an awesome place to stay if you want great food, conversation and closest lodging to the tower without having to camp at the KOA. The owner is so welcoming and gracious. The young folks that work there from May to September do everything from cooking and cleaning to maintenance to guiding climbers up the tower! Pretty cool gig. We set out at 10:00 for a few climbs and rolling hills and flats. It was a quintessential perfect biking day. The temps were in the 60’s to 70’s, a few clouds around and a glorious west wind at our backs all day long. The hills are mighty fine when you have a tailwind! We stopped at a campground just off the road for lunch after one of our climbs. It was a really nice, wooded area, looked barely used! Probably because it’s on the northern side of the Black Hills Forest. We’d have stayed if the timing had been right. After that we rolled along the countryside from Wyoming into South Dakota on a lovely state route with little traffic, most of it motorcycles. (We’re only about 30 miles from Sturgis.) We stopped in Aladdin (population 15) at the old general store. Jon asked if they had water and the said nope, no running water in the store. They sell jugs of water though. 😄 One woman said something about everyone wanting free water, haha. Totally understand though; hard to make a living on a little store in a dying town (it’s all for sale for $750k...the whole town - the store, the trailer park, the cafe/hotel and the liquor license!) After that we cruised into Belle Fourche, bought some chicken and grapes at the grocery store and made our way to the Riverside Campground. It was a convoluted way, as the main road we needed to take to the park was under construction. Pretty quiet campground since it’s a week night, but there are a few full time residents. It’s like some scene in a novel...”one young man emerged from the run down trailer in a sleeveless shirt and walked down to the other end of the park to the old bus converted to a trailer. Words were exchanged...”
Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 2,437 miles (3,922 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |