Day Three: Sunday, July 22

The morning was as bright as Saturday night was bad. It was a warm, cloudless morning. And it became better. All of the old folks were making an early departure on their bus, and none had time for a Harley ride. Things were portending a very good day.

Our first stop was Mt. Rushmore.

Remember that Larry and Randal are gentlemen. They like and trust everyone, and are truly nice people. I am just the opposite, and I trust no one. So while Randal and Larry left all of their belongings on their bikes in the parking lot - leaving their possessions to enter Mt. Rushmore trusting everyone not to steal their kit, I carried around my bag - through all of Mount Rushmore. I was trusting no one. Larry and Randal were very amused. And during the brief periods they stopped laughing, they took many, many pictures of me carrying my pack.

You cannot imagine their enormous pleasure when we returned and nothing had been touched. I was very disappointed.

With that, we departed Mt. Rushmore for the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway - ten miles of sharp curves, one-lane tunnels and spectacular views. All are part of the Black Hills National Forest.

To permit large elevation changes in the roadway, they constructed a series of 360 degree turns, with the bridges being built of wooden timbers. It was not only cool to see, but was very good engineering.

There are also one lane tunnels cut through solid rock. When Frankie the Fish (known to many as Franklin Bass) built the Millennium Falcon, he put on very loud pipes. You cannot imagine the sound when I lit up the engine going through the tunnels:

We left the Black Hills National Forest, and entered Custer State Park.

Remember that it had rained a great deal over the past week, and the wild flowers were in bloom. It was magnificent.

We went to the visitor's center, and Larry and Randle studied intensely to ensure that we didn't miss a thing:

Larry and Randal vectored us to the area of the park where we saw buffalo and antelope.

We departed Custer State Park, fueled up (lunch and gasoline) and took the Needles Highway north. Here, there were not only one lane tunnels through rock, but huge pinnacles and very hairy turns in the roadway.

North we traveled to Deadwood. The entire city of Deadwood is a national historic landmark for its well-preserved gold-rush-era architecture. But Deadwood is known as the town were Wild Bill Hickok was murdered while playing cards. Hickok was very well known at the time.

Hickok's murderer, Jack McCall was prosecuted twice, despite the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against double jeopardy - because of a ruling that Deadwood was an illegal town in Indian Territory and thus lacked the jurisdiction to prosecute McCall. This decision moved McCall's re-trial to a Dakota Territory court ("Indian Court"), where he was found guilty of murder and hanged. The hand of cards which Hickok supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man’s hand: two pairs, aces and eights.

I think Hickok looks a lot like me. Except for the hair of course.

We left Deadwood and went to Sturgis. Bike week starts in two weeks, and you have to get the t-shirt - right?

We left Sturgis for Gillette, Wyoming - 112 miles. The Millennium Falcon did not do well on this leg in terms of fuel economy, as we were anxious to get to our hotel. At one point, I'm doing 110 and Randal passed me. That is all I have to say about that.

We did 287 miles today, and our total for the trip is 1274 miles.

We are now safety ensconced in our hotel. Tomorrow, it is on to Montana.