Today was a good day!

Started out with cereal for breakfast, AND doing laundry – yeah, nothing exciting there. BUT – soon enough, the chores were done and it was time to ride! Went to a place called Storm Mountain, that has a few different loops. We took the easy one, called the “Coon Hollow Loop”. Most of it was intermediate technical, which means I had to dismount a few times (all voluntary, today – not so much other rides), but not bad at all. About 8 miles, all well worth doing. Ok, maybe not the monster uphill I had to hike the bike to the top of, but all the rest was fine.

After the ride, I thought “Hey, Mount Rushmore is only about 12 miles or so away, let’s go see it!”. And so we did. Here are a couple of photos I took:

Kind of small, so I took another:

I like the storm clouds! We even got a little rain …

This was a cool tunnel on the drive up there:

After that, it was shower time and go to lunch (we get a better reception if we don’t show up still stinky from the ride!). This was another suggestion from Jaralei, Murphy’s. GREAT food! I had the Buffalo meatloaf sandwich. Mmmmmmm – Good! Barri had a Tomato Mozzarella salad, also really good. This is Murphy’s:

After lunch, we decided to go see the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Here is a photo of that:

It’s a shame it’s taking so long to complete. At this rate, it will be 50 years or more before it’s finished, and none of us here now will be able to see it finished! Bummer.

After that, it was dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse, where I had the Outlaw Ribeye – 18 oz, and a loaded baked potato. I’m going to go sleep it off now …

Well, the curse lives! It seems that any time The Bear and I decide we want to mountain-bike, it rains. Doesn’t matter if the place is in a drought (as South Dakota is right now), the rain will come. It rained last night, but we went to Buzzards Roost Trail anyway, even though today is a rest day, to see how rideable the trail looks. It looks pretty ok, but we decided to rest. Big mistake.

Here is what the Buzzards Roost trail looks like at the start:

Went back to Black Hills Bicycle to talk to Jaralei, and to thank her for the GREAT advice on trails and restaurants, and to clear up some instructions.

We went out to Hill City to eat at the Alpine Inn, another place Jaralei recommended, but the wait was an hour and a half, so that was out. As Barri likes to say “I wouldn’t wait an hour and a half for …” there are several things on that list, I’ll spare you! 40 mile drive for nothing, but around here drive time is never a waste, the scenery is so beautiful.

And this evening, it rained again!

It rained AGAIN this morning! ARGH!!!

So, we drove out to Custer, SD to visit “The Purple Pie Place”. Another Jaralei recommendation. OOohhh, that girl knows good food!

Here’s the Purple Pie Place – now you understand the name!

The Bear had the Blackberry pie, ala mode, and I had the Bumbleberry pie, also ala mode. I have NO idea what the hell a bumbleberry is, but I can tell you this – they make a good pie!

On the return trip, we stopped by a few trailheads to see the trail conditions – Buzzards Roost should be rideable tomorrow! Woohoo!!!

Upon checking out Victoria’s Secret (down, boys – it’s a trail!), I shot two bucks! Lousy shot of the first, but the second one I got to where you can tell it’s a deer. Wish I’d had a real camera on me!

And then, it rained while we were gone. And it rained this afternoon. And it’s raining tonight, as I write this. I hope these folks appreciate all the rain we brought them! I think our Black Hills rides are over, as we leave on Monday. Oh well, it just means we have to come back!

Alright! Today we ride!

Nobody around to help us figure it out, but we’re resourceful, so off we go!

This is what it looks like:

Beautiful!

Here’s another shot:

What do you think?

Yeah – gorgeous!

Tomorrow, we ride more!

Riding again! Woohoo! Today, we found Stone Temple Circuit, and it was AWESOME!

Here’s a bit:

And this time, the trail was also glad to see us:

Tomorrow – Rodeo time! Hoping for a lot of photos then.

Today, a rest day, because … we went to the rodeo! Cheyenne Frontier Days, to be exact. I’d been to a rodeo before, but it was more than fifty years ago. Damn, I’m old! It was much as I remembered, though the critters seemed much more docile. I’ll post photos soon, but I have a LOT to go through.

One thing HAS changed – cowgirls dress a LOT differently these days! Welcome change, believe me! I have a few photos just for my cousin, who told me he would miss the rodeo as it was something that did not interest him. He’ll be crying when he sees what he missed!