Photo 1. Ray alone at the South Dakota state line. How do you take a picture of yourself when no one is around? ...Hold the camera at arms length.
Photo 1. Ray alone at the South Dakota state line. How do you take a picture of yourself when no one is around? ...Hold the camera at arms length.
Photo 2. View of western South Dakota in the early morning.
Photo 3. The frontage road and Interstate 90 near Sturgis, SD.
Photo 4. Linda Goben (left) and Lori Sharp at the Trailside General Store in Sturgis, SD. Lori is the store's general manager.
Photo 5. These ridges in the shoulder on the Interstate make it difficult to ride and stay out of traffic.
Photo 6. High technology in cow country.
Last Modified on 8/11/98 at 18:41:15
Day's Narrative: Last night we stayed at the Motel 6 in Belle Fourche, SD. I left the motel at 6 am this morning to eat breakfast. The choices were the local truck stop, which we had discovered last night was full of cigarette smoke, or Hardee's fast food across the road. I chose Hardee's. About 6:30 I left Hardee's and rode 10 miles out to the Wyoming - South Dakota state line to take my own picture with the South Dakota welcome sign in the background (Photo 1). The only way I could do this was by holding the camera at arm's length and pointing it in the direction of the sign. Then I checked the picture to be sure it was right by viewing it on the screen on the back of the camera. Unbelievably, I got it right the first time. Riding back, the long rays of the sun made the ranch land look magnificent (Photo 2). There was hardly any traffic. I rode the Interstate frontage road to Sturgis (Photo 3), but then had to ride on the Interstate shoulder for 10 miles since there was no frontage road. For most of the 10 miles the highway department had installed ridges in the concrete shoulder -- presumably to awaken sleepy drivers before their car leaves the road (Photo 5). However, this makes bicycling on the shoulder a brain-numbing experience. South Dakota drivers are polite and friendly. I suppose this is because most of the misfits and kooks of the West and Midwest leave and go to Florida and California -- leaving the nice people behind. At Sturgis I stopped at the Trailside General Store for a coke and to buy a sandwich for lunch on the road, and met Lori Sharp the store's manager and her friend and customer Linda Goben (Photo 4). We had a nice discussion about bicycling and the recent motorcycle rally in Sturgis. Connie and I noticed on the local TV news last night that the police arrests for this year's motorcycle rally were about the same as last year's; namely, about 450 DWI arrests, around 350 drug related arrests, other assorted arrests and three deaths. Linda Goben remarked that at least this year there were no indecent exposure arrests. Later where I sat on a bridge railing and ate my lunch sandwich there was a sign noting an animal husbandry business (Photo 6). I gather these things are no longer left to chance encounters between cows and bulls. I arrived at the motel at 1:30 p.m., which was good time for a 77 mile ride. The room wasn't ready and Connie had gone searching for lunch, so I drifted off to sleep in a chair in the motel lobby. Connie and a thunderstorm arrived at the same time at 2 p.m. Tomorrow we have reservations at the Budget Host motel in the small town of Interior -- near the Badlands National Park headquarters. This should be an interesting 80 mile ride through the Badlands. There are two stores along the road (SD 44), one at Caputa 14 miles from Rapid City and the second at Scenic, 44 miles from Rapid City. It looks like tomorrow will be a good test of my new 2 liter CamelBak water pack. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 90s (about 32-34 C). © Ray & Connie Poore, 1998
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