untitled

Greetings Riders,

When I left you last week, Mrs. C and I had just spent the night in Cody, Wyoming after a beautiful ride through the Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway. If you missed last week's letter Click Here, or to see the photos Click Here. This week I was going to take you to the end of our trip, but as I started doing the photos and recalling the trip I was already at 175 great photos, so there was no way that I could get it all done in one letter. What I have decided to do is take you through Saturday including and our ride from Cody into South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore. Next week I will conclude with Iron Mountain Rd., Needles Highway and Sturgis.

As we were getting loaded up to head East toward South Dakota my excitement was again starting to build as I would finally be riding some the roads that I had heard so much about and to once again visit Mt. Rushmore, a place that I had not been to in over 40 years. When leaving Cody you have 2 choices to get to Sturgis. We chose the Northern route on 14A that would take us through Bighorn National Forest and eventually to I-90 into South Dakota. I haven't taken the lower route, but I can tell you that 14A through the Bighorn is a really enjoyable ride taking you as high as 9400 feet in elevation through some excellent mountain scenery dropping you off at Bear Lodge for lunch and then through some major twisties as you make your way down the hill to connect with I-90.

To make some time getting to Sturgis, we decided to take the super slab for the next 211 miles to South Dakota. So we hopped on and settled in for our next stop at Gillette Harley-Davidson for a break and some refreshments at the dealership. One good thing about the Interstates is that you can make some good time by not having to go through small towns, but the downside is that especially during this time of year, the local law enforcement is also keeping an eye on your speeds as you pass through the major cities.

Apparently the yellow Road Glide is not hard to spot and is easily picked up on radar. Sure enough, I spotted a Wyoming Patrol car going the opposite direction just 2 miles away from the Gillette HD exit and I took a quick glance at the speedometer to see that it was firmly settled on 87 mph. I knew that was going to be a close call, and sure enough in my rear view mirror, I see the U-Turn in the median and the lights come on. At this point, I figured it was probably not Ed McMahon chasing me down because I had won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, but in fact I was going to be officially notified that the speedometer was correct, and I was doing 87 in a 75.

So I pull over, take out my wallet and present the officer with my license and registration while he is giving me the bad news that my speedometer is right on the money. He was a really nice guy and we chatted for a while as I answered the usual questions about my travel. He took my information back to the car and about a minute later another officer pulls up and asked if we would step away from the bike. We did so as he went back to his car and got his associate "Jake". I gathered by Jake's actions that he was a really big fan of the Road Glide as he seemed very excited to thoroughly check out the bike particularly the saddle bags and t-bag. After a couple of passes around the bike, he sat and expected a pat on the head for a job well done.

Yep, you might have guessed by now, Jake was actually a German Shepherd Police dog that was looking for contraband heading to Sturgis. Since I always have my camera handy, I decided to take some pictures of Jake in action. Unfortunately for Jake, there were no bonus dog bones in it for him this time, as there was no booty on board. The original officer that stopped me came back and gave me an official notice of my time spent in Gillette, Wyoming with a written "warning" to slow it down. I knew I liked this guy from the start. Jake was pretty nice too. His handler told us that Jake had just scored a 300 pound bust about 2 weeks prior on this same road. After our visit with the local patrol and Jake, we rode the additional one mile to Gillette HD to unwind from this ordeal and grab a big cup of lemonade where we ran in to some Cyclerides readers from Arizona.

From Gillette, it was another 86 miles, at of course 75mph, to Spearfish. We took the very scenic Spearfish Canyon ride through the Black Hills National Forest to Lead and then into Deadwood, the home of Wild Bill Hickock. We had a place to stay in Rapid City, but we really liked the looks and excitement of Deadwood. So we decided to just stay there for the night and actually got a room at the old Franklin Hotel with the new million dollar renovated lower level. This was stepping right into old times as this Hotel was built in 1903 and the rooms still looked like they did back in the day with individual hot and cold faucets, bathtub, push button light switches and furnishings. We checked in, freshened up and went to dinner at the newly opened Deadwood Social Club located on top of Saloon #10. This is a great place to eat where we also ran into some Cyclerides.com readers from the Valley. We then walked the streets of Deadwood to soak in a little of the Wild West from 100 years ago. What a great little town. I will be staying there next time I go to Sturgis. Check out all the pictures I took of Deadwood in the Photo Gallery.

Saturday was the day that I was really excited about and had been anticipating for some time. After 40 years, I would finally be reunited with George, Thomas, Teddy and Abe. You might also know them as the faces of Mt. Rushmore. Yep, it had been 40 years ago, at the age of 10 years, that my family took the dreaded summer vacation drive through the Black Hills and the Badlands in a 1957 Ford Fairlane with no air conditioning and my recollection of it was foggy at best. Ironically, I had no air conditioning this time either, but I had plenty of wind in my face to cool me down.

I had seen pictures, but there is nothing like seeing Mt. Rushmore for the first time when you round the sweeping corner on Hwy. 244 that leaves you facing the Monument from the side. What an incredible site this is! After stopping for the customary photo ops, we were ready to go park and take a closer look at the memorial. As we walked through the gates and I got my first look up close, I got that rush of Patriotic Pride as I looked at this marvel of American ingenuity paying homage to the Father's of our Country. Click Here to see the reasons George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were chosen for this project. It was a really humbling feeling to be looking at Mt. Rushmore as we walked down the memorial plaza with flags flying from all 50 States. I would recommend that everyone see this at some point in their lifetime.

After taking as many angles of this as I could dream up, we went to the visitors center to learn more about the building of this awesome monument. There is a 14 minute video that was excellent which gives you a great background of how Rushmore was built and then a gallery of artifacts for you to view. I just can't convey into words how awesome this was for me. I will visit Mt. Rushmore every time I go to Sturgis. In fact, it had been so long since I had been there that I didn't realize that the Parks Service had actually added a new head to the Monument. Check it out. Alright, so I had a little fun with Photoshop. If the AP can do it, I thought I could give it a shot.

As you can tell by the photos, it was a beautiful day with clear blue skies. I couldn't have asked more for my long anticipated reunion with Mt. Rushmore. As with all the motorcycle trips that I do, I tend to work myself up with anticipation of what I am going to see or experience. That is just part of the fabric of the ride for me. In this case I had high expectations for Mt. Rushmore and the riding in the Black Hills area. Both were greatly exceeded. I will be back next week to finish off this series with the ride through Iron Mountain Rd., Needles Highway and Sturgis.

If you would like to sign up for the Cyclerides.com Weekly Newsletter, Click Here.

Be sure and look at the excellent photos of Deadwood and Mt. Rushmore.
Click Here For Photo Gallery.

Click Here for Map of Route.
Click Here for Map of Black Hills Riding

Useful Links:
http://www.nps.gov/moru/
http://www.travelsd.com/placestogo/rushmore/
http://www.travelsd.com/placestogo/scenicbyways.asp
http://www.mtrushmore.net/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rushmore/ Interactive
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills/