Today is the day that we reached the end point of this westward journey. The plan was to drive 1200 miles, spend a few days in Spearfish South Dakota and head for the ranch before the annual influx of rallye goers hits the area. So far, so good. We are in Spearfish right on schedule. The trailer is a little worse for wear and has some screws loose on one of the side panels. I put in new screws but by the time we almost reached our destination the new screws had disappeared too. Guess what that means – I have screws loose and I need another visit to Walmart. Ugh!

We started looking for a hardware store (or Walmart) as soon as we left our hotel in Murdo. Today is a holiday (July 4) and nothing was open. Walmart hardly ever closes. They should put one in Murdo. They should also put a breakfast diner somewhere in Murdo. We hit I-90 without breakfast and minimal coffee. Not a great way to start the Wally World Quest. There was a billboard on I-90 advertising a diner at the 1880 Town (another tourist spot). The diner specialized in breakfast and lunch. Exactly what we were looking for. We pulled in and were a little on the skeptical side. We asked the attendant in the gift shop if the diner was open. He said he didn’t know. Wow!

We were slightly distracted by some cute goats that were just hanging around the gift shop.

They were all camera shy. One animal was not camera shy at all. We were told he is the “official greeter”. He is ready for his close up.

He followed us as we walked toward the darkened diner. Yep – it was certainly closed.

The small yellow building in the back left is the diner. The official greeter continues to follow us around.

Back on the road, we were still in search of breakfast and a good supply of coffee. We came across a small gas station with an adjacent building that proclaimed “Sunset Grill”. It was worth a shot and we scored. The breakfast was OK but the service was almost non-existent. You shouldn’t stop there if you want prompt service.

The hunt was still going on for Walmart. We had to run all the way to Rapid City to find one. We managed to navigate there and got some necessary hardware supplies to tend to the trailer. On the way back to the car, we heard two puppies barking loudly at anyone that passed by. That is not unusual but it was a very hot, sunny day. Mrs. Henry is a devoted animal lover and had just read a story about puppies not surviving in hot cars. She flagged down a Rapid City police officer who was patrolling the parking lot. The officer said he was looking for someone else and suggested she go back in the store and inform store management of the situation. I waited in the car. The officer ended up going to check on the pups just as Mrs. Henry returned with the store manager. The owner just happened to show up at the same time and there was a good outcome. I’m very proud of my wife for doing the right thing when many others would have walked away.

We left early this morning and after all the animal situations this morning, we were still going to be very much too early to check in to our hotel. We needed to kill off an hour or so. I thought we could do that with a light snack somewhere in Sturgis. I found a convenient parking spot for the truck and trailer on the back side of the Sturgis Harley dealer. Just to be courteous, we went in and looked at their t-shirts. None of which I thought were worth $55 – $65 each. Since the Gas Monkey Garage is directly across the street from the dealership, I thought we’d run over there for the snack I mentioned earlier. What a big mistake. Today the Gas Monkey was running a very limited menu – hot dogs, pulled pork or chicken sandwich. Not what I had in mind but it would have to do. The building sits on a concrete slab and has hard walls most of which open so the place becomes a sidewalk echo chamber. They had some “music” playing that I didn’t appreciate and the sound of cars, trucks, and motorcycles drowned out the questionable music and all conversation. The food wasn’t good either.

We got to the hotel about an hour before the listed check-in time. They were gracious enough to let us in. I asked about dropping the trailer so we could run around town tomorrow when the temp hits 100 degrees F. The desk clerk was happy to accommodate my request. We managed to sit by the pool but didn’t have a chance to get in the water given that there were about 1000 screaming kids at the pool.

To save getting back in the truck and trying to find a restaurant open on a holiday, I opted for Door Dash from Applebee’s. Not an ideal situation but we managed to eat dinner without firing up the diesel. We will have to make a plan for tomorrow. It will be too hot to roll out the motorcycles which was one of things we were looking forward to. I’ll update you tomorrow on what happens.

Just in case you wanted to know, no animals were harmed in the creation of this blog.