It’s still hot around Spearfish – in the mid 90’s today. Our planned route included a breakfast diner here in town. It gave Mason some relief from cooking duties. This diner turned out to be a great choice. “The Spearfish Breakfast House” – they have to be good or they would have to change their name. I enjoyed it for sure.

Time to hit the road and I was ready for another run through Spearfish Canyon. The morning was a little cooler which provided some welcome relief. We continued to follow the route that Max had expertly provided for us. As you can see below, I don’t want to give him too much credit because he just drew a big square on the map.

The ride was exceptionally challenging but was really enjoyable for me. We have been in this area so many times that there is not much “new” ground to cover. Max managed to find us some new things to investigate.

Who knew that the geographical center of the United States was located a few miles from where we are staying. It’s not a super exciting place but Mike claimed he felt some strange energy forces around him while standing directly on the monument. When the U.S. was expanded to include Alaska and Hawaii, the calculated center moved from Smith Center, Kansas to the town of Belle Fourche (I think it’s pronounced bell foosh but I am certainly not a language expert).

I apologize if you had to lay your head on your shoulder to read this or maybe you held your computer / phone sideways. This is the actual marker for the center of all 50 of the United States

As I mentioned previously, our group choses to come to the area the week before the rally so we can avoid the massive crowds that show up. Attendance approaches 500,000 some years. From the number of motorcycles we’ve seen this week it appears that word of our strategy is out. There are bikes everywhere. We needed to keep moving.

The only other real point of interest today was a place Max had heard about called the Stone House Saloon. What else would you call a bar in the middle of nowhere that is located in an abandoned house made of field stones? The saloon does not offer much in the way of food but you can overdose on the quirkiness. We pulled in on a gravel driveway and the parking lot is actually a bumpy piece of land that has a definite slope to it. I found it slightly unsettling.

The temps were again well above the “broil” setting so we didn’t stick around long. Seating was outdoors and we chose a spot (picnic table) where shade was provided by an army surplus camouflage net. The word “net” should give you an indication of how much shade it provided.

By this time, our square route was almost complete so we headed back to the house. Mike had a strong desire for some Italian fare. The one authentic Italian restaurant was closed today. After a long discussion, we reached agreement that we should go to Killians – not because it might be the best but due to the fact that it was the closest to where we were located. I might also mention that once we got in the house and the air conditioning, inertia set in and it was difficult to get us moving.

When we pulled in to Killians, we recognized that this was the place that did not work out well when we were here two years ago. I won’t go in to much detail but it involved some “caution – hazardous” yellow tape strung across one of the bathrooms at the house we stayed in. Sorry guys – too much information. This time nothing risky was ordered and so far, so good.

As we were riding today, I was relegated to the back of the pack. Hmmmm. Not my usual position. It finally dawned on me that I hadn’t done laundry since we left home. Maybe it was time so I spent a little time using the washer and dryer that are here. Maybe tomorrow, I can move up in the pack.

Tomorrow we are going to shift the scenery a little – but just temporarily. You’ll have to read tomorrow’s blog to see what we have in mind. It involves checking something off of Mike’s motorcycling goals.

Thank you for reading this to the end.

One last thing that I forgot to include. Mason is running an Insta 360 camera on his handlebars. He was able to capture a really great image of some wildlife in Spearfish Canyon. I wanted to include this picture which really should go with yesterday’s blog. This one is a quiz for you. How many old goats do you see in the picture below? (Hint: they are circled in red.) This was captured on Mason’s camera at 45 MPH or so. We are not sponsored by Insta360 but if they would like to send us some camera gear, we’ll put it to good use.

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