We drug 2 motorcycles 1200 miles to get here. We will begin to take them the 1200 miles back to the ranch sometime in the next couple of days. We drug them out here so I could fulfill a promise to Mrs. Henry that one day she would get to ride her bike through Spearfish Canyon. It is one of my all time favorite roads to ride. What better than to do it on a weekday when crowds are minimal. If we waited to ride this highway (14A) closer to the Sturgis Rallye, the traffic would be bumper to bumper. Nobody likes that. Today was that day for us. There is no rain predicted until early tomorrow morning. There was a brilliant blue sky like you can only get out west. It was time to get the bikes out of the giant hot box they had been travelling in. Success was our at the “unboxing”.

We loaded up what little gear we needed for a 90 degree day and headed out using a GPS route that I had carefully laid out. The route was supposed to be 50 miles and take just under an hour while it took us cruising through Spearfish Canyon. A great plan is not worth much unless it can be executed properly. If you ever get to the western edge of South Dakota, I highly recommend that you cruise Highway 14A through Spearfish Canyon.

One of the first photo ops is Bridal Veil falls. (I think it is a U.S. national law that every area that has water falls is required to have named at least one of them as Bridal Veil. Pictures of the falls are not good early in the morning. Once the sun is high enough in the sky to be above the nearest mountains, the camera is pointed directly into the sun. Below is the best one I got. It’s hard to tell that there is an actual waterfall there.

While we were looking at the falls, the bikes were watching traffic go past.

We didn’t take any pictures of note along the rest of the 19 mile Spearfish Scenic Byway. That’s when trouble started. Like I mentioned earlier, the entire loop was supposed to be under 50 miles. We had plenty of gas for that. At the end of 14A the plan was to turn left onto Highway 85 and head back north to Deadwood, etc. Unfortunately, no one informed the South Dakota Highway Department that I planned to use that road so they closed it. I turned right onto 85 South. That road is OK but does not give any turn off options for a long time. We crossed the Wyoming state line and saw directions to get to Devil’s Tower. I wasn’t interested in seeing that again (as unique as it might be). We were dangerously low on gas by now with no civilization in sight. I literally flagged down the mailman and asked about gas. It was 4 miles back the way we had just come from. I did see the place but it was not apparent that it was open instead of abandoned. The mailman said “Dale” will take care of you. A U-turn was made at a “town” called 4 Corners and back we went to “Dale’s Buckhorn Cafe, Bar, Grille, Convenience store with a loose gravel parking lot. It did include Dale relaxing on the front porch. $40 worth of gas later, I had to figure out how to get back to where we needed to be. That turned out to be straightforward. Back on 85 south to corners then north on 585 to Sundance Wyoming. The wind was now blowing at a constant 30 MPH which made the ride back to Sundance (30 miles) seem like it took forever.

Sundance sits right on I-90 which would take us back into Spearfish after a wind-blown 40 miles. What should have been 46 miles turned into 125 miles and two very windblown riders. We took our shot, and had a king of successful outcome. We are safely back where we intended but the path to get here was a little convoluted.

We pulled in at the hotel and parked right in front of our door. After a few minutes to recover, the doors to the big hot box (trailer) were opened and the bikes put back to sleep in there. It is supposed to rain off and on most of the day tomorrow so the truck may get a few miles heading back to Sturgis for more looking around. Maybe we can relocate our friend Red’s favorite ice cream shop (called the WTF bar).

The daily special at the Millhouse was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. My old buddy Steve told me all the time that the perfect meal is “something white, something brown,and something green”. I think we covered the bases on the homestyle meal.

I may need to leave the route planning to others, maybe it is the actual execution of the route. Today, I took a swing and had a miss.

I think this is called a prayer tree by the native Americans. Each flag or ribbon represents a prayer for someone who has passed. What a thoughtful idea.