Badlands

Yesterday, we packed up our filthy bikes and headed out of town fairly early.  The sky was gray again and spit a drop or two on us every now and then.  After breakfast on the hallowed grounds of Main Street, Sturgis ( there are bikes in town already; 2 weeks before the rally) we jumped on I-90 and started to make tracks.  Next stop:  Wall Drug Store, in Wall, SD.

This is not quite a drug store - at least not anymore.  They started out in the 1930's giving out free ice water to travelers (which they still do) but have evolved into an enormous attraction.  To us easterners, it's kind of like South of the Border in Dillon, SC, but with a Frontier theme instead of cartoonish Mexican.  You should google it.

By now, the sun was out in force, and those leather jackets needed to get back to traveling as freight and not outerwear.  We headed directly south into Badlands National Park, which was just amazing.  This also took longer than I anticipated (Klinger Time) so we got back on I-90 with the Minnesota line a longshot. We battled heat and massive crosswinds, lost an hour to Central Time, and by the time we crossed the Missouri River, we decided it's time to look for a room.

That's how we ended up in Mitchell SD, home of the world's only Corn Palace.  Who would have thought in this great big world of ours, there would only be one Corn Palace?

We ordered a pizza, did a garbage-pail bike wash in the parking lot while our clothes were washing, and downloaded the pictures from the camera.  I'll get them up ASAP, I promise. For now, we have a lot of ground to cover today - it will probably be the longest riding day of the trip.  And we have a palace to see.  And I'm sitting here blogging.

That is all.