Monday July 18

 Monday July 18 

Breakfast early and onto the bikes after 8. Off to Deadwood!! A little cooler to start the day but it warmed up fast! We rolled into Deadwood and parked at the visitor centre. 

We walked the streets looking at all the souvenir shops and bought some patches and a shirt. Fascinating reading about Wild Bill Hickok and seeing the saloon where he was shot and killed. 

Lots of tourists everywhere and will only get busier when the Rally at Sturgis begins in 2 weeks. 

We jumped on the bikes and headed an hour away to Hill City. 

The road was spectacularly scenic and very challenging in some spots. Cruising around the Black Hills of South Dakota is similar to Radium to Cranbrook but way sharper curves and way more of them. Rick formations are everywhere, guard rails and bridges over deep blue lakes. It’s hard to focus on the road when you want to look at both sides of the road and all the scenery. 

Huge wind gusts and high heat coming off the highway make for a challenging ride. 

We rolled into Hill City at 145pm for an extremely late lunch starving to death. We all inhaled a burger and a coke and relaxed in the shade on the deck of the Mangy Moose Saloon! 

We wandered about for an Hope and grabbed an ice cream before jumping on the bikes for an hour ride back to Rapid City. 

We drove over to the Black Hills Harley Davidson dealership and were BLOWN AWAY by the size and the inventory they had. Largest dealership and inventory in North America according to a couple sales guys. It was amazing to walk amongst all the bikes New and used to see the different models and options available. The costs were on a sticker on the headlight and none of them were small. 

They were rapidly trying to unpack hundreds of boxes of product to prepare for the rally starting in 10 days. That are expecting half a million people to pass through their doors over the 10 day rally. Wow. 

We got a few supplies and headed out back into the city to refuel for the morning so we don’t have any stops first thing in the morning and can get out of town and on  our way north through Wall and into Bismarck ND. 

Another screaming hot day but lots of stuff to see and do. Tomorrow begins the three day marathon drive back to Alberta.