Wyoming to South Dakota

The wind kept blowing through the night although we imagine it has lessened.  Then we awoke to the splatter of just a few raindrops, not enough to wet the ground though.

Decided against going to Devils Tower, it’s not such a nice day, overcast with rain threatening and it adds another 40 miles to our trip, but this is what it looks like!  The legend goes eight children were at play, seven sisters and their brother. The brother turns into a bear, so the girls run and the bear chases.  A tree calls the girls to climb up which they do and the bear gouges the bark all around with it's claws trying to catch them. Kinda looks like that doesn't it!

See you next time Devils Tower!

We join the I90 and drive through more of the Wild West, cross over the Bear Lodge Mountains, elevation 6,650 ft, and drive through places with names like Sundance and Beulah, before crossing the State Line to South Dakota.

The historic Main Street of Deadwood is worthy of a walk around so we find some parking that fits and go for a wander.  This part of town is a collection of saloons, gambling joints, western clothing stores with all manner of blingy tee shirts and handbags, gold jewellery shops and cafes.  A couple of the food places/bars have live music and if we stay around until 2 pm and can witness the thrill of the daily main street shootout! 
It's seems a bit quiet today, not many bodies around but there are a few bikes in town and we've seen a bunch of Mustangs on the road too, must be a rally! Talking to the shop assistants the word is that Sturgis this year had a disappointing turn out, apparently down around 40% on previous years.  Before we leave Deadwood we buy a lottery ticket for tonight’s draw of $170 million, fingers crossed : )

Historic Main Street of Deadwood

Me and Wild Bill outside Tin Lizzy

As we are walking back to the coach we notice the new awning cover which was installed by Demontrond at the beginning of this year, has come loose AND the cover for the rear AC has a big ‘ole in it!   And we WERE having such a good day : )

But that's not all, we get back on the road and suspect the drop in power when the boost is on, which we noticed earlier today, has gotten worse.  I can also hear a hissing from the back when we are climbing the many hills in these here Black Hills of South Dakota.   Hmm, we pull off to have a look but it’s not obvious what it might be so we ask our trusty Garmin to find us a place to have it checked out, which we duly do and we divert to Rapid City (where we stayed in our bike trip).  The boost problem is because the boot has split - it is soon replaced.  Then we find a place to buy replacement AC cowlings (might as well do them both) but the shop closes at 5pm and they are not open this weekend because it is the Labour Weekend Holiday!!  We phone them up again and say we will be there by 5.05 pm and please stay open for us.  And that my friends is how you spend $500 in a couple of hours on the road in America.

OK so now it is time to find a place to stay for tonight, the first option is full up, thanks to the long weekend but they recommend the Happy Holiday Resort (sounds a tad too corny doesn't it?) but anywhere is looking pretty good about now, it's been one of those long days!  But now we are here, the sun is out and it is nice and warm, time to lax back and have some time out for the rest of the day!  Except to do the photos and the blog of course!