Sad Faces, Dark Places

With Aunt Kristen, Keith, and Kane

In the Black Hills.

Sunday, in Rapid City, the plan had been to continue biking once the temperature dropped a bit in the evening and make it to Keystone. As it turns out, the temperature never decreased, and the ride to Keystone threatened too much climbing to sound like a good idea. So instead, we stayed the night in Rapid, getting to catch up with Mom's Aunt Kristen and her family who were in town. We hit Rapid during Hills Alive, a big Christian Music Festival, which this year featured the Newsboys. They closed out the weekend, so we all hiked down to the park to watch the show. It was easily the best part of the trip so far. Shelby and I made our way to the front near the stage and had a great night.

Rushmore!

The next morning we climbed and climbed and climbed some more. The Black Hills were steep like New England was, causing some bad flashbacks to the first few painful days of this trip. During a really dark moment we pulled into a tourist campground and I rolled my bike right over a $10 bill. So that helped me through.  There was a nice descent into Keystone where we stopped for lunch, then Dairy Queen dessert.

The DQ turned out to be a bad idea just half an hour later. Despite how delicious it was, stomachs started turning as we climbed the steep and hot two miles to Mount Rushmore. It would have been much easier to go around, especially since all of us have seen it at least five times. But of course, "what would a cross country bike tour be without a picture in front of Rushmore?"So, here you have it. We made it. Hooray.
After a little Rushmore visit, we were all exhausted, so we called it quits at the Palmer Gulch KOA, a gigantic town-like campground resort near the monument. We may have only done 31 miles that day, but we climbed 3600 ft at elevation in that time. That night, we went to dinner after setting up the tent. While we were there, a storm cloud passed over and sprinkled a bit, then started a full on downpour. The rain fly was, of course, not on the tent. Shelby and I sprinted the half mile through the RVs to the tent, only to cover up a contained puddle on top of all of our sleeping bags and pillows. So those all had to be dried.

Shelby got a new saddle. Here she is chucking the old one. 

Crazy Horse is back there.

Hitching a ride.

That night a major thunderstorm passed over us, so we were up at 4 with lightning strikes and pouring rain. Thankfully the ride to Newcastle, WY was mostly downhill as we left the hills and made it back to the desert. As we were leaving Custer, the sheriff pulled us over to let us know that the road to Jewel Cave was under massive construction. Unfortunately the only way around it meant adding 60 miles to our journey, so we headed for Jewel Cave anyway.
The road was in fact under construction. There wasn't really a road at all for 3 miles, so we were forced to get a ride in the pilot car. It was a bumpy ride for sure, and certainly difficult for smaller vehicles. There was no way we could have ridden it, so we were grateful for the lift with the construction lady who liked her country music and sunflower seeds. We got to Newcastle early and took naps in the hotel there because of the rude thunderstorm awakening. It stormed even more in the early evening, dropping some huge hail for a while. We were grateful to have a roof. The mileage for the day was 52.

Tailwinds make us smile.

Wednesday was a long day to Gillette, about 78 miles. Fortunately we woke up to SE winds as we headed NW. It was nothing short of a miracle. We've been waiting and waiting for a tailwind across the plains, and Wednesday was our day. We were averaging about 19mph that morning with little effort. Once we got to Gillette, Dad and I were ready to ride the tailwind to Buffalo, a full 67 miles up the road. Mother, however, disagreed, saying it was too far and that there could be thunderstorms. So we were forced to  comply with her wishes, staying in a hotel in case of storms.

In a dark place.

These storms never showed up. This morning the winds were howling out of the SW at 17 when we woke up, and only worsened as the day went on. The only thing between Gillette and Buffalo is a little rest stop where we planned to have a snack and get some more water. Turns out there was no vending or air conditioning at the rest stop, and the water was salty. We had plenty of food, and thought we had plenty of water, so we pushed on. The winds got really bad shortly after leaving. The wind out here is completely demoralizing when its in your face, making riding tedious and exhausting. For a while we were going 7mph, maybe getting up to 10 on a downhill if we were lucky. Soon we were having to stop every mile, and starting to run out of water. It was a hot day, too. The water we had left was what we filled at the rest stop, and the salty taste only left us wanting more water. We stopped at a "parking area" on the side of the road and hid under the shade of a dumpster there. We were blessed by the sight of an RV parked there. Dad rode up to it and asked for water, and the owner emerged from the RV with an entire gallon of it just for us. It was the greatest thing we had seen all day. I could have sworn there was light streaming from the heavens on that gallon. We drank the whole thing and filled up our bottles under the dumpster. Shelby and I were looking pathetic enough sitting there that when another car stopped, they offered us some Cokes and another bottle of water. It was enough to get us through to the nearest gas station with Gatorade and ice cream.

So now we're in Buffalo at the Indian Campground after 68 miles, preparing ourselves to climb over the Bighorn Mountains tomorrow. It's dry, cooling off over night, and there's no bugs. Love it.

Roadkill Report: Gigantic Snake, Deer, Antelope, Deer, Bunny, Bunny, Snake, Deer, Bunny, Frog, Turtle, Turtle, Bird, Bird, Bird, Rabbit, Bird
Money Found: $10.02