Day 7: Crazy Horse, Needles Hwy, Iron Mtn, Mt. Rushmore

I'm a science teacher, so I like to employ the scientific method when I can. So we patched our air mattress and naturally need to test our prediction that our patch would work. The results were...it didn't. We ended up on the ground again. And it was absolutely freezing. The good in it all is that is it deflated it forced us to roll together, huddling for warmth.  Devin went to the general store here on the campground and got a real patch kit with glue and all. I got a nice compliment in the bathroom from a lady who said I was pretty; made my day start off really nice. Then we saddled up to meet our friends in Nemo, SD for breakfast.

All the towns around here are flooded with bikers and are trying to take advantage of that. In Nemo the FD has all you can eat breakfast everyday. It was about 30 miles but took us over an hour to get there because you have to travel between 20-40 mph on the twisty mountain roads. We got lost once, missing the sign for Hwy 173. The sign for Hwy 173 was no bigger than 3"x6", and was written in gold mailbox letters. No wonder we missed it...

Breakfast was great. Then we headed back towards our camping area to see the Crazy Horse Monument.

Next, we went on Needles Hwy. Honestly some of, if not the best riding in the country. They call it Needles because of the rock formations. As soon as we started we saw a guy who had run off the road. He made it out safely and, except for the windshield, the bike was intact. There were all kinds of hairpin turns, pigtails, etc. Dev was in 2nd gear most of the time; avg speed was probably 15-20mph. We went through many tunnels and saw an incredible amount of bikes.

 This tunnel they call eye of the needle. Funny, when I thread a needle it doesn't go VROOM VROOM!

Needles Hwy then connects to Iron Mtn. Again, it was insane. About halfway up we stopped for the scenic overlook and for a quick break. A bike fell over on a girl. I saw a 300 lb guy move crazy fast. They got it off of her quick but I think she did something to her ankle. We left before we could get the story.

 For you math people out there, that was one of many 180 degree curves. 

 Iron Mountain then connects to Mt. Rushmore

It was really great to spend the day with friends. A familiar face is always welcome on the road.

All in all I took over 125 pictures on day 7 alone. Only a few of those were standing...most were riding.


A summation of our riding:
ssssssssssssssss.....it kind of looked like that...only tighter and going up, then downhill.

After all this Dev and I went back to the tent, attempted to repair the air mattress again and went out to dinner at a Silver Dollar Saloon where we had the Myrna's Monster Pizza. It, too, was delish. We came back and stopped at the little shops on our campground. Dev got a cup of coffee and I got an insane ice cream sundae. Then we went right to bed...after all the sun and intense riding we were beat.

Interesting facts:
Crazy Horse is the execution of a promise made back in the 40s. They try to do a blast of rock every week. Crazy Horse Monument will, one day, include Native American University and training facility.
Mt. Rushmore was intended to include the chest-waist portions of the presidents, but an unexpected change in the composition of the rock as they went down prevented such carving and thus, only the heads were carved.
Mt. Rushmore includes a "National Archives" area inside the heads that is intended for the safekeeping of documents and busts of each president.

Day 7 we rode 171.7 miles for a total of 1966.5 miles across America.