It was a beautiful Saturday morning as we loaded up Moty for the Dakotas. RJ washed the bike and cleaned the chain while I sat inside and drank coffee with Gramma. We shined up our helmets, packed the chocolate chip cookies Gramma had lovingly made for us and headed out. A quick stop at Grampa’s shop to borrow a tool for the bike and we were off.

If you’ve ever been to Western Kansas you know that it’s one of the flattest and most boring places to drive through with the exception of Nevada. (Sorry to those of you who live in WK and actually like it there) I think I fell asleep a couple times but woke up when the wind tried to blow me off the bike.

As we neared the Nebraska border, the scenery picked up. We cruised on in to Nebraska where rolling green hills greeted us.

As we rode through, we noticed old cowboy boots covering the fence posts. We learned this is an old Nebraska tradition. http://agwired.com/2010/08/30/boots-on-a-fencepost/
Trains chugged along side the road every hour or so. I’d wave to the conductors and get them to blow the train whistle. RJ couldn’t see what I was doing and it scared him silly every time. And every time I would die laughing. Good thing I brought extra underwear along for him.

We were starting to get hungry so we pulled over in a little town at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. The inside looked like someone had come through and thrown buckets of paint on the chairs, tables, and walls. We each got our own baby bottle of salsa and if you know me, you know I LOVE baby things so this place was perfect. The food was delicious and we left for South Dakota with full bellies.

After riding for awhile, we needed to stop for fuel and something to drink. RJ filled up while I went in to get drinks. RJ came in and I was still trying to decide if I wanted a slushy or a Coke. RJ said he’d share if I got a Coke so I got the extra large because it was the same price as the small and RJ got a water bottle. RJ took one sip and he was done. I had to drink the rest! -We had to stop an hour down the road for a pit stop.

We passed through Nebraska and into South Dakota.

We made it to our campsite in Hotsprings by 5:30.

We had already traveled quite a long way that day, 530 miles, but after setting up the tent, eating a chocolate chip cookie or two, and looking at the fun motorcycle routes winding through the Black Hills, we had to get back on and ride a little bit more.

We saw lots of bison, deer, and cute little prairie dogs along the way. RJ had a blast riding through the hills while I prayed a deer wouldn’t run in front of us.

We journeyed fifty miles through the hills to see Mt. Rushmore and made it there at dusk. With the shadows cast, Abe Lincoln looked like he was wearing a Russian hat and had a goatee.

We bought a mug from the gift shop and headed back to our campsite.

It was a long fifty mile ride back. Six hundred and thirty miles in a day on a bike is quite the journey and our butts had had enough sitting for the day.

We got up early the following morning, packed up and found a coffee shop.

After RJ checked in with work for the day and I had my caffeine boost, we headed back through the Black Hills to Mt Rushmore to have another look at Abe in the daylight. Then we took off for North Dakota.

The drive was beautiful. We drove to Lead, SD for lunch at Lewies. RJ said he had the best burger of his life.

With our hunger satisfied, we headed out quickly as we could see a storm approaching. We hit pelting rain but thankfully we were out of the storm just as quickly as we were in it.

We had to ride through Sturgis to see where the big motorcycle rally takes place each year then headed on up into North Dakota.

We made it to Bismarck for the night, set up the tent in the wind, then headed to a diner for pie, unlimited pancakes and wifi so RJ could get some work done.

We ended up back at our tent around midnight. It was super windy so I put earplugs in and fell asleep. The next morning another thunderstorm rolled in as we were getting ready to head out. We waited for a break in the rain, quickly rolled up the tent, put the saddle bags on the bike and drove to the capitol.

The building was interesting. It wasn’t built asymmetrical and the interior had an interesting feel. We followed a school group around for a bit then toured on our own. We climbed all 20 flights of stairs to the observation deck (I tried to sneak out of the stairwell several times and take the elevator but RJ wouldn’t let me).

We walked across the capitol grounds to the Heritage Center and State Museum to buy my coffee mug and meander through the museum.

We left for Pierre and fought intense crosswinds. It was so windy that our cargo net fell from the trunk to the back of the bike, we couldn’t hear each other through our helmets, and I’m pretty sure if I had lifted my head up the wind would have taken my helmet right off my head. The bike was at a constant lean.

After a windy ride we made it to Pierre. It  was the cutest and babiest capitol building.

We made it up the stairs and inside when we realized the stamp was not available at the capitol but at another building about half a mile down the road. And we had exactly 9 minutes to dash back to Moty, put on our helmets, drive over to the museum, run up the long driveway, shout at the old ladies manning the desk because they couldn’t hear us, wait for a different lady to come over and see if she knew what the heck we were talking about and finally get that book stamped. Phew!

And back to the Capitol we went to continue our tour.

We left for Kansas and made it to North Platte, Nebraska for the night. We stayed at another inn. The innkeeper was so sweet. She had made us food because we had traveled so far on the bike. She made us some hot tea and brought it to our room. The next morning she had chocolate swirl bread and coffee waiting for us.

An eighteen hundred mile trip, we made it back to Montezuma early Tuesday afternoon.

—Sorry for the delay in posting; we’ve been on the road quite a lot lately and I’ve been sick with the stomach flu. We have been staying in Texas the past few days at RJ’s Uncle Thom’s house so RJ can get some work done and we can rest up before hitting the road again tomorrow.—

Cheers! ~RJ and Emmy