Day 28

Day  28 Had us headed for South Dakota.  We got on the road a bit later than planned after a restless night sleep due to a noisy motel we both fell back asleep and didn't get our early rise.  After all the miles we've covered during this trip the actual riding today was fairly ordinary with nice quiet secondary highways but little in the way of twisties or amazing scenery.  This in it's self was another clue we are nearing home.

We came across these two white tails sitting right on the shoulder of the highway having a snack.  By the time I got on the brakes and Char got the camera on this was the best shot we could get of them fleeing.  We saw a few deer again today and a few hundred Pronghorn Antelope.

Our third to last border to cross on our journey.

A lot of this kind of scenery today.

 Our plans upon arrival were to do a nice loop of local riding to see the area but the weather had other thoughts.  As we were unloading the bike the sky had the nasty you better take cover soon look to it.  About 10 minutes after Char shot this photo I watched as large marble sized hail started to pelt my bike. Without thought I immediately grabbed my key and went to move the bike to try to protect it.  I made it about a foot outside the door when I got beaned in the head and promptly retreated for my helmet.  I got back outside to find the ground under the overhang I planned to use covered in hail due to the wind direction.  At that point there was nothing else to do but surrender and wait.  Happily there doesn't seem to be any damage at first inspection.

After the weather rolled out we decided to saddle up and go out for a loop.  This is a long range shot as we passed by the Crazy Horse Monument.

Next we headed (pun intended) to the Mount Rushmore monument.

No idea what this building is although it does have a cross on it so I'm guessing some sort of church facility.  No matter what it is, it's a very cool looking facility that really catches your eye as you roll into Keystone, SD.

Several one lane tunnels as you pass through Custer State Park.

We took a trip through the Wildlife Loop off highway 16A and while there was a lack of wildlife other than more Pronghorn Antelope we did come across a parking area overrun by a gang of wild donkeys.  In this photo that young lad is about to get mugged by a rogue donkey for a piece of bread he has in his hand.  In the upper corner that Donkey is considering car jacking the poor lady driver but thought better of it after realizing she was driving an Alero.

After striking out on our Bison search on the wildlife loop Char figured she'd better grab this shot so we had at least one Bison shot.

We ended our loop at the Buglin Bull in Custer for dinner before heading back to the hotel to get some laundry done for the last time on our trip.

Mileage covered today was 445.9 km bringing our trip total to 8487.4 km.