8/3/2011 A Long Ride with Friends

We, Bob & I and DeWayne & Joy, piled into the truck this morning with no particular destination in mind other than driving one of the loops to get a peak at Mount Rushmore.

We noticed that a lot of hay had been cut and rolled.

We made our way to one of the loops that Bob and I had taken last week when we were out but now were traveling it from end that we finished on. To see Mount Rushmore now I had to tell Joy to look out the back window. The effect just wasn’t as good.

The trip today just wasn’t nearly as enjoyable because the road was overrun with motorcycles. Oh yes, they are here in force and taking to the roadways to see all the sights just as those of us who are in trucks like The Beast.

At the different stops we made I was asked to take pictures of couples with their cameras with landmarks behind them. In our conversations it came out that they are here this week and will be long gone before Sturgis Week actually starts on the 8th. One of the reasons I was given was, “It’s so crazy here during the actual week that I now come the week before and with so many bikers already here plus the locals, well its my own personal mini Sturgis Week and it works for me.”

I’ve taken notice that so far I haven’t seen many bikes here that AREN’T Harley’s.

We came up to the pay station for Custer State Park and this young fellow took care of us. As we were waiting for the car in front of us to move, so that we could, a lady came out of the Ranger building and asked if we were helped yet. Bob told her that we were and with that we were able to move on. We got ten feet and Bob looked in the rearview mirror at me and I looked at the mirror back at him and we both said, “We know her!” I told Bob to pull over that I had to go back and find out who that was. He did and I jumped out and started walking back the thirty feet or so. The lady was walking away from me and suddenly stopped and spun around. She sees me walking towards her and says, “I know you!” I assured that I knew her too. I took my sunglasses off and she said, “Snookie?” With that we hugged and got through the how are you’s and I didn’t have a clue where I knew her from.

She’s talking, telling me she realized we looked familiar as soon as we pulled away but didn’t see us pull over and thought the moment was passed for finding out who we were and where she met us. I finally had to ask, “Where do I know you from?” When she said Quail Run I placed her immediately as part of last season’s Activities team but I couldn’t recall her name. I didn’t tell her that of course. However, I did call my friend Wendy and described her to her and she came back right away with a name. I think the words “It’s a Small World” apply here.

We turned onto the Wildlife Loop in hopes of seeing some buffalo but we didn’t luck out with any herds alongside the road this time. We saw one off in the distance but it was so far away it wasn’t even worth Joy taking a picture of.

However, we did see many prairie dogs and the burros were out in force.

They had absolutely no fear of humans. In fact, let it be known that they were hungry!

I wish we had brought a bag of carrots with us.

There were even baby burros out begging.

They certainly didn’t go hungry. More than one person had McDonald’s French fries for them.

This little girl got such a kick out of the burros.

This adult burro did have any qualms about checking out saddle bags on the bikes that stopped.

It must have smelled something because sure enough the lady had something for the moocher.

No matter how far down the road you went, the burros were doing their best to get you to stop and feed them.

This one stood in the middle of the street to make sure the cars and trucks stopped.

I wonder what they feed on during the winter when the visitors are no longer here to feed them carrots, French Fries and who knows what else.

We had a beautiful day for riding through this fantastic park.

I even managed to get a dead tree for LaVon!

The view from one of the bluffs we stopped on.

Even though we had made this run before it was fun seeing it through DeWayne and Joy’s eyes as they saw it for the first time.