CrowDog's bike was supposed to be ready by noon, so we were in no rush to get up and go. We relaxed on Chuck's deck again after the others had headed out to breakfast. Finally around 10:30 we decided to go get some breakfast and then see if the bike was done. The others had talked about a restaurant at the Texaco station in Black Hawk, so that's where we headed. We managed to grab a booth right away and ran into the others as they were leaving. The food was good, filling, and at a reasonable price.

After brekky, we headed out to Piedmont to maybe pick up CrowDog's bike. It wasn't finished. The woman behind the counter had a HUGE attitude and said they were "waiting for rings" and that we should check back around 6:00 PM. We were not happy but decided to continue with our plans to ride Needles Highway anyway.

There was no real direct way to get from "here to there," so we rode up to Sturgis, then took highway 14A into Deadwood. Traffic was pretty heavy here with people who didn't really know how to ride. I had one guy, who was trying to be cool in taking off his directional signals, stick out his hand and change lanes into me. I looked right at him and called him a fuckin' asshole. He stayed away from me after that, gladly!

I wanted to take 385 out of town and my heart sank when I saw a sign that said "fresh oil and gravel." Not to worry, the heavy traffic had squished it all down into something that resembled blacktop.

When we got to Pactola Lake, I stopped at the visitor's center for a break. I always liked this lake. The water seems bluer than at home and it's a great photo opportunity.

The ride to Hill City was nice. For some reason the vast majority of the traffic was heading in the opposite direction and we were nearly alone in our lane! When we got there, we made a gas stop and took a snack break. It was fun people watching. I came to the conclusion that "the louder the pipes, the more the poser." I again made the comment about people taking the directionals off their bikes and not using hand signals. CrowDog said they weren't good enough riders to take a hand off the handlebars to signal and I agreed.

We wound our way south again on 16 and turned off on 87, Needles Highway. Traffic was very heavy, but it was as beautiful as I remembered. When we made the turn, I heard on the radio that there was a severe thunderstorm warning for Deadwood and I was glad we weren't there. They were getting hail! But where we were it was sunny. I had given CrowDog the small camera and he snapped pictures as we wound our way through the rock spires and tunnels. The tunnels are very narrow, only one lane wide, and when I entered one, bikes came through from the other direction! There was barely enough room for me to pass and on top of it all, there was a pedestrian just in front of me! Between the tunnels and the hairpin turns, which I handled better after the first sloppy one, I think I earned another riding medal. CrowDog snapped quite a few good pictures and I really appreciated it because when I'd been through there before in 1996, I wasn't able to get any at all.

We'd ridden quite a distance and decided to take a break at a nice roadside park. We found a picnic table under the shade trees and relaxed. I even took my boots off and my toes thanked me! There was a curve in the road off to my right so I snapped a couple pics of bikes rounding the bend.

Since we still needed to check on CrowDog's bike again, we headed toward Rapid City. Once we turned onto highway 36, I heard a severe thunderstorm warning again. Behind us were some rather dark clouds. When they'd give the warnings, they'd only give county names which didn't help us at all. As out-of-towners, we had no idea which county we were in! We took 79 north to Rapid City and once we got out of the hills, we could see nothing but black clouds and lightning out to the west. I rolled on the throttle and we hoped we'd make Rapid before the storm hit. Where we were, there was nothing. No trees, no shelter, not even a culvert to hide in. Fortunately, we made town just as it started to sprinkle. We stopped at a gas station as the rain got a bit heavier. We spotted a Pizza Hut a block away and decided to go there for supper, so we got on the street again. Damn! It was a carry-out only place! The rain was getting heavier and we high tailed it to another gas station down the block. Then the skies opened up.

We spent a half hour or so there, waiting for the rain to let up. Finally it nearly stopped, so we headed out. Then a train came through and we were stuck in traffic. It started to rain again! Oh, well, no big deal.

We finally got past the train and back on the road again. We needed to get back on I90 and the route to the on-ramp was very strange. It led through a Menard's parking lot! I guess that's one way to drum up business.

Since it was around 5:00 PM, we decided to just go up to the cycle shop in Piedmont and check on CrowDog's bike. It was done but they needed to put the gas back in the tank. When we left the bike off, it had 3/4 tank of gas. They gave back just enough to get it started and up to the gas station. Then they charged us over $280 for the repair! And WE provided the gaskets! We were shocked and angry, but what could we do. Another guy waiting said he'd been reamed for $475 the day before. This put quite a dent into our vacation funds. After filling up with gas, we went back to the Texaco station's diner to calm down and have supper.

After dinner we went back to the ranch and spent time visiting with people and relaxing until it was time to go to bed. It was still lightning off in the distance and it was neat to see. Later while in bed, the winds and lightning picked up. At one point Sparky called out to us, saying that the weather was going to get bad and did we want to put our bikes in the garage? I said that they would be fine, but thanked her for thinking of us. Then the storm hit. It was fantastic to be in the tent and see the flashing lightning and hear the thunder. We were in a sheltered area so the wind wasn't too bad. Then the torrential rain started. There is nothing better than being snug in a non-leaking tent and listening to a heavy rain. Both CrowDog and I listened to the storm for quite a while. I fell asleep to the sound of rain.