Finally, South Dakota

Day 4.  Kirk got up early this morning and polished his and Ray's bikes.  They were covered with bugs and needed a good cleaning.  Julie and I took a quick swipe at our bike to get the big stuff off.  After all, we would not want the bikes to get dirty...  Just as we started to leave, so did the rain.  So much for cleaning the bikes.  At this point, much to my surprise, Ray whipped out a rain suit.  We ate at Bubba's again as it was on the way and the portions are large...  When we finished, it was off again in the rain.  The girls graciously agreed to drive the truck and lead the way.

It wasn't bad enough that we had rain which gets road grit and grime all over the bikes, but we had to travel on 4 miles of mud road through a construction site.  The road was packed mud with some gravel strewn about to give the impression that it was a road and not a field.  While we did not go fast, for safety sake, I could see all the dirt getting thrown on the Kirk's and Ray's bikes and knew that mine was in the same shape.  Luckily the rain stopped and the sun came out and baked the dirt on all the bike parts that were not hot enough to bake the dirt themselves.

We road on many 2 lane roads that seemed to go on forever.  Gasoline stops became a real issue.  At one point, we were going along and all of our low fuel indicator lights came on, well, at least Ray's and mine.  Kirk is still running on the same tank of gas he bought in Sturgis 2 years ago.  At some point, we were below 10 miles left until we run out.  As we came over each rise in the road, we would see the road stretch out ahead of us for miles with no stations in sight.  Finally we had to pull over and use the gallon of gas we had on our saddle bags for just such an emergency.  That should get us an additional 40 miles.  As the miles ticked away, still no stations.  When I went from 10 miles to running out to just the steady LOW indicator, I had to stop looking at the indicator.  When we FINALLY found a station and filled up, Ray and I had less than 5 hundredth of a gallon.  For those of you who are California high school graduates, that is about 3 ounces.  We had 3 ounces until we ran started pushing...  That was too exciting for Ray and me.

We had another close call when we had to make a sudden U turn and I hit my kickstand as I came out of the parking lot.  Ray noted that it was hanging precariously and brought it to my attention at 65 MPH.  What?!  Kick what?!  Oh, Kick Stand!  We all stopped and eventually got the spring reattached.  Note to anyone in a similar situation, put the spring on the stand first, then connect to the bracket underneath.  Lots easier, found this out the hard way of course.

We are finally in Hill City, South Dakota, first stop on the Sturgis tour.  The bikes are clean and now it is time for bed.

Gratuitous Pictures from yesterday...

See you on the road!