Catching Up

The Places We've Been
Mount Rushmore (Mount is short for mountain I discovered! We cycled 25 miles uphill from Rapid City, had a heart thrilling, massive downhill and then a 2 mile STEEP climb to the monument. I made it, but the legs were definitely made of jelly by the time we reached the monument.)
Crazy Horse Memorial
Custer State Park
Crossed into Wyoming
Devil's Tower
The foot of the Big Horn Mountains

The Company We've Kept
We spent many miles riding past prairie dog colonies. They are fun to watch and would have been missed had we not been traveling at 12 mph past them! They scurry and scamper about having just a wonderful time with life. But the nearest hole is never too far away and they disappear in an instant when necessary.

In Iowa we spent time with 10,000 bicycle riders and in South Dakota we've lived with thousands of motorcyclists (95% Harley Davidson) in our travels. The Sturgis, SD motorcycle rally is happening this week, but cyclists from all over arrive weeks before to take in the surrounding sights. Everywhere we've been we've had the company of these roaring, thundering machines. Again, we've met nothing but nice people, in fact most of the bikers we've talked to are completely in awe of our travel plans and can't quite contemplate the lack of a motor and why we would even think of pedaling when there are such great motors available! I did decide to put away my orange and yellow daisey cycling top for a while. I didn't quite fit in with the popular attire and color choice!

Bison are incredible creatures! We cycled around Custer State Park one day and saw magnificent herds of these animals just wandering around living their lives. There were many younger ones about and they were fun to watch. One would be off away from the herd and then suddenly decide it was time to join the crowd. Boy can they move! At the end of the day we were quietly pedaling down the tree lined road when we came upon a massive male bison just lounging in the trees not 20 feet from the road. My first instinct was to stop my bike, grab my camera and take a picture. Luckily Dave is much more sensible than I and shouted out "keep pedaling!". So we cycled on by as our friend watched our every move but decided he was much too comfortable to move.

Milestones
We are well past the 2000 mile mark now and our next goal is to cross the Big Horn Mountains. Buffalo is at about 4,500 feet and tomorrow we will cycle up to about 9,600 feet. But once we reach the top the road eventually goes back down! Time to practice my braking techniques! We plan to stay in Ten Sleep tomorrow night and then head toward Yellowstone. My computer time is well past so it's time to go.