Black Hills Glory.

Whoa. Where to begin. Turns out Pizza Hut buffet day wasn't the only day a cyclist dreams about. Yesterday (Tues.Sept.13) was the best day ever! Sooo beautiful. Wowzer.  Rode out of camp down the Needles Hwy (87) in the Black Hills. Breathtaking! Absolutely breathtaking. Did some tremendous climbing but it didn't seem that taxing because the scenery was so rad.  Did some hiking on some giant stone needles that led up the sky. Road downhill forever.  Then we did some immensely technical climbing up 16A to Mount Rushmore. A lot of pedalling, slowly and for a long time. We saw FACES in stone gall dang it! It was so so great. There were tight hairpin curves, switchbacks, tunnels of stone, skyscrapers of stone, FACES in stone, pigtails (spiral bridges made of wood) and for whatever geological reason  ( native american spirits?) all the rocks were sparkly. 

Hairpin curve into a rock tunnel!

FACES!!!

Sparkly Rock

 

We had even more insane climbing up to Rapid City for the evening.  Some roadies passed us like nothing on our climb.  I scornfully shook my fist at them.

We stayed at Brad's house (warmshowers bike tour hosting website) and boy was he frickin rad.  Today we rode through the Black Hills, it was the most amazing day of our lives-- cause we met Brad.

Straight-up Winner

Today (Wed.Sept14), after some of Brad's fantastically delightful homeade biscuits, we headed east towards Wall, SD.   It was our first day riding when the weather wasn't perfect.  It was overcast and cold; it looked like it was going to rain, but luckly never actually did. We had to hit up the post office (touring cyclists lodge) to retrieve a lost bike pump, got some groceries, got going pretty late. After about 30 miles Google maps told us to go on a street that didn't exist anymore and we thus encountered 10-mile navigational fail.  We rode 5-miles into this valley in the Badlands where we discovered......a ghost town.
Not just any ghost town, but our ghost town. In our place, the Bad*ss Lands. We have decided to take over this town and populate it with our friends. We will be in contact with you soon if you are worthy enought to be recruited. Your assigned role is nonnegotiable.  I am the Mayor and Joe is the Sheriff. 

Here you will see our general store/bar.  The bar serves only whisky, tequila, PBR and the finest espresso.

We tried to get a group of 8 horses to quit their boring farm lives and join ours.  They ran along side us but ultimately couldn't commit to such pure bliss.