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look | hapa | summer 2006 |  |
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| Thursday, August 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Devils Tower and the Black Hills At mile 4950 we got to the entrance of Devil's Tower in northeastern Wyoming. Took a few pictures and headed east. I have to say, after all of the trips we've taken, this is one of my all time favorite pictures of Hapa. Maybe because of the big goofy grin on his face. |
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We hit the 5000th mile of our trip just outside of Sundance, Wyoming and crossed into South Dakota shortly thereafter. We had noticed a lot of bikers on the road since way back in Montana earlier in the week and didn't really think much of it. Figured that as we got closer to Sturgis, SD, well known as a biker's town, it seemed natural. Then as we got into Wyoming we started to notice that some bars that we passed had "Welcome Bikers" signs. What we didn't realize that it was the opening weekend of the 66th Annual Sturgis Biker Rally. It's actually a pretty incredible event. This tiny town of almost 6500 people surges to over a half million in total rally attendance. The original plan was to stop by and take a picture by a "Welcome to Stugis" sign or something. We had no idea that we would actually be able to attend the rally. Timing is everything. |
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After that, we took a ten mile drive to the town of Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down at a poker game. Urmr, take note. The HBO western series is set in this town. Never seen it, but now we have to get the DVD. (Actually did get to see the whole series after this trip. A really good show. Wish we had spent more time there exploring now knowing more about the history of Deadwood.) We drove about an hour south from Deadwood to get to Mt. Rushmore at mile 5121. Unfortunately, pets are strictly prohibited from entering this place. Not sure why since every other National Park allows them. So we took pictures from the outside. |
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| Just 15 miles southwest from there is the Crazy Horse Memorial. Now this was impressive. It is still a work in progress so it is interesting to see what they have done and what it is planned to look like. This unbelievably massive project was started back in 1948. The original sculptor died in 1982 but his work continues. So far, only the face is completed. But when it's finished, it will be the largest mountain carving in the world, dwarfing Mt. Rushmore. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| From there, we went even further east to Badlands National Park. This was not an originally planned stop, but it was only an hour further, so why not? Glad we made the trip. What an awesome place! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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The east end of the park where we exited, marked the farthest distance we will travel from home on this trip. From this point, we turned back west and began our meandering journey home. It happened at 9:03 pm at mile 5280. At this point, we were 1106 miles from home "as the crow files." Again, for the geography geeks, this occured at N 43.841, W 101.899. Whew! What a day! Luckily, we got to see a lot because everything was bunched pretty close together in the Black Hills area. But it was still a long day. We camped out near the Badlands shortly thereafter. Slept in the car though. There was a thunderstorm approaching and we didn't want to be in a tent. It made for a pretty spectacular lightning display. |
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