Aug 14-Happy Birthday Ang! We are off to Mount Rushmore

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER ANGELA!

Woke up today, the sun was shining, we had a nice breakfast, got dressed and were ready to go enjoy our plan from yesterday.

That is to make our way along the 50 miles of twisty turny roads, through the needles highway leading to the wildlife loop where we are hoping to see all types of animals including goats and buffalo, to the presidents wax museum and finally to Mount Rushmore!

WHERE IS MY KEY?

No, I'm not kidding. I can't find the key to my bike. We spent well over a half an hour searching everywhere. Finally we both said, "let's check the garbage" and what do you know, there is was! YEAH! 

At some point yesterday I must have unconsciously said "I've ridden 2200 miles. I've dealt with problem after great experience, after problem, after great experience, after yet another problem and I'm done. I'm not riding another foot" LOLOLOLOL

Finally we set off on our planned day, but first we headed to Hill City to fill up on gas. Since I had ridden this way yesterday on my way to Rapid City I knew my way around. 

I took Fred past trains from 1880

He loves trains and from all the time we've spent together over the years going to train museums, I have a love for them as well.

Look at the scenery. It's gorgeous!

Everything had been going smooth. I had not too long ago said to Fred through our awesome communication devices, "WOW, you are so lucky to be riding through these roads" As the words were coming out of my mouth my mind started to think, but I did not say it out loud "WOW, as a new rider, these roads are scary!!!!"

We were going around this hairpin/switchback 5mph turn when I hear "oh, oohh, ahhhh, uuhhhgggg" I said "what happened are you ok"
AND THEN I HEARD THE WORDS YOU NEVER WANT TO HEAR...

Fred says: "I WENT DOWN, my fingers are bleeding, my fingers are bleeding"
A truck was behind him and I could hear Fred talking to the guy, he seemed ok and received bandaids

Fred had made it through this crazy turn, what happened next, and all you riders out there understand, when you make it through a maneuver you didn't think you could handle, your brain gets overwhelmed with joy that you lose focus and what happened is Fred needed to give it gas, and when he didn't he wobbled and tipped over but not before his right let came out from underneath him and twisted in a way a knee should not twist.

When I was able to turn around and meet back up, Fred had the scooter upright and here he was...
IN SHOCK (although he doesn't know it) AND SMILING!

 Back brake light cover missing, BUT recovered

Few scratches along the side, gives it character. It's like war wounds, there's a tough story behind it.

A few more scratches, reflector cracked. I say "You're ok! the scooter is ok, a few scratches, no big deal" and Fred pulls on the brake lever, it's limp. I see the lever is not broken and the brake line is intact.
So I did what any one of you would do. I unscrewed the bolts that hold close the front light panel and I follow the brake line until I see that it is disconnected by the tire.

 I reconnect it and tell fred to grab the brake....ANOTHER PROBLEM FIXED! YEAH!

Don't get too excited, remember the scooter was on it's side, the carbs are flooded with gas. But I'm not only an expert on cleaning carbs, I am also an expert on starting THIS particular scooter when flooded.

Fred says, ok, let's go! I wouldn't have gotten back on!
He's amazing!!!!!

Off we went to the Needles. 

Here I am looking all manly in all my gear, but as Fred unfortunately found out the hard way why i do it. I'd rather look silly and be hot than have road rash.

One of the many one lane tunnels we went through

We're next!

Here we go

We came out of the tunnel came around another bend and Fred says "Pull over, pull over" and I got all freaked out, I thought he was hurt or hurting and he says "We have to stop and look at this view. WOW, look around, this is amazing!"

I didn't get a good pic of the hairpin turn we had to make, Fred did a great job getting around it!
Look behind Fred at the view. Again, the pictures just don't do it justice.

Oh no, I'm falling

The rocks are said to have formed by the lava from volcanoes

The picture says it all

You really have to see this in person

I've conquered the rock

More scenery

 The black hills National Park

More of the Black Hills National Park

About 20 miles later, we stopped for lunch at the State Game Lodge. 

MMMMMMMMMMMM

We had buffalo stew. It was delicious!

We stopped along the side of the road, Fred's hand was cramping.
I learned here that the gloves he was wearing were "free" gloves, that are too small, given to him when he went to work in PA. I thought these were his actual work gloves that fit! I thought something was up when I wore them home from the Chicago train station and they weren't as big as I imagined they would be. Fred has very big mitts and these gloves didn't seem big enough, but I was freezing and the furthest thing from my mind was to inquire about the size of his gloves.

As he stretched his hand, I attempted to capture the twisty roads we were riding on

At this stop, Fred said to me "I can understand why you guys like to do THIS" (meaning riding)
It was an AAAHHAAA moment for me. I am the one who introduced him to riding and even though he fell over today, his knee is killing him, his butt hurts and his hand is cramping he has an understanding why I love to ride. 

That's Mount Rushmore from afar. Not so impressive to us either, especially after seeing the Crazy Horse Memorial that's not even close to being completed.

Another breathtaking view

And another

Look at this tunnel. Cars have a hard time fitting through.

We are almost to Mount Rushmore. 3 miles to go

What we thought wasn't impressive before...WOW! Look at it up close, it's impressive!

Here's limpy! I can't believe he made it through the day! I feel so bad, he is in so much pain!

Getting closer

And closer

And closer

The closest

That's the amphitheater they do a 45 minute dedication speech nightly before they illuminate the presidents.

Me doing yoga at Mount Rushmore.
This is for all my yogi's!

I had to take another. It was shockingly beautiful

I learned North Carolina, the 12th state, declared secession from the union on May 20th! 

My birthday!!!

View leaving Mt. Rushmore

It's so hard to capture the essence

We got dinner to go. Buffalo burger, buffalo hotdog and buffalo chili. 

Yummmyyyy!

We are overdosed on buffalo today and we don't care. It's soooo good!

The view after dinner

I think I could be happy living here

WOW!

We made it back to the campground and I feel so bad for Fred. Anyone who has ever had a fall of any kind can relate to him right now and he went another 50 miles and walked around the attractions. He is amazing! He thinks we are going to continue on our trip and go to Cheyenne, Wyoming. I think we should go and visit Cheyenne in Wilmington. 

Fred is in denial. He thinks he just needs to stretch his knee out. I've seen enough injuries and as you all know I'm the queen of injuries...to know that what he needs is rest. Not driving and walking and seeing more of the country. We have covered over 3000 miles in two weeks. That's alot! And through all of our incidents we are still laughing and smiling.

I do know one thing...our trip is NOT over!

I'll keep you updated and let you know which direction we will be traveling next.

Until the next post.........