Southern Portion of the Northern Region

Well Ms. K's family has been carting me around quite a bit this summer, the latest venture took us to South Dakota. On the agenda was a demonic tower, a motorcycle rally that drew crowds from across the nation, and a human maze with a vending machine in the middle instead of cheese.

We headed out bright and early on Friday for a 5 hour drive to Devil's Tower. Nothing too notable on the way up, other than the possible extinction of bunnies gauging by the amount of roadkill I saw on the way. We arrived at the KoA pretty early in the day, and settled in after getting the tent set up (getting pretty good at it after all these times). After a quick rest we were off to conquer the mountain.

The campsite is situated at the base of the trail, so at all times you had a clear view of the Tower. Prairie dogs squeaked on the way up and Golden Eagles circled at the top of the Tower. The trail that guides you around is actually paved, and only 1.3 miles long, so it was a relaxed trek. Ms. K's wee brother kept posing for pictures every few steps so I had plenty of time to chug water and read all the placards of info. I read enough to understand that Devil's Tower may have been mis-named. Local native american tribes used to call it Bear's Lodge, referring to a myth of a native village girl turning into a bear and terrorizing the village until the small plot of land that is the tower rose from the ground to protect them. The strange claw-like formations are from the bear scratching at them as they rose to the heavens.

There were a couple climbers shimmying up the walls when we arrived, and I was very curious about what the top looked like. But Ms. K and I figured we had to head out earlier in the day to make an attempt...along with a few years of training.

The day wrapped up with a viewing of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" which, strangely enough, was centered around aliens meeting humans at...Devil's Tower...oh the ironing. But apparently the KoA shows that movie every night and Ms. K's wee brother wanted to see it again the following night. I would have, but the first night left my butt tender and bladder full from sitting in the chair through what I thought were at least 5 "this movie HAS to end soon" thoughts.

The next day was another early start as we headed out to Sturgis, SD. Now Ms. K had told me before we headed out to expect about 100,000 motorcycles revving through the city streets. I was later told by Mrs. T (Ms. K's moma) that it would ramp up to near a million by the high point of the event. The reason for all this chaos? Shopping. Well from what I saw anyway. Vendors lined the streets, so much delicious food and no cash on me. Ended up eating an indian taco though anyway, so tasty.

Anyway back to the event. I was blown away by how many motorcycles were not only in the streets, but parked, taking up literally miles stacked in two rows parked side by side. Beyond that, not a mile went by from Colorado to South Dakota, through Wyoming, that I did not see a motorcycle. It was really cool, although I always tell Ms. K and Mrs. T at these kinds of events that it would probably be totally different and much more entertaining if you rode there on your own motorcycle. But I made out with a t-shirt for future events and a full belly.

The final day saw us packing the tent (getting good at this too) and heading back to Colorado, but through South Dakota this time. There is a human maze there that made the wee brother's eyes light up every time it was mentioned, and spur him into a detailed tactical discussion on his plan not to cheat in the maze and finish it faster than he ever had. We arrived around lunch time so decided to whip up some sandwiches while me and Ms. K decided what strategy to use on the maze. I think I got distracted eating my three meat sandwich with Gordetta's because I don't remember what we came up with.

Ended up going in with a steady pace, while the wee brother ran his heart out the whole time. Got the hang of the maze after the first two checkpoints (there was one per corner) and finished it up pretty quickly from there. The stamps were shaped like the presidents from Mt. Rushmore and you had to stamp them onto a card they gave you that kept your time, then find your way back to the vending machine in the middle and thus, the exit.

Continuing the travels after the maze brought us through the heart of Rapid City, SD. It looked like there was a bunch of cool stuff to do, so may have to come back someday. The alpine slide that traced itself down a pretty high mountain captured my attention. We rounded the corners to see Mt. Rushmore (since I hadn't been before) and found bikers (go figure) lining the sides. There wasn't enough space for a truck as big as the one we were in to stop, so we continued on the down the way. I got a great mental picture of the front, and an actual picture of the side of Sir Washington's face.

The trip continued on through a raging storm in Wyoming (I always seem to hit these things on my travels) that was pelting motorcyclists left and right. Luckily I didn't see any accidents, but saw a group of bikers who were suiting up in their rain gear right before the end of the storm, kind of wanted to wave at them to keep going, it wouldn't be so moist soon.

All in all it was a good trip, I worry about the bunnies in Wyoming though. But it was nice to take another quick camping break and see a couple of monuments. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to push even further north, perhaps entering Canada one of these days, just to see some Moose...Moosi...Meese...Mooses.