Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota

Day Four - 8/16/2018

Day Four - 8/16/2018

Today's route.

My alarm was set for 6:30. I woke up and saw the first light of sunrise streaming through the window. I glanced at the clock and read 6:27. I decided that I might as well get up, so I rolled over and turned off the alarm on my phone. I then laid there a moment thinking that something wasn't quite right.

I glanced at the clock again. Wait... it's only 5:27. I have another hour to sleep. I turned my phone alarm back on and rolled back over and sacked out for another hour.

At the real 6:30 AM the alarm went off. I groggily turned off the alarm and laid there thinking that I actually felt more awake an hour ago. Even though my body was still on Central Time which meant it was really 7:30 AM it really didn't make it easier to get out of bed and get moving. Nevertheless, I forced myself to do so.

I prepared for the day and packed all of my gear. The internet told me the temp was 54 degrees, which was a bit on the chilly side of things. I planned to put on most of the cold weather gear I brought, minus my winter gloves which I think would have been overkill. Because I was wearing long sleeves, I only put sunscreen on my face. I suspected that it would warm up later, but I decided that if it got warm enough to go bare-armed I could apply sunscreen at that point in time.

I put all the luggage on the bike then went in and checked out of the hotel. I snapped a "goodbye" picture and climbed on the bike. I had been wanting to be on the road by 7:30 Deadwood time. It was 7:34 as I fired up the motor. Not perfect, but not horrible either.

Leaving Deadwood.

My original intentions prior to starting the trip was to not ride any interstates, and take back roads the entire way. I did already break this intention on day two, as there was no practical way in and out of Teddy Roosevelt National Park without taking the interstate.

Riding from Deadwood to Sioux Falls completely on back-roads would likely add about three hours to the trip due to the slower speed limits, less direct route and having to slow down for towns. Normally this wouldn't have been too much of an issue, however my son had a parent's night at his school at 5:30. My wife said it would be fine if I missed it, but when I considered skipping I could hear Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle" playing in my head.

In order to ride the back roads home and still make it to the parent's night I would have had to get up at about 4 AM. I decided that South Dakota wasn't that much more interesting on highways versus the freeway to justify the early departure. So I revised today's goal to just get home fairly quickly even though that meant riding on the interstate.

The fastest way from Deadwood to I-90 was to ride up through Sturgis. I decided to take a slightly slower but more scenic route to Rapid City. From there I could take the interstate the rest of the way home.

Deadwood to Rapid City.

I rode highway 385 south about ten miles to the Nemo Road. This road would wind through the hills and take me into Rapid City. I'd ridden portions of the road a couple times before so it was slightly familiar, but still interesting enough to enjoy.

The road to Nemo.

From 385 to Nemo was 13 miles. It took about 25 minutes to ride because there was a lot of curves which required slower speeds. But traffic was light and it was very pretty.

A pond west of Nemo.

Nemo itself is a pretty small town. Not much was going on this morning. I passed through and continued down the highway. It was about another 20 miles to Rapid City. I stopped a took a few photos. I really didn't mean to capture someone's garbage can in this picture, but it is what it is.

The highway and a garbage can.

The closer I got to Rapid City the more I could tell I was leaving the Black Hills. This was sad not just because it meant my trip was drawing to a close, but also because I knew the next five or so hours of riding were going to be pretty dull.

Almost to Rapid City.

I arrived at McDonalds in Rapid City. It's certainly not an exotic place for a meal. When planning for the day I had thought about finding somewhere a little nicer for breakfast in Deadwood, but it went back to the fact that I would either have had to get up earlier, or miss parent's night. So I figured a McBreakfast wasn't the end of the world.

When I pulled into the parking lot it was packed. I was surprised that a McDonald's parking lot would be this full. I rode around and found what I think was the last empty space in the lot, which coincidentally was right by the entrance. The parking lot was shared with a medical clinic and I hoped that some of the cars were for the clinic and all those people weren't actually in the restaurant. I would soon find out that all those cars were indeed restaurant customers.

That's when the oddities started happening. I've been to plenty of McDonald's in my life, but have never seen one quite like this. The first thing I noticed was they had someone posted at the door to open it for customers and greet them. That's different.

Then I walked in. There were a ton of customers in the building, but it didn't feel overly crowded. There were still plenty of seats available. This place was big. And it was nice. There were tile floors. Everything was in good condition. The place was extremely clean.

I walked up to the counter. They had three registers and all three were open. I didn't have to wait at all. The lady behind the counter was extremely friendly. I placed my order and they gave me one of those vibrating LED coaster things that would let me know when my food was ready. What? At a McDonalds?

As it turned out my food was ready before I even left the counter so I didn't need it. I found a seat and sat down to eat. As I sat there, the manager was going from table to table topping off people's coffee and getting them drink refills. This place just didn't feel like a McDonald's at all. It felt like a much more high-end restaurant. Or somewhere Gustavo Fring would run.

Then I noticed the suits. There were about six people dressed in suits hanging around. I saw them when I first came in but just assumed they were customers. But the longer I sat there the more I noticed that they weren't eating. They were talking to staff and observing. Then I noticed a couple of them go behind the counter. Ok, something was up. I snapped a stealth picture of one of them.

One of the McDonald's suits.

As I was finishing my meal and taking all of this in, an assistant manager came by and asked if he could take my tray and garbage. I said, "There are people walking around in suits and observing everything. Obviously something is up. What's going on?"

He told me that one of the suits was actually the president of McDonald's. I asked him if that was why the restaurant was so busy and why they had so many employees working, but he said that it was a typical day. The visit by the president was actually unannounced. He dropped in unexpectedly to observe why this particular McDonalds was so successful.

We chatted for a few minutes and then it was time for me to leave. As I walked out the group of suits was standing near my motorcycle as the manager was giving them a tour of the outside of the building. I stood there and watched them as I put my gear on, but they didn't really pay much attention to me. I was hoping for some acknowledgment whereas I could make some witty remark that would be so impressive that I would be offered a million-dollar job on the spot. But no such luck.

They started to walk around the corner of the building so I snapped one more stealth photo and then went on my way.

The suits touring the outside of the building.

While I was eating I was checking the maps on my phone. The road I was planning to take out of Rapid City had a closure, and it recommended I take Deadwood road up to the the interstate. Unfortunately I got confused and turned onto Sturgis road.

I rode for several miles and pretty soon I started to suspect I made a wrong turn. A few more miles and I reached the town of Blackhawk. At this point I knew for sure I made a wrong turn but it was too late. There was an interchange that allowed me to get onto I-90 heading east, but I had backtracked nearly 10 miles. Oops.

Rapid City to Murdo.

My next planned stop was Murdo. I was going to have nearly 200 miles on this tank of gas before I made the stop, so depending on wind I knew I might have to revise my plans and stop sooner for fuel. As it turned out my low fuel light would come on, but I didn't even need to switch over to reserve.

The ride to Murdo was a typical journey across South Dakota. Not a whole lot to see. You just sit on the seat and twist the throttle, and try to stay awake. The most eventful thing that happened was I got buzzed by a crop dusting plane which scared the crap out of me.

At my stop in Murdo the temp had risen enough that I took off my chaps, jacket, neck warmer and ear covers. I left my sweatshirt on for now reasoning that I wasn't super warm while riding, so just taking off a layer might be about right.

Gas stop in Murdo.

After changing my apparel, I topped off the tank, used the facilities and grabbed a soda to go. No point dawdling; I had a schedule to keep. 17 minutes after I pulled in I was back on the road for the next leg.

Murdo to Mitchell.

There just isn't much to say about the next section of the trip. The hills around the river were slightly interesting, but only slightly. Most of the rest of the time I watched the miles slowly tick away and did my best to try and avert the pain that comes from sitting in one position for hours at a time.

I reached Mitchell and it was time to top off the tank again. I probably could have made it all the way home on this tank of gas, but I needed both a physical and a mental break even if only for a few minutes.

The road off the exit I took in Mitchell was under pretty heavy road construction. Had I known this ahead of time I probably would have chosen a different exit, but by this point it was too late. Traffic was really backed up. So that slowed me down a little, but thankfully not as much as I initially had feared.

Gas stop in Mitchell.

After I filled the tank I was feeling a bit hungry, so I went in and found an overpriced mini-pizza. I bought it and then sat on a picnic table for a few minutes while I ate. Again, I didn't spend too much time at this stop and was back on the road 19 minutes after I pulled in.

Mitchell to Sioux Falls.

The final hour of the trip home was pretty much the same as the previous four. As I got near Sioux Falls there was some nasty looking clouds to the north. They seemed to stay north, at least long enough for me to make it back to town.

My final gas stop just a mile from home.

I stopped for my last fill up. I didn't need more gas, but I like to top off the tank and get my final mileage numbers. This stop was so quick I didn't even take off my helmet. I just filled up and then quick rode the last mile home.

Home sweet home.

I parked the bike and unloaded the luggage. Just a few minutes after I pulled in that black clould I had been looking at caught up with me and the skies unleashed. It rained hard for about 1/2 an hour. As it turned out, my ride into town had come during a short break between storms. It rained so much earlier in the day that my son's golf tournament had been canceled, which was the second tournament called off in three days.

About an hour later we left for parent's night at the school. The Tundra Boy is not thrilled that summer is over.

Then I learned that Aretha Franklin died earlier that day. I was not thrilled that the Queen of Soul reigns no more.

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This page last updated on 08/29/2018