Rapid City to Cactus Flats 101 miles
Imagine "Mongo" from "Blazing Saddles" growling out the subject line.
Today's ride was wonderful & jam packed with things to talk about. I took lightly travelled route 44 instead of riding on the Interstate, thanks to Chris' sag support. Gently rolling hills on either side of me, & only rarely did the road go over one.
Chris met me in the little wayside town of Scenic. 4, maybe 5 buildings, most of them with 'Longhorn' in their name, decorated with many skulls of long-dead cows. There was the Longhorn Food & Fuel, the Longhorn Saloon, & the Longhorn Emporium. I had a very refreshing grape popsicle at the Food & Fuel, waiting in line as three obviously inebriated Native Americans were trying to figure out how to pool their cash to pay for their gas & a bottle of whiskey (It was about 10 AM). Not a pretty sight.
One of my concerns about riding through reservations in SD was the high rate of alcoholism among the men, and the fact that they drive in that state. One of the three, Harold, very obviously & purposefully stayed behind to talk to Chris & me & eventually asked for a handout. When nothing was forthcoming from us, he quickly moved on to a carload of people getting gas.
After Scenic, the landscape quickly changed, becoming more sandy & barren — I had entered the Badlands, a beautiful & strange landscape of multi-colored layered rock & thick mineral-laden streams. A giant 'Silly Sand' sculpture.
Chris met me at mile 70 & sagged (transport by car) me over the 9 mi gravel road into the national park, where we got to see the 'Pig Dig,' an active archeological site where four paleontologists were busy digging through the earth with brushes & small metal picks (like your dentist uses). In 20 years since some tourists stumbled upon a fossil here,they have unearthed an about 20 x 10 patch & over 13,000 bones of all sorts of creatures who used this ancient watering hole.
We decided after the pig dig to head into Wall at the eastern end of the Badlands scenic loop, but it took us quite a while to get there as there were so many cool 'viewpoints' to stop at and gawk at nature's wonders, including a small buffalo herd & prairie dogs.
Wall is the home of Wall Drugs, a block-long americana wonderland of free ice water, 5 cent coffee, chintzy souvenirs,& cheesy tourist attractions (like a hugh plastic T-Rex that growls every 12 minutes). We had buffalo burgers at the cafe & wandered around for a while amazed at the shear excess of it all.
After our later than planned lunch, we headed back to the badlands loop so I could finish my ride. 30 miles later, I had a century in & we parked ourselves at the Circle 10 campground/Motel in Cactus Flats, ready for a good sleep.