Farewell to the Wild Wild West

No longer will men be walking the streets proudly in cowboy hats. No more will we be seeing guns hanging above the ice cream ordering window being raffled off by the local fire department. Corn will be filling our horizons rather than open fields filled with cattle and horses. No longer will we be seeing museums commemorating the exploits of train robbers and sheriffs. No longer will we ride into town to the sound of a friendly howdy. It has been a good place to ride, the places and people have been welcoming but it is time to ride on to the East. I'll be back for sure, but for now the Mid West demands our attention.

We are growing used to slightly bigger towns (the town we're in now has a Home Depot!!). Minnesota has lovely parks and we're looking forward to going through some lake country. We hope to get into Wisconsin by Friday and into Michigan by Monday. We are on schedule to be home by our August 20th deadline =)

Below are some pictures of our past couple days.

This is a picture from a lovely little town called Beuhal, outside of Sturgis SD. We slept at the local campground along this creek and soaked in the amiable company of a family that was on vacation from Nebraska.

This is a picture from Spearfish Canyon. It's not a place that lends itself to being captured by photography, so I can only suggest that if you're in the area take a drive and enjoy the rambling stream through this canyon.

This is coming out of the Black Hills. Directly in front of us is Bear Butte (not Butt as some people would pronounce it, but rather Bute). If you'll notice something really exciting to the right of the Butte. No Mountains!!! Wow was I happy about that, if it hadn't been for a loss of daylight I could've ridden another 100 miles on the adrenaline that came from seeing such gloriously open land.

Have you seen this man? His name is Andrew Dolan and is known to frequent bakeries scowering for cinnamon buns. He is on a 30 year old bike but can still outrun a horse. He was last seen riding through the Great Planes of America, but by now he could be anywhere. If you see him no need to worry, just remind him to call home and say hi to his totally awesome siblings Erin, Sarah, Miss Molly, and Mr. James.

 Ok I have a confession. I have acquired a trail name...I don't like nicknames, let alone trail names. They always seem to be less than complimentary. Why can't I ever get a name like "Chainsaw" we met a couple who had a friend who they called Chainsaw, now that's a name I could roll with, but no I have "Taco Man" as bestowed by Andrew. You'll notice from this picture that my hair does a little wave. It doesn't go away. I've showered, washed my hair multiple times and the holder stays. Andrew saw it about a week into the trip and he thought it looked like a great taco holder and that morphed into taco man.

Well that's all for now folks, I have to say I enjoy writing these little blogs. Don't hesitate to comment, we love hearing from everyone.

Riding on,

Nate (aka The TacoMan)