Day Twenty Eight: Sturgis & Devil's Tower

I can't explain enough how much I liked Wind Cave National Park. Everyone keeps asking if we went into the cave. No. Honestly, I have no idea about the cave. It would be nice to see it someday.

We left the park around 7 and drove into Custer. Tons of bikes everywhere. Custer has an internet cafe. We uploaded the stuff, grabbed some bagels and zipped on over to Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore wasn't a planned stop. We actually decided to go after we passed the road leading to it. I turned the car around and in about 15 minutes we were at the base of the mountain. They charged us $10, we walked up, looked at the dead presidents heads and seemed to feel sort of cheated. Not that it wasn't impressive. It was. But really, how long can you look at it and not get bored? It took us about 45 seconds. So we headed to the gift shop. Smash bought some postcards and Nikki conned me into buying (for her) a hat that is actually a buffalo head (not a real one). Check out the pictures, you'll see what I mean. 

We made her wear the hat the entire time we were at Mt. Rushmore. Which wasn't all that long. Just long enough to pee and to take pictures of a Japanese tourist family taking pictures of each other. It was wild.

Though it was the last day of the rally, We thought Sturgis would still be a bit of fun. Oh it was.

To find it, all we had to do was follow where the route taken by the many, many bikers. In about 30 minutes, we were in a traffic jam of backed up motorcycles.

This was very much not not kind of scene. It was cool to look at and I've always wanted to experience it, but I felt pretty out of place. Leather, meat, booze, half to mostly naked women, gambling... yep, the basics. Icky. But fun to make fun of.

We drove through Sturgis twice, just to get the full effect. Devil's Tower was next, but about 60 mins away. For the entire drive, we saw bikers everywhere. Certainly not complaining. I'm very pro-biker. Was pretty cool.

Devil's Tower was hyped up for me. We drove and drove and finally saw it about ten miles before we got to the base of it. It's not really all that big. I mean, it's not small, but it's not huge either. 

We paid the $10 and the $12 for the campsite (again, with no shower) and set up camp.  How about food? Where would we get it? All were hungry, but the nearest place was about 30 miles away.

Thirty miles seems like next door now. Only thirty miles? Sure! Let's go!  And guess what we found? Yeah, a Yawbus. After eating, I called my folks, turns out that the east coast is getting some kind of hurricane thing. It's sunny and perfect here. HA!

Anyway, soon after that, we drove back to Devil's Tower and Nikki and I walked the base of it. Smash stayed back to do some work (she really *is* working).  The walk was nice. Short, about a mile. All paved, so I wore my sandals. Nice. We saw a few climbers and got some nice pictures. Mostly, it was just relaxing. Lovely.

When we all met up again at the campsite, we talked about what to do for the rest of the trip. We made a decision. And this may come as a shock to some of you. We're heading for home.

No. It's not because we're unhappy or not getting along. It's not because we're tired of traveling. I think we all have different reasons. Mine is that I've taken everything I can from this particular trip. I've learned all that I can for now. And now I would like to apply it. I told my father, "I'm not anxious to get back to Pennsylvania, but I'm ready to not be traveling for now." 

On this trip, I've seen so many places that I would like to be, but I can't be at any of them. I'm not really even sure what that means, but it's what I'm thinking.

Maybe we're all thinking it in a way. We've all internalized a lot of this trip. And though I've written volumes about it, I've hardly scratched the surface of the essence of our travels. Like a soldier who fought a war, I probably wont talk about a lot of the trip. There are stories to tell and believe me, those who know me will hear about them forever. But there are some things, I think, that we'll always keep to ourselves. Nothing that is shocking or even interesting to anyone else. But things that words can't begin to touch.

This isn't a farewell, but the next few days will be driving days. I'm not sure when or even if we'll have a chance to upload pictures until we get home.

When we get home, we'll upload the pictures, update the site and a few days after that, we'll say our good-byes.

Until then, thank you for reading and keeping up with us. It means more to us than you could possibly know.

Stats
Miles traveled today: 269
Hours on the road: 7
Miles traveled in total: 9244

Pictures
Pictures from Eric's Camera.
Pictures from Smashley's Camera. NOT UP YET!!!

Where are we?
Map showing where we are today!
(Purple = where we've been. Red = where we traveled today.)