Aug 4, 2015 North Dakota, South Dakota

Tuesday, August 4^th

North Dakota to South Dakota

This morning we headed south on Hwy 85.  Lots of truck traffic and more motorcycles as we head toward Sturgis, where the annual motorcycle rally began yesterday.  We have decided to forego the Black Hills and Custer St Park area, even though we like it, because of the crowds – they are expecting a million people!

We pass several huge sunflower fields and Greg reads later that they are a good rotation crop, replenishing nitrogen. They have a special harvester that collects the heads/seeds. 

We have seen many bee boxes throughout Montana and again here.  Lots of wheat fields too, along with the hay.

We decide to take the Enchanted Highway, a highway along which several large “art” masterpieces are displayed. Billed as the world’s largest metal sculptures, the first one “Geese in Flight” is huge. 

The sculptures are all made from oil field and farm equipment scraps.  Gary Greff of Regent, ND started it all in 1992.

People here are so polite – we have come across several sections of roadwork where there is a single lane.  There is a stop sign for traffic each direction and under the stop sign it says “Take Turns”,  kind of like “Play Nice”.

We reach South Dakota at 11:00 AM and decide to stop in Buffalo.  We called ahead and their library is open today and has wi-fi, so we will pause for gas and chill a bit. The library is very small and only open 2 ½ days a week, but the librarian is nice and their wifi is good.

The Trek has been running rough, particularly at low idle, so we get a recommendation from the librarian and stop by to see “Tim”.  He takes time to listen and says it sounds like dirty injectors and suggests an additive and using high test gas for a while. 

We add some Sea Foam and go back about 20 miles to a small section of the Custer National Forest where we noticed a campground sign.

  Turns out that Reva Gap Campground is a great free spot that has about 10 large sites and no campers. Lots of rocky outcroppings and tall pines.

Good breeze makes it comfy and Greg is able to find wood for a campfire later on.  We do a few short hikes,  take outside showers and settle in for the evening.

Around 9PM we can see a storm to our west and south.  Wind shifts but we get no rain and enjoy an impressive light show!  Lightning is almost all close to the horizon and is very bright white and nearly constant! No thunder.  An occasional fork from the clouds is almost blinding! Continues for quite a while as we go to sleep.

I wake a few hours later and the storm is gone but cloudy sky means no stars.  I drift back to sleep listening to the yipping of coyotes.