Niles and Deb introduced us to Mike and Leslie Kennedy. They are a fulltiming couple from New Mexico and travel in the same floor plan Montana that we have.
Mike and Les are a great couple and fit right into our little group here in the "Hills". We got the chance to spend some time with them on Friday when we accepted their invitation to go to Deadwood.
We all rode over in their Chevy dually pick up truck. Mike wanted to do a drive through of Sturgis so that was our first stop. Well we really didn't stop because the only thing going on seemed to be a bunch of tents getting set up for the big rally. We were both hoping to see some "debauchery", from the safety of the truck of course :-).
We got to Deadwood and it was getting close to supper time so we scouted out a place to eat. The Silverado Casino was advertising "all you can eat" Crab Legs and Prime Rib and we quickly decided that was it. The food was really good and we all had our fill.
After dinner we did some gambling and people watching as we walked the "strip". None of us were big winners but Les did find a "hot" machine that kept her playing for a long time and she even cashed in a little bit and treated us all to an ice cream with her "winnings". Thanks Les!
We made it back to the campground around 11:00pm. The rest of our group had already turned in so that's what we did too.
Saturday we did some more riding and sightseeing. Here is a photo of Ron being "King of the World"
We rode to Wind Cave National Park to get a stamp in our passports. We bought these passport books a few years ago. They list all the National Parks across the country. Each park has their own stamp with the date on it and you can stamp your passport book when you visit. We have done several of these in the past few years and always keep the book in the bike. The stamps are usually in the visitors center at each park and are a cool way of commemorating your visit.
After looking around the displays some we continued on to Hot Springs S.D. which is a neat little Town in the Southern Hills. We had a nice lunch and then did a ride through town. The temperatures had really heated up into the upper 90's (Niles' bike said it was 99*!) and none of us really wanted to get off the bikes to walk around in that heat.
We continued our ride and ended up at Jewel Cave National Park for another stamp. This cave is huge with miles and miles of tunnels. They are still discovering new passages and "rooms" in this cave. They do have tours of various lengths but were booked solid when we were there. The cost of the tours are a pretty good bargain varying from $4 - $8.
We headed back towards Custer where Rudee and I stopped in town to grab a few groceries. Niles offered to do the cooking tonight on his grille and we picked up some thick pork chops for him to toss on for us.
As we were grilling the daily thunderstorm rolled through. We huddled under Nile's and Deb's awning trying to stay dry and it brought back memories of the four of us on that patio a couple of days ago :-).
The rain quit before the meat was done and we were able to enjoy a "dry" meal.
This morning it has been raining off and on and looks like it may be this way for awhile. We may need to get the Freightliner out and do some "touring" in it. That will be a first for us, it usually just gets to pull the 5th wheel around and then sits, neglected, at the campgound until it's time to head home. I'll keep you posted.
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