I spent last night at the Warm Shower home of Brad. Brad is a nurse at the local hospital and works the night shift. Having Brad out during the night was very useful to me since his room is the only one with a room AC so he allows cyclists to sleep on his floor during the night. He shares his portion of the house with Bill who is a family practice resident and shares Brad’s passion for rock climbing. They both chose this town because of its proximity to the amazing MTns. They even put a Rock-wall in their rented home. Bill sleeps at his finances home because she has AC!
Something weird happened to me at night. I had done my laundry and hung most of it on the porch to dry overnight. At 3am we got hit with a major lightning and rain storm. I ran out and brought my clothing in. But my towel was gone. In the morning I checked all around, and it hadn’t blown away. Someone stole my towel but left everything else. And this was a nice neighborhood!
Brad came home in the morning and had his morning cocktail before going to sleep. We swapped cycling stories before I headed out on my tour of Mt Rushmore, Needles Highway, and Crazy Horse. We all know the story of Rushmore, but did you know that Crazy Horse is 10 times the size and is being carved by one family! All these are amazing sites. The shot of the two boulders book ending the road is interesting because the mtn in the background is Harney Mtn which is the highest point between the Rookies and the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing on east coast s as high as 7,242 feet
My entertaining and fact filled guide, James, returned me to Rapid City, but not to Brads, but to a hotel. I needed a better night sleep before I head into the Badlands.
The bike store was extremely helpful. They discovered a major chip on my back wheel. Two spokes weren’t even attached anymore. They had another performance touring wheel to replace it with. And they tuned my bike. However, they were not very uplifting on what I am going to experience on the roads thru South Dakota. Lots of nothing, except heat and thorns. There are some type of thorns that blow onto the roads near here that give bikers flats. I had heard about these, two states ago. So they put in heavy duty tubes and a Mr.Tuffy liner. Fingers crossed. Heading out early Tues and probably no cell service for a few days. There is a picture looking east from Rushmore. That is where I am heading.
Also my friend and blog consultant David Perlmutter has added a link to his selfie site. You can follow the exciting progress of my facial hair my hitting the link. He has put in some pics of Marc Childs just to confuse you.

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