Ohio, and the Biker Memorial

The directions to the Biker Memorial were a bit confusing, and we got turned around once or twice, but we managed to find it, and still with some daylight left in the sky.

Here's the opening shot. The memorial isn't large, but what it potentially lacks in size, it makes up for with devotion, and emotion.

Such detail on one of the main panels. Simply amazing.

This granite bike is a section, by itself. Whenever the most-recent granite block becomes full (of names), they move this granite bike out and add another section so that another section (for more names) can be added.

This memorial is commanding, both in it's simplicity, as well as in it's out-of-the-way location. I like to think that it's tucked away in the middle of nowhere to sort of make it worth finding. It would be too easy to stick this in the middle of a city or some other large metropolis area. But it's in the middle of nowhere. And that didn't take anything away from it at all.

If you're ever in the Hopedale area...scratch that...if you're ever in the Ohio area, take the time to check this out. Your initial reaction may be that this memorial is small and all. But if you pause to think of all the lost brothers and sisters who are remembered here, the gravity of the setting will become evident.

Nebraska

We were heading East, and soon found ourselves in Nebraska. Some long, scenic roadways loomed ahead of us...
Hold on here...hold on. We passed a sign that said helmets were req'd in Nebraska. Helmets?? C'mon, we've been riding without them for almost a week now, please don't tell us we gotta start wearing them again already?? *Sigh* Yeah, we gotta. Dammit.

Here's the only thing I think helmets are good for...

We managed to find a gas stop that had a great advertising campaign going on. Can you imagine my surpirse at finding out that all the way out here, they're advertising my balls?

Holy crapoly, some of these cross winds are out of control!!!!

Hang on, Snoop!!!!

Spearfish Canyon and Devil's tower

Snoop isn't sure where he is, but he's digging the multi-layerer rock. Seriously. This stuff is amazing!

Spearfish Canyon. Here's the river that ended up as nothing more than a dried up bed of stones. (An earlier post talks about where it went.)

Here's Snoop, soaking up some rays on the dried up river bed.
This was pretty cool; the rock in the middle had been worn down and wound up totally molding itself to the rock that Snoop is sitting on. (We didn't touch these rocks, this is exactly how we found them.)

Wide open roadways. They were simply amazing!!

Now where is this "Devil's Tower" we keep hearing about? Nothing so far, but extremely scenic wide open spaces...

Hey, there it is, way off in the distance. Cool!!! Right, Snoop?
Ok, so this pic is a bit out of order. Here, we were riding away from it, and I managed to catch both the DT and Zig in my side mirror, and I thought it made an excellent shot so I had to take it.

Ok, back to the correct progression of things. Here, we're approaching the tower...

And closer, againStill closer!... Even Snoop is in on the action.


And here you are; this is as close as we got. We could have paid an entrance fee to get to the other side, but after finding out that we'd only get to see the other side (but not get any closer), we opted to just snap some pics and then start rolling back towards the Badlands.

Rolling back the way we came, and stopping to snap some pics along the way...

We finally made it back to the KOA in the Badlands. But to get here, we had to ride for miles, and miles...and MILES!!! Long miles, where we saw nothing...not human, not animal, nothing!, for hours and hours. But we eventually made it back. We checked in, dropped off our shit, and headed off to the bar. What bar? Oh, how quickly they forget. I already did a write-up on the Horseshoe Pub. What a time that was!!!
Ok sorry, this pic is out of order. This is taken of the Badlands, on our way back from Devil's Tower, before we got to the KOA Kampground. But it is a hell of a nice shot.

Again; out of order, but a sweet shot.
Yep; out of order, but again; a nice shot.

When Zig and I were at the fun-as-hell bar (Horseshow Pub), he did a smart thing. He went outside and captured a few shots of the sunset. And they're very good - I'm telling you folks, you need to get out here and see what you're missing!!

Here is the bar (still in daylight - this was soon to change). The Horseshoe Pub. Oh, what fun was waiting within these walls for us to discover!

Spearfish Canyon clip

Here's where we were riding along and saw more phenomenal scenery. Again (I know I keep repeating myself, but I can't stress it enough); these pics/vids don't even come close to representing what this looked like in person.

This is also where we saw the three guys skateboarding, that I talked about
in an earlier post.

Just amazing. And yes, in case you hadn't noticed yet, I start all of my riding clips with a shot of Snoop.

That way, you know they're "Snoop-approved".

Clip of a buffalo!

Quick vid of a buffalo, sipping some water from a stream. Yes, we were too close again. And just after I shot this clip, a Ranger rode up in a truck and said (and I quote): "Folks, you don't want to be that close to him. The buffalo are in the rut. That means they are moody as hell. If he wants to get to you, he will get to you. Long before you can reach your vehicle." So we opted to mosey back to the bikes and ramble on down the road.

Needles Highway, Iron Mtn Rd, and Custer State Park

Looking into the single-lane tunnel, midway along Needles highway.

Snoop, checking out the main attraction; the Needle, itself...

Amazing sights. You could walk to the base of this spire, but no further, as it dropped straight down.

Me and Snoop, checking out the sights.

Zig snapped a pic of me coming through the rock tunnel.

Quick drop, if you walk too far.

Same spire as previous shot. Same long drop down, if you tried to walk around this spire.

The Needle, seen straight on.

The Needle, seen from the proper angle. Now the name makes sense, right? This is all natural rock formation. It's attached at the top and at the bottom and looks like the eye of a sewing needle.

Parked roadside, just after one of the rock tunnels. Careful stepping over the guardrail, it's a long way down...

Crazyhorse Memorial, as seen from the entrance.

Snoop, resting on Crazyhorse's outstretched arm.

Back to the tunnel. Sans bike this time. You can see how quickly things drop off...

More amazing scenery.

One of the spires from the Needles Highway.


Custer State Park. Zig and I tried to find buffalo for some time. Then, we hit the motherload. An entire herd, crossing a road. We rode up, turned the bikes around to facilitate a quick exit if needed, and then strode into the mix.

The whole time, we kept thinking about what all the Rangers had kept telling us; don't get close to these things. They're in the rut (aka; horny). They're extremely moody. If they suddenly decide they don't like you, you're done. They'll reach you long before you can get to safety.

We let them get pretty close (we're not that bright). Then this big fellow came ambling along and I figured hey, what better way to show just how close we were than to get some good pics of this monster. So here you go.

Right about this time, this...little...fella kinda raised his head a bit in my direction, gave an extremely gutteral, extended grunt - and that was when Zig and I opted to put some distance between us and them.

Snoop is totally digging the fantabulous scenery.

More open space. Custer State Park was quite amazing.

Here's Zig, checking out which direction we should take.

Single buffalo, much safer than an entire herd, right? Uhm...ok, let's not get too close. This distance is just fine.

More sweet rock formations. I tell ya; these pics just do not do justice to the real thing.

Another single-lane tunnel. You'd come up on these things on a sharp, 90 degree turn. There were signs saying "Beep Horn", to alert anyone coming the other way, because there was no way you'd see anyone until you were right on top of them.

It's tough to make out in this pic, but looking through this tunnel, you could see Mt. Rushmore (and the carved Presidents) in the distance.

Standing on top of the tunnel. This gave an even better vantage point of the surrounding areas.

Super nice twisties!