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09/02/2015 – Wednesday
From: Deadwood, SD
To: Deadwood, SD
Miles: 282
I just wish I would have slept better than I did last night. I was ‘hoping’ for a good night but somehow again I was restless. At some point during the night or very early morning a very big wind came up, stuck around a few minutes then was gone. Weird. Beautiful skies with no threat of rain either. And the humidity was gone as the tents/rain flys and ground clothes as well as the bikes were dry as a bone.
Good morning Deadwood SD! Our view from the campsite
We geared up and headed fifteen or so miles over to Spearfish under very high clouds and 67*F. It was wonderful in just the mesh gear and no liner. We found a local Perkins (again) and pretty much ordered the same items again. When you find something you like you tend to stick with it…
Over breakfast we decided we would head for Belle Fourche SD to the geographic center of the entire 50 states this time. If you recall, the last “center of the US” we visited was in Lebanon KS and it was only for the lower 48. When Alaska and Hawaii were added around 1959, the geographic center now moved North and West from Lebanon KS. So it just seemed reasonable to go there next so we all headed North on 85.
We arrived in Belle Fourche and had to stop to figure out just where the center marker was. While waiting, I couldn’t pass up a grain elevator shot as they were sooooo prevalent in the area
Again, Mr. Technology Frank pulled out his trusty iPhone and realized we were about a quarter mile South of the place.
So off we went and found this:
And out back, there it was – the geographic center of the 50 United States
Complete with little marker and all in SW South Dakota. We finally made it to both!
Well, not so fast Kemosabe….. Belle Fourche is ‘sort of’ like Deadwood in the fact that “hey – let’s get people to come here and tell them this is the geographic center of the United States/50 states”. The lady in the little museum was more than up front about where the “real” US Geologic Marker was when asked. She said “oh, it’s not that far – about 14 miles North, then 8 miles West on Old Hwy 85 which is a gravel road. Look for a flag in the middle of a field across from a big barn on the left”. Hmmmm….. Maybe 22 miles NorthNorthWest and a third of it gravel? I looked at Bill and said “Hey, we’re THIS CLOSE. We’d kick ourselves for NOT going and when will we ever be back here again”? That’s all it took. Frank and Vince on the other hand said they were good with just heading West on 34 to 24 out of Belle Fourche to Devils Tower and there they would wait for us.
OK, we’ve got a plan. Bill and I will head to the “real” center and Vince and Frank will head to Devils Tower where we will meet up.
So Vince and Frank head West and Bill and I head North. We went about 14 miles and ‘thought’ we had the right road so turned West and there were some ranchers with heavy equipment right there. We asked them if this was the right road and we were still short a mile or two, so we kept going North and found Old Hwy 85 and the turnoff.
When we made the turn West down that long ugly gravel road, Bill said “you’ll do fine”. OK, here we go street tires and all on the big GS.
I have to admit, running 40-45mph behind Bill was a bit unnerving at times, especially when I was in one of the tire tracks from the trucks and began to drift over the ‘hump’ into the next tire track. Just relax, let the bike do what it wants is all I’ve heard. Well, it worked. I didn’t fall and I even had a Plan-B if on-coming traffic was approaching. I’d slow to a crawl and duck-walk myself back over the hump!
We ran the eight miles West of gravel and could see the big barn on the left in the distance and the flag off to our right with a pile of rocks. There’s actually two markers there. One is unofficial and in what I presume to be the right of way between the fence lines and the true/actual one is about 75 yards out in a field behind a fence and bright red gate on private property.
Here’s the stone marker ad-hoc point in the ROW
And here’s the one inside the fence line on private property. THIS is the REAL one, not the “Deadwood” one. Lol
With a secondary one not five feet away at the base of the tattered flag
To give you a sense of scale as to being in the middle of nowhere South Dakota, that’s Bill on the far right
So now I can say I’ve been to the “true” center of the lower 48 states as well as the “true” center of all 50 states. And of those 50, I’ve visited all 50, 49 by motorcycle. That’s a pretty cool accomplishment in my book. When I get back to Hawaii I’m renting a scooter to ride just so I can say I’ve now ridden in all 50 states.
As we were gearing up to head back, we noticed about half a mile down from us a one acre high fenced area full of old farm equipment. Our guess based on what we learned yesterday is that is yet another old Minuteman missile silo facility. It fit the size, dimensions, distance off the road and other attributes the park ranger mentioned. We had to chuckle on that one.
Then, about six miles back towards the main highway we saw yet another facility which really matched the others. But after careful observation we concluded it was more of a communications type facility than a silo. Same USAF No Trespassing signs so it’s ‘somehow’ related to defense and missiles is our guess
Running back down to Belle Fourche I had to stop for this shot. We all know it’s a snow fence to stop drifting/blowing snow. But I’m guessing there’s some artist in Austin going “Hey – I can make an art exhibit out of old shipping pallets and be famous down here. They’re doing it in South Dakota”. LOL
So Bill and I run back down to Belle Fourche then take the same 34 to 24 (which coincidentally put us in Wyoming) and run it over to Devils Tower where we met up with Frank and Vince who were sitting on a covered outside porch enjoying the shade, Monster Energy Drink and Ice Cream. We pulled up and geared down and talked about the little adventure to the center of the US, then talked about going into the park for a picture. Vince said “Hey – just walk out back and take your shot”. OK, so I walked out back and wow. What a view and it was free. Turns out the place we stopped at was the KOA convenience store with the campground right next door. They had a wonderful viewing area from which to shoot the tower. And besides, we really didn’t want to pay an entry fee to go to the base of this thing. We knew it was an igneous rock formation (volcanic in composition) and that’s about all we needed to know.
After a bit, the temp was HOT and all we wanted to do was get rolling again to cool off. So we had heard from Jamie (the waitress at Custer State Park) that Spearfish Canyon was a wonderful road to ride that puts us out in Lead (pronounced Leed) all of which is in the Black Hills National Forest. So back to Spearfish it was, then South on 14A and the canyon then picked up 85 again into Lead.
The canyon was absolutely incredible riding. Topping out about 6400’ in elevation, it was nice and cool and the roads as twisty as you can imagine. Big beautiful pine trees lining wonderfully maintained roads and we were having a blast. Once in Lead, we took 385 South a bit to a little burger joint recommended by Jamie called The Sugar Shack. It was worth the little detour.
The Sugar Shack
IF you hit this place, you have to have the Sugar Burger. The rest of the offerings looked just as amazing too
Burp.
While waiting for our food, there was some pretty nice scenery to just take in as well…..
This was next door, the Easy Glider which I suppose was a take-off of Easy Rider?
And across the street was another one of those attempts to conceal a cell phone tower
Waiting on the food to arrive, which did not disappoint
After the monster lunch we were stuffed. Literally. It was a HUGE burger patty most probably hand pressed and cooked on a flat iron griddle cook top. I’m guessing that’s how the onions and peppers were done too, in all that wonderful greasy goodness.
We also learned the place is for sale. I guessed $600k and it is for sale for $579 if I remember correctly. According to Jamie, it goes up for sale every year and they advertise $500k in annual sales.
Man, the winters I bet are brutal.
At this point we were only 20 minutes out of Deadwood so it was time to head back to camp. Approaching the city limits we again for like the fourth or fifth time had to navigate this one little wet messy gravel section. We’re getting pretty good at it by now. All of us……
So we make it into town, yet on the way out this morning I saw the Tatonka entrance and thought that would be a good place to go visit. Story goes that Kevin Costner had an idea for a resort/casino in Deadwood called Tatonka which coincidentally was the Indian word he kept using in one of his movies Dances With Wolves. He had commissioned an artist to create a series of bronze Tatonka (or Bison) statues to be placed around the property. When the project went belly up, the artist sued Costner because his artwork could not be displayed. In the settlement, Costner built an Indian memorial where the artwork could be displayed and called it Tatonka. Anyway, we arrived just as the gates were closed and Bill and Frank ran IN the OUT side while I at least grabbed a shot or two.
A few minutes later Bill and Frank come screaming back down the hill and I ask “how’d it go”? Bills reply was “Hey, they said if we don’t leave the property immediately the police were on their way”. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever geared up that fast in my life. Then Bill breaks into that big old grin again and says something like “Hey, they were really cool and said they were just closing but to come back tomorrow”. Whew. I did NOT want to say I spent the night in the Deadwood jailhouse for trespassing. That's just a little bit more "adventure" than I had planned for.
We decided to make our way back to camp to figure out our next move and talk about dinner. Since we ate a very late lunch that was awesome and more than filling, we all agreed dinner tonight would be on the ‘light’ side. So the discussion centered around having an Orange Julius
for dinner.
Early evening on our last night at the Deadwood KOA
With that decision made, we hopped back on the bikes and headed into town. First stop was in front of the Franklin Hotel. If you recall, there’s a shot of the headstone of the Franklin clan posted earlier. This is in front of the hotel:
And here’s the Franklin Hotel:
We walked just a few blocks to find our OJ
…where we each ordered one and called it “dinner”.
So with ‘dinner’ finished, we learned yet another ‘street action play’ was about to happen shortly. This time the capture of Jack McCall who is the guy who shot Bill Hickock. While the ‘actors’ were gathering, I wandered over to the sheriff/judge who was accompanied by Clamity Jane and chatted them up…….
Me: So Clamity, you really enjoy this, don’t you?
Jane: (in a twangy drawl) Wellll, yessss-sirrrr I dooooooo
Me: OK, I have a question
Jane: Shoot
Me: I hear you are really NOT buried up on the hill next to Bill. Is that true?
Jane: Welllll howwww cannnn I beeeee buried if’n I’m a stand’n right here?
Me: Seriously, we heard you and Bill might actually be someplace else
Jane: I’m a stand’n right here mister
Me: No, seriously, from a historical perspective, are you and Bill side by side on the hill?
This is when the sheriff/judge looks at her and smiles….
Jane: (in a normal voice) Yes, we are both buried up on the hill side by side. We are not in a crypt someplace else.
Me: Thank you. You guys really enjoy what you do here, right?
Jane: I LOVE what I do here.
Me: Thanks. Have a great evening.
The sheriff/judge and Jane
Jack McCall just shot Bill Hickock
…and is quickly apprehended
…and led away
So with that little ‘show’ over, the sheriff/judge barked at the crowd to all move up the street to the next location for the ‘trial’. A eating/drinking establishment no less. We opted to just people watch and see what happened next. This guy was pretty typical for the area
And what better way than to close out Deadwood with the street sign before heading back to camp
Before leaving Deadwood, Bill and I ducked into a casino just to say we each gambled in Deadwood South Dakota. Not being a gambler I just followed his lead and he put five bucks on a red diamond and I put five bucks on a black diamond. One of us was going to win and one was going to lose. As in double our money. Bill won, I lost. But hey – I can say I gambled in Deadwood now!
We wound our way back to the parking lot, geared up and headed to camp. Bill had this great idea to try and shoot some night stars since we had seen the space station go overhead already. We figured in 22 minutes we’d see it again. So with that, we grabbed the cameras and tripods and Vince scouted a dark spot for us close to the tents that didn’t have any light pollution and we grabbed a few. I sort of liked this one as there is a shooting star in the middle left of the stars by the trees and you can clearly see the Milky Way band
And another shooting star right of center in this one
There's NO WAY I could have figured out how to do these shots without Bills help. He's the master at the night and light painting stuff.....
Our ‘new’ neighbors came in sometime during the late afternoon. A couple from Manitoba with a young son. We all got the impression that mom did not want any part of this ‘camping’ experience and it was all father/son time. We based that on her barking, pointing and just how big that tent was for three people as well as wondering how in the world they ever got the king sized air mattress inside. Yeah, it was that big.
The showers were again AWESOME and it wasn’t long before we were all snoozing for the night.
Stay tuned as tomorrow brings some carved rocks and stuff.
.
From: Deadwood, SD
To: Deadwood, SD
Miles: 282
I just wish I would have slept better than I did last night. I was ‘hoping’ for a good night but somehow again I was restless. At some point during the night or very early morning a very big wind came up, stuck around a few minutes then was gone. Weird. Beautiful skies with no threat of rain either. And the humidity was gone as the tents/rain flys and ground clothes as well as the bikes were dry as a bone.
Good morning Deadwood SD! Our view from the campsite
We geared up and headed fifteen or so miles over to Spearfish under very high clouds and 67*F. It was wonderful in just the mesh gear and no liner. We found a local Perkins (again) and pretty much ordered the same items again. When you find something you like you tend to stick with it…
Over breakfast we decided we would head for Belle Fourche SD to the geographic center of the entire 50 states this time. If you recall, the last “center of the US” we visited was in Lebanon KS and it was only for the lower 48. When Alaska and Hawaii were added around 1959, the geographic center now moved North and West from Lebanon KS. So it just seemed reasonable to go there next so we all headed North on 85.
We arrived in Belle Fourche and had to stop to figure out just where the center marker was. While waiting, I couldn’t pass up a grain elevator shot as they were sooooo prevalent in the area
Again, Mr. Technology Frank pulled out his trusty iPhone and realized we were about a quarter mile South of the place.
So off we went and found this:And out back, there it was – the geographic center of the 50 United States
Complete with little marker and all in SW South Dakota. We finally made it to both!
Well, not so fast Kemosabe….. Belle Fourche is ‘sort of’ like Deadwood in the fact that “hey – let’s get people to come here and tell them this is the geographic center of the United States/50 states”. The lady in the little museum was more than up front about where the “real” US Geologic Marker was when asked. She said “oh, it’s not that far – about 14 miles North, then 8 miles West on Old Hwy 85 which is a gravel road. Look for a flag in the middle of a field across from a big barn on the left”. Hmmmm….. Maybe 22 miles NorthNorthWest and a third of it gravel? I looked at Bill and said “Hey, we’re THIS CLOSE. We’d kick ourselves for NOT going and when will we ever be back here again”? That’s all it took. Frank and Vince on the other hand said they were good with just heading West on 34 to 24 out of Belle Fourche to Devils Tower and there they would wait for us.
OK, we’ve got a plan. Bill and I will head to the “real” center and Vince and Frank will head to Devils Tower where we will meet up.
So Vince and Frank head West and Bill and I head North. We went about 14 miles and ‘thought’ we had the right road so turned West and there were some ranchers with heavy equipment right there. We asked them if this was the right road and we were still short a mile or two, so we kept going North and found Old Hwy 85 and the turnoff.
When we made the turn West down that long ugly gravel road, Bill said “you’ll do fine”. OK, here we go street tires and all on the big GS.
I have to admit, running 40-45mph behind Bill was a bit unnerving at times, especially when I was in one of the tire tracks from the trucks and began to drift over the ‘hump’ into the next tire track. Just relax, let the bike do what it wants is all I’ve heard. Well, it worked. I didn’t fall and I even had a Plan-B if on-coming traffic was approaching. I’d slow to a crawl and duck-walk myself back over the hump!
We ran the eight miles West of gravel and could see the big barn on the left in the distance and the flag off to our right with a pile of rocks. There’s actually two markers there. One is unofficial and in what I presume to be the right of way between the fence lines and the true/actual one is about 75 yards out in a field behind a fence and bright red gate on private property.
Here’s the stone marker ad-hoc point in the ROW
And here’s the one inside the fence line on private property. THIS is the REAL one, not the “Deadwood” one. Lol
With a secondary one not five feet away at the base of the tattered flag
To give you a sense of scale as to being in the middle of nowhere South Dakota, that’s Bill on the far right
So now I can say I’ve been to the “true” center of the lower 48 states as well as the “true” center of all 50 states. And of those 50, I’ve visited all 50, 49 by motorcycle. That’s a pretty cool accomplishment in my book. When I get back to Hawaii I’m renting a scooter to ride just so I can say I’ve now ridden in all 50 states.
As we were gearing up to head back, we noticed about half a mile down from us a one acre high fenced area full of old farm equipment. Our guess based on what we learned yesterday is that is yet another old Minuteman missile silo facility. It fit the size, dimensions, distance off the road and other attributes the park ranger mentioned. We had to chuckle on that one.
Then, about six miles back towards the main highway we saw yet another facility which really matched the others. But after careful observation we concluded it was more of a communications type facility than a silo. Same USAF No Trespassing signs so it’s ‘somehow’ related to defense and missiles is our guess
Running back down to Belle Fourche I had to stop for this shot. We all know it’s a snow fence to stop drifting/blowing snow. But I’m guessing there’s some artist in Austin going “Hey – I can make an art exhibit out of old shipping pallets and be famous down here. They’re doing it in South Dakota”. LOL
So Bill and I run back down to Belle Fourche then take the same 34 to 24 (which coincidentally put us in Wyoming) and run it over to Devils Tower where we met up with Frank and Vince who were sitting on a covered outside porch enjoying the shade, Monster Energy Drink and Ice Cream. We pulled up and geared down and talked about the little adventure to the center of the US, then talked about going into the park for a picture. Vince said “Hey – just walk out back and take your shot”. OK, so I walked out back and wow. What a view and it was free. Turns out the place we stopped at was the KOA convenience store with the campground right next door. They had a wonderful viewing area from which to shoot the tower. And besides, we really didn’t want to pay an entry fee to go to the base of this thing. We knew it was an igneous rock formation (volcanic in composition) and that’s about all we needed to know.
After a bit, the temp was HOT and all we wanted to do was get rolling again to cool off. So we had heard from Jamie (the waitress at Custer State Park) that Spearfish Canyon was a wonderful road to ride that puts us out in Lead (pronounced Leed) all of which is in the Black Hills National Forest. So back to Spearfish it was, then South on 14A and the canyon then picked up 85 again into Lead.
The canyon was absolutely incredible riding. Topping out about 6400’ in elevation, it was nice and cool and the roads as twisty as you can imagine. Big beautiful pine trees lining wonderfully maintained roads and we were having a blast. Once in Lead, we took 385 South a bit to a little burger joint recommended by Jamie called The Sugar Shack. It was worth the little detour.
The Sugar Shack
IF you hit this place, you have to have the Sugar Burger. The rest of the offerings looked just as amazing too
Burp.
While waiting for our food, there was some pretty nice scenery to just take in as well…..
This was next door, the Easy Glider which I suppose was a take-off of Easy Rider?
And across the street was another one of those attempts to conceal a cell phone tower
Waiting on the food to arrive, which did not disappoint
After the monster lunch we were stuffed. Literally. It was a HUGE burger patty most probably hand pressed and cooked on a flat iron griddle cook top. I’m guessing that’s how the onions and peppers were done too, in all that wonderful greasy goodness.
We also learned the place is for sale. I guessed $600k and it is for sale for $579 if I remember correctly. According to Jamie, it goes up for sale every year and they advertise $500k in annual sales.
Man, the winters I bet are brutal.At this point we were only 20 minutes out of Deadwood so it was time to head back to camp. Approaching the city limits we again for like the fourth or fifth time had to navigate this one little wet messy gravel section. We’re getting pretty good at it by now. All of us……
So we make it into town, yet on the way out this morning I saw the Tatonka entrance and thought that would be a good place to go visit. Story goes that Kevin Costner had an idea for a resort/casino in Deadwood called Tatonka which coincidentally was the Indian word he kept using in one of his movies Dances With Wolves. He had commissioned an artist to create a series of bronze Tatonka (or Bison) statues to be placed around the property. When the project went belly up, the artist sued Costner because his artwork could not be displayed. In the settlement, Costner built an Indian memorial where the artwork could be displayed and called it Tatonka. Anyway, we arrived just as the gates were closed and Bill and Frank ran IN the OUT side while I at least grabbed a shot or two.
A few minutes later Bill and Frank come screaming back down the hill and I ask “how’d it go”? Bills reply was “Hey, they said if we don’t leave the property immediately the police were on their way”. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever geared up that fast in my life. Then Bill breaks into that big old grin again and says something like “Hey, they were really cool and said they were just closing but to come back tomorrow”. Whew. I did NOT want to say I spent the night in the Deadwood jailhouse for trespassing. That's just a little bit more "adventure" than I had planned for.
We decided to make our way back to camp to figure out our next move and talk about dinner. Since we ate a very late lunch that was awesome and more than filling, we all agreed dinner tonight would be on the ‘light’ side. So the discussion centered around having an Orange Julius
for dinner. Early evening on our last night at the Deadwood KOA
With that decision made, we hopped back on the bikes and headed into town. First stop was in front of the Franklin Hotel. If you recall, there’s a shot of the headstone of the Franklin clan posted earlier. This is in front of the hotel:
And here’s the Franklin Hotel:
We walked just a few blocks to find our OJ
…where we each ordered one and called it “dinner”.
So with ‘dinner’ finished, we learned yet another ‘street action play’ was about to happen shortly. This time the capture of Jack McCall who is the guy who shot Bill Hickock. While the ‘actors’ were gathering, I wandered over to the sheriff/judge who was accompanied by Clamity Jane and chatted them up…….
Me: So Clamity, you really enjoy this, don’t you?
Jane: (in a twangy drawl) Wellll, yessss-sirrrr I dooooooo
Me: OK, I have a question
Jane: Shoot
Me: I hear you are really NOT buried up on the hill next to Bill. Is that true?
Jane: Welllll howwww cannnn I beeeee buried if’n I’m a stand’n right here?
Me: Seriously, we heard you and Bill might actually be someplace else
Jane: I’m a stand’n right here mister
Me: No, seriously, from a historical perspective, are you and Bill side by side on the hill?
This is when the sheriff/judge looks at her and smiles….
Jane: (in a normal voice) Yes, we are both buried up on the hill side by side. We are not in a crypt someplace else.
Me: Thank you. You guys really enjoy what you do here, right?
Jane: I LOVE what I do here.
Me: Thanks. Have a great evening.
The sheriff/judge and Jane
Jack McCall just shot Bill Hickock
…and is quickly apprehended
…and led away
So with that little ‘show’ over, the sheriff/judge barked at the crowd to all move up the street to the next location for the ‘trial’. A eating/drinking establishment no less. We opted to just people watch and see what happened next. This guy was pretty typical for the area
And what better way than to close out Deadwood with the street sign before heading back to camp
Before leaving Deadwood, Bill and I ducked into a casino just to say we each gambled in Deadwood South Dakota. Not being a gambler I just followed his lead and he put five bucks on a red diamond and I put five bucks on a black diamond. One of us was going to win and one was going to lose. As in double our money. Bill won, I lost. But hey – I can say I gambled in Deadwood now!
We wound our way back to the parking lot, geared up and headed to camp. Bill had this great idea to try and shoot some night stars since we had seen the space station go overhead already. We figured in 22 minutes we’d see it again. So with that, we grabbed the cameras and tripods and Vince scouted a dark spot for us close to the tents that didn’t have any light pollution and we grabbed a few. I sort of liked this one as there is a shooting star in the middle left of the stars by the trees and you can clearly see the Milky Way band
And another shooting star right of center in this one
There's NO WAY I could have figured out how to do these shots without Bills help. He's the master at the night and light painting stuff.....
Our ‘new’ neighbors came in sometime during the late afternoon. A couple from Manitoba with a young son. We all got the impression that mom did not want any part of this ‘camping’ experience and it was all father/son time. We based that on her barking, pointing and just how big that tent was for three people as well as wondering how in the world they ever got the king sized air mattress inside. Yeah, it was that big.
The showers were again AWESOME and it wasn’t long before we were all snoozing for the night.
Stay tuned as tomorrow brings some carved rocks and stuff.
.
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