A change of pace...

It is surprising how fast the bikers disappear after the Rally.  Oh, there are still some around, but not like the week before the Rally

We decided a trip to Custer for one of those fine burgers and some cheese curds was in order today.  While the food is tasty, the best part of that lunch is the ride to get there: out Iron Mountain Road and through Custer State Park.

Getting ready to roll...

There is a forest fire just outside of Hot Springs (about 50 miles south of us); the south wind makes for a smoke smell in the air and hazy visibility...

Check out the hills on the far horizon (above) - you can see the haze.

As we got close to Keystone, I set up the Akaso camera to shoot some videos - here's the controller on my phone...

One button switching between stills and video, and the shutter release or video start/stop.

Keystone is pretty quiet - in fact, the whole ride from Hart Ranch to Keystone was very little traffic.  On to Iron Mountain Road...

About 5 miles before the entrance to Custer State Park, the pace changed...

The white SUV eventually turned off, and the European RV was doing OK keeping up the pace...

We came up on a white van that was driving between 7 and 10 miles per hour... it was a long slog into the park before it finally turned off.  At least during the Rally, the bikes are all moving at a decent pace.  Through Custer State Park...

Pretty quiet in the town of Custer...

We got stopped at the light just before Black Hills Burger and Bun Company... and about 10 motorcycles rolled in ahead of us, taking the empty parking spaces near the burger place.  Fortunately, a truck pulled out, and we pulled in.  Unfortunately, all those people on bikes that parked ahead of us walked into BHB&B Co - I figured we were in for a long wait.  Fortunately, they didn't want to wait to get a table for their group of 16, and we got seated right away.  It's all about the timing.

The burgers and cheese curds were great.  We were in and out of there in about a half hour.  We decided to take the highway north and stopped for gas before leaving town.

Cruising by Crazy Horse...

And onto Highway 244, that will take us past Mt Rushmore...

You can see by the hazy look to these images that the smoke is covering the area...

Literally, a "drive-by" at Mt Rushmore...

Heading down the mountain (again, check out the haze at the horizon)...

Rolling back through Keystone, heading for home...

Love this sign on the east side of Keystone...

Another 20 miles of twisties, heading for home...

On Spring Creek Road, just before Hart Ranch...

I washed the bikes when we got back.  Joan had a message that there were two packages for us at the mail room, so I ran up there before I put the bikes away.  One of those packages was for me: a cover-plate with two USB connections for the Vespa; this will allow me to plug in my phone while riding (using it as a GPS or camera controller drains it within 4 hours).  The info on this says "simple installation"... and that is exactly how it turned out: take the old cover-plate off, plug in the USB connections with the pre-wired connector, put the new cover back on.  About two minutes...

It is at the bottom of the photo above.  Going high tech!