Messing...

Not making a mess - fussing with the seat cover for the Vespa, a continuation.  At the request of the lady who made it, I took more photos and sent them to her, both with and without the cover.  And, yes, the cover caused the seat to jam again when I closed it.  I did figure out a way to open it by myself, by pulling the cover out from under the edge of the seat.  Not particularly elegant.

Upon examining the photos, the lady concluded that she must have used the wrong seat form to make this beautiful cover.  She asked that I send it back and she will remake it.  I decided to cut my loses (frustrations) and will send it back for a refund.  I am disappointed, but I just don't want to put any more of my time into it.

Nothing that a fun ride through the Hills won't cure.

The weather weasels were calling for sunny, high of 81º.  When we were ready to leave around 11:00 this morning, it was solid overcast, "feeling like rain," and 66º.  Not even close to the forecast.

Rolling...

As you can see: low, gray, skuddy skies.  We decided to head for Custer and one of those fine burgers and the oh-so-tasty cheese curds.  There are a LOT of curves between here and there, depending on what road you take... yeah, we took the curvy roads.

All the moisture has the area looking lush and green...

Back to the roads...

 

Through Keystone and onto Iron Mountain Road...

 

I was anticipating the roads to be packed with bikes - I would be wrong; it was blissfully light on the traffic.

Off of Iron Mountain Road and through Custer State Park...

Getting caught behind this bus for several miles slowed down our pace - and stunk up the air...

Heading out of Custer State Park...

Into the town of Custer, where we found a parking spot less than a block from Black Hills Burgers & Buns...

 

We put our name in at the restaurant, were told a 40 minute wait.  It is worth it.  They have a slick system there for notifying you when your table is ready: instead of one of those pagers that means you are stuck there waiting, they take your phone number and text you.  That gave us time for a 5 block walk to Ace Hardware to pick up a couple things we needed, and a stop at their Post Office to get a Priority mailer to send the seat cover back.  Coming out of the Post Office, I got the "your table is ready" text: 15 minutes early.  We hustled back, got a table, and enjoyed a fine lunch.

Heading back to the bikes, another of Custer's "Art Buffaloes".

 

We stopped for fuel before leaving town, then decided to take the highways back - not as much fun riding, but it would get us back in time to package up the seat cover and get it out today (as per Suzy's request).  Highway riding...

Driving past Crazy Horse...

It hasn't changed much since we last saw it, a few years ago.  A turn onto the highway to Mt Rushmore...

If you notice, the sky is going back towards that scuddy overcast.  The car in the photo above is a Prius.  We were driving the speed limit on this stretch of road - if you get a ticket here, it is on Federal land, not State, and it becomes a Federal offense.  The Prius passed us.  Probably no reason to speed along here: Mt Rushmore isn't going anywhere.  ;-)

The perspective on this photo is interesting...

To me, it looks like those bikes coming at us are going downhill... nope, it is a steep incline for them; we were the ones heading downhill.

The Po-Po has several bikers pulled over...

As we went by, we could see "the colors" the bikers were wearing: Hell's Angels.  No idea what they did, but you can be sure the police and Feds are watching them closely.  During the Rally, there are a lot of riders who look the part of an outlaw biker... I've joked before about 500,000 rugged individualists... all dressed similar.  Only a very small portion are wearing gang "colors and rockers" - thus the term "1%er."  See what you learn here.

Back through Keystone...

That yellow vehicle in front of me is a Goldwing Trike; in front of him are a couple Harley Trikes.  We are seeing way more trikes on the roads these days... I would say it is a sign that the biker population is aging, but there have been plenty of younger couples on the trikes, too.

I mention the trikes as part of the aging biker population - also why some of us are on scooters these days: they are less weight to muscle around and easier to get on.  One last look at Keystone on our way through...

And then, all highway back to Hart Ranch.  By staying on the highways, we cut at least an hour off our return time and were able to make it to the Post Office a half hour before they closed.

I expected the roads to be packed with bikes today, and that didn't turn out to be the case.  Maybe the sky looking like rain kept some of them closer to their motels or campgrounds... but, I expect this will probably be the last time we make this same fun run to Custer until after the Rally.