The Hundred Mile Hamburger...

Back in our flying days, it was known as "the $100 hamburger": folks would fly their own private plane to an airport that has a restaurant, just so they'd have somewhere to go.

This morning, Joan asked if I wanted to go to Custer to have a hamburger (Black Hills Burger & Bun Co., to be specific).  I asked "Scoots or the car?"

"Your choice," she said, knowing that I would pick the scoots; then added, "If you think you can handle that long of a ride."

I didn't say it, but I was thinking "P'shaw"... and how often do you get to even think that word?  She told me to pick the routing... departing here, back twisty roads to Keystone, Iron Mountain Road to Custer State Park, through Custer State Park, and highway into the town of Custer.  It is an ambitious first day ride (I'm not counting my solo outing yesterday); I'm ready.

I got the scoots out...

I chose to not take photos while riding today; I felt I needed to give all my attention to the riding.  And, the riding was good!  Traffic was light.  The temperature was climbing (still nowhere near as hot as home).  After going through Keystone, we made our turn onto Iron Mountain Road and found they had just resurfaced the road... it is black and shiny.  I don't like that because you can't tell if it is sticky or slippery.  Loose gravel on the edges.  As a result, we didn't ride this portion as fast as we have in the past (and it is the best motorcycle road in the Black Hills).  Feel free to scan back to last year for any number of rides we took on this road for photos.  ;-)

Even with this road surface, the riding was still good.  Custer State Park was a delight.  We fell in behind a couple other motorcycles towards the west end of the park.  I didn't see it, but Joan said there was a police officer in a vehicle going the other way and gave us a "thumbs down" as we went by... apparently, we were going a mile or twelve over the speed limit.  On the other hand, we did get a "thumbs up" from a Harley rider as we went by.  ;-)

Things were hopping as we rode into Custer (this is the height of the tourist season here).  We found a parking spot about a block from the burger place and pulled in...

There was a 30 minute wait for a table at BH Burger & Bun Co...

They have a slick way of handling it: they take your name and phone number, and text you when your table is ready, so you can wander around town if you want.  When you get the text, you can tell them, "We're on our way," and they will hold the table for you.  We happened to be waiting inside... where it is air conditioned.

Lunch was good - they do make a great burger, and we started it with an order of fried cheese curds...

Just as good as I remembered them from last year!

We rode past Mt. Rushmore on the way home (another great riding highway), then twisty roads back to Hart Ranch.  Nice weather all the way, but we did stop about 15 minutes from Hart Ranch to get out of our jackets - the thermometer on my bike was reading 93º.  My goal was to be back to the coach around 3:00, because the weather weasels had predicted a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.  Still looking good when we rolled in, I took a few minutes to give the scoots a bath.

About 100 miles round trip.  Some of the best riding roads to be had.  For anyone concerned, the hip is doing fine, my butt is a bit tired... I will have to toughen that up while we're here.  ;-)