The long way to Mt. Rushmore...

A beautiful day in the Black Hills.  Joan made breakfast, Rufus got some leash time, I got in a walk and a bicycle ride.  Time to go play.

Out on the scoots, with no destination, just wanting to ride.  Today, I did put the GoPro on the Vespa to get some "on the road" photos.  Heading out...

Back roads to Keystone, then a county road to Hill City.  We passed the 1880 Train along the way...

We stopped on the edge of Hill City to gas up.  Joan got 120 mpg on the red Honda (better than I ever got with it), I got 76 mpg with the Vespa.  Last year when we were here, the grooved road surface outside of Hill City tossed me around something awful on the Vespa; Joan had no issue with the Honda.  I wanted to see how it would be with the Michelin City Grip tires I put on last fall...

No problem - the new tires made this grooved road a non-issue.  We stopped where Hwy 16 and 385 come together so I could change out the battery on the GoPro.  We had talked about riding past Lake Pactola and into Rapid City for lunch.  I suggested going back through Hill City, then Hwy 244 to Mt Rushmore, and lunch there.  Agreed.  Rolling through Hill City...

Turning towards Mt Rushmore...

This is good highway riding, with sweeping curves (not the tight, twisty stuff on other roads around here).  We pretty much followed two couples on Harleys all the way to the entrance gate at Mt Rushmore (they couldn't shake us)...

A new system at the entrance to Mt Rushmore: instead of paying an attendant for the parking (visitation at Rushmore is free, but they charge you to park), you press a button and get a ticket, like at a parking ramp.  It certainly sped up the typical congestion at the entrance.  We rode around to the top level for parking (where they generally send the motorcycles) and were delighted to see that they have added some covered parking...

Nice to park in the shade on a warm, sunny day.  We took off helmets and jackets and made the trek up to the monument...

We were sorry to see that they have the walkway from the gift shop and restaurant tore up, so you can't walk directly to the amphitheater; also, no parade of state flags.  We had lunch there, and did the obligatory photos...

From there, it was back to the bikes... where we discovered that the congestion they eliminated at the entrance gate means you wait in line 3 times: once to get the ticket, a second time to go to a machine to pay for the parking, and a third time at the exit gate where you insert your ticket to prove that you paid...

Down the mountain from Mt Rushmore...

And back onto Iron Mountain Road again, just because it is a blast to ride...

Another of the pigtail bridges...

One of the splits, where it is one-way single-lane traffic.  Joan waited at the beginning of it, so she could zip through there, and still caught up to the bikes in front of us...

Notice above:  no lane markings - it makes for some interesting riding as tourists come at you, trying to figure out where their half of the road is.

Definitely the twistiest road in the Black Hills.

From there, we took another fun county road that led us back to Rockerville Rd and then Neckyoke Rd before getting back to Hart Ranch.  A 90 mile outing... direct to Mt Rushmore from where we are staying would be less than 25 miles... and not nearly as much fun to ride.

A fine day on the scoots!

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The first chance to try out the bean bag game we bought before we left home...

I was leading 14 - 0 the first game, when Joan obviously got the hang of it and put three in a row in the hole.  Yeah, she won.  I led the whole second game... but I knew not to count any chickens before they hatched.  What?  No, we weren't throwing chickens.  Bean bags.  I won.  In case you weren't aware, we are both competitive... I didn't want to say that I was tired.  Fortunately, she said, "Let's just call this one even."  Whew.