The last ride...

Well, hopefully, there will be plenty of riding in the future, but today was our last ride while in the Black Hills - the packing up procedure starts tomorrow.  We both agreed that we wanted to ride Vanocker Canyon one more time.  The local weather weasels have been talking about the fall colors, specifically mentioning Vanocker Canyon (and Spearfish Canyon).

The predicted high for the day is 91º, so we elected to get a relatively early start on our ride.  We left Hart Ranch and headed for Highway 16 - it is a long hill to climb as soon as we get on that road...

From there, it is the bypass over to Sheridan Lake Road, and heading out of town on Highway 44 (aka Rimrock Road).  At Johnson Siding, we pick the first of the fun roads: Norris Peak Road...

Lots of great hills and curves.  Norris Peak Road takes us to Nemo Road - another good ride that will eventually get us to one of our faves.  There is a short bit of construction on Nemo Road...

Yes, that front end loader is a couple feet deep in that hole.  The rest of the road is good...

And that takes us to our "destination ride" of Vanocker Canyon Road...

Great sweeping curves, good road surface, but not much in the way of fall colors.

Still not much in the way of fall colors, but everything is still a lush green; unusual now that it is almost officially autumn.

That is a grove with quite a few aspens, but only a hint of leaves turning color.  A couple trees that are turning...

Some yellow in the ground cover...

At best, just a bit of color...

Well, green is a color, too.  ;-)  Today was about the ride, not the fall colors, and this may have been our best cruise this season through Vanocker Canyon - no traffic!

Vanocker Canyon eventually leads to Sturgis.  We rode through town and thought we'd take a cruise up Boulder Canyon (between Sturgis and Deadwood)...

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Deadwood... the temperature was 87º at their elevation of 4533'.  The food was good, the service was fast, and we were back on the road in just over a half hour.  We decided to go without our jackets for the rest of the ride... yes, I do like having my armored jacket, but not at this temperature (pushing 90º).

Where to from here?  We discussed Highway 385, but both agreed that back the way we came would be more fun.  On our way through Sturgis, we decided to stop and visit our friends at Sturgis Motosports (yes, the BMW dealer)... Joan wasn't sure she wanted to "visit" the scoot, but I was interested in seeing if they have heard anything from BMW about the timing for receiving the parts to get that scooter out of "stop sale jail."  Nope.

We did go look at it again...

Pat mentioned that they are working on a possible way to deliver the scoot to Texas, but didn't give us any hope on the recall happening anytime soon.

On "hip happenings," I did throw a leg over a couple motorcycles while we looked around.  Yep, things are still progressing.

We said our good-byes to Pat and headed back to Vanocker Canyon to retrace this mornings route in reverse.

I put the camera away and just enjoyed the ride.  It was 91º when we got back to the Rapid City area.  This may help get us acclimated to what is waiting for us in Texas... but, it has been a delightful summer here in the Hills (cooler than normal, and we are good with that).

Back at the motorhome, Joan sat out on the patio with Rufus while I put the scoots away.  I took this photo of Rufus giving his Momma a big hug...

You can see just how big the furry boy has gotten.  He likes Hart Ranch, too.