Giving the Go Pro a go...

I have a love/hate relationship with my GoPro cameras.  I love the idea of what they can do, hate the execution.  I love the small size, hate the limitations of "narrow, medium, and wide field of view," which in reality are more: wide, even wider, stupid wide.

That said, my neck and shoulders were tired of toting the Nikon DSLR around my neck when we're riding.  I decided to give the Go Pro a go again today, after not using it for months.

A refreshing start to the day, with temps in the 70s at departure time (around 10:30am).  The garbage situation has changed at Hart Ranch: instead of garbage cans at every third site, there are now dumpsters in three locations in the park.  The closest one to us is a half mile walk there and back, so we generally try to take garbage when we are leaving the park - I had a bag on my package hook, Joan balanced a box from Amazon on the back seat of her bike...

Out on the road...

You can see what I mean about the wide angle perspective on these photos, and these images have been cropped in as much as quality would allow.  I do appreciate not having the weight of a camera on my neck, though; I mount the GoPro on my right mirror stalk.

We had a plan: Joan suggested a picnic based on Black Hills Burger and Bun Co, so that's happening.  Plus, we really enjoy the ride through Custer State Park and Iron Mountain Road.  In fact, we stopped at the Iron Mountain Road Store along the way, and I picked up a long sleeve t-shirt with the "Iron Mountain Road stats" on the back.  I got a black short sleeve T in black a while back; Joan suggested a light gray this time.  Makes sense.

We stopped to buy season passes in Custer State Park, then made a stop to order our lunch.  For some reason, their website didn't have the order function we used last time, so we resorted to the old fashioned call-it-in.

Riding into the town of Custer, we parked and went our separate ways: Joan found us a picnic table and set out our picnic table cloth and drinks; I went to BHB&B to pick up our food.

We took the chance in ordering some cheese curds - didn't get 'em last time because they are usually ready way before the burgers.  Someone at the restaurant is on the ball, because the curds were just as fresh as the burgers.

With bellies full, it was back to riding...

Rolling out of Custer, the wide angle of the GoPro makes it look like there isn't much traffic...

Not the case.  Then back into the park...

Traffic in the park was light, until we got behind these two campers (above).

They eventually turned off.  Well, one turned off, the other missed the turn and simply stopped on the road.  No flasher, no indication that they were ever going to move again.  We eventually went around them on the double yellow line (we could see around them just fine).  I'm guessing he was going to wait until there was no traffic, and then back up on the highway... that "no traffic" thing should happen in the middle of the night or possibly late autumn.

We made our way south to the Wildlife Loop.

This is narrower, less finished road.  The traffic was almost non-existent until we came to these cars parked on the sides of the road (above).  That is a sure sign that people are gawking at wildlife.  In this case, it was the begging burros, and they were about a quarter mile off the road.  People were jumping out of cars to go get a close look and give them something to eat.  Like goats, they will eat most anything and have learned how to work the tourists for treats.  We kept riding.

Yep, more cars.  This time it was a group of about 30 buffalo.  Even further off the road.  If you look close at the far right above, you can see those tiny brown dots.  Those are BIG buffalo.  Yeah, we kept riding.

Out of the Wildlife Loop and back to the main road going through the park...

Then back to the southern end of Iron Mountain Road...

You can see some clouds in the photo above.  As we continued north, the sky darkened and we could see the occasional flash of lightning.  We beat feet back to Hart Ranch.  By the time we pulled into our site, you could hear the rumble of thunder.

We were both ready for an ice cream break... none in our freezer.  I put the scoots away and we took the car to the snack bar here... they are closed between 2:00 and 5:00 o'clock.  Undaunted, we went to the Hart Mart (the convenience store here) and got our ice cream fix.  Yes, Rufus got a treat.

About 4 1/2 hours of riding today, the most since we got here.  My butt needs to toughen up.  It was a good-riding day!

That gray sky, rumble of thunder... we got a few drips.  I saw on the local weather that places a few miles west and south of us got hail.  The sun is back out, and heating things up.  We are hoping Mother Nature cuts us some slack.