Shhhhhhhhh...

Be vewy, vewy quiet (Elmer Fudd impersonation)... we're gowing for a wide and don't want Mother Nature to know.

The forecast is for partly cloudy and only a 10% chance of thunderstorms.  Rufus would like us out of the coach for a while so he can get an undisturbed nap.  The humans in the coach are quite anxious to get some scooter time in.

After a nice Joan-made breakfast, I went out to get the bikes ready.  Then, gearing up and ready to head out of Hart Ranch...

We have a general plan: curvy roads, past Keystone, county road to Hill City, south from there to Hwy 244 past Mt Rushmore (no stop there), then re-evaluate.

Rolling...

On that county road, we are doing roads we haven't done yet this trip.  Nice scenery on the way to Hill City...

We cross railroad tracks about a dozen times on this stretch of road - the 1880 Train that runs between Hill City and Keystone.  A look down the narrow tracks at one of those crossings...

We were beginning to think we weren't going to see the train today, but it was pulling out just as we rode into Hill City...

Hill City was packed...

Hardly a mask in sight anywhere, and we're not ready to mix it up with that.  We stopped at the far end of town for a re-hydration break.  The next stretch is Highway 244 that runs from Hwy 385 to Mt Rushmore... this is a different kind of nice riding: long sweeping curves, most of it with a 50mph speed limit.

We eventually caught up with a couple campers in front of us...

That travel trailer in front eventually turned off, and the Airstream Base Camp in front of us had no trouble doing the speed limit.  Nice views on this road, too...

I won the "Who Saw It First" competition, with a view of George's profile in my rear view mirror.  And a view from the front as we rode by...

Decision time: we decided to ride Iron Mountain Road to Playhouse Road, then a short jaunt to Rockerville Road, back to Hwy 16 and a stop for fuel at a station along the way that has non-ethanol gas.

The first part of Iron Mountain Road wasn't busy until we got to the first tunnel...

We have ridden this road scores of times over the years.  We have never seen anyone standing up through a sunroof to take a video.  Today, we saw two in a span of about 4 minutes (above and below)...

Another re-hydration stop at one of the view/picnic areas...

I put the camera away at this stop.  Continuing on Iron Mountain Road, we had some glorious open road riding: no traffic, great curves... it wasn't until just before our turn off IMR onto Playhouse Road that we caught up with a car in front of us.  The same car with Minnesota plates that was driving so slow earlier.  In a lovely gesture, she pulled over just after turning onto Playhouse Road - Joan and I both gave her a "thank-you wave."  Alas, a truck pulling a toyhauler trailer (Illinois plates this time) slowed us down.  The trailer had a bit "Harley Davidson" emblem on the back.  I'm guessing they would have much rather been on Harleys instead of of pulling that trailer on this fun curvy road.  There are a couple hairpin curves where they had to go way over the center lines to keep from dropping a trailer wheel off the inside of the curve.

From there, it was back to Rockerville Road, more uncrowded fun riding, and eventually to Highway 16.  Highway speed to the gas station.  We topped off both bikes: I was elated with 91.2 miles per gallon on the Vespa... Joan logged 103 miles per gallon on her Xmax!  Yamaha has hit a real sweet spot with power and efficiency with that motor.

Mostly highway back to Hart Ranch.  It has been a couple days since we've been able to get the scoots out - this was some great riding!  I put the bikes away, Joan made us an early supper.  I am sorry to say that gray clouds are building over the Hills and heading our way.  The weasels bumped up the chance of rain to 20% through the evening.  I won't make any bets on this.

A great day of riding!