Another first...

 

I was out on my motorcycle this morning.  No, that wasn't a first.  A "recon" mission before we head out again together.  Spring Creek Road is in good shape, no lines painted.  Neck Yoke Road has been oiled, chipped, and oiled again; it is in reasonable shape, but there were a couple places with less than great traction.  South Rockerville Road is mostly done on the west lane, still just gravel on part of the east lane.  Playhouse Road from Hwy 40 to Iron Mountain Road has been oiled, chipped, and oiled in the Pennington County portion, and not great traction in some of the tight corners.  None of these roads have any lines painted, yet.

It was a delight to get to Iron Mountain Road, where the road surface hasn't been messed with.  For the first half of it, from Playhoue Road heading towards Keystone, there was no traffic.  This was about 10:30 on a Saturday in July - I was expecting it to be busy.  That is also not "a first."

After clearing the first tunnel, I came up fast on a (here's the "first) a Cruise America rental Class C motorhome.  This is definitely not a good place for an RV, as there are 3 one-lane tunnels with restricted height and width.  And some very tight switchback curves.  Considering where I came upon this, they had to have cleared one tunnel.  I was behind them on the first split, and they were filling (sometimes off the edge of the road) that single narrow lane.  I waited to see what was going to happen at the next tunnel.

Yes, they stopped.  In the middle of the road.  No, not the middle of the lane.  The passenger waved me around on the passenger side of the motorhome.  Nope.  I was kinda interested in what they were going to do.  It might fit through the tunnel.  After a while, I pulled up alongside the driver's door.  I raised my face shield and asked, "What's your plan?"

The driver (about 30 years old, I'd guess) said, "Well, we made it through the first tunnel, but this sign says this one is shorter."

I said, "At some point, you're going to have to find out.  This isn't a good road for a motorhome.  Do you know how tall this thing is?"

He said, "Well, the thing I can see in my mirror says it is 12 and a half feet tall."  (It was written backwards on the portion of the cab he could see in his mirror.

I looked up at it and said, "I'm guessing they are telling you that to make sure you don't try to push it through a tunnel that says it has 12 feet, 0 inches of height.  And they probably fudged on that height, as well.  I think you may have to have your wife get out and look as you inch your way through it.  But, you will be holding up traffic if you don't do something."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

I said, "This is a great road.  You might consider putting that in an RV park and renting a car so you could enjoy this road without the stress."

He said, "We're on a schedule and weren't planning to say here."

"The Black Hills is a beautiful area - maybe next time.  We've been RVing for over 30 years and riding this road for even long than that - I have never seen anyone bring a motorhome on this road." 

He then asked, "Have you ever brought your motorhome on it?"

"Oh, hell no!"

Now, you may be thinking: "Why didn't you park your bike and help them yourself, Jim?"  Thanks for asking.  If they were dumb enough to ignore signs at the beginning of the road that say "Low Narrow Tunnels Ahead" with maximum height and width, I don't want to get involved.  If they crunch something, I don't want it coming back on me.

I wished them "Good luck," then went around.  Inside the tunnel as I rode through, it looks like they would have room.  And they'll still have another tunnel down the road.  All three tunnels have different height and width restrictions.

I have ridden this road many, many times.  I have never seen someone try it with an RV of that size.  When I went by the parking lot for the View Area, there was another Class C motorhome (looked to be about the same size) and a pickup pulling what I guestimate to be a 28' travel trailer.

Where do these people come from??

 All these years of riding this road and never seeing a significant-size RV on it... and today, there were three of them.

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Last year, we saw a Class C on the road leading to Needles Highway.  There is one low, narrow tunnel on that road before you get to Custer State Park.  And, it was obvious that it was NOT going to fit through there.  They had traffic held up for a long time while they tried to "inch it" back and forth to get it turned around.  We got around them before they completely blocked both lanes of traffic.  Again: signs that warn you about these tunnels.

Another clear sign that people leave their brains at home when they go on vacation.