Tired...

 

Again.

"Didn't sleep well last night, Jim?" you ask.  Well, Rufus wanted to sleep on my face... and you notice it when a 40 pound cat puts his 15 pound face on top of your face.  While you're trying to sleep.

I don't think he was trying to smother me... I'm going with: the big furry boy just loves me so much he wants to put his face by my face... and by "by," I mean: right on top of.

I got up and put him down by our feet - yes, still on the bed, but with the fun benefit of: we can all breathe.

The real "tired" point came after that.  We took Joan's Xmax to the Yamaha dealer to get a new set of tires put on.  No, she didn't want to do it because I just did that for my CTX last month, but because her bike tires were in need of being replaced.  And the fun part of that: I dropped off her bike, she met me at the dealer, and we went out for breakfast, then ran a couple errands.  And - really fun part: I didn't get rained on.  An hour and a half later, the bike was done, and looking pretty with her new "shoes"...

 It was a chilly morning - in the 50s when I rode the bike in.  Low 60s when I brought it back.  I wore my motorcycle jacket with the thermal liner.

Back at the motorhome, I asked, "Well, since we're already dressed for the cool weather and your bike is out, do you want to go for a ride?"

"Sounds great!"  While I got my bike out and ready, Joan packed us a picnic lunch.  We decided to ride south, towards Custer State Park.  While it didn't rain this morning, there was rain in the forecast for this afternoon... Joan said, "We'll just keep an eye on the sky."  Good plan.

This is Tuesday of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally; it rained most of the day yesterday.  And most of the day Friday and Saturday.  There are going to be a lot of riders who just want to get out while it's dry.  We picked our "back roads route" that would eventually get us to about the half way point of Iron Mountain Road, then ride that south to the park.

We had no traffic in front of us on all those roads until about the last 4 miles of Iron Mountain Road.  Plenty of bikes coming at us the other direction (riding my favorite direction on Iron Mountain Road: south to north).  Nothing coming up fast behind us.  We did see some bikes in the distance behind us on Playhouse Road - I told Joan, "Let's just ride our ride.  If they get close, we'll slow down and let them get around."  It's important to ride extra vigilant when the roads are full of bikes... and some of those riders don't have experience on twisty roads like these.  The bikes behind us never caught up.

Once in the park, we looked for a picnic table area that wasn't packed.  Not easy with an extra half million or so people in the area.  There is one picnic table near the entrance to one of the campgrounds, but not part of the campground... not a soul around it.  We pulled in and got our picnic stuff out...

It is a really pretty spot, with a pond about 10 feet from the table, and a view of the bikes going by on the main road through the park...

Remember that "rain in the afternoon forecast" thing I mentioned earlier?  Me, too.  The sky was looking dark to the southwest.  We were enjoying our lunch when we heard the first rumble of thunder.  We gave it a few minutes while we enjoyed our food and the ambiance.  Then, a close and loud rumble..."Time to go!"

With the weather coming from the southwest, we decided to go east, enjoying the sweeping curves on Hwy 36 instead of going back on Iron Mountain Road.  It was the smart decision.

Back to the coach, and didn't get a drop of rain on us.  We sat out on the patio, finished our picnic, then Ruf enjoyed some time on Joan's lap while I got out an amazingly pretty Emerald Virtuo guitar and gave them a private concert...

Within an hour, the rumble of thunder sounded here.  We put stuff away on the patio, came inside, and closed the door... about 30 seconds later, the first rain drops started.  It turned into a solid rain.  Had we gone the other direction, it is very likely we would have been in it.  I don't know if I mentioned this before, but: I really don't enjoy riding in the rain.

The rain is supposed to quit by 7:00 to 8:00 this evening.  And then a dry day tomorrow.  Before the next rain on Thursday.  If you can believe the weather weasels.

I am glad to be on a nice paved pad in our motorhome.  I feel for all those people who are tent camping in all the Rally campgrounds, most of which are just a big open field that has been mowed down.  It doesn't take much traffic to turn that grass to mud in this kind of weather.

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It is "International Cat Day" today - or, as we consider it in our household: every day.  Rufus is well adored.