After the Rally, Now What to do.

I woke up this morning not knowing what I should do. Should I continue west on my own? Or do I just go home to Nancy and the cats? To be honest, I really wasn't feeling like a long solo ride, so I told myself that I would ride west for half a day, and if I still wasn't sure what to do, I'd turn around and go home. 
I gassed up in Custer and took off for Newcastle, WY. I stopped at the SD-WY state line for a picture. While I was there, a young couple in black car drove past me, stopped, turned around, drove back past me, turned around again and as I was leaving, they stopped at the Wyoming sign.

I stopped in Newcastle at an auto parts store. I needed to buy a new 12 volt power outlet.

The one I had been using developed a short in the cord. The new one, on the left, eliminates the cord. Now I can use both the Xm radio and the GPS again

I took WY-450 past the Thunder Basin Coal Company's Black Thunder Mine.

In Wright, WY there's a mining museum. I didn't go in, but I did snap a few pictures of the large dump truck parked outside.

I left Wright on 387, then took 259 towards Casper, WY. I gassed up outside of Casper and while taking a break, I met a couple from Kentucky. They were riding a Kawasaki Vulcan. They had traveled from KY to visit a relative in UT, then up to Cody, WY.  They were on their way back home. They were going to be heading into heavy rain when they left the gas station, but they told me the weather was fine behind them. That was the direction I was going.
I took 26/20 west, and made a quick stop at Hell's Half Acre.

As I was getting off the bike and getting out my camera, the black car from back the state line went past, stopped, turned around and pulled into the parking lot. They were from Tennessee and had just been married. They were on their way to Yellowstone N.P. We talked for a bit and I wished them well and continued on my way. 10 miles down the road I made a quick stop at a WY wayside rest area. As I was waiting for traffic to pass by so I could continue west, they went by, honked and waved. I followed behind for a bit, but he was moving pretty fast. I ended up following about a mile behind them for quite a long time... We made good time. I turned off at WY-789 and took that down to Lander, WY.
I stopped for the night at the Holiday Lodge, where I got a very nice room with a 40+ inch flat screen, for a nice price.

After a little clean up, I walked next door for a dinner of steak fingers, baked potato and a trip to the salad bar. mmmmmmm

I don't know where I'll be tomorrow.

STN Rally, Days 3 and 4.

On Tuesday I took it easy. I went for a ride from Custer up to Spearfish to find a better chain lube. I had been riding in the rain and the chain was looking pretty rough. I'm not happy with the lube I had been using.  I picked up a can at the Honda dealer. I also discovered that my camera memory card was still in my netbook back in Custer, so I stopped off at Walmart for another card.
On the way back down to Custer I rode down Spearfish Canyon and 385. I stopped off at Lake Pactola for a break. The water in the reservoir was quite high.

I stopped in Hill City at Rico's Restaurant for lunch. They have great home made Mexican food.

From Custer, I rode into the Custer State Park on 16, then up the Needles Highway to 89. Down 89 to 16 and back to Custer.

After my ride, there were fellow members of the Sport-touring.net forum hanging around the parking lot BS'ing. At 1800 everyone walked over to the restaurant for dinner. That was followed up by more BS'ing in the lot.

Wednesday...

Today, 7 of us went on a group ride. We chose a route through Custer State Park. It was a nice 100 mile loop. Many of the roads are very narrow, and a lot of the other drivers on the road drive like they are the only ones on the road. They will stop and nearly block both lanes, while they try and feed the donkeys or photograph the buffalo.

For the most part the ride was enjoyable, but...
If you are close to this...

And the last 5 of 6 corners have been posted with this....

And you lose your concentration.... This can happen...

I came around a 15 MPH corner and found one of the riders from our group, lifting his bike up off it's right side. He had run off the right side of the road, at the exit of the corner. He may have had a bit of "target fixation" and ran onto the narrow grassy shoulder, and dropped the bike. He was fine, but the plastic on his bike was damaged, and his pride was hurt.

We continued on the ride and stopped along side Mount Rushmore for a picture.

The guy that crashed his bike rode back to the motel.

After the ride, there was more BS'ing in the parking lot for most of the afternoon and well into the night.