Wednesday July 29th Custer, Black Hills, SD

Last night the cloud rolled in and the sunset I was waiting for, didn’t eventuate. This morning we were woken at 5 with a huge thunder and lightning storm and torrential rain, but the rain didn’t last too long and by 7 when we got up it had cleared. All day it was cold, only 13 degrees at 11am…who said there was global warming! Evidently the temps aren’t rising much for a few days.

We took a scenic route into Rapid City, through the outskirts of the Badlands, passing by some deserted villages…not sure why but they always intrigue me. It was raining off and on, quite a grey day.

Went straight to the information centre in town and as usual got some ideas of where to go, as well as collecting emails. It wasn’t the weather for touring today, so had a quiet one. After pottering around town, headed into the Black Hills, climbing to 5000 feet through spectacular pine forests growing amongst the rocks. This is the country that some of the famous “western” battles were fought, and has been commercialised to a certain extent. Presume the Black Hills is named after the dark Ponderosa pines that cover them.

We stopped in Hill City which was recommended by the Info centre, and a good call. There were bikers everywhere, all kitted up today against the cold, and the town was full of Sturgis memorabilia and bars ready for the influx. The town though had a lot of excellent galleries featuring top artists and craftspeople, a pleasure to browse through.

Also a steam train runs from town up into the hills on the old railway line.

On the road to Custer we pulled into an antique store, quite something. Filled with a huge collection of old collectable items, and many other genuine antiques. Vaun, the owner was a “slice of life”, he turns 80 this year, but he didn’t look much over 70. Got some great photos of him and he pulled out a gun and a knife to use as props! He also carries a loaded gun! These are the real people, no tourist tackiness here.

With all the bikers in the area, we reserved the campsite, something that we don’t normally do. We probably may have got a site, but it was peace of mind knowing that we had our pad organised. It was a nice spot on the edge of the Custer State Forest, with towering rocks and pines all around us.