2 Rv's to Junction City OR

... spending the night at Gillette WY ...

Morning. This place actually has hot food. Potatoes are in the warmer, the other warmer has wrapped breakfast sandwiches. But they are hot. I also grabbed my yogurt and juice.

So that, plus my left overs from last nights sandwich and coleslaw and I have plenty.

We go out and do our inspections and are out of there.

SD has the message screens for their scales, I get flagged in, BB doesn't even trip it because she is under 10,000#. The scale has been re-done and it is not clear what to do so I stop before the scale, stop on the scale and when the lights don't change and I don't hear anything so I leave.

I catch up to BB at the last stop light before our 1st stop.

1st stop is the Flying J in Sioux Falls for fuel. I can fuel with the big rigs with this one and get my discount. I have to wait for one truck but I pick the correct line, he pulls ahead so I can fuel and is gone when I am ready to leave. I pull over in the car parking area before I go in to get my receipt and use the restroom. I notice a man walking past as I talk to BB, then I see him again as we are leaving. Sitting on the entrance ramp to the freeway.

2nd stop is Chamberlain at the rest area. Quick stop. We are starting to see more bikes as the morning goes on.

My mpg started at 8.7, went up to 8.8 but spent most of the day back down at 8.7. Finally after we got into WY and out of the head wind the mpg went up to 8.9.

3rd stop is at the Pilot in Murdo for BB to fuel and Subway. Bikes everywhere. It is lunch time. BB fuels, I park. There is one other truck parked where I do backed up against concrete median type walls. I'm barely parked and BANG. Another truck backed in and hit the wall at a good speed. I'm guessing he was thinking he would back up until he was even with the truck next too him. Their trailers were the same length but his tractor was almost half again as long as the one next to him.

I end up going in and waiting in line before BB is done fueling. And there are still a dozen people ahead of us when she gets in. We order to go and sit on the steps of the RV. Seemed like a long wait but she fueled in 15 minutes and we were done eating within our 30 minute break.

Lots of shapes and sizes of bikers. One I noticed was an 80 (?) year old lady with a mid-rift top and short shorts. Not a good look for someone that age. Also noticed 'bikers' who must have been hauling their bikes because I don't think they could still hold them up and ride. Also noticed one couple on a bike where the rider was leaning one way, (so they could see) and the driver was leaning the other. I would think that would get old real quick.

At times we would see lots of loners. Other than those, most seemed to be in groups of a half dozen or so. Biggest group I counted was 15. Mostly single guy drivers, but a fair amount of two to a bike and most groups seemed to have at least one gal riding solo.

4th stop at the Flying J in Rapid City. We had planned to park in the back with the trucks if it was too crowded with bikes. Nope, the only bikes were at the pumps.

In the parking lot there was a great big tent selling Trump merchandise, this isn't MN.

While stopped, I call the bus dispatcher, I still have not been paid for the fuel on my last trip. And I call the dispatcher who has trucks in Portland going to Billings, leave a message with both. I had also messaged the guy on the Portland trucks this AM. Also tried to call the motel in Gillette but if I have to hit any numbers after dialing, I can't. So I didn't get through to anyone on that call.

More bikes the closer we got to Sturgis. The Harley dealer in Rapid City looked like a county fair with all the big tents and semi's in their parking lot and in the adjacent lots.

Lots of cops, but didn't see any with bikes pulled over. Saw one that really didn't make sense. First I notice the cop coming down the ramp with its lights on, then I notice a car taking a U-turn on the freeway before pulling over to stop for the cop. If the cop is already after you, why add an illegal U-turn to the ticket?

5th stop is at the Port of Entry at Sundance. I go across the scale and the light doesn't turn red until I am almost off of the scale. I thought I was going to have to back up, but then got the green. Same happened to BB but they did make her back up.

Inside only one of the three behind the desk was taking cash, the other two were credit card only and we got those two. I guess it is up to the person now. Interesting that my person wouldn't take cash, but wasn't wearing a mask. Hmmm.

BB commented on this later and it seems the one person who said they would take cash, actually wasn't. So it wasn't an issue for them, but the location, not the person, gets to decide on cash or credit.

6th and final stop is Gillette. I thought I was going to be doing fine on fuel so BB stopped to fuel while I went to the motel. Not directly to the motel, I hadn't looked at the map and got off at the wrong exit. BB was waiting at the fuel stop until I gave the OK that I could park at this motel. The lot didn't look very big and she thought it was on a hill (it isn't.)

I pull in before looking at all the options. I am able to go ahead and back up to get around the corners because there are no cars. So instead of parking that direction, I head back out the drive and then back down the drive so I am facing out in the AM. One transporter is sort of messing things up with their parking ... but we walk past later and see bags worth of floor dry under his truck. I guess they parked where it landed.

There is a deer feeding right next to where I park, the breaks and noise don't seem to bother it. When we come back with our food later it is laying in the grass a dozen feet from the drive as we walk past. It lays there.

After we are checked in, I call the Mexican place across the street but no answer. So we walk over, someone is taking phone orders but either I had the wrong number or they were already on the line. We have our food in about 15 minutes.

Good food, but tonight I eat it all. Other options were Hong Kong Kitchen, Subway, Pizza Hut and Burger King.

If we had driven the same amount of miles each day, we would have spent tonight in Rapid City. Once I reminded BB of the motorcycle rally this week ... and the price of the motels ... we decided to make a long day of it and get to Gillette.

Out here, this weekend, it seems that a campground is just a mowed area with a outhouse somewhere. Hundreds of tents and campers and the closer campgrounds. A few miles away and the campgrounds are not so full.

Now that we are in the motel we look at fuel and find that the cheapest fuel for me is where BB fueled tonight, so back I go in the AM. Fuel there is cheaper than the truckstop after my discount this time.

Load board

US - 267

IA - 97

MN - 8

WI - 9