Day Two – Murdo SD to Buffalo WY
Miles: 444
Elapsed Time: 12:10
We headed out early, as normal, and had what might have turned out to be the best breakfast of the trip. We were really hungry and the Star Family Restaurant served up a nice and hearty breakfast at a reasonable price. We stopped for gas before getting on I-90 and began heading west. After about 20 miles, and not yet 8:00 we were into the mountain time zone and gained an hour. We went directly to the Badlands and stopped at two different spots as we toured through the park on SD245. Steve and I had been through the park on several occasions but I always find it strangely unique and always worth a view. Jim seemed to be impressed as well.
Once on the outskirts of Rapid City we stopped for a quick gas up and entered into the Black Hills area. Riding in this area is always a joy, and we were giving the throttles a good work out. Once into the town of Keystone the traffic began to pick up as we were nearing Mt Rushmore. We had already decided we were not going to go into the park so we stopped on the approach along with several other motorcyclists to take a few pics. It was becoming rather congested so we took our pics and moved on. Just around the bend there was a nice turnoff that was not very crowded so we stopped there after first passing it by before turning around. We had a good view of the side of General Washington, and we walked around a little while climbing some rocks in the area.
It was good to stretch our legs a little. We were back riding by 11:00 and headed toward Deadwood where lunch and a cold brew waited for us. We rode directly there and greatly enjoyed the ride. Nice twists and great scenery as the miles melted away. Soon we were in Deadwood and looking for a spot to eat. Having done research I knew a couple of the popular spots, but it was the first time we had actually stopped in Deadwood. We targeted Saloon No. 10, but once we got there we saw so many options we just decided to walk around a little and see what looked good. The No. 10 Saloon didn't look like anything special so we stopped at the Gold Nugget for a cold one and a quick bite. Back on the bikes, the great riding continued for a little while longer before we ran out of the Black Hills and into the less hilly areas north of I-90. It becomes fairly flat and fairly straight before we start heading west on SD34/WY24; there we were getting back into the hills and also picking up the pace. We stopped just past the entrance to Devil's Tower to take a few pics.
This is always worth a pic, but one can only take so many pictures of it before it is time to ride. As we moved further away from Devil's Tower and more into the interior of WY the mountains continued to disappear and we found ourselves back on the interstate. We stopped in Gillette to gas up and also have a beer at the Gillette Brewing Company. It was an old post office building and they served a nice beer. We arrived to Buffalo around 18:00 local and had plenty of time to walk around town. We grabbed some beers to go and headed back to the hotel to relax and we ordered pizza for dinner. Because we rode so hard on the first day our entire second day of riding was all really good.
