Trying to Leave

It is now July 26 and time to leave Custer State Park after 5 lovely days and head to Montana via Deadwood, Sturgis and Battle of Little Big Horn.  Well, that was the plan, anyway.

We left Custer and drove onthe Needles Highway which we were told was quite a wonderful drive.  Little did we know it was SPECTACULAR.  The Eye of the Needle is just that. And the road to get to it wass like nothing we had ever driven through.  Not a tunnel, but a crack in the rocks that cars wedge through.  It then opens onto a pull off full of cars and people standing in the road waiting for a car to drive through so they can take the photo to give the road a bit of perspective..  Even the road after that strange part was exciting as we had to go through a very small tunnelI jumped out of the car and held up traffic while I ran ahead through the tunnel for this shot.

Next on to Deadwood, which everyone told us was quite hokey and ful of casinos.  But it did have Moriah Cemetery and the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. 

Then on to Sturgis, where in a week will take place the 50,000 person motorcylce rally.  And this is where our plans drastically changed.  Pulling out of the supermarket parking lot and driving off we were told by a biker that we had a flat tire on Celeste.  We pulled into a large parking lot and sure enough, our new tire was destroyed.  David tried to lift Celeste by putting her littl foot down, but there was too much weight on that side.  As David was trying different methods to raise her up, along came two cowboys...and a forklift.  They scooped up our little Celeste, David put on the spare tire and off we tried to go.

However, we were stopped several times by folks driving by to point out that Celeste was listing to the right.  We decided to buy a new tire in Sturgis so that we woud have two of the same and correct the list, so we thought.  However, the only tires available were in Rapid City (which the locals call Rapid).  So, off we went to the Bargain Barn, where, upon removal of the spare, we found that the Leaf Spring had broken in half, causing the tire to catch on the frame on shred.  So...now were were looking at repairs on Monday morning. since we had to have two new springs built for us. 

As David and I were talking to each other about where to stay and how to camp, one of the workers offered to let us tcamp in the pwork area in front of teh garage, and he gave us the keys to the shop so we could use the bathroom and left the electricity on so we could plug Celeste in overnight.  (Later that evening, on the way back to Camp Bargain Barn, I feared that the store was alarmed and he had forgotten to give us the code.  I called and he assured me that they had no alarm.)  Funny thing is, he had us park directly under the night security light. 

So, we set up camp, went off to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then to see the Dark Knight, our existential comic book experience.  We went to that movie because the guy in the convenience store told me it was better than Lord of the Rings.  (For those of you who have seen No Country For Old Men, please think of that movie when seeing Dark Knight...Ellen as movie critic). Just to add to the escitiement, there was an extreme storm warning for Rapid City that evening.  it seems that every evening in SD there has ben stormy weather.  This time with major winds. 

Sunday its back to those bad-lands which we missed before and to Bear Butte (which I call bare butt) state park for a long, long day and even longer night at Camp Bargain Tire.