Apparently all of the walking around yesterday helped Hubby’s back, because he woke up this morning feeling pretty darn good, so we decided to take a short ride today, as we really hate to leave a place without riding at least once! I had found a mountain biker’s trail map and created a loop that was half Centennial Trail, half the biker’s trail, programmed it into the GPS and off we went! Passed a family picking wild plums, which I’d never seen before, and the mother gave me one to try. Small, with a big pit, and the skin was pretty astringent, but you could tell the fruit was going to be lovely with a few days of ripening. Reminded me of my persimmons back home, very astringent when eaten slightly green! We headed across a meadow on the clearly marked Centennial trail, having to go through several gates along the way, then a steep climb up the hill to a beautiful view of the freeway and the Black Hills to the south and west, and several places with a good view of Bear Butte, THE landmark for this valley, a geographical anomaly that looks like a giant sleeping bear in the middle of the plains, visible for many, many miles, probably why they chose to build a fort near it, so the troops could find their way home! Rode along the ridgeline for awhile, before coming back down the hill on a longer, gentler slope. Got a little unsure when we reached the road, but stayed on the Centennial trail, and following my GPS, went around a little pond where a young couple was sitting, then headed back up the hill again, though not as steep or long. Eventually we came to the top, which was mostly meadow, and finally came to the turnoff that took us away from Centennial and on to the biker’s trail, which was really more our cup of tea anyway. A fairly narrow, single track trail that hung onto the side of the hill for quite a ways, until we came around to a nice long meadow where we had a nice canter, then a switchback to take us parallel to the utility lines, then finally right back to the Centennial trail, and to camp. All told it was just about two hours, a perfect length for Hubby to see how his back went. He survived! We did some chores afterward, though, in preparation for our departure tomorrow, and by the time we settled down for the evening, he was a bit achy again, though no where near as bad as earlier this week. Just glad we had a chance to ride here, and to discover a number of other trails and grasslands for next time!

For the first time in four and a half years, when I reached for my bottle of water for a drink this morning, I didn’t suffer a twinge of pain in my shoulder! I’ve been suffering for so long, I’m not even sure how to deal with it! I sure hope this is hre to stay! I’ve been working on it almost every day, with miniscule progress that I sometimes wonder is doing any good, but apparently it has, because this is a major breakthrough! And what a great way to start my birthday! Hubby feeling much better, so we decided to do some special things today and try taking a short ride tomorrow. After a leisurely breakfast, we drove down to Ft. Meade to tour the grounds and stroll around their very comprehensive museum, which filled us in on a lot of the history of the area as well as the fort. Afterward, we drove down to Deadwood for a car show festival they were having down there, had dinner at a wonderful little restaurant (and former brothel) called the Deadwood Social Club for a fantastic dinner, (with a piece of cheesecake for my birthday dessert) walked the streets to view the cars, listened to a little music from the live stage, then headed out so that we got home just before the sun went down, and took care of the horses which were patiently waiting for us. Settled down for the remainder of the evening, though our satellite receiver died again, and the hard drive crashed, but we managed to get it on enough to watch live TV. Ordered a new one, due in Keystone on Wednesday. Indulged in a little brandy before getting to bed, after a fabulous day! Hoping to get a ride in tomorrow.

Hubby starting to feel better, I gave him a nice massage and we’ve been doing some stretches to relief what has now become a bout of sciatica. Felt much better by the end of the day, looking forward to doing some other activities tomorrow!

Another day of rest for Hubby, more computer work for me!

Spent the day working on logistics for future destinations and letting Hubby rest.

Hubby still having trouble moving around, so we spent the morning resting, though in the afternoon we had to take a trip into Sturgis to receive and send a fax so that he could claim a replacement hearing aid. We stopped at the Chamber first, and a very cheerful woman there suggested I go to the City Offices, which we did, and they were extremely helpful. We had a very nice chat with the ladies there while we waited to exchange faxes. A quick useless trip to the post office, then back to camp where we rested the rest of the day as well. Horses spent half the day on their anchors, half on their highline. Cleanup involves collecting manure and putting it in the dumpster provided, easy enough when you have the right tools, and we do! Relaxing evening for all!

Woke up with the alarm, but jumped out of bed immediately because when I heard a whinny (from Clio) and looked out my window, my bad boy Apollo was eating hay off the back of my pickup! He had escaped yesterday once, but I put on more line on the corral, but evidently on the wrong end, as he got out once again. I heard a vehicle, as well, apparently someone was concerned enough to follow him, though it really wasn’t necessary, as the entire campground is fenced in, with cattle guards at several road crossings, so he wasn’t going anywhere. Anyway, I got up and dressed quickly, tied him up near the corrals, and set about getting ready leave. We were out of there by about 8:10 Mountain Time (which, btw, is an hour later than across the Little Missouri River which the campground bordered, which is in Central Time). My phone has been reading Central Time the whole time we’ve been here, apparently the nearest tower is on the north side of the bridge. In any event, we headed south on the still very busy US 85 (which has had non-stop traffic on it the entire time we’ve been here, even throughout the night, including Sunday morning!), stopping at the intersection on the interstate to get gas and grab some breakfast. We had hoped for a fast food place because of our long drive today, but choices were limited (to one, essentially), so we stopped at the only restaurant we were likely to find between here and our destination, a hotel restaurant called Trappers, which turned out to house the “Trappers Hall of Fame.” Buffalo and elk were on the menu (though not for breakfast, or I might have tried some), and the atmosphere was pretty unique, lots of old western and trapping gear around, and the salad bar was actually a beautifully-lacquered wood canoe full of ice. Hubby ordered two blueberry pancakes, not realizing that one pancake was about 12 inches across, I just had a regular bacon and egg breakfast. When we were leaving, we noticed that behind the hotel was “Horse Lodging,” a row of corrals and run-in sheds for hotel occupants traveling with their horses. That’s one thing I really like about the West, few people are surprised that you’re traveling with a horse! Anyway, we crossed the plains uneventfully, stopping at Walmart in Spearfish, then gas at the Phillips, before taking the final 30 minute journey to Sturgis. Well, actually, it turned out to be a little longer than that, for reasons of my own making. I never found a park map for Ft. Meade, so I wasn’t sure where the horse camp was, so we ended up coming in the north side of the park. The gravel BLM road was a bit twisty, so instead of just diving in head first not knowing where we were going, I call the office and discovered the horse camp was just a half mile off the freeway along the south end of the park, so we decided to return to the freeway and go down two exits to #34, which, indeed, had us in the campground in no time. A very nice spot here, small but well wooded, with enough openings for Hubby to get a satellite signal with no problem. Highlines were already in place, but I ended up putting ours up underneath theirs, because they didn’t allow for as much movement as ours do. We were set up and settled in by about 5:30, though Hubby was struggling a bit, his hip hurts more now than it did when he fell a few days ago, so we put an ice pack on it and are keeping him medicated on acetaminophen. Watched a movie and went to bed, tired from the long drive.

Other than waking up to the applause of the awards ceremony that started about 8:30 am, today was a bit more like a rest day. I indulged in sleeping a little later, had pancakes for breakfast, and the only real chores we did was to get ready for our departure tomorrow. I was hoping to give the horses a quick washdown with some of the leftover water we had, but discovered that one of the barrels had been leaking, so we didn’t want to chance using it up for that. We gave them a good fly spray anyway, then settled down for the evening. We considered going for a short ride today, but Hubby’s hip was still a bit sore from one of his falls the other day, and I’m still feeling a bit tired as well, not having really had a day off yet. Besides, we’ve now ridden in three different place in North Dakota, so I guess we can say we’ve done the state now! Oddly, quite a few campers came in during the evening, surprising since usually on Sunday everyone leaves and we end up with the place to ourselves. Furthermore, they all seemed to want to park near us, rather than in the many other empty spots in the park. Weird! Looking forward to the Black Hills next week!

Bikers moving around before dawn this morning, apparently the start of the race was about 5:00 am, so we heard voices early. Then they all rode of into the sunrise, and it was pretty quiet the rest of the afternoon, with some folks drifting back during the day, but most arriving after 10:00 pm on a shuttle that carried all their bikes back with them. But not much rest for me today, though. Hubby read his Kindle all day, while I slaved over a hot sewing machine and accompanying iron, but once I hung the new drapes on our big side window, the temperature inside the RV dropped at least 5 degrees, probably much more! While we’ve done a great job staying in 70 degrees until earlier this week, the last few days here have gotten pretty hot, up to the mid-90’s, though luckily it does cool down at night to the low sixties, and the humidity has been really low, so it’s still been comfortable sleeping. Had enough sewing for a while though, the machine went back into the van along with the leftover curtain material by the end of the day!

Not surprisingly, getting out of bed was a slow process : -). The horses seemed no worse for the wear today, and we weren’t as sore as we thought we would be (thank heavens for tylenol and ibuprofen!), so we rested most of the day, except I spent a little time working on the drapes I started back in May at home. Lots of folks coming in during the day, as there is a 100 mile bike race starting here tomorrow morning (at about 4:00 am, apparently), so tents are going out all around us. A quiet bunch, though, very serious, so the day was uneventful (thankfully!)