Day 29

We were up, broke camp and were on the road by 8 a.m. Our campground was nothing but a pasture/hay field that has been converted. The tent camping area didn’t have any electric, water or hookups. We did drag a picnic table from another unused site. The showers/restrooms were about a ¼ mile away – very nice and clean. It was hard to tell how many total campers were in this campground but I would guess several hundred. They had an open pavilion bar/restaurant and a convenience store on site. This was just one of a hundred +/- private campgrounds near Sturgis to accommodate the rally crowds. It has been estimated that 700,000 people will visit Sturgis during this rally. This is a picture of the campground just before we pulled out.



We had made the decision last night to leave Sturgis a day earlier than originally planned. After some unbelievable, uncrowded, open riding so far in our trip – there was only so much of the traffic and crowds in and around Sturgis that we could stand. We had reached our limit. We headed towards Rapid City and again stopped at the Black Hills Harley Davidson to kill a little time and see some of the vendors that we didn’t have a chance to visit yesterday. This is a picture of a portion of the parking lot at the dealer in Rapid City.



Our ride took us southwest of Rapid City through the Badlands and Indian reservations until we hit Hwy 44 at Winner, SD. We crossed the Missouri River at Platte and in another hour we arrived at our destination in Parkston, SD. For the next two nights we will be spending time with Wayne and Diana Singleton, they live near Lafayette, IN. Wayne is a cousin and is a retired animal science professor at Purdue University and Diana is a retired high school teacher. They were my parents away from home while at was at Purdue. Diana is originally from Parkston and has family here. A couple of years ago her mother passed away and they purchased her home in Parkston. They make several trips a year to visit family and they scheduled a visit to coincide with our trip – and we’re thankful they did! It will be a nice relaxing evening and day tomorrow before our big push to St. Louis. Also, the bed, shower, laundry and excellent vittles will be much appreciated. For the past 6 years I have been coming to Parkston in November to pheasant hunt and have developed some dear friendships with her family and always look forward to visiting. Here is one of my favorite hunting pictures of Wayne and I after a great day in the field:



Diana cooked an excellent dinner for us and invited Pat (Diana’s brother) and his wife, Cathy. Pat has an insurance/real estate business and when I am out for pheasant hunting, he has plenty of places to hunt lined up for us. Later, Pat and Cathy’s son, Michael, daughter-in-law Audrey and grandson, Grady stopped by to visit. Grady is just a couple of days older than our grandson, Jackson.

Tomorrow will be a relaxing day – we’re looking forward to it.