Saturday August 4

Today we left behind all large cities, most bridges and the mountains and rode through the corn and wheat fields of Iowa and Nebraska before entering South Dakota. We ran into another couple from Palatka FL, at the Iowa welcome center... we stopped there to get a picture, but they didn't even havea sign.... These two were more "seasoned" bikers but nice enough as are most people we meet riding. She had her own bike, and actually seemed to be in running the show on this trip. I think they said they were camping at the Buffalo Chip Campground in Sturgis, so we may run into them Monday night, since we are going to a concert there.

When we stopped at Harley shop somewhere in Iowa, I heard someone calling out to Debbie, and it was the group from N. C. we had briefly met at the hotel earlier in the day. I imagine somehow we may run into them again before the trip is over

The only other problems, other than high winds bouncing us around most of the day was that we left the IPOD a the Travelodge. Debbie called the guy who promised to mail it home and add the postage our AMEX bill, may have been cheaper to buy a new IPOD.

We called ahead this morning to assure had a room in Sioux Falls SD ... so here I am updating these notes that I couldn't get to last evening. We showered early and had a real dinner with regular people tonight. That may not happen again for a few days.

We are both surprised at how well we feel after nearly 2,000 miles covered these past few days. only 4,000 or so to go. What do bikers do on Saturday night? After 5 days on the road, laundry.

We added a few travel pictures below. Not sure what the next few days will bring as far as time and Internet access so check back later in the week, and hopefully we will have some interesting photos of Sturgis and the scenery around here.