Miles yesterday: 200
Miles today: 125
Miles so far: 2560
If we hadn't taken the 4.30pm trip to the top of the Crazy Horse mountain, we wouldn't have been late leaving.
If we hadn't left Crazy Horse late in the day, we wouldn't have arrived into Hot Springs when all the restaurants were shut.
If we hadn't dashed to the only option for food, a takeaway pizza, we wouldn't have met pilots Ken and Dee, who do their "road tripping" well above the roads!
If we hadn't met them, we wouldn't have even thought of calling in at the Mid-America Air Museum.
But all those things did happen and today we had a personal tour from Bob Immell, Director of the aforementioned museum and a comprehensive explanation of this tiny jet plane that Ken helped to build and develop. In fact this is Ken's plane (he flew it in), to donate to the museum. What a great story. And all because we arrived late and starving into Hot Springs South Dakota. I have to say the plane looks proper scary! And cramped! And are those wings really long enough? They are apparently kit planes and only 12 are actually flying!
So thank you Ken and Dee for taking the time to talk with us over pizza and and thank you Bob for taking so much of your time to introduce us not only to this plane but the museum as a whole. We had a great visit, which we would not have expected, and nor would it have been half as good without the personal connections and engagement.
As it happened we were very glad of the break today at the museum. A short day on the bikes, organised primarily as we are all running out of clean clothes and so a laundry stop was scheduled. But I can also confirm today that Kansas and Oklahoma are hot, flat and windy!
The long and unwinding road.
So 125 miles rather than our customary 200 or so was very welcome and we duly arrived in Guymon, Oklahoma before 3pm. Oklahoma! My 43rd state! Yep, I'm pathetic.
So roll back 24 hours or so. Yesterday was a great day. Rob's birthday. He's 21 again and still acting like it. Breakfast at Oakley, which disappointingly is not named after Annie, although there was plenty of information about her so they have appropriated her for tourism.
But it does host the rather excellent bronze sculpture of Buffalo Bill Cody, he of the Wild West Show fame, shooting a bison/buffalo (Eric still insists they are bison - why is he called Buffalo Bill then? Why not Bison Bill?) in mid ride. Impressive sculpture, although sadly rather too celebratory of the almost total wipe out of the bison herds by the white man, for my liking. As ever history is written by the victors.
So after a splendid breakfast we headed further south to Monument Rocks Natural Landmark, only to find they are 7 miles down a gravel road and so, having been told in no uncertain terms we are prohibited from riding such roads, we bypassed this rather splendid natural wonder. That and we really didn't fancy a puncture up a gravel road in the middle of nowhere!
So onto Dodge City it was, hoping for a reasonably early arrival to allow us time to explore Boot Hill and its associated museum and surroundings. We thought we only had an hour and with so little time we headed off to walk the 20 minutes in the sweltering heat before we had showered. Most people gave us a wide berth! But as it turned out the museum was open for an hour longer than we expected, which at least gave us the opportunity to have a beer in the "Wild West" saloon.
Could have done with someone on the piano playing some honky tonk - Rob offered and was declined. Perhaps it was the fact that Eric and I also offered to sing! We also tried to buy a shot and slide it along the bar! No whisky (or whiskey) sold! And just by the way, its called a shot because it used to cost the same as a bullet so you could exchange a bullet (a shot) for a whiskey! So there!
Anyway Boot Hill Cemetery, final resting place of some famous old gunmen and another assorted miscreants, and the museum around it of the old "wild" west was worth the visit.
And whilst we had a mediocre meal to cebrate Rob's birthday we then found the Boot Hill Distillery, open to gone 11pm, almost unheard of in these parts, and hit the cocktails. Not too hard obviously, but we had sensibly arranged a late start today anyway, just in case!
And so here we are, in Oklahoma. Its roughly 38ºC again and we have thankfully found a rather nice hotel with a bar and grill right across the road. A relief as last night we stayed in the worst hotel of the trip - or indeed any recent trip. The Wyatt Earp Hotel in Dodge was a dump. But we usually find one on our travels. Its only merit was it was the closest to the centre of Dodge. But someone has definitely been massaging the reviews on booking.com. However it did at least give us the reason to say in unison as we left:
"Let's get the hell outa Dodge!"
Which sadly we discovered is a quote from an old 70s TV series Gunsmoke, and not as we thought uttered by someone like Wyatt Earp. Hey ho! Bye for now. Last picture of Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp. And a few silly selfies!
Me, Eric, Rob and Bison Bill!
The idiots at Boot Hill
The very same idiots on a random steam engine outside Boot Hill.
Can't even blame the selfie taking for these: Me, Rob and Doc Holliday.
Awful, just awful!
That's it for now. Tomorrow we start heading west again, our most easterly point having been Dodge City. We reenter Colorado and then the Rockies beckon again. Given the current heat we are all hoping for some cool again!
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