Day 5 Hardin, Montana to Rapid City, South Dakota

93* by afternoon

344 miles

We were on the road by 9 AM.  Yesterday, the truck passed its 100,000 mile mark. Weather was warm-81* before 10 AM.  Along I-90, a truck passed us carrying two kayaks and a full size refrigerator.  We wondered what they were doing for vacation. We’ve seen very little wild life but today, we smelled a skunk and saw a deer that didn’t make the dash across the road. In the afternoon, there was a small herd of antelope in the fields near the freeway.  In Wyoming, we drove along at 4500’ through the rolling hills beside the Big Horn Mountains. The town of Buffalo, Wyoming was on our list just as a place to have a beer. We found parking and walked around town looking for coffee and a chance to stretch.  Since it’s Monday, many shops were closed.  “The Busy Bee Cafe” was open so we went in and discovered that Buffalo is Craig Johnson’s (author of the Longmire book series made into a Netflix series) hometown.  We’ve seen the series and hope there will be another story this fall.  Sonny asked the counter girl if the Longmire series was filmed in Buffalo, but no, it’s filmed in Texas.  However, once a year, the cast visits Buffalo for a weekend to sign books.

Back on I-90, we noted the unusual names of side roads and thought about having to write your address out if you lived on Dead Horse Creek Road or Crazy Woman Creek Road or Crazy Horse Creek Road.

Sturgis, South Dakota was on this leg of I-90, so of course, we planned a stop.  The town is quiet compared to early August when the bike rally is happening.  Sonny found me a walking stick emblem  for my collection and he bought an unmentionable bumper sticker.  In Summerland, we found Camping World to look for a ladder and night lights but had no luck.  We got a campsite at Rapid City KOA, sat in the hot tub that nearly drowned me with it’s powerful jets and enjoyed breakfast in the KOA kitchen.

Continuing on I-90

We've passed many fields of hay.  Here's a stack ready for winter. 

Rest stop to stretch.

Buffalo, Wyoming is a small town on our list for no
 particular reason.  After we found 6 streeet parking spots for our rig, we wandered down the sidewalk looking for a coffee shop and  found "The Busy Bee".

The bar was marble decorated with bees.  Note the old

milk shake machine in the right photo.

Poster advertising the Longmire event in July.

Our waitress was a college student from Romania who was on a summer exchange program.

This mural made the creepy bathroom
more attractive.

The town had several statues of relevant events
 like the sheep being rounded up by the dog.

We had to take a cruise through Sturgis for old times. 

One of the hopping hot spots.

Long stretches of road gave me time to  practice my voice drills which  consist of 10 functional phases in everyday living to be spoken at 75 decibels. Another drill is to hold a note for at least 45 seconds and 60 seconds on a good day.
Sonny gets closer to 45 seconds every time we  practice!