August 9th

Today we headed for Iowa and on into Nebraska. Russ and I agreed it would be better to stay out of South Dakota because of all the bikers on the road. Friendly as they have all been, there's just too many of them.

My son called today to warn us to use caution because there was an intense manhunt for three Arizona prizon escapees who were thought to be in the Yellowstone, WY area.

Once in Nebraska we drove parallel to I-90 and decided to continue this course as long as we could and eventually head north into South Dakota, hoping to find lodging for the night. Four hundred miles later we were hot, hungry and tired. Russ and I were beginning to feel hypnotized by the endless miles of corn fields so it was time to pull in for a break, stretch our legs and do some routine checks on the Triumph. It's a good thing we did because we found two of the tires leaking air at the valve stems. We were in Chadron, NE, less than 50 miles from the South Dakota state line. We added air to the tires and drove the car to the local tire repair shop "Quality Tire".  Dan Feist, the proprietor, searched his local distributor to try and locate some 165x15 inner tubes.  Of course, there were none to be found locally.  He did however find four tubes in Rapid City, SD.  Since we were in a small remote town, next-day delivery meant three to four days.  We opted to rent a car, drive to Rapid City, pick up the tubes and head back to Chadron, NE.  We picked up our rental car (Ford Focus) and proceeded to Rapid City.  Picked up the tubes and decided that since we now had a car with windows, power steering, power brakes, and air conditioning, that we use the opportunity to tour Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse parks.  We were not prepared for the well over one million motorcyclists that all converged on the area from Sturgis.  The parking lots at these areas were filled to capacity with not only the usual summer tourists, but also with additonal one million plus Harley Davidson riders that came in waves from Sturgis, SD.  We didn't stop at Rushmore; it was just too crowded but were able to find parking at Crazy Horse monument.  We were fortunate to have had a car with a/c as the temperatures climbed well over 100 degrees again.  As the day concluded we headed back to Chadron, NE which was well over one hundred miles.  We dropped off the tubes and checked in for the night at the hotel.