At Rest Again

A funny day.  After yesterday's storms it was lovely to see a beautiful clear day.  75℉ at 8am!  I put my still very damp denims in the sun and they were dry in no time.

This is taken at that time on the road outside the motel:

I have since realised that as well as the County Courthouse, the County Jail is housed there.  It sounded like they were having a party today, but it may just have been a riot.

After a leisurely breakfast I took the bike to the car wash and got it pretty clean for the first time in a while.  It's just so much better to ride a clean bike.  I was to take the bike at 10 to get the new tyre, sorry, tire, fitted, but he warned I might have to be patient.  Although it doesn't come naturally I was indeed patient - for three hours.  I managed to catch up to the current edition of the Economist.  At least it wasn't as expensive as I feared it might be, and he did fit a new crush washer, which I hope has done the trick.  They were also dishing out free pizza, so I didn't have to worry about lunch.

I resumed my interrupted run through the Black Hills:

Since I was passing Mount Rushmore I took a pic, but I think you'll have to take my word for it, since it is not very clear in that light.

This is a profile view of Mount Rushmore.  You can just make out George Washington if you look closely.

The rest are just random scenes in the hills, or rather the Black Hills National Forest.  I think it's different from a National Park because the big rocks have big trees on them.

It was actually quite busy, probably because it is the weekend.  With low speed limits on all the roads it just turned into a procession.  Most road accidents are collisions between vehicles.  One way to avoid accidents is to stay away from other vehicles.  Since I couldn't put any space between me and other vehicles I went home.  It was quite late anyway by this time, so I just spent the rest of the afternoon reading.

I forgot to take my phone when I went out for dinner, so used the iPad to take some photos.  The town has a fixation with presidents - US, of course.  There are statues at lots of street corners, and a Presidential Information Center.  Here's some of the statues:

There's also a couple of nice old buildings.  This former Fire Station is now a brew pub:

The sign says "Welcome to Art Alley.  Painting permit required."  One way of dealing with a graffiti problem.

I guess tomorrow will be another busy traffic day at tourist spots, but it doesn't matter as I'll be a tourist for the first couple of hours before it is too busy.  Then I will leave the tourist spots for some roads less travelled.  Meanwhile, back to my book.