Day 9: South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana

Today was a killer behind the wheel -- an insane amount of miles and stops. BUT I got back on schedule! One unforeseen complication: I ran smack into Bike Week. The big annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis had motorcycles spilling out all over southeast South Dakota. Extra traffic, extra noise, extra barking.



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I hope now that I'm into Montana -- and it's officially the weekend -- that the bikers are all settled in Sturgis now.

Since most of the driving was interstate, I don't have a lot to offer here. Usually this blog gets the mediocre and strange -- not much of either today. However, here are a few not good enough for primetime (the website):

I really love these guys - at a tire store in Rapid City, SD:



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These non-functional, stylized teepees were at at least two rest areas in South Dakota:



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The design of this sign in Sheridan, WY is not all that special but the animation was terrific. The chasing bulbs worked and "MOTEL" flashed/sparkled on and off with a red outline.



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So that bring us to tonight's "trail's end" but fear not -- there will be plenty more blog postings laden with photos when I get into Idaho and Oregon and get off the interstate. If you're still hungry for more photos, don't forget my agilitynut flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Once I get through Billings, MT tomorrow, it will be entirely new territory for me until San Francisco. Very exciting -- and there should be lots of quirky stuff for the blog.

Doggie report: they mostly got sandy, sagebrushy stops today. I did find a grassy area at Storybook Island and Nik got kids to throw his ball for about 20 minutes. He loves to involve strangers. Fixie got lots of lovin' in with the kids as well (she loves people more than anything). The other two dogs aren't interested in people at all and would rather hunt for food (Grip) and critters (Grem).