Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

I wake to the alarm and get some journaling done while Ashley snoozes a bit longer. She puts a chicken in the crockpot upon rising and after a quick breakfast we head to the laundry mat to clean up – especially since we’re out of towels after cleaning up the water explosion from the other night!

I journal and she reads as the machines run.

Once finished we top off all of our water tanks, pack up and eat lunch while waiting for the chicken to be done. As soon as it is we unhook and head on out.

We would have loved to stay another day or two to get some hiking in through one of the wilderness areas. However, our Passport America discount wouldn’t have been extended for the campsite, so we headed on. Plus, this gives us something to look forward to during a future visit.

Just a few miles down the road, we stop at Hill City. It looked interesting on the way in, especially the sporting goods store. We explore an art shop and boutique, then in for camping gear. They have Jet Boil fuel bottles so we grab 2 to restock our dwindling supply. Ashley finds a great dress in the sale section – it will be much more comfortable than jeans – and it looks fabulous on her!

Following the recommendation of a couple at the campground we route for Deadwood, a “really cute city.” But if you aren’t eating out or shopping (and they have no bookstores) or gambling there isn’t much of interest that we could find. We stopped at the visitors center for a few minutes and headed on. Should have jumped straight on the interstate and bypassed some of the mountain roads.

On up the road to Bowman, ND. We plan on stopping here then riding on up to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, about 60 miles away. Only place for free parking is a truck stop so we pull on in.

We eat supper and I debate our options. We don’t save much money on gas by motorcycling and it will be both inconvenient and time consuming to ride. So we drive on. There’s a truck stop just a few minutes short of the park that we can sleep at to get an early start in the morning.

It’s been a long day of traveling, so shortly after pulling in we head to bed.