July 3 - we left this morning at 830am. headed for South Dakota.    first chore - find an open Harley dealer. we found a couple on our travels that were closed.    from Iowa we went to Minnesota and then to SD.  finally we found one in Bergdale Minnesota.    bought a couple of things and rode on.
by the middle of the day we decided we would be able to do at least 500 miles today, to qualify for our second biker "merit badge."    completing 1500 miles in 36 hours.   since we did 1000 miles yesterday, we only had to do 500 today.  with only 2 hours to go we know it would be close.

harley dealer in Minnesota

Tony was on the phone with Shannon and Cliff to use google maps to figure out where we had to get to.  thank goodness for the 80 mph speed limit in South Dakota.  I'm not saying we would ever exceed the limit, but with 15 minutes to go we had to push it to the limit.   i didn't know at the time he was on the phone, so as we passed an exit with a gas station, i figured we blew it. who knows how far the next exit will be.   well his kids told him the next exit was only 2 miles away, with a gas station, and it would be over 1500 miles from home.    exited, filled up at 350pm, 10 minutes to spare.  we did it.    what a relief.  what a choreographed finish.

we continued on after that another 20 miles or so. found a hotel on the missouri river.  its a big fishing town. hotel filled with fishermen.  and the hotel offers free beer.  tony loves this place.  we went to dinner across the missouri, to Al's Oasis last chance Saloon.

back to the hotel, locked up the bikes, time to sleep and get ready for tomorrow. hope to ride through Sturgis, and get to wyoming.

ps i need a new ass
post script by tony

this is what the state of iowa looks like

you lookin for trouble?

crossing the Missouri River

lots of wind farms all over the place