We've been seeing hundreds of motorcyclists, mostly on Harleys, for the past couple days. At first we thought a few might be die-hard SCA folk going to Pennsic, but as we discuvered tonight, they're headed to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the 62nd annual Sturgis Rally, an event which, among other things relevant to the participants, was relevant to us because the two hundred thousand motorcyclists needed hotel rooms, and so every hotel in the eastern half of Wyoming and the western half of South Dakota was booked solid. This we find out when we're a stone's throw from ground zero, past 11 at night, with nowhere, we discover, to sleep.

Thanks to Sara, a very kind helper at one of the hotels in Gilette, Wyoming, we found one room available in Keystone, South Dakota, and now, after another 170 miles of driving, we're in the hotel that we're sharing with about 80 'cyclists.

All told we saw some amazing sites today, not the least of which was ascending an 11,000 foot elevation mountain pass that really felt like the top of the world, a pizza place in Montana that seemed so Californian that we asked our waitperson if the owners were from Califormia which, as it happens, they were, though 20 years removed.

We also laid about 640 miles of asphalt behind us, and are looking forward to another long stretch tomorrow after seeing Mt. Rushmore, the Crystal Caves, and, of course, Wall Drug.

Err, I mean, today. Damn. I need to get to sleep.

Oh, and keep those SMS pages coming. We have literally had no cellphone coverage for nearly two days, but I'm looking forward to the flood of messages that come in when we reach a large enough city, probably Minneapolis on Thursday...

Take care!