June 16th. Morning was nice, had tea, coffee, and nuts for breakfast. Showered - yea! Took off around 9:30. We opted for 44 over I-90. We had to get on I-89 for 1 mile and the speed limit was 75 and it was busy. Was glad to get off. 44 through South Dakota was beautiful. We were making amazing time, noticing tons of water along the sides of the road and that it seriously smelled like sea air. There must be salt deposits. Suddenly there was a road closed ahead sign (water on the road) but no detour sign. We tried continuing on 44, even going through one of the water sections that was about 6-8 inches deep. But the real water was ahead. What had been a small river was enraged by all the rain they had, and it was now flowing over the bridge. And it was fast and rather deep, feet rather than inches. We had to find an alternate route. We met a local who besides being rather colorful gave us some sketchy directions, which with our GPS eventually got us to the town of Menno where we got some other directions around the water. Almost all the roads were closed at some point, except the interstate. We found out that Menno was named so because of a mistake the railroad made years ago. The sign of Menno was supposed to go to a town that was predominately Mennonite, and Freeman was supposed to be dropped there, but they got switched and have stayed that way ever since. They kept trying to send us on a gravel road, which would have been the shortest route. Kept saying it was "good gravel". No gravel is good gravel on a motorcycle as far as I am concerned, even the dual sport. We were on our way again after the 20-30 mile detour. 44 once again was gorgeous, curvy, and empty of cars for tens of miles. Met a guy on a V Strom, think his name was Steve Miller, and he rode with us for a little while and gave us some tips on routes to choose.
It's not the deer, it's the killdeer
On 44 there were plenty of animals and we were warned about the deer, and there were deer crossing the road, but it was the birds that were the greatest threat. Pheasants running out across the road, and killdeer flying out from the brush in front of the bikes. Cows watching us everywhere we went, several deer, one snake, and some bisons, and badlands we have arrived.
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