Day 28

Day twenty - eight, August 5, 2011

We decided to take our time leaving Denver and sleep in a little.  However, we mistakenly slept in a little too much and missed the continental breakfast at our hotel.  This was not a major problem because we once again referred to Rob's "Road Food" book.  This book has been so clutch and every single place that we found in this book and went to has served delicious food!  In fact Rob said that if anyone ever goes to another state or on a road trip he is going to rent out this book to them!  We searched for a new breakfast place in Denver and came across Duffeyroll Cafe.  Apparently Colorado is famous for their cinnamon rolls.  There is actually a place in Loveland, Colorado that sells an enormous plate sized megaroll.  However, the most elegant rolls are said to be at Duffeyroll.  There are several Duffeyrolls available - crisp- edged swirls of dough drizzled with maple, orange, even Irish cream frosting.  But the regular roll is said to be perfectly sugary and cinnamony and super- buttery!  Good thing they offered mini versions of all of these because there was no way we would be able to choose.  Once again point to "Road Food".

After leaving Denver, there was a point that we drove about two and a half hours and saw maybe 50 cars.  We were driving through towns that had less people living in them than students in Glen Rock High School. Nebraska was a little more exciting in that we saw a show of lights in the sky.  We were driving through bright blue sky's with big, white, puffy clouds.  Them we saw that up ahead there was a HUGE black cloud, but in every other direction of this one very large cloud were beautiful bright blue sky's.  But of course our route was taking us directly under the black sky's. As we got closer to the dark area a few rain drops hit our windshield.  This soon turned into giant raindrops pouring out of the sky.  Bolts of lightning were flashing in the sky ahead of us and because we were in flat open fields the wind was picking up the dirt.  For a second it almost resembled small tornados.  The clouds even looked like small tornados because parts were hanging down so low and they were so thin and gray that it looked like they were touching the ground in the form of a tornado.  The weirdest part of this sight was that as we were driving through the storm, every other direction we looked in was still sunny and bright.  We drove through the storm for a few miles and then emerged into the sunshine once again.  

After we crossed the border and South Dakota welcomed us, there was once again not too much to see.  During our first 25 miles into South Dakota we only saw 4 other cars on the road with us.  This trend continued all the way to our exit, where out hotel should have only been a  1/2 mile further.  As we got off the exit I began to think I entered the wrong address into the GPS because I did not think it was possible to have a hotel in such a small, secluded area.  As we drove down the road we passed by Chief Motel and I prayed that this was not where we were staying. Five second later Matilda said "when possible please make a legal U-turn." I knew then that the the Chief Motel was where we would be residing tonight!  Not only was this "motel" run down but it was filled with bikers.  I began to wonder if camping was really that bad.  I cautiously walked into the "lobby" and was greeted by a creepy man that appeared to have escaped the freak show at the carnival.  We walked over to our room and it was exactly what a run down motel room would look like.  The only positive is that were no bugs!!!  We sat in the room and tried to process everything we had seen.

A little later on we had to find a place to eat.  Rob was perfectly fine with his surroundings but I was quite skeptical.  I felt like everyone was looking at us and watching our every move.  We did stick out like sore thumbs!!! We walked through this town, it's population 1,800, and quickly decided on one of the 4 restaurants offered.  We chose Buglin' Bull Sports Bar and Grill.  Once again we surrounded by bikers and people who looked like they were stuck in the 80s.  Rob was amazed at how many bikers there were so he decided to see if there was a special event going on.  Upon further investigation he realized that next week is the beginning of the Sturgis Bike Rally.  This rally is the largest bike rally in the world and takes place in South Dakota.  Last year 750,000 people attended this rally! Bikers had been already showing up to prepare for the rally.  Now that that was settled we were able to go on with the rest of our meal.  The drinks were very cheap so we took full advantage of that and luckily the food was delicious!  We stuck around to watch the end of the Rookies game on the big screen and watched some SportsCenter and then headed back to Chief Motel!  Tomorrow Mount Rushmore and North Dakota!  Peace, love, and happiness, the Nomads!