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Great 6th day

Gorgeous day today – sunny all the way – even peeled off some layers off of my gear – too hot 🙂
Went through the Badlands National Park and through Black Hills National Forest where Mount Rushmore displays the face of 4 American presidents sculpted on the face of a mountain. Beautiful and such a refreshing change from the flat and straight roads of eastern South Dakota.
Very annoyed with my headphones (Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi) – it’s the 3rd time they break on me – fortunately the company sends me new ones – and fortunately I brought some extra sets – but annoyed because they simply sound amazing and block outside noise like no other… Small things that really put you in a bad mood in a trip like this.
Another annoying thing is my card that has been cloned – probably in Miami – had to cancel it and send faxes to Citibank so that they can open the investigation – fortunately I have a second credit card that I can use!
In any case – small stuff compared to this amazing trip I am taking – cannot complain at all 🙂
The bike is riding amazingly well and very comfortable.
Interesting how everyone appreciates the bike around here – back in NY no one had the slightest clue of what kind of bike it was – no one had ever heard of KTM – here everyone asks if I like the new 990, say they have some smaller dirt KTMs at home and so on… guess it’s all in the kind of riding people do… NY is all about Ducatis and speed bikes… middle America is all about off-road and extreme sports I guess.
Off to dinner and then going to upload some more photos and pictures of the day 🙂

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Day 7

Exciting day ahead – Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore 🙂

Not too many miles today – want to take photos and absorb the scenary
today 🙂

Sun is strong and that is the forecast for at least a day or two 🙂

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Day 5 – cross winds

Ufff – very long day again – half dry half wet – and a LOT of cross wind – actually driving most of the time with the bike leaned over about 20 degrees – annoying mostly because of the noise it creates around the helmet – very annoying.
The gear is holding up very well – even the Alpine Star glove is holding up – the trick is to put the jacket OVER the glove and not how it’s “designed” to be worn, glove over the jacket. The problem with that is that the water starts dripping into glove…
In any case – stopped at a small town called Murdo in South Dakota.
Again decided not to camp due to my wet gear and because the camping sites were truly depressive… and no internet… maybe tomorrow… hehehe… lets see.

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Rain

So it looks like another 100 miles or so of rain. At least it only
started an hour ago. I'm in Mitchell – west of Salem on the map…

Having a burger…