Livin' Our Dream...: Happy birthday to me!

Woke up to a beautiful day in South Dakota thanking the Lord for another year under my belt and the epic birthday adventure I'm on! We cooked breakfast then headed out about 10:30 to ride to Spearfish Canyon (one of my favorite rides here) and Deadwood. Before we even got out of the city limits, some lights popped up on our motorcycle so Kenneth pulled over and tried to figure out what was wrong with it. He decided to head for the Harley dealership; fortunately we were only six miles from it and ended up leaving it there to get the water pump replaced. Another reason to thank God...we could have been two hours from town in Spearfish Canyon! Curt and Lisa ended up riding back to the camper to get their truck to come back an pick us up. It was 2:00 and we were all hungry so off to Murphy's Pub for lunch and drinks. This Monday turned out to be the hottest day here (the temperature showing on Curt's dash was 107!) so instead of doing our planned Tuesday ride to the Badlands on the motorcycles, we drove to the Badlands in the air conditioned comfort of Curt's truck today! Right before we got there, we were stopped by a fire that was started by, Kenneth found out later on the news, a woman who had lost control of her motorcycle, went off the road and crashed into the fence. She was airlifted out and the last we heard, she was in the hospital so I pray she is OK. They finally got the fire under control and we were on our way. The Badlands is also one of my favorite rides...lets face it, though. EVERY ride here seems to be my favorite...:) Our goal was to go to the little hole in the wall bar we visited in 2016 with Rita and Bubba to get a picture of the dollar bill with our names on it that we put on their wall. When we got there, we found the bar closed up, but went to the bar right down the road and put a new bill up on their wall. After a ride through the Badlands it was on to Wall to wander around and shop a bit, then back to the camper for dinner. It was one of my best birthdays EVER!!!

Hanging out with Teddy Roosevelt while Kenneth tries to fix the bike.

Mum sent a birthday card with me that I couldn't open until my birthday...it's so pretty!

Mum is having fun with Audrey! Jenny and Mike have her for five weeks while I'm gone.

It's supposed to be cooler up here...107?!?!

Great stop for my birthday lunch!

This fire spread so quickly, but the fire department and the ranch water trucks finally got it under control. I can certainly see why there are so many fires up here every year - the dry heat and the wind are crazy bad.