On our last day in South Dakota, we made the trek up Highway 85, to our 80 acre parcel of prairie, lovingly called, “The Homestead”. I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve taken from the bike of this road, and how it seems to stretch for miles into nowhere.
Today I noticed that off in the distance, Bear Butte was visible, which is at least 50 miles away. Not the best shot, this is another one handed attempt at a photo from the bike.
Our first stop, as always, is the Crow Buttes Mercantile, an awesome little store and gas station that always reminds me of a mirage in the desert. There is literally nothing else around for several miles. Screen doors, creaky wood floors and homemade burgers and shakes, amongst other things. On an old wooden kitchen table inside is a notebook filled with entries from past visitors from all over the nation. Love this place!
Our little slice of heaven is six miles off the main highway down a gravel road, and like many, many roads out here, a cattle guard marks the entrance. We have come upon dozens of cattle in the road, waiting until they scatter as we approach, and this time it was sheep. Lots of sheep.
We approached our land and walked the front property line for a while. For the first time ever, I had a 4G signal, out here in the middle of nowhere. (Thank you, Verizon!) Not only was I able to key in our coordinates into Google Maps and get our position realtime as we walked around, I created a check in on Facebook. Ha! Welcome to Howell Ranch.
On the ride back out to the highway, a herd of about five or six antelope were speeding up along side us. I honked my horn, unsure if Bill saw them. Sure enough they darted across the road right in his path. The photo is grainy, as I had to zoom in quite a bit, and my timing was off by a split second.
We were approaching a fence and another cattle guard, so we stopped, knowing they would have nowhere to go. They ran back on the other side from where we came, and I got a better shot as they ran by. I’ve never seen that many together before!
As we hoped, we did run into our neighbors to the east, the Thompsons, owners of the Broken Box Ranch. We chatted a while as the sun set, but soon had to say our goodbyes. It would be an early morning, and we had bikes to pack.
Until next year!
Nice piece of land and the neighbors look very friendly too.
VStarLady recently posted…A Moment …
The open road out there looks amazing! Looks like the perfect place to ride 🙂
🙂 Instead of boring, I find it mesmerizing. To me it’s like sitting on the beach and watching the horizon. I could stare at it for days.