Since this is moving day, we had to get our luggage out at 6 am. We had a little delay getting everything brought down and loaded on the coach, but eventually things were sorted out and we got on our way.

Along the route over to Wyoming we passed through the small town of Sturgis, SD. This is the site of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which kicks off in the next week or so. It is projected that this year there will be over 1 million bikers attending the rally. Obviously this is a big deal for the local businesses, but there are some downsides also including violent crime, drugs, gangs, and all sorts of debauchery.

Our first stop of the day was at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This was named the first national monument by Teddy Roosevelt. It is a pretty amazing sight, rising abruptly from the local flat lands to a height of 876′, and of course the tower was featured prominently in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Most of our group took the 1.3 mile walk around the base of the tower. It was a fairly easy paved path, and the temperature was reasonable, but I was glad it was not any hotter. Folks in the group counted up to 8 climbers on the tower, but they were really hard to see. Once again our timing was good — the traffic coming into the site was really backed up as we headed out.

As we traveled back through South Dakota, we made a pit stop at Belle Fourche Visitor Center, which is located at the geocenter of the US – including Alaska and Hawaii. We took photos of folks standing on the plaque in the middle of the compass rose at the Visitors Center but later learned that the “actual” geocenter is about 21 miles north of Belle Fourche. Bummer!

After a long, four-hour drive, we made it to Medora and the Rough Riders Hotel. We only had a few minutes to get checked in before we loaded back up and headed over to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. This was quite an operation, with 540 people eating big rib-eye steaks. We were told that one evening they served 1130 people in one hour.

We followed this quickly-consumed meal with a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the outdoor amphitheater. After the tour we attended the performance of the “Medora Musical”. This is a popular and well-attended patriotic musical presentation featuring mostly country music. A highlight for many of us was a remakably acrobatic group of young men and boys called the Chicago Boys.