There was a huge motorbike festival taking place in Sturgis, close to Rapid City, when we returned. Because of this, motel prices had doubled and all the roads were full of bikers. On our last complete day in the US, we returned to the Black Hills and visited the Custer State Park. Our flight back to Norway was uneventful and we arrived filled with memories of a great holiday.

August 7, Wednesday

We woke up at 0815, and I had a shower before we left the hotel shortly after 0900. First we drove to the McDonald's at Wal-Mart, which unfortunately turned out to be full of flies, so instead we just drove to Buffalo and had breakfast at the McDonald's there (Egg, Bacon and Cheese Bagle Meal). Then we just kept on driving.

As we were coming towards the east, there appeared more and more motorbikes on the road. Apparently this was due to a one week biker meeting in Sturgis. Most of the bikers where driving without a helmet and any sort of safety equipment, very different from Europe where a helmet is mandatory. To see what was going on in Sturgis, we drove through it on our way. Except for an abundance of bikers and booths selling souvenirs, food etc, it didn't appear too interesting.

However, since Sturgis was only a short distance away from Rapid City we were worried that motels might be full, so we hurried on, arriving around 1400. We had a small booklet with list of motels and prices in Rapid City, and headed for Golden Hills Motel, allegedly costing 39-55$ for a room. They had vacant rooms, but the biker meeting appeared to have doubled the prices as we were given a price of 100 +tax. Checking with two other motels in the area, prices were 140$ and 170$ + tax, so we nonetheless decided to settle for one room at the Golden Hills motel (108$).

After settling in, we were all very hungry. Apparently the temperature was 42 degrees downtown so none of us wanted to walk around, so instead we drove up to the Rushmore Mall to find a restaurant. We opted for Diamond Dave's Mexican Restaurant which was a good choice as the food was excellent (Fajita Burrito). The waitress was called Paula and said she had Norwegian roots. She couldn't remember the exact place, but actually called her father to discover that they were from Nordfjord in Western Norway.

After dinner we walked around the mall for a while. As usual I headed straight for the book store and spent all the time there browsing through various books. At 1800 we left the mall and drove out to the Hertz at the airport to extend the car rental for one more day. This was no problem and we then returned to the motel. Parking the car, we walked towards the center.

It wasn't far downtown, but the area was very small and not very interesting. However, there were still a few shops and as usual we got into conversations with the staff once they found out we were Norwegians. On walking home, it started to rain heavily and we had to wait under a roof a while before coming back. We bought an ice cream at a cafe beside the motel and then relaxed in our room for the rest of the evening. The great classic movie "Back to the Future - Part 2 " was on TV and we watched all of it before going to bed.

August 8, Thursday

We woke up at 0830 and took it quite easy this morning. After withdrawing some money from an ATM we headed towards the Black Hills, stopping to eat breakfast at McDonald's on the way. It was very hot (33 degrees) today as well. We then drove to the Custer State Park (12$ for one vehicle) and drove around there for a while. Unfortunately, there were so many bikers around that the scene could hardly have been further from a true wildlife experience. However, we did see several hurds of buffalo (apparently undisturbed by the infernal noise the motorbikes were making) and lots of prairie dogs.

Eventually we drove out of the park and continued the short way south to Hot Springs. Architectonically the town was very interesting and special, with all buildings being made from red limestone(?). We had a lunch buffet at Pizza Hut, and since time was now 1430 we turned around and drove back towards Rapid City, only briefly stopping in Hill City.

On arriving in Rapid City, it was clear that rain and thunderstorm would start soon. Kirsten and Tina went into a quilting shop while Tor and me waited in the car. While they were inside, "all hell broke lose" and it started pouring and hailing down. Fortunately, it subsided after about 15 minutes and they were able to leave the store and walk back to the car. The temperature was now much cooler and quite pleasant.

We drove up to Rushmore Mall as the others wanted to do some last shopping, whereas I spent all the time browsing in the book store. Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy cheesecake for dessert tonight (as well as some supplies for the flight tomorrow), and then returned to the motel. We each bought a sandwich at Armadillo's across the road and took along to our room. Then we packed our bags for tomorrow and relaxed in the room (eating the cheesecake).

August 9, Friday

Today we were going home to Norway! We woke up at 0800 and everybody had a shower. For simplicity we had breakfast at McDonald's at Wal-Mart on our way to the airport. We arrived at the airport a little before 1000, just in time to return our Dodge Stratus. It had served us well during the whole trip, which had been 4500 miles long! The total rental costs was about 2200$.

Check-in went very quickly since we were so early, and we therefore had to spend two hours waiting at the gate. We still had some credits left on our pre-paid phonecard, so I decided to call my friend Arvid in Norway, just to use it all up. To my surprise, I was able to speak for a full 15 minutes!

The flight was noneventful and we just had enough time to walk through the Minneapolis airport and onto the Amsterdam flight. For some (lucky reason), this flight took only 7 hours, two hours less than in the other direction, and we arrived in Amsterdam at 0600. Then we had to wait four hours at Schiphol, which was rather boring. We had breakfast at McDonald's and easily noticed that we were back in Europe as the service level was quite different from what we had grown used to in the US and Canada. Prices were higher as well :-(

Our flight to Stavanger was delayed 30 minutes due to a technical problem, so when we eventually arrived we just had enough time to catch our plane to Kristiansand. Our Peugeot 106 suddenly seemed very small compared to the Dodge Stratus, and we almost couldn't find place for all our baggage! Tor had some initial problems adjusting back to manual transmission, but eventually we arrived back in Holum. Finally, we were back home! The holiday had been great, but it's always nice to be back!