I don't need to get any closer to the monument for the view and I'm starting to feel that I want to be home. In my infinite wisdom it appears that I'll be able to get into Badlands National Park from the south side. Ha! I take some back roads and end up on Highway 40 south going through Red Shirt. I'm passing through reservation land with the occasional house. Ahead is a 'Road Construction' sign. Beyond that is no road. What they didn't explain is that they are thinking of putting a road in. Now there is just a dirt and gravel track through the prairie. I'm going to give it a shot. After all, how else will I be able to go through a town called Scenic. After 20 miles I'm starting to rethink this whole process. Side roads are no better and I haven't seen a car the whole trip. Now, I'm usually gave for this kind of thing, but this trip has a black cloud over it. I've still got oil coming out of the bike's rear-end and this would be a bad place to breakdown. I'm going to turn around and head up to I-90 toward the main entrance. Well, the scenery was good.

The entrance to I-90 is closed and a big convoy of vehicles has just headed down the service road. Fortunately, I'm far enough behind them that I just catch them at the next entrance and blow by them on the freeway. It's funny how you end up filling up at the same gas stations when you are 2,000 miles from home and I do that in Wall, SD. I'm not interested in the Drug Store even though they have a new T-Rex on display, or at least that's what the 10,000 signs on the freeway have said.

Down the road are the Badlands. This place freaks me out. On the one had it has this stark beauty. On the other hand, it's just plain weird and the green grass in the area is making it worse. So, one one hand you have a place with no water, few animals and high summer temperatures and then you have this green grass. The formations in the park look like a good rain would wash them away. They appear to be more dirt than stone. Thousands of years and they are still here. Go figure.

There is a lot of traffic in the park which again makes the motorcycle the vehicle of choice. I can pass the motor homes at will. At a store near the visitor's center there is a busload of retired folks walking around. I look at the bike and then the bus and know that this scene fits this park.

It's a long way east on I-90 to I-29 south, but I want to stay where the traffic is in case I have a problem with the rear end. In Sioux Falls I stop at a Honda dealer to check the oil level and start talking to some locals. They tell me that about 90 miles down the road is Bak BMW. My oil level is down slightly, but it is still leaking. I'm going to head to Bak's and see what is going on.

At Bak's they tell be that they don't have a breather in stock. It would have been nice if they would have looked at the problem. It appears to be a very small shop that might have just opened. I buy some oil and head to the Missouri Valley for the night.