DAILY BLOG:
Wednesday Night - 7.15.09:
Everyone is making their list and checking it thrice. I just put the August magazine to bed and now it's just a matter of hours before we leave. The bikes are packed, filled with gas, and awaiting us. I am always a nervous wreck the night before, but once I mount the bike and hit the road the nervousness turns to excitement and anticipation. I have checked the 10 day weather forecast and it looks like we are going to have great weather. Highs in the mid 80's and lows in the 50s & 60s. The low in Red Lodge, MT at the foot of Bear Tooth Pass will be mid 40s. That means it will be in the teens or 20s at 12,000 feet. We have all our winter gear, so we are up for the challenge. We outta here at 5:30 am. I'll upload tomorrow's pics and post again tomorrow night.
Rock
Thursday - 7.16.09 - (Pages 1 - 9)
We got up at 4:45 and planned to leave at 5:25. We were to meet Moleman in front of his house at 5:30. I went down to the bike at 5:10 to put the last few bags on and double check my checklist. When I tried to shut the tour pack the latch wouldn't catch. I tried in vain to fix it so I took a bungee cord and held it closed. I'll fix it when I get to Cedar Rapids, IA, 750 miles away and our first nights stop. Strong storms woke me up at 2:30 am and I was dreading having to start out in the rain. When I checked the radar the night before it looked as if the rain would be passed by the time we left. It was so. It was in the high 60's and balmy when we hit I-24W. The wings performed flawlessly, except for the tour pack. Moleman's Electra Glide and Frosty's Buell held their own. We hit Nashville just before rush hour, then knocked out Paducah. We stopped an hour south of St Louis and ate lunch. We were detoured in St Louis which added about 30 miles to our first day.
About 30 min west of St Louis we exited 70W onto State Rd 61N. This was divided four lane but move like Hwy 111 at home. We finally pulled in our motel at 6:00 est, after being on the road for 12.5 hrs including stops. We are dinner at a Mexican restaurant next door and hit the sack early. We will leave at 7 am (est) for our second day ending in Rapid City, SD. We only have a 700 mile day tomorrow.
Rock
Friday - 7.17.09 - (Pages 9 - 34)
We were up at 6 am and ready to hit the road at 7:00 est. The temp was in the low 50's so we all donned cold weather gear which we had on for most of the day. We took I-380N to 20W then 20W to Fort Dodge, IA where we took 169N. We followed 169N into Minnesota and picked up I-90W which we followed to Rapid City, SD. Tomorrow we will cross Wyoming & Montana ending up in Missolua, MT. It will be our last 700 mi day until we head for home on Friday the 23rd. The pics today are of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Yes, we got sucked in by the Corn Palace signs and wasted a little time going there. It sucked. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't it. When you feel like you were ripped off for something you saw for free you know there wasn't much to it. The highlight was getting out pictures taken in front of a 7 foot corn statue. If you are interested you can check out http://www.cornpalace.com
Rock
Saturday - 7.18.09 - (Pages 34 - 76)
We left Rapid City around 8:30 est. We always stay on Eastern time. Since we are on vacation the time where we happen to be means nothing to us, we want to know what time it is at home. I had intended in us going I-90 W to 212N at Belle Forche. There was some major road construction on a nine mile section with a 45 minute wait. I decided to take I-90W all the way to Missolua, MT. The scenery was great today. Wyoming is great, but Montana is fantastic.
Rock
Sunday - 7.19.99 - Glacier National Park - (Pages 76 - 92)
We were up before daylight. We headed west on I-90 and then took 93N to Glacier. There was 9 miles of road construction (gravel and broken pavement) around Arlee, but once through that it was open road. Since we hit the construction at 6 am local time on Sunday morning there was no traffic and no workers to contend with. All we had to do was negotiate the bad sections. Glacier was spectacular. Pebbles took close to 700 pics today. They are an accurate as to what we saw, now if we could just capture the smell for you. The aroma of spruce and other evergreen trees engulf you. The air is crisp and clean. It's just an amazing experience. Now, it is if it was just a dream. I am so glad that we all got to experience "The Road to the Sun". The elevation is 6646 feet at Logan's Pass which is the highest peak. To put it in perspective, the Cherohala Skyway is 5400 feet at it's highest point. Tuesday, we will be heading over Bear Tooth Pass which is close to double the elevation of Logan's Pass. After descending we had about a 2.5 hr drive south to Great Falls, MT where we have stopped for the night. Tomorrow, it's on to Red Lodge, MT - low 47 degrees. We have had great weather to date, no rain and only one day in the mid 90's. Tomorrow, we'll talk again.
Rock
Monday - 7.20.09 - Great Falls, MT to Red Lodge, MT (Pages 92 - 137)
We weren't expecting a whole lot of great scenery today, but to our surprise it was fantastic. We took 87/89S out of Great Fall, MT to 89S. We followed 89S through Lewis & Clark National Park through Neihart, Ringling, Wilsall, and Clyde Park to I-90E. Lewis & Clark Park was fantastic. There were evergreen forests with trees over 100 feet tall. Streams were abundant and the roads had hardly any traffic except for us. It was cool and we were in winter gear for most of the morning until the sun heated things up. From I-90E we took 78S into Red Lodge, MT where we stopped for the night. Tomorrow is Bear Tooth Pass, St Joseph Highway, and the Big Horn mountain range. Everyone is beat, so we are going to bed early to get ready for tomorrow.
Rock
Tuesday - 7.21.09 - Bear Tooth Pass - Chief Joseph Highway - Big Horn Mountain (Pages 137 - 194)
As usual we were up early. This trip is about riding and seeing as many things from the saddle as we can cram into a day. We left at 7 am local time to a beautiful clear morning. We could see the top of Bear Tooth as we approached. No fog or clouds was going to mean great visibility and excellent pictures. It was 47 degrees when we left and normally it's 20-25 degrees colder on the top. We were dressed for cold, but it was warmer at 10,000 feet than we thought. The snow was not nearly as deep on the top as last year. Global warming. Glacier National Park was also very low on snow pack. It takes about three hours to conquer Bear Tooth and stop frequently to enjoy the vistas. When we got to the bottom, instead of heading toward Cooke City, MT and the northern entrance to Yellowstone, we took 296E known as Chief Joseph Highway to 120 toward Cody, WY. At Cody we took 14/16 (Braybull Hwy) over the Big Horn Mountain. This is the first time any of us had attacked Big Horn from this direction. The canyons were immense. This was one of the highlights of the trip to me. At Burgess Junction at the top of Big Horn, we merged into 14E to descend the eastern side. We stopped for the night at Gillette, WY. In the morning we will take in Devil's Tower before ending up in Custer, SD for a couple of day. See ya then.
Rock
Wednesday - 7.22.09 - Devil's Tower - Custer, SD - Crazy Horse Mountain - Mount Rushmore (Pages 194 - 221)
As ususal we were up before daylight and heading toward Devil's Tower. We jumped on 90E for 28 miles and exited onto 24 which we followed to the Tower. We took some pics and bought some stuff at the tourist trap at the base of the tower. We were there at 7 am and was surprised that it opened that early. The lady told me, "we have a short season, we try to get as many hours open as we can" Makes sense to me. We continued on 24 back to 90E then jumped off on 585 then 85S to Newcastle, WY. Custer, SD was just a 37 mi jaunt on 16E. We arrived way too early to check in, so we went to Crazy Horse Mountain to check the progress since last year. After eating lunch in the Laughing Water Restaurant we headed east on 16 to Iron Mountain Road which loops around toward Mt. Rushmore. This year we actually went into the complex and looked around. It also allows you to get closer to the carvings to get better pics. After Rushmore we checked in and took a couple of hour break before we headed out to dinner later that afternoon. Since we stayed on eastern time, we were always early to do eveything. We ate at the Cattleman's Restaurant in Custer. I tried a buffalo steak which wasn't bad, but it had a gamier taste than beef. I'll stick with the buffalo burgers in the future, I like them better than traditional beef burgers. After dinner there was a little shopping then to bed early. We went to bed before dark and were up before daybreak the entire trip. Tomorrow is Custer State Park, the Badlands, and Wall Drug.
R
Thursday - 7.23.2009 - Custer State Park - The Badlands - Wall Drug (Pages 221 - 263)
Day was just beginning to break when we left Custer for the park. We entered the park just before the daylight. The wildlife was abundant. We saw elk, rabbits, turkeys, buffalo, donkeys, and mule deer. We didn't get the thrill of riding inside a herd of buffalo, but we did see plenty and some close up pics. After leaving the park we headed for the Badlands via 16E / 79N / 44E about an hour away. The forecast said it was to be 105 degrees in the Badlands later in the day. Luckily, we were there early in the day and the temps were in the low 80s. We lunched at Wall Drug then decided to start working our way toward home. This would keep two of the three days toward home less than 700 miles. After our whirlwind trip everybody agreed that this would be the best thing to do. We took 90E to Sioux Falls then took 29S for our night's stop in Sioux City, IA. Tomorrow will be a b@ll buster, 700 miles and a lot of construction zones. It seems that every state in our path was working on their roads. We have travelled through hundreds of miles of construction areas.
R
Friday - 7.24.09 - Leaving Sioux City, IA & ride to Paducah, KY - (Pages 253 - 261)
Again, we started before daylight. We continued down 29S and took 36E across MIssouri. This road was great. It was divided four lanes, but without the rat race of 70 from Kansas City to St Louis. Interstate 70 sucks. It takes better than three hours of 80 mph madness.36E was more like Corridor J at home, more laid back, but a good average speed of 70 mph. We dropped down on 61S to the dreaded 70E into St Louis. After crossing into St Louis, they informed us the 64S was closed. The problem was that the traffic was bumper to bumper everywhere and they gave very little info on an alternate route. We pulled over and mapped out a plan. We will be adding GPS to our arsenal in the next couple of weeks. I love maps, but a good GPS will give you an alternate route on the move without having a panic attack about which direction to go. I figure that I will use the maps before I leave and then let the GPS handle the changes in plans. It will also help with letting us know about delays from construction zones. We will stop in Paducah, KY for the night and then have an easy 300 miles on Saturday. The August magazines are sitting at the office just waiting to be delivered. They will be hitting the racks on Sunday.
R
Saturday - 7.25.09 - Paducah, KY to the house (Pages 261 - 263)
Just 300 miles left. A piece of cake. We'll do this before lunch. When you've just ridden 5000 miles in nine days what's 300 more. We all are looking forward to getting home. We now have another safe trip with all it's memories under our belts. After the Biker Bash on August 14 - 16th, I will start planning next year's trip.
Where will we go in 2010? Will I still be riding the Wing? Stay tuned to my monthly articles and find out. I hope you all enjoyed the ride . . . . we sure did!
R
Wednesday Night - 7.15.09:
Everyone is making their list and checking it thrice. I just put the August magazine to bed and now it's just a matter of hours before we leave. The bikes are packed, filled with gas, and awaiting us. I am always a nervous wreck the night before, but once I mount the bike and hit the road the nervousness turns to excitement and anticipation. I have checked the 10 day weather forecast and it looks like we are going to have great weather. Highs in the mid 80's and lows in the 50s & 60s. The low in Red Lodge, MT at the foot of Bear Tooth Pass will be mid 40s. That means it will be in the teens or 20s at 12,000 feet. We have all our winter gear, so we are up for the challenge. We outta here at 5:30 am. I'll upload tomorrow's pics and post again tomorrow night.
Rock
Thursday - 7.16.09 - (Pages 1 - 9)
We got up at 4:45 and planned to leave at 5:25. We were to meet Moleman in front of his house at 5:30. I went down to the bike at 5:10 to put the last few bags on and double check my checklist. When I tried to shut the tour pack the latch wouldn't catch. I tried in vain to fix it so I took a bungee cord and held it closed. I'll fix it when I get to Cedar Rapids, IA, 750 miles away and our first nights stop. Strong storms woke me up at 2:30 am and I was dreading having to start out in the rain. When I checked the radar the night before it looked as if the rain would be passed by the time we left. It was so. It was in the high 60's and balmy when we hit I-24W. The wings performed flawlessly, except for the tour pack. Moleman's Electra Glide and Frosty's Buell held their own. We hit Nashville just before rush hour, then knocked out Paducah. We stopped an hour south of St Louis and ate lunch. We were detoured in St Louis which added about 30 miles to our first day.
About 30 min west of St Louis we exited 70W onto State Rd 61N. This was divided four lane but move like Hwy 111 at home. We finally pulled in our motel at 6:00 est, after being on the road for 12.5 hrs including stops. We are dinner at a Mexican restaurant next door and hit the sack early. We will leave at 7 am (est) for our second day ending in Rapid City, SD. We only have a 700 mile day tomorrow.
Rock
Friday - 7.17.09 - (Pages 9 - 34)
We were up at 6 am and ready to hit the road at 7:00 est. The temp was in the low 50's so we all donned cold weather gear which we had on for most of the day. We took I-380N to 20W then 20W to Fort Dodge, IA where we took 169N. We followed 169N into Minnesota and picked up I-90W which we followed to Rapid City, SD. Tomorrow we will cross Wyoming & Montana ending up in Missolua, MT. It will be our last 700 mi day until we head for home on Friday the 23rd. The pics today are of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Yes, we got sucked in by the Corn Palace signs and wasted a little time going there. It sucked. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't it. When you feel like you were ripped off for something you saw for free you know there wasn't much to it. The highlight was getting out pictures taken in front of a 7 foot corn statue. If you are interested you can check out http://www.cornpalace.com
Rock
Saturday - 7.18.09 - (Pages 34 - 76)
We left Rapid City around 8:30 est. We always stay on Eastern time. Since we are on vacation the time where we happen to be means nothing to us, we want to know what time it is at home. I had intended in us going I-90 W to 212N at Belle Forche. There was some major road construction on a nine mile section with a 45 minute wait. I decided to take I-90W all the way to Missolua, MT. The scenery was great today. Wyoming is great, but Montana is fantastic.
Rock
Sunday - 7.19.99 - Glacier National Park - (Pages 76 - 92)
We were up before daylight. We headed west on I-90 and then took 93N to Glacier. There was 9 miles of road construction (gravel and broken pavement) around Arlee, but once through that it was open road. Since we hit the construction at 6 am local time on Sunday morning there was no traffic and no workers to contend with. All we had to do was negotiate the bad sections. Glacier was spectacular. Pebbles took close to 700 pics today. They are an accurate as to what we saw, now if we could just capture the smell for you. The aroma of spruce and other evergreen trees engulf you. The air is crisp and clean. It's just an amazing experience. Now, it is if it was just a dream. I am so glad that we all got to experience "The Road to the Sun". The elevation is 6646 feet at Logan's Pass which is the highest peak. To put it in perspective, the Cherohala Skyway is 5400 feet at it's highest point. Tuesday, we will be heading over Bear Tooth Pass which is close to double the elevation of Logan's Pass. After descending we had about a 2.5 hr drive south to Great Falls, MT where we have stopped for the night. Tomorrow, it's on to Red Lodge, MT - low 47 degrees. We have had great weather to date, no rain and only one day in the mid 90's. Tomorrow, we'll talk again.
Rock
Monday - 7.20.09 - Great Falls, MT to Red Lodge, MT (Pages 92 - 137)
We weren't expecting a whole lot of great scenery today, but to our surprise it was fantastic. We took 87/89S out of Great Fall, MT to 89S. We followed 89S through Lewis & Clark National Park through Neihart, Ringling, Wilsall, and Clyde Park to I-90E. Lewis & Clark Park was fantastic. There were evergreen forests with trees over 100 feet tall. Streams were abundant and the roads had hardly any traffic except for us. It was cool and we were in winter gear for most of the morning until the sun heated things up. From I-90E we took 78S into Red Lodge, MT where we stopped for the night. Tomorrow is Bear Tooth Pass, St Joseph Highway, and the Big Horn mountain range. Everyone is beat, so we are going to bed early to get ready for tomorrow.
Rock
Tuesday - 7.21.09 - Bear Tooth Pass - Chief Joseph Highway - Big Horn Mountain (Pages 137 - 194)
As usual we were up early. This trip is about riding and seeing as many things from the saddle as we can cram into a day. We left at 7 am local time to a beautiful clear morning. We could see the top of Bear Tooth as we approached. No fog or clouds was going to mean great visibility and excellent pictures. It was 47 degrees when we left and normally it's 20-25 degrees colder on the top. We were dressed for cold, but it was warmer at 10,000 feet than we thought. The snow was not nearly as deep on the top as last year. Global warming. Glacier National Park was also very low on snow pack. It takes about three hours to conquer Bear Tooth and stop frequently to enjoy the vistas. When we got to the bottom, instead of heading toward Cooke City, MT and the northern entrance to Yellowstone, we took 296E known as Chief Joseph Highway to 120 toward Cody, WY. At Cody we took 14/16 (Braybull Hwy) over the Big Horn Mountain. This is the first time any of us had attacked Big Horn from this direction. The canyons were immense. This was one of the highlights of the trip to me. At Burgess Junction at the top of Big Horn, we merged into 14E to descend the eastern side. We stopped for the night at Gillette, WY. In the morning we will take in Devil's Tower before ending up in Custer, SD for a couple of day. See ya then.
Rock
Wednesday - 7.22.09 - Devil's Tower - Custer, SD - Crazy Horse Mountain - Mount Rushmore (Pages 194 - 221)
As ususal we were up before daylight and heading toward Devil's Tower. We jumped on 90E for 28 miles and exited onto 24 which we followed to the Tower. We took some pics and bought some stuff at the tourist trap at the base of the tower. We were there at 7 am and was surprised that it opened that early. The lady told me, "we have a short season, we try to get as many hours open as we can" Makes sense to me. We continued on 24 back to 90E then jumped off on 585 then 85S to Newcastle, WY. Custer, SD was just a 37 mi jaunt on 16E. We arrived way too early to check in, so we went to Crazy Horse Mountain to check the progress since last year. After eating lunch in the Laughing Water Restaurant we headed east on 16 to Iron Mountain Road which loops around toward Mt. Rushmore. This year we actually went into the complex and looked around. It also allows you to get closer to the carvings to get better pics. After Rushmore we checked in and took a couple of hour break before we headed out to dinner later that afternoon. Since we stayed on eastern time, we were always early to do eveything. We ate at the Cattleman's Restaurant in Custer. I tried a buffalo steak which wasn't bad, but it had a gamier taste than beef. I'll stick with the buffalo burgers in the future, I like them better than traditional beef burgers. After dinner there was a little shopping then to bed early. We went to bed before dark and were up before daybreak the entire trip. Tomorrow is Custer State Park, the Badlands, and Wall Drug.
R
Thursday - 7.23.2009 - Custer State Park - The Badlands - Wall Drug (Pages 221 - 263)
Day was just beginning to break when we left Custer for the park. We entered the park just before the daylight. The wildlife was abundant. We saw elk, rabbits, turkeys, buffalo, donkeys, and mule deer. We didn't get the thrill of riding inside a herd of buffalo, but we did see plenty and some close up pics. After leaving the park we headed for the Badlands via 16E / 79N / 44E about an hour away. The forecast said it was to be 105 degrees in the Badlands later in the day. Luckily, we were there early in the day and the temps were in the low 80s. We lunched at Wall Drug then decided to start working our way toward home. This would keep two of the three days toward home less than 700 miles. After our whirlwind trip everybody agreed that this would be the best thing to do. We took 90E to Sioux Falls then took 29S for our night's stop in Sioux City, IA. Tomorrow will be a b@ll buster, 700 miles and a lot of construction zones. It seems that every state in our path was working on their roads. We have travelled through hundreds of miles of construction areas.
R
Friday - 7.24.09 - Leaving Sioux City, IA & ride to Paducah, KY - (Pages 253 - 261)
Again, we started before daylight. We continued down 29S and took 36E across MIssouri. This road was great. It was divided four lanes, but without the rat race of 70 from Kansas City to St Louis. Interstate 70 sucks. It takes better than three hours of 80 mph madness.36E was more like Corridor J at home, more laid back, but a good average speed of 70 mph. We dropped down on 61S to the dreaded 70E into St Louis. After crossing into St Louis, they informed us the 64S was closed. The problem was that the traffic was bumper to bumper everywhere and they gave very little info on an alternate route. We pulled over and mapped out a plan. We will be adding GPS to our arsenal in the next couple of weeks. I love maps, but a good GPS will give you an alternate route on the move without having a panic attack about which direction to go. I figure that I will use the maps before I leave and then let the GPS handle the changes in plans. It will also help with letting us know about delays from construction zones. We will stop in Paducah, KY for the night and then have an easy 300 miles on Saturday. The August magazines are sitting at the office just waiting to be delivered. They will be hitting the racks on Sunday.
R
Saturday - 7.25.09 - Paducah, KY to the house (Pages 261 - 263)
Just 300 miles left. A piece of cake. We'll do this before lunch. When you've just ridden 5000 miles in nine days what's 300 more. We all are looking forward to getting home. We now have another safe trip with all it's memories under our belts. After the Biker Bash on August 14 - 16th, I will start planning next year's trip.
Where will we go in 2010? Will I still be riding the Wing? Stay tuned to my monthly articles and find out. I hope you all enjoyed the ride . . . . we sure did!
R
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