Day 5, Thursday July 30th – Cooking in the Badlands

Today we tried the camp kitchen pancakes for breakfast but we had to go back to our campsite and retrieve some of Ed's Maple syrup, Smucker's just won't do when you are used to the real thing.

We wanted to get a hike in before it got too warm and decided upon the Notch trail which is only about 1.5 miles long but has some vertical. 

The views hiking and at the top of the overlook were stunning.

By the time we headed back for the bikes it was getting quite warm, Ed was so thirsty he would drink anything.

Overall it was a really nice hike and we were glad we did it in the morning.

Since we had done the scenic 240 route twice on Wednesday we took a longer ride south of the Badlands through Kyle, SD and onto the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. We stopped in Kyle looking for lunch, and were directed five miles down the road to the Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, if they had not pointed us there, we would have missed it and there is nothing else for miles and miles and miles.

It turned out to be a great place to stop.

Frankly there is not much to see at Wounded knee, but it was a really nice ride.

The scenery is just amazing, we got a real feel for the vast distances in the west where there is simply nothing. As the day went on the heat was building, by the time we got back to camp around 5PM. We were all 'cooked'. It was in the mid 90's and the sun was smoking hot.

It was another good day of roughly 225 miles of great riding.

Tomorrow we will pack up from this luxury campground of power, water, services and shade to move to Hog Heaven in Sturgis for the week. Temperatures are forecast in the 90's so we are going into the frying pan but will be out riding in higher elevations much of the time. 

Day 4, Wednesday July 29th - A taste of South Dakota

Today we left Mitchell, SD and headed for the Badlands with hopes of getting there around mid day. Since we were in the same town as the only Corn Palace in the country, we did a drive by, it is impressive, but we did not stop.

Unfortunately our head wind from yesterday only got stronger, the winds where straight out of the west at about 20mph and steady, but it was still a pretty easy drive. We stopped at the Missouri river overlook which was beautiful.

The farther west we got the more motorcycles we saw, but the road seemed to go on forever.

Then the Badlands came into view and we started getting excited, we turned south off I90 and were almost immediately in the badlands.  The scenery was just breath taking, it was hard to not stop on the way to our campground.  We got to our Campground around 1PM, checked in and chilled a bit before heading out to explore a bit on the cycles around 3PM.

June and I were here about 15 years ago with the kids, I remember the beauty and running in and out of the car due to the heat. It is even more impressive on a motorcycle, still pretty toasty, but low humidity. We decided to take the scenic route 240 to Wall, SD where the famous Wall Drugs is located. It took us over 2 hours to travel 35 miles, we just could not help but stop at every scenic view.

We eventually made it to Wall Drugs, what a hoot! That place has everything, you could spend hours there just browsing.  We found our selves in their soda shop and got malts and milkshakes, did some more browsing.

We had planned a return route that included I90 but decided we wanted to ride 240 again without stopping with the sun at a low angle.   It was probably the most beautiful ride I can remember, the colors were vibrant and sometimes you had to remind yourself to drive not gawk in awe at the scenery.






We got back to camp and the girls cooked us up some good ole venison and potatoes, it was a good hearty meal to end our first real day of vacation.
Tomorrow we hope to do a short hike in the morning and then do some local riding, kind of a wind down day before heading to Sturgis on Friday.

Day 3, Tuesday July 28th - It is a really long way to South Dakota

Today we departed our truck stop in Morris, Il about 06:30 with hopes of reaching the edge of South Dakota by night fall. We stayed on I80 and thought maybe we could meet up with June and Jean's niece Cindy around mid day in Rapid City, Iowa, however it did not work out. We may try again on our return trip. If you want to see some windmills take a drive down I80, they are everywhere and huge. We even saw a truck with a single blade on the highway, it required escort and was so long it was interesting to see it change lanes. We have heard that much of the stimulus money over the last 8 years has gone into our highways, but I can tell you it was not I80. It is not terrible, but it is not good either.  We did hit construction but for the most part it was pretty spotty. Somewhere in Iowa, the wind changed, we hit intense rain and high winds, it was white knuckling for a bit of the way and once we passed the front we bucked a stiff head wind for the rest of the day. After roughly 650 miles of pretty hard driving we arrived at our objective Lake Mitchell campground around 19:15. Lake Mitchell is a municipal campground with less than 50 sites on a small lake, it has clean showers, is quiet and pleasant, it was a good random pick for a camp ground.

Mitchell is the home of the "Corn Palace", we may do a drive by tomorrow on the way out.
Tomorrow we will depart for the Badlands, it is a pretty straight shot west on I90 of about 225 miles, we hope to get there early afternoon to have some time to look around a bit.

Day 2, Monday July 27th - The fly over states

(written by June, posted by Fred)

     Monday we left Junius Pond, NY at 6:40 AM to meet with Jean and Ed in Seneca, departing for points West at 8:30. We drove through NY, PA, Ohio, Indiana and finished the day in Illinois. We slept with the truckers in Morris, IL when we finally stopped at 7:42 local time (crossing one time zone). We had a nice dinner at R Place Restaurant.

     Tuesday we hope get on the road around 6:30, hoping to cross Iowa and probably reach South Dakota for the night. We will be passing through Rapid City and will try to connect with Cindy if the timing is right.

Day 1, July 26th - BBQ Cleanup and Hit the Road

Today we got up and cleaned at home from our annual BBQ.  We had a nice mix of people, good food, great weather and ended the day with some pretty awesome fire works.   As usual nephew Gabe was a big help, providing excellent tunes and keeping all the more senior adults from getting hurt with the fireworks. He and his partners also provided the draft beer selection via their 'Northern Harvest Brewing', we killed 3 of 5 1/4 kegs by the end of the day.

http://www.northernharvestbrewing.com/

The morning cleanup was a snap with the help of our great friends John and Liz (who will house sit for us), Matt and Erica and Sis Candy and Tom.

By about Noon we started packing for the trip...and left about 3:30PM. Jean and Ed left around mid day.   We connected via phone with Ed and Jean and are now about 3 miles from them, they picked a campground earlier in the day and we pulled in about 9:15 to a rest area just past Syracuse.

First night stop....we look tiny next to the big rigs.













Tomorrow we will hook up with Jean and Ed somewhere on I90 and travel together after that.

Supposed to be at the Jaquish BBQ, but have been busy mowing, rotating the truck tires, readying the bike and loading the hauler. Almost ready to hit the road, think I'll go have a beer and a hot dog now.

Planning for Sturgis...Time to get serious

2015 will be the 75th anniversary of the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally and we decided we had such a good time attending the 74th rally that we would return. If you want to read about the 74th Sturgis event (and Oshkosh) you can click the link on this page to see Fred and June's blog from 2014.

Ed and Jean (June's twin) Allen will be traveling with us this year, it will be good to have company and the peace of mind if we run into issues we will not be alone. We planned the trip and booked our campsite in Sturgis months ago when it seemed like we had forever to plan...well time has slipped by. We are about a week from our departure and it seems like we have not really done much planning. We do have a rough idea, we plan to leave on Sunday July 26th after our annual Jaquish BBQ and return around August 9th.  We plan to spend a few nights in the Badlands before moving onto Sturgis for the main event. Jean and Ed will be towing their toy hauler, which is a camper that can carry their Harley, with their pickup and we will be towing our Harley in an enclosed trailer with our Roadtrek.  We have not determined where we will spend our first few nights, but do plan on being in the Badlands on Wednesday the 29th and then moving onto Sturgis on the 31st.

We also look forward to seeing our relatives that have relocated to SD, and meeting up with our good friend John Keaty from Texas, as we did last year. We are lucky in that John is a Sturgis guru and really makes the visit stress free since he knows where to be and when to get the most out of the experience.

So....it is time to get serious, shine up the Harley, pack up the RV and get ready to see a bit more of the USA on the way to and from Sturgis.