Heading north

Leaving PDC area with Larry and Dixie in tow, (Larry didn't want to lead any more, I think he regretted that decision later.) we headed NW in search of fun roads. We managed to hit just about every detour they had in the state I think. We managed to drive on some roads even Larry had not been on before. Some of them were fun and some not so much.

We also had a nasty day with birds. Dixie darn near got hit by an eagle. I almost got hit by a hawk and I had two birds play chicken with me and they split and passed by on each side of me, but by far the worst was one little bird that tried to cross in front of me and got sucked in by the air deflectors, but didn't quite make it through. The gap was a little small and the deflector split the bird in two. some went flying off to the side and some of the bird ended up all over my left arm and the rest was jammed into the deflector. I had to stop and pull all the feathers and intestines out.

The four of us stopped for lunch before splitting up and heading our separate ways. Larry and Dixie headed to relatives and Lori and I headed northwest. I was sorry to say goodbye. We have had so much fun with them in such a short period. It will be one of my most pleasant memories of all time.

Lori and I had a nice ride to north Minneapolis area and stopped for the night at an extended stay hotel and did the laundry.

This morning we got up late and just could not get into getting on the bike, but we managed somehow. The trip through northern Minnesota was a pleasant one. The weather was nice and the temps in the low 80's and lots of lakes to look at.  Not a whole lot to see without major detours so we just kept heading North.

This next part, I am going to blame on Conrad...

We got to the border crossing and pulled up to the window and the girl asked the usual questions, where are you going? How long are you staying? what is the purpose of your trip?

This is where it went wrong. I replied we were visiting, so she asked who we were visiting. I replied that sightseeing would a better term as we really weren't visiting a person. She than asked if we knew anyone from Canada. I replied that we knew Conrad and she said "just a minute" and pushed a button.

About 20 feet in front of me a door opened and an officer came out. The girl said to follow that man around the corner and park where he directed and then come inside. Oh Shit, was my first impression...

I got inside and the officer inside started asking questions about my affiliation with motorcycle groups in general, and wanted to know if I belonged to any, along with the usual, do you have any guns, etc.

I talked about the 1300 tourer group and the Northwest Washington Victory riders and he wanted to know all about them. What we did, where we went, if we were a riding club or a patch club... He then directed me over to Immigration where I had to stand in front of the scanner and explain to another girl (In a bulletproof vest) everything all over again. She said hang on for a moment and pulled up all my info, looking for a criminal background, or maybe an FBI file.  I must have been ok because she finally stamped my passport and told me I was free to go. I get outside and Lori's bike is out there too, but she is gone. I turned around and looked and she was inside going through the same thing.

Next time I am not going to mention Conrad.  LOL

We rode north to Winnipeg for the evening and tomorrow we start west. Time to relax for now.

Prairie Du Chien area

We have spent the last 3 days running all over the area, just having fun with good friends. We have put about 1200 miles on in the last 3 days and seen some wonderful sights.The whole Mississippi river area is so full of good roads and pleasant people and most important a sense of history.

Some of the smaller towns look a lot like they did 50 years ago and stopping along the river and watching the boats and barges is fun.

The cost of living in this area is surprisingly low, it would be a nice area to move to after retirement.

The 1300 tourer group did get together and stopped at the local grocery store and picked up a bunch of food and delivered it to one of the local churches that has a food pantry. They really appreciated it.

The weather has been all over the place. Sometimes 90 and sunny, sometimes pouring down rain. We even got to see one of the couds start rolling but the end didn't drop, so it was all good. Like they say,"if you don't like the weather, just wait an hour"

Tomorrow we head north and then west. This part of the journey is the relaxing part and we are really looking forward to it.

Some pictures;

Riding the hills and into P.D.C.

We awoke the next morning to a little drizzle, but by the time we got going and onto the bikes it had stopped and was starting to clear.

The six of us had decided to spend the day riding the Loess Hills and just have a relaxing day.

Larry did a GREAT job on leading us on a couple of hundred miles of roads with only about 4 miles of backtracking. The roads were fun, there was very little traffic with the exception of one escaped cow. A quick stop for the farmer to round him up and we were off again.

We made a quick detour to a lookout, It is truly a beautiful area!

Right here is where the Lewis and Clark Trail, The Oregon Trail, the Morman Trail and the California trail all meet. A little history can be found at 
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/iowa-scenic-drive-loess-hills-scenic-byway.htm

After an excellent lunch at the "old town fill-er up and keep on trucking cafe" made famous in the C.W. McCall song we headed east to Larry and Dixie;s place for the evening. Larry BBQ'd up some steaks and veggies and we had a great time just relaxing and having a great time. Soon after, Doug and Lisa had to head home and we settled in for the evening.

Lori and I woke in the morning to the smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls and coffee. A nice way to start the day when you are on the road.

The weather was not cooperative at all today... We rode east, then west through Thunder and lightening and at one point on I-80 we were down to 35 MPH and driving through the river that I-80 had become.

We had a quick stop at J&P Cycles and a quick bite at MCD's and we were back on the road.

It finally started to clearing up just before we got into Praire Du Chein.
Larry Led us right to the hotel and the party begins!

The next few days are for sightseeing and getting caught up with friends, I will post up as I can.

Thanks for following along!

Laurel to Sioux City

We left Laurel in the morning and headed east to see what the future will bring, and what happened was... Not much. LOL

The roads were good and the weather was decent and for most of the day uneventful. We made a couple of stops to sight see and top off gas, but it wasn't until the afternoon that the weather got bad. We were about 60 miles from Sturgis and it was all overcast and the clouds were right down to the mountaintops. You could see the rain coming down in sheets.

We pulled over and Lori got her rainsuit on and we continued on. When we arrived in Sturgis it was between clouds so just a light rain but all around us was major downpour. We made a quick stop at Mcd"s to look and see what we wanted to do and I got a weather alert on my phone for major rain and thunder and lightening storms in the whole area. Lori and decided to just continue east to see if we could get in  front of it.


We got back onto I90 and it did not look good in front of us, so I made a quick judgement call and took the next exit and headed to keystone. We had been there before but did not have time to see it properly, so We went into Keystone and got a room to relax for the evening. As it turned out it was a wise decision.

We wandered the town and shopped a bit. We stopped off for dinner and then back to the room for the night.

When we got up in the morning it was still raining, but you cold see blue sky east of us and within 20 miles we were out from under the clouds and the temperature shot up 20 degree's.

Lori and I made a quick stop at Wall Drug and I got to watch Lori ride the wild Jackelope and get her picture taken with her favorite wild animal, the buffalo...

As we were coming out of Wall Drug, my phone went off again and it was a tornado watch for the Wall area. All we could see was blue sky's and 80 degree's..?????

Another stop later in Mitchell for gas and a hot dog and it went off again. This time it was for flash flooding! What is up with the weather in this crazy state?

We made it into Sioux City right at 5:30 and met up with Larry, Dixie, Doug and Lisa. After a quick cleanup we wandered over to Huhot Mongolian Grill for dinner and then stood around in the parking lot just enjoying everyone's company and having a good time.

After a while the space station went by overhead and we decided to head to the room to recover ad get ready for riding in the AM. Larry is leading us through the Loess hills for some sightseeing.

Thank you all for following along and we will see what tomorrow brings!

Across the Missouri!

Well not really, but not totally inaccurate either…

From the beginning…  We left home in the peak of rush hour through downtown Bellevue and after a slow crawl we headed east towards Spokane with the risk of sprinkles chasing in our wake. We managed to outrun them for the most part until we got about 60 miles from Spokane and the dark and rain settled upon us at the same time. It poured! I felt sorry for Lori as her bike does not have as much protection as mine and her helmet kept fogging up. She cussing up a storm, and when you add that to the existing storm, it was not a pleasant thing.

I tried to explain to her later that as long as you didn’t hit the concrete barriers and don’t hit any cars it was all good. She not amused… LOL

We got our room and relaxed for the evening. Lori was cold and didn’t want to get into the shower so she stole all the bedding, covered up and was asleep in 10 minutes. I did manage to get part of the sheet, so I was good. 

We got up in the morning and wandered down for a waffle and juice. I got everything loaded onto the bike and because it was still raining pretty hard, I sat down under the portico with Rose (the bike) and we had a talk.  I explained my side, that because of a previous tire sliding on me and then with the new tire slipping once on Hwy 20, I was a little uneasy with how she was taking care of me. I did tell Rose that to be fair, It was right after the pass was open and there might have been ice under the water on the particular corner. I tried to explain to Rose that I needed her to take care of me and I don’t know if she understood or not, but in the next 120 miles of pouring rain, I had no slippage and was totally comfortable.

I had taken some hair shampoo and applied it to Lori’s face shield and she later told me all the fogging was gone. She could see just fine.

The trip over 4^th of July pass was a fun trip even in the rain, but the elevation gain over Lookout Pass made it a little chilly. It is good we both decided to wear our winter rain suits!

When we go to Missoula and had lunch, it started to clear a little and as soon as we crossed the continental divide the weather cleared up but it was cold! It got to 39 degree’s and even with all the heaters on my bike, I was still a little cold. 

All that soon changed as we started to descend out of the mountains. In another 100 miles what was once a blessing was now a curse as the winter suits are too hot for anything much over 50 degree’s. . With temps getting in to the 70’s I was cooking. I opened up all the vents on the bike and with hurricane force winds, I was able to cope with it. 

We soon crossed the Missouri River… (ok, we crossed the headwaters of the Missouri river. LOL) and it was just a pleasant ride.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We stopped in Laurel, Mt for the evening where at least one of the locals remembers us. To us it is an infamous place. On one of our previous rides from Yellowstone to Glacier National parks we stopped here for the evening and about 2 blocks from our hotel was a gas station where we topped off the bikes and Lori decided she was hungry. Really Hungry!

We went inside to see what they had to eat and they had one of those heated displays where they put all the fried foods. Lori ordered at least one of everything in the case. We had 6 bags of food and nowhere to carry it on the bikes. We ended up balancing it all on the gas tanks back to hotel, where Lori had about ½ of a Burrito and decided she was full and tired. She laid down and was out for the night…

Tomorrow we head to Rapid City and ride the Needles Hwy. The Day after we head to Sioux City to meet up with Larry and Dixie. I am very much looking forward to it!

Upcoming trip

As I know it so far;
We are leaving Wednesday evening (June 19th) and heading East until we get tired or bored before we stop for the evening. Probably Post Falls area.
Thursday and Friday are wandering into the Rapid City area and getting a room and sight see a bit.
Saturday we will finish what we want to see and head east.
Sunday we are planned to go to Larry and Dixie's place for a relaxing evening and dinner in Iowa.
Monday (24th) we are riding into Prairie Du Chein with Larry and Dixie.
Tuesday through Friday are the Meet and Greet with the 1300tourer group. (A party in itself)

From there we have no major plans, except to go north into Canada and head west. We will meet with John and Gina somewhere on the 3rd or 4th of July and wander back towards home.
If possible we are going to try and be back into town for Ed and Katy's anniversary party.

The bikes are almost ready to go, all the things that go into the bike are laid out and Lori and I are more than ready to get out of here on vacation.

It's almost time!