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After the “strike 1” trip I was ready to tour the
lower 48 and this time I would have some company in the way of 2 friends from the Miami area, Paul and Aileen.
I had my usual cross-country load.
Day 1
We met in the early AM at a prearranged rest stop.
Day 2
After what would become our ritualistic
loading of the bikes.
We set off north with an overcast and humid morning through
Alabama and into Tennessee where we found a roadside park at the Tennessee River.
We end up in Paris, TN after 495 miles and check into the Hampton
Inn thankful for the customer carts they have.
That night some plans are changed and we cut out Wisconsin,
a friend I had planned on visiting is too sick for visitors so a new route is plotted across Illinois and Iowa.
Day 3 This would not be a pleasant
one. The roads in Illinois are terribly bumpy but Aileen was amused by a huge metal bull in Pike County.
Iowa smells like one big pig farm plus it’s hot and humid. We get through the 519 mile
day and set up camp at a state park.
Day 4
We wake to nice clear skies well rested,
well except for Paul. It seems he neglected to install the plug in his self-inflating mattress and basically slept on
the ground, nothing like starting the day with a little humor.
We make good time through the rest of Iowa
(you can only hold your breath so long) then into South Dakota.
We stop for lunch but as we enter the restaurant
we’re nearly knocked over from the cigarette smoke. The waitress walks by with a butt between her lips and a inch long
ash hanging off the end, a patron is at the cash box paying the bill and hands her cigarette to her 10 year old daughter who
takes a pull off of it. I asked if they had a non-smoking section to which she answers “sure hon” and
points to the 2 tables in the corner barely visible through the smoke.
We decide on the fast food place down the
block. No time to make the campground I had planned
on so we hold up at a Holiday Inn Express along the interstate after a good 649 mile day.
Day 5 We get an early start and soon find ourselves on the Louis & Clark
trail.
In the open country we dial it up a bit for some triple digit travel, feels good to cover some ground.We arrive at the Badlands.
Aileen is hiking the mountain in search of souvenir rocks.
Arriving in Keystone, SD we search for
a place to do lunch, most are seasonal and closed but we do find one in town. We opt for lunch hot off the grill once we figured
out that the chocolate chips in the pudding at the buffet were dead flies, even so lunch was a gut-bomb. On to Mt Rushmore.
Next on our list was the Devil’s Tower, you see it from
a long ways off standing majestically on the plains.
Just outside the entrance is an awesome ice cream place, just
what the doctor ordered on a hot day.
We decide due to the slow progress to bypass Glacier National
Park and head west instead getting as far as Gillette, WY and finding another Holiday Inn Express after a respectable 525
mile day.
Day6 The morning was starting out hot as we traveled west through northern Wyoming until we passed
Cody approaching the mountains. On one of our fuel stops we pick up lunch from the deli and pick a scenic spot on a mountain
pass for the noon meal.
With lunch
behind us I pick a road that squirts north of Yellowstone and finally find that silly grin I get at the motorcycling candy
store that is SR 296. Wonderlust is slowing down and I make a mental note to ask her about it later. At the end we find a camp park for the night in the Shoshone National Park
next to a river after only 368 miles and the most entertaining day of the trip.
Day 7
The day starts damp and cold. The road
cuts a corner of Yellowstone and I couldn’t see my way to paying the entrance fee for a few miles of the park so we
turn around and head north to Montana. SR 212 is a wickedly fun staircase road going over Beartooth Pass but had to be ridden
with tempered enthusiasm because of the constant drizzle and fog.
On the way up I experienced a first, the
crew was dropping way back so I slowed for them to catch up and got passed by a Winnebago on a curvy mountain road. Turns out Aileen has a phobia of chasms and feels drawn to them so
25 mph was all she could muster. To compound the problem she’s heavily layered against the wet and cold restricting
her movement.
At the top I stop to take in the beauty of the Pass in the 38°f rain.
I finally spot her coming up the staircase.
After some
fast food lunch and a much needed warm up we continue north out of the mountains to Laurel and settle in to the Best Western
after a dismal 156 miles.
Something
has to give because we’re at the beginning of “the candy store” with high mountain passes and steep curves
for the next 4,000 miles. After some discussion they offer to interstate it back but after checking the weather and finding 2 hurricanes
off the coast of California effectively basking all of CA/OR/ID and western Montana in rain I decide to turn back with them.
Damn! so close!
Day
8
We buzz up
the interstate for 160 miles before jumping off on US-12 and making tracks to South Dakota. On the way we pick up a Monte
Carlo and pace him for 10 miles at 120 mph, no small feat in the strong side winds and 106°f temperature.
What is up
with this weather? Normal high for this time of year is 70°f.
The wind
has us riding on the side of the seat keeping the bikes leaned into the wind. Stopping for fuel and to cool off with nature’s
hot blow dryer.
We make camp at the Mina State Recreation area after a hot 564
mile day.
Day 9 We continue along US-12 into Minnesota and pick up a desolate 14 mile
stretch of SR-7
Just not desolate enough as I lope along
just over 70 mph in a 55 in my own little world an unmarked trouper passes and keeps going, I never saw him.
A couple of minutes later Paul is
on the Chatter Box “we’re getting pulled over!”
Another couple of minutes and he says “he
wants you to turn around and come back” Yeah, that’s gonna
happen.
He then goes to plan B and calls ahead to have me detained by
the local deputy.
Before long I’m making my donation to the highway fund
for 72/55, in the interest of safety of course.
We continue on west and spot a road side rest area so we pull
in to take a break.
While Paul is over watering a shed.
Aileent is all excited about something she found in the corn
field, some nice mature green bud.
We leave the ganja
where it is but she does get another "souvenir".
Stopping for gas I load some cruising music. I'll never see
those prices again.
We make it to a Best Western after a trying 471 mile day.
Day
10
We
drop south along the Mississippi river then cross into Wisconsin. Most of the lettered roads are fun and I would get the bike
air-born a couple of times on the peaked hills. Into Illinois and the bad roads again,
I’m never going to Illinois again but at a gas stop I would find my weakness, sno balls.
We’re running out of daylight so we take the interstate south and find the Travel Inn at a truck stop with another 431 miles behind us.
Day 11 We make our way out of Illinois and into Indiana. The temperatures
have finally come out of triple digits but not by much.
We get to Kentucky and hold up at a Holiday Inn after a mild
336 miles so we can change the oil and give them the once-over.
Day 12 It’s time for us to part company, they’re going to interstate
it home and I’m headed for the mountains of North Georgia to get in some
much needed curvy action.
I make a beeline for the Tennessee mountains
and arrive at Deal’s Gap around noon time, I run the Dragon in 13 minutes flat. Not bad for the load I’m carrying.
Over the Cherohala skyway and down into Georgia I get to T.W.O.
by 1630 and set up camp in time to tap a bottle of wine I'd been saving for the west coast.
A perfect end to a 451 mile day.
Day
13 With perfect weather I covered 300 miles of gnarly curvy roads
taking in some of the local sights.
Day
14
Another
perfect day for canyon carving and I make the most of it because it’s my last, a hurricane brewing in the gulf is forecast
to dump on me tomorrow making rt 315 in TN all the sweeter.
Georgia
could use some rain to curb their current drought.
275 miles and I’m back at camp reminiscing
over the past 2 weeks.
Day
15
The voyage
home. I take back roads through Georgia in pouring rain and it only seems to get heavier the farther south I go and the winds
are picking up, this could get interesting.
A little
buffeting and a lot of soaking (I love my rain gear) I pull into my driveway after 577 miles for a total of 6,570 miles in
15 days from a planned 10,000 miles in 20 days. In 2 years maybe I can make it all the way to the coast.
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