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Avanti
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« on: June 26, 2022, 04:59:21 PM » |
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Sempre Avanti (Always Forward)
My wife and I Left home on June 2 from Stoughton Wisconsin and headed west on highway 18, which is five miles from our back door. It will take us from Wisconsin across Iowa and end for us in Hot Springs South Dakota.
Today is a Great Day for a ride but in everyone’s life a little rain must fall. So It rained the first night which was in Iowa. It rained the second day all the way to the Missouri River where we camped on our second and third night in South Dakota.
The fourth day we rode and camped about 10 miles south of Hot Springs South Dakota, oh it rain.
Knowing bad weather was coming in by my phone weather alert app and the obvious jet black swirling sky coming, maybe I should hide our bike. I was able to put the Valkyrie on the backside of a building and cover it in hopes of saving it from the inevitable pounding it was about to receive. We could lose our camper but we needed our ride.
The weather did turn bad real bad and we received heavy wind, rain and then golf ball size hail which filled the sky so thick we could not see 20 feet, pulverizing everything, piling up and covered the ground so thick it was dangerous to walk on and definitely not rideable. Good time for a helmet.
That was 20 minutes of hail and weather we do not want to repeat any time soon and hopefully never again.
Bike survived, camper got the screens pounded out but we are safe, so Avanti (forward)!
Another day and we now head north up through Spearfish Canyon, which of course brings more rain, but we are shielded by the canyon walls from the wind, which is quite welcoming.
As we get close to Bridal Veil Falls just about 7 miles south of Spearfish the rain stops so we take a well needed brake.
On and upward to the north west we go heading for Buffalo Wyoming but black clouds are looming ahead so decide to stay at Reuters campground just north of Sundance Wyoming for a night to forgo another possible pounding.
Ok it’s a new day and all is well so off to Buffalo via Gillette Wyoming which is located where vast quantities of coal, oil and methane gas await harvesting and have more Locomotives than one can count. The city calls itself the "Energy Capital of the Nation" and rightly so.
The days ride will take us across this energy rich land and pass the Spotted Horse on Highway 16 to Buffalo and Oh it is a beautiful day.
At Buffalo we stop for supplies before heading up into the Big Horn Mountain range.
I head the Valkyrie up the constant twelve miles of 8 percent grade we need to traverse with a 500 pound Pop-up trailer to give a little challenge. I put the Valkyrie in 4th gear and lock the throttle at 3200 rpm’s. She runs up the hill and around more than a few curves at a steady 50 to 55 and gets us to Tie Hack campground where we plan to stay for 6 or 7 days and ride the mountain roads through Ten Sleep and on to Worland Wyoming where we can pick up highway 14 and ride up into the northern part of the Big Horn Mountains.
On our first days out we got rained on, hailed on, snowed on, wind blown and saw a tree be uprooted and blown down near our camp site. Trees do seem to make a noise when they fall in the forest.
We had many days of great Mountain and Canyon riding which was most enjoyable.
Was going to head over to Chief Joseph Highway and the Dead Indian Pass out of Cody Wyoming and set up camp for a few days but the weather did not look favorable.
Did not want to get caught camping down in by the Sunlight Bridge with only one way out due to closing of the North entrance of Yellowstone and The Bear Tooth. So decided to head home to beat the heat that was headed in and would now chase us back home to Wisconsin.
All in all we had a great time. We, rode some great roads, sat around the campfire and read, watched the night sky, drove through many small towns stopping in some and met lots of people along the way. We listened to their thoughts of joy and of difficulties as they navigate these trying times.
The Country side is full of average people keeping this country alive. If allowed, they can keep our country safe, energy flowing, fuel tanks full, our hunger abated, the sky’s clear and clean clear water in our cups.
My they all be kept safe and be blessed.
Sempre Avanti
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