Points North Trip, or, Denton to Deadwood Redux * FINAL *

[Valkpilot]

Two years ago, Yoda, Disco, and I headed out from Denton and rode to Deadwood, SD in one day to complete our Iron Butt Association SS1000.  When we made that trip, a friend of Yoda wanted badly to go along, but could not due to restrictions on his time.  Jaime is an engineer who works with stone and he has always wanted to experience Mount Rushmore.

So, on Friday, July 20, four intrepid riders set out for Points North and beyond to conduct adventures in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkanasas, Oklahoma, and Texas (naturally.)

The make up of the band of excursionists varied from two years ago, as did the planned route to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This time Yoda, Jaime, Chauffer, and I would make the trek on three Valks and  Goldwing (why it wasn't four Valks is a story to be told around a different campfire.)  We would travel to the northwest, up through western Colorado, before pointing our noses northeast for the Dakotas and around in a clockwise direction for Inzane in Eureka Springs, intending to make the last day of that event before returning home.

DAY 1: Long and Hot and Long

Did I say, "long?"  Our objective on Day 1 was to reach Santa Fe, NM, some 650 miles from the DFW metromess.  Without this long hump on the first day, we'd never make Inzane in time given our plans for sights and sites in between.



Our total route was planned to minimize being on Interstate Highways.  From here to Santa Fe there's not much to that plan, since there's little Interstate to be found untl Amarillo.  Rather than make the long grind up 287 to Amarillo though, we chose tomake the long grind west on 380 through Lubbock, then Clovis, NM before heading for Tucumcari, Las Vegas, and finally Santa Fe.  As it turns out, this route was much more scenic and enjoyable than 287/I-40.

We gathered at oh-dark-thirty, with KSU just after 5:00 am.  This allowed us to make tracks and get to to some higher ground before the serious afternoon heat set in.



West Texas is windy.  I'm not kidding!  Here's windmills to prove it!



All seriousness aside, the extremely windy leg just before Lubbock resulted in the worst MPG of the entire trip.  I choose to ignore that the tachs weren't much below 4000 rpm during that stretch, of course.

Passing through Tucumcari on old Route 66 is just like passing through a time warp to a simpler, gentler, tackier time...



In Tucumcari, we turned north on 104, planning on entering Las Vegas, NM from the east (and on two wheels this time, not on the back of flat-bed tow truck.)  About halfway along this route is Conchas Lake, a recreational oasis in the middle of the rocks and sand and scrub of northern New Mexico.  The lake is formed by Conchas Dam, a TWA project of the New Deal Era.  We stopped for awhile because there was some shade and we needed the break.



Jaime and JC (Yoda.)  Is Jaime happy to be on the ride, or happy to be off the ride for a few minutes?




We pushed on, with this view before us as it had been for most of the day:




Finally -- Santa Fe and the hotel.  We dumped luggage, scrubbed our faces to a pink, healthy glow, and headed for downtown.  When in, or even near Santa Fe, it is mission-critical to smoke a cigar on the old square.  This is a JC tradition.  I don't know its origin, I don't know its rationale, but I'm good with it.  (Two years ago, he and I rode to Santa Fe just to burn one on the square, then turned around and came back.)

The square was cool, and crowded since it was Friday Night Fiesta.  The setting sun added to the relaxed feeling as we walked around.  The fact that we were no longer sitting on a motorcycle seat helped a little too.



People begged to take our picture, so we let them:



Note Jaime's stance.  This is the genesis of 'The Pose', which would become requisite for all as the trip progressed.  Also note that JC has a healthy start on his Farmer's Tan.

Too tired to eat, we headed back to the hotel, to rest up for what we expected to be the toughest, most challenging day of the ride.  

We would be both right and wrong.

[BuzzKill]

*patiently awaits the rest of the story*

[HayHauler]

Ditto VP.  Can't wait for the Paul Harvey.... 

Thanks,

Hay 
Jimmyt

[5_19]

 
Got me cup of coffee to read this report and............ The suspense is killing me! Very good start VP!

[BnB Tom]

Come on!  Where's the next part 

[Disco]

Is it Day 2 yet?   

[BuzzKill]

Ok, NOW I think he is doing it on purpose!

[5_19]

Ok, NOW I think he is doing it on purpose!

+1 for sure :-)

[Valkpilot]

Sorry it took so long to make this second post.  This pesky thing called work gets in the way of important stuff like chronicling a motorcylce trip.

DAY 2: A Million Dollar Ride

Our objective today was to leave Santa Fe, NM and ride some 400 miles to our RON (Rest, Over Night) billet in Gunnison, CO.




The day started out with equipment check out and minor maintenance on the bikes.  

Chauffer had replaced the exhaust gaskets on his bike and they were ticking badly by mid-day on Day 1.  Tightening them up solved the problem.  All the bikes had recently gotten new shoes, so checking and adjusting tire pressure was also in order.



Day 1 saw the genesis of "The Pose."  JC doesn't have it quite right yet.



Santa Fe is on high ground, but you start to get into the real mountains when you head north from there.






Not long after a gas stop, a semi-urgent call came over the CB to pull over at the first opportunity.  A historical marker in the San Juan National Forest provided that opportunity.

So, what's the big deal?



OK, now I get it.




Along the way, we got to take a picture of Jaime in front of his favorite engineering and artistic medium.  Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you The Stone Pose.




US Route 550 north from NM through Colorado contains  a section of road called the Million Dollar Highway  This section stretches from Silverton, CO at the southern end to Ouray, CO at the northern, and is characterized by sharp curves, sheer multi-hundred foot dropoffs, no shoulders, and no guardrails.



Our intention was to pick up US 550 in Durango, CO and challenge this Million Dollar Monster.

It's a bright, sunny day with only 30% chance of scattered thunderstorms.  Piece 'o cake.

As we turned north on US 550, things looked really, really promising.






Until...







Wait a minute.  That's where we're going!



Sure enough, it began to 30% on us about the time we reached Silverton.

While it is a joy to ride, this road is an excercise in techincal riding under the best of conditions.  It's an especial joy in the rain.  I have to apologize for the lack of pictures of us actually riding the MDH as my hands defaulted to Sears Crafstman Robo-Lock Pliers mode on the controls.  Downhill, decreasing radius, hairpin turns of 270° or more had posted speeds of 15 MPH.  This was too fast by half in most cases for the conditions under which we were riding.  As we proceeded through turns the voices in my head chorused, "stay off the brakes," "Stay Off The Brakes," "STAY OFF THE BRAKES" until, finally, we reached a point where parking lot maneuver speed was acheived  and it was OK to trail the rear brake and feather the clutch in order to get through the curve without a slide out.

To add to the adventure, a pickup pulling a 5th wheel camper was doing his best to help us downhill using his front bumper.

The voices whisper: "Ouray is just a couple of miles down the road.  We're almost there.  Keep it under control.  Just a few more hairpins..."

So, we round an extremely tight, mountain-to-the-very-edge-of-the-inside, blind right curve to find...STATIONARY BRAKELIGHTS!  These belonged to a line of cars that were stopped to allow an endloader to clear a mudslide just around the next curve.  I (carefully, gently, but with increasing urgency) grab some brake and start hollering, "STOP, STOP, STOP" into the radio.  JC gets the Goldwing halted just off my starboard stern, and Jaime brings his Valk to a controlled quick-stop and docks beside JC.  I can hear the pickup with the  5th wheel sliding as he desparately tried not to crush us against the cars in front.

Chauffer was still up the hill, so we were able to radio him to take it easy down the mountain.

After negotiating the residual mud on the road, we reached a pull out just outside of Ouray.  

Whew!



Just up around this bend is the location of the mudslide.



A typical drop off (no shoulders, remember.)



Ouray is just down the road.  Note that the curves form a Figure 8 (I'm standing at the bottom of the '8' and you can see the top way over yonder) and the elevation drops a couple of hundred feet.  These are typical of the Million Dollar highway on the north side of the peak.




When we got to the pull out, I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to capture the extra-broad smile on Jaime's face.  Even though there were some pretty tough and tense moments, the ride lived up to the name of the road -- A Million Dollar ride.

"No-Pose" survivors.



Off to Gunnison through spectacular, but uneventful landscape




Tomorrow would yield some unanticipated technical riding as well...

[5_19]

Thanks VP, nice RIDE report! Enjoyed reading day 2!  Now I wanna go do the MDH.

[Red Diamond]

If you haven't done it TJ, it is a must do. On my next colonoscopy, I plan to ask Doc to stretch things a bit, cause I think I'm still pinched off too much after two years.
Thanks for the memories Pilot.

[BuzzKill]

Sure enough, it began to 30% on us about the time we reached Silverton.

Thats some funny stuff.  Enjoyed day 2.  Waiting for 3 and more....

We are heading up to Ouray the first week of Sept ourselves.  Cant wait, but hope we don't see much "30%" ourselves.

[HayHauler]

Well VP, I'll let ole Disco fill you in on our first run at 550.  Key words..... sideways rain, cloud to ground lightening, pea sized hail(sideways variety), and 3" of water on the road, raging from high side to low side. 

But we survived.  AND had a ball. 

Hay
Jimmyt
Patiently waiting in day three. 

[Disco]

Great report so far, VP.  You should go on more trips.  Your write-ups are great.      Is it Day 3 yet?

Hey Jimmy, you left out some key words:  Pat & Deb heavily loaded, me two-up on the 'wing with trunk bag and Pak-It Rack, and you pulling a trailer behind your bike that didn't run well at sea level!  BTW, Silverton is at 9,320 feet (2841 m), Ouray is at 7,811 feet (2381 m), and the three passes in between, Coal Bank, Molas, and Red Mountain are 10,640 ft (3,240 m), 10,970 ft (3,340 m), and 11,018 ft (3,358 m), respectively.  And finally, there were hotel vacancies in Silverton...

Day 3, Day 3, Day 3...

[BnB Tom]

   Day 2  looks like it was filled with a definite - Uh oh 

           I got through school by correctly choosing from a list of multiple choices.
           It would seem that your trip down the hill with no guard rails, hairpin turns,
           pouring rain, mud slides, etc. . .  pretty much took out the 'multiple' part!
           So MY choice would have been MUCH SLOWER and BEHIND Chauffer 

           Me thinks you guys rock 

[Valkpilot]

DAY 3: ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH COUNTRY ROADS (with apologies to John Denver)

Another 400 miler planned for today, from Gunnison, CO through Rocky Mountain National Park to Cheyenne, WY.  Two stretches of interstate are planned: I-70 east from Glenwood Springs, and I-25 north from Loveland.  The former is for the scenery, the latter just a hump to the hotel.



It rained during the night, so first thing in the moning was a good time to wipe down the bikes, which wriggled with delight as we shined their sensitive bits.  

The weather was beautiful, sunny and 70°.  The sky was filled with a hot air ballon which landed right in front of the hotel.




There was also a bug.




We headed out from the hotel on Route 135 for about 30 miles.  At Crested Butte, we turned on Route 12 to traverse the Kebler Pass.  The "Pass Open/Closed" sign should have provided some warning about the road ahead, but it didn't.  

We'd have ignored it anyway.

Besides, Route 12 looked pretty good:




Until, about a mile up the road the pavement just...disappeared.



So, Route 12 through Kebler Pass is 30 some miles of gravel packed dirt; washboarded and puddled, with off-camber curves sloped to the drop off.  Navigating 900 lb cruisers through this wouldn't quite equal the challenge of the MDH in the rain, but it woudn't be anything to sneeze at, either.

And it was spectacular.





About here, someone-who-shall-remain-nameless came on the CB and said, "I wondered what it meant on the GPS when the road changed from a solid dark line to light gray."  Well, now we knew.








It's about half way.  Time to stop and enjoy this a little.






Where Route 12 ends and joins Route 133 is the Paonia Reservoir.  It provided a good place to pull off and high-five all around.




The shoreline is stone carved with parallel horizontal lines that define waterlines of the past.




And here it is: The Full Pose




Moving out from the reservoir, Route 133 is a dream.  The curves challenge, but can be taken at a pace that approaches dancing with the bike.  Of course, you'd never take your hands off your partner during a real dance, so I showed mine the same respect during this dance and didn't take pictures as we tripped along.

Things level off as we head toward Glenwood Springs.



Notice the darkening sky?  There's some more wet stuff in our future.  

(Days 2 through 7 all called for a 30% chance of rain.  Somehow we managed to experience 30% one hundred percent of the time.  I'm still pondering this statistical improbability.)




Two years ago, we rode I-70 from east to west towards Glenwood Springs.  This time, we rode it from the opposite direction, which in my opinion is the more scenic direction. It puts you below the westbound lanes so you can see the engineering structure, and closer to the bordering river with the train tracks on the opposite bank.





Not long after the above picture was taken, it began to rain hard enough we had to stop and put on rain gear.  No big deal when we're on the interstate, but as far as we can tell, the storm is laying right on top of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Phooey.

But, by the time we got there, the storm had passed through and we couldn't have had better scenery waiting for us.

[godfire]

great pics, (and report) thanks for posting! 

[Valkpilot]

DAY 3: (continued)

Lot's of pictures on Day 3, so I split the post.





Note the snow on the slopes.  It's late July.  Global Warming, my dorsal southern reagions.




It was late afternoon.  The critters were out and completely undisturbed by our presence.












The obligatory pose still poses difficulties.




It's also obligatory that we take pictures of each other taking pictures.  (Don't think about that too long, your ears will bleed.)




Chauffer found these money shots, some of the best of the trip.





Candid shots can be money too.



Here's a panorama stiched together from several still shots.



The full size version is here.   It's 20 meg large.  After it downloads to your browser, it will reduce to about 6% its original size.  You should be able to click on it and it will enlarge.

Time to depart for our RON in Cheyenne, WY.  

We exit RMNP and head out of Estes Park through the canyon to the east.




With a 30% chance of rain still in the forecast, it would rain on us the last 25 miles to the hotel.

[HayHauler]

Great report!  Makes me wish I was there.  Except for the rain everyday part. 

Hay
Jimmyt

[BnB Tom]

  Why do you people enjoy riding in the mountains when it's raining? 

I guess everything else makes a little moisture seem insignificant 

[Valkpilot]

  Why do you people enjoy riding in the mountains when it's raining? 

a) Because it's there.

2) If not, the write-ups would be boring.

c) It's part of my naturally contrary nature.

I guess everything else makes a little moisture seem insignificant 

I've found that lack of moisture is more signficant, depending on the situation.

[Houdini]

If I didn't know ya, I'd be calling Photoshop on this one...

[Valkpilot]

If I didn't know ya, I'd be calling Photoshop on this one...

1) I'm not that good at Photoshop

b) The moose was 150 yards away.  This is zoomed, resized, enhanced.

3) The moose isn't doing "The Pose."

[5_19]

Thanks for the report. I recognized some off the locations and brought back good memories.

[Christbiker]

Great report.  Pics are proof that God likes showing off at times.

[Westsider]

 

[BuzzKill]

I think he's having Daniel do the write ups!

[Valkpilot]

DAY 4: Devil's Tower, Spearfish Canyon, and the Wyoming Curse

The desination for the day was Deadwood, SD, with not much sight seeing to be done along the way.  (What there was, however, was pretty darned good.)



As opposed to the past couple of days, which were 400 milers through the mountains, today would be 400 miles of mostly flat, straight roads.

Some quick calculus involving the ratio of the mean distance of both elevation changes and curve radii of days two and three to today's straight line riding multiplied by the mean time in minutes of the past days' riding  and dividing the result by 60 led to a wild-ass guess that we could leave an hour later than usual and still hit Deadwood in time to enjoy the evening.

While we were packing and polishing at a leisurely rate, a co-ed group of motocyclists on "American Made" bikes saddled up and departed the motel with chase car (complete with bike trailer) trailing the covey.

We headed out about a half hour later and within a half mile of the hotel were looking at this:



The view wouldn't change much for several hours.

A couple of hours into the ride, we decided that the hotel "breakfast" wasn't holding up.  We pulled off I-25 and found a small local restaurant.  It was packed with locals so it either a) had pretty good food, or b) was the only restaurant within 50 square miles.  Both were pretty much true.

After stuffing  eggs & sausage in our faces for about an hour, we headed north again, leaving I-25 in a few miles to continue up Route 18.  At Four Corners we stopped for gas.  Fifteen minutes later, the "American Bikers" caught up to us.  Maybe the chase car acted like a sea anchor or something.

From Four corners we headed generally northwest towards the Devil's Tower National Monument.

The landscape in Wyoming is actually pretty and dotted with horse and cattle ranches, and the ranching is still done on horseback.  I'm pretty sure that most of the high-rollers in Washington, D.C. are completely unaware that this lifestyle, which embodies hard work and self-reliance, endures in the United States.  It sure makes me feel good to know that it does.

The land isn't completely flat either.



But that's not Devil's Tower.  First we needed to take Route 585 out of Four Corners toward Sundance.  The last 10 miles of this stretch turned into some very tasty road with huge fields of view and big 90° curves.  Exit speeds on some of these were in the low nineties.

After Sundance, the approach to Devil's Tower is a nice piece of track as well.  Lots of up and down with challenging curves.  While we couldn't go as fast as earlier, it allowed some nice synchronized riding in tandem.

When you do finally see Devil's Tower in the distance, it can stand up the hair on the back of your neck.  It's just...strange.  This picture gives an idea of the scale.  We're still about two miles away.




The 3/4 Pose.




Closer in.




I was wearing a newly-acquired tie-dyed shirt (a vendor gift, no less.)  Jaime had never experienced tie-dye and complained that it hurt his eyes.  So, naturally, we bought him one at the gift shop.

He didn't really want to wear it.  JC and Chauffer worked on him.



Then I gave it a shot.



Finally.  The Tie-Dyed Pose!




On to Deadwood, but first Spearfish Canyon.  This relativley short section of Route 14 links Spearfish and Lead and was once a main thoroughfare for traffic to and from Deadwood.  It is one of the great motorcycle roads in the U.S.  You can get a nice sense of it by finding it on Google Earth, zooming to about 8,500 feet up and scrolling the map along the road.  The movement will give the illusion of 3D as you "fly" above the canyon road.

Here's the great thing about riding Spearfish Canyon from west to east if your destination is Deadwood: If you ride it twice, you've got to ride it three times to get to where you want to go.  So we did.  Three (3) glorious times.

Of course we had to stop and take pictures of each other taking pictures.



The canyon rim above.



And the road below.



And a pose.  I can't figure out if this is the Half Bad-Ass Pose or the Bad Half-Ass Pose.



Poised for another pass through the canyon.




We're getting tired and hungry and the sky is darkening.  Is it that late?  Nope. We're still batting 1000.  It's rain closing in.

So, after reaching Deadwood, we check in, spiffy up, and walk (in the rain) to Mustang Sally's for cheeseburgers and beer.  



We connive a corner table on the patio (not too hard since it's, you know, raining) and scrunch under the umbrella. We wave big wads of bills around to imply we're big tippers so the waitress will actually come out and stand in the rain to take our order.  Now we've got a private wet t-shirt contest going.  Since it's also shift change for the servers, variety is on the menu as well as cheeseburgers.

Twenty-five ounce beers are on sale.  Why yes, we'll have some of that.



To say we're relaxed is an understatement.






We're near Sturgis, about two weeks before The Big Rally.  The town is full of obviously new riders on factory-trick American Iron.  Most of these hustled into the nearby parking garage when the rain started, I guess so that their paint wouldn't water spot.

When the rain let up, the parking garage began to burp them out in twos and threes.   Practically ALL of them crabwallked up to the stop sign and dragged their Topsider clad feet like outriggers through the turn and for a block down the street.



We've taken advantage of the 25 oz sale 3 or 4 times by now.  JC decided these poor souls need coaching as they obviously didn't get enough from their MSF Instructor.  "Pick your feet up, you miserable RUBs!" he encouraged at the top of his lungs.  "You posers can't ride a motorcycle!" he admonished.  I don't know about them, but we understood he did it out of love.  We were a little uncomfortable with the "poser" adjective though, considering some recent photo ops in which we'd participated.

One thing we were celebrating was that we beat The Wyoming Curse.  Two years ago, I broke down in Wyoming due to a bad petcock.   Last year, Disco, 5-19, Hayhauler, and El Cazador had an "incident" (caused by a moto-cop) that resulted in a set of bent forks and Hayhauler hauling out a dead blow hammer from his tool kit to straighten a fender enough to continue on down the road.  Also last year, on a trip with Thag and Hollyday, Loudpipes Larry toasted his rear end, and not in a good way, causing major disruption of their vacation.  

Wyoming had become The Big Suck for Valkyries.  

Not anymore.

[BnB Tom]

Who doesn't remember tie-dyed?   

Oh yeah.  I keep forgeting.  I'm a little older than the rest of you 


     Your careful planning and pre-ride maintenance probabaly accounted for the removal of the awful Valkyrie/Wyoming curse. 

   

[Disco]

Ride Report = 

I wish I could have been there for JC's heckling!!!   

I'm relieved to know JC didn't need to be pixelated at Devil's Tower this time.   

Here's the great thing about riding Spearfish Canyon from west to east if your destination is Deadwood: If you ride it twice, you've got to ride it three times to get to where you want to go.  So we did.  Three (3) glorious times.

Davey Jealous.  Really jealous.  I bet I know 3 other guys who are, too. 

[HayHauler]

Yep!!!

Hay
Jimmyt

[5_19]

Awesome report VP  . Keep it coming. I might go to Cheyenne again one of these days 

[Valkpilot]

DAY 5: Rush(more) To The Wall

The goal today is to ride a leisurely 200+ miles sightseeing in the Black Hills before heading to Wall, SD for the night.




Parking at our hotel in  Deadwood is limited.  You can either pay $20/night to park across from the hotel in a gravel lot, or you can try and get street spots and feed the meter about six bucks for the night.

We scored street positions and were able to get all four bikes in the space for one meter.  It's nice when things work out.    We parked them ready to sortie in the morning:




After a quick wipe-down (all these night-time rains are helping keep the bikes sparkling,)  we head out for our first destination, Mount Rushmore.




On the way to Keystone, the location of Mount Rushmore, lies the Pactola Reservoir.  It was built in the 1950s to control flooding and provide both irrigation and recreation for the area.    Whatever it's for, it's pretty.



Rushmore is both the prime objective of the day and for the trip itself.  It's been on Jaime's Bucket List from before bucket lists were invented.  I personaly am awed by it and what it represents.




I can't resist this shot.




Postcard material.




Time for a posed shot.  Hmmmmm. Pose discipline is on the decline.




That's better.




JC stands guard as Jaime sneaks into a restricted area for a few snaps.




The Memorial was conceived by the sculptor and funded by Congress as an expression of the nobility of the ideals on which this country was founded, and of the character of those who helped build it.  Although flawed at times, as any human endevour is, they believed this nation was the best execution of a Republic by and for the people ever attempted.  I certainly believe the carvings reflect that character and nobility.










If you exit the park to the west, there's an opportunity to get a profile shot of Washington.




The sculptor created a scale model of his concept for the stone and measurements from this model were transfered to the mountain.  As you can see, the original plan was much more ambitious than the final result, but a combination of the death of the sculptor (his son took over,) cost overruns, and a loss of governmental focus caused the project to be declared complete after the heads were finished and unveiled.




I like it better the way it turned out.




We head for the Crazyhorse mountain carving, literally a monumental undertaking that has been in progress since 1948.  Contracted by the Sioux Nation, it is planned to be several times the size of Mount Rushmore when it is finished.  It is funded entirely by visitor fees.  The family of the original sculptor carry on the work today.

As far as JC and I could see, not much has changed since we were here two years ago.  On that day, we arrived just in time to see a blast take place.  This year we learned that no blasts were planned for some time, since they are working on Crazyhorse's fingers and it is drill and chisel work.  

It takes a lot of progress on something this large for it to show up from a half-mile away.




For only the second time on the trip:  100% No-Pose




This year, Jaime won the creative photography prize with this juxtaposition of a model statue and the mountain carving.




Time to head for Sturgis, just to pass through and say we did.  We're two weeks ahead of the Black Hills Rally, so there shouldn't be crowds.

On the way it, you guessed it, rained.  Not a brief shower this time, or a gentle misty kind of rain, but a frog-strangler.  A drenching, can't-see-the-lane-lines rain.  We arrived in Sturgis as wet and bedraggled as rats who've abandoned ship.

While standing under an awning, dripping, I took this shot.  Honestly, I don't know how those kids focus on their studies.  Homework must be interesting though.




Sturgis most of the year is...empty.  Sturgis during the rally is...t-shirt vendors.  When we were there it was in transition and not much was going on.  

But, what's that commotion across the street?



The woman on the left was part of a tour bus group.  She had told her husband she was going to get her picture taken with the baddest biker dude she could find.  She picked JC.  While we snickered behind our hands, she and the woman on the right hung all over this 99%-er as if he were Sonny Barger himself.



It got kind of creepy with the husband both taking pictures and giving JC his hat to wear.




And with celebrity comes fans.  This drunk from Kentucky decided he would make JC his BFF by telling him Marine jokes.  JC did not LOL.




On to Wall for our RON.  Wall Drug has been a western-trip destination stop for motorcyclists for years.  I remember that a friend had a picture of his bike in front of Wall Drug from a trip he made in 1963.  It's expanded from the small frame building in that picture to a block-long tourist trap, but they have good roast beast and pie, so it's still worth a visit.




Some real 1%-ers were in town: Prospects from a well-known MC passing through.




Not satisfied with his scores in Sturgis, JC courted this young thing who apparently doesn't get much sun.  An onlooker actually commented that he'd get further offering twenties instead of singles.




Jaime's tastes are more mature.  Proposition offered...



... and accepted.




Primal needs satisfied, we headed back to the motel.  I gathered stuff up and went to THE laundromat to freshen my wardrobe.

It rained on me on the way back.

[BnB Tom]

   And The Beat Goes On... 

Terrific pictures!  Great narrative!

  It's as if I were there but without the sore butt and wet clothes 



 

[doubleminded]

this s cool stuff.last time i went in 2009 i was on a harley ultra.gotta do it on my grren and black valk sometime.not during rally week though.

[5_19]

Thanks again VP for all the time you spend writing a excellent ride report! Can't wait for the sequel. 

[Valkpilot]

Can't wait for the sequel. 

Thanks, TJ.

Let's hope I get through all eight days, first!

[Valkpilot]

  It's as if I were there but without the sore butt and wet clothes 

You just don't know what real fun is.

[Valkpilot]

DAY 6: The GOOD, THE BAD, and  an UGLY.


Let's get this clear first: Any accident-free day on the bike is GOOD!

Today's  goal is to traverse almost the entire width of South Dakata, then head south for Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Of the planned 500 miles, all but the first 40 miles is pure interstate push.




I highly recommend the Best Western in Wall, SD if you need a place to stay in the area.  It's clean, reasonably priced, and very biker friendly.  They allow you to park in the protected areas under the stair wells, and, in the morning, every bike in the lot had a folded towel laying on the seat to wipe away the rain from the night before.

There was also a bug.




From the hotel, we headed due south for a few miles to the entrance to Badlands National Park.  After entering the park, we pulled over at the first lookout and were greeted by



And me without my snake loads.

The Badlands were once sea floor, later a tropical forest, and still later, a volcanic ash field.  (If I recall correctly, the age of the ash field corresponds roughly to the last explosion of the volcanic caldera under Yellowstone, which is due to blow again.)  The geographic features are formed by erosion from wind and rain and contain some of the richest marine and land animal fossil beds in the U.S.






Here's the BAD Badlands Pose:




The Badlands park is nearly a quarter million acres of beautiful landscape.






Stark




Strange






And lonely.




Leaving the park, we head east on I-90.  This lies before us...



...and this behind.




And construction to boot.



Along this stretch we encounted an UGLY vicious beast, which attacked without warning.

One of the highway cones, talons flashing, snarling, with black, tarry spittle streaming from the fangs in its gaping maw, leapt into the lane a full foot further than the rest of the pack.  My highway peg was at the ready though, and slashed the miscreant across its forelegs, launching it end-over-end a good six feet in the air and straight back.

The carcass landed well clear of the rest of the group and we rode on triumphantly, Wagnerian opera streaming on the wind whistling by our helmets.

Wagner - RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES - Furtwangler	powered by Aeva

We stopped for lunch in Sioux City, IA and got our first look at buffalo this trip.  



<Pssssst.  They're not real.>

After a manly meal of soup and salad (hey, we had seconds) we continued south along the Missouri River.




As we neared Council Bluffs, the sky darkened ahead, manifesting the same afternoon-shower weather patterne we were now used to.  As it began to sprinkle, we pulled over to put on rain gear, although Jaime instisted we would be clear of the front soon and it would not be raining at our destination.  We rode through a short shower and Jaime was proven correct; the gear was a waste of time.

We spent the night at a casino hotel on the river, after talking the desk clerk into letting us park on the concrete apron under the portico instead of scattered amongst the cars of the oceanic casino parking lot.

We enjoyed sports-bar grub and discussed plans for the next day.  Chauffer and I opted  for getting up and leaving at 5:30 in order to get to Inzane by mid-day on Thursday.  Jaime and JC decided to follow later and meet us in Eureka Springs in time for the dinner.

We cashed in our figurative chips and  headed for bed.

[HayHauler]

Man, the trip of a lifetime...  Thanks for taking the time to put this together....  Dare I day, "Day 7"?

Hay 
Jimmyt