The Farewell Tour?

I have been busy these last few days. I just completed a 2100 mile bike tour and I actually took a few pictures to illustrate what some of the things that were seen. Above is a snake that I saw while stopped for a break on a township road in South Dakota. I am not sure if it was a rattler or not but it sure acted like one. In the upper left is a prayer from a war memorial in Hudson SD. The pictures are in the reverse order, next time I will start at the end and work back so they come out in proper order. After finally getting some action from Mayo last Thursday, I loaded the bike and headed west after dinner or lunch as some would say. Leaving Chamberlin in the fog on Friday morning kind of set the stage for later in the day when I ran in rain and 50 degree weather for a couple of hours. In between I had a nice ride south from Belvidere on a gravel state hiway. Saturday I left Kimball Nebraska early to Cheyenne and down to Fort Collins and west over the mountains on 14 to Walden.

Here is a picture or two from Colorado. At a stop in Walden for lunch I made what turns out to be a good decision to go north back into Wyoming not south further into Colorado (they had more snow the next day) . After that it was a long drone across Wyoming to Worland where I spent the night. Up early on Sunday and over Powder River Pass where it was 28 degrees at the top. It was pretty with the grass covered with frost all sparkling in the sun. above to the left is a picture from Ten Sleep Canyon which you go through to get to the pass. Then across more of Wyoming and back roads in the Hills to Rapid City. Yesterday ( Monday) was spent just getting home although I took a side trip down in the Yankton area to check out an old rail line, it's still abandoned. I wanted to get home to Jan and the rest of my family but getting home means facing reality of what could be ahead of me, none of which is attractive. We are headed to Rochester today to start my doctors appointment tomorrow morning to find out what lies ahead. Long distance riding gives a person an awful lot of time to contemplate things, what your wife and family mean to you, how will I cope with whatever comes down the pike and how lucky I have been so far.

I am still learning here so this will be a little disjointed. To the left is a picture that I took south of Belvidere and below is the GS as loaded before I left.

So anyhow I hope that this title is far from the last tour but if it is it was a grand one. I had a tape recorder along for details and it may make interesting listening for someone, maybe. I hope to blog you from the other side of this, so pray for us.