As usual I have these photos in pretty much reverse order of when they were taken. Eli and I headed West one Thursday after he got off work in Worthington, dodging rainstorms, we ended up running across South Dakota on highway 44. This is the first time that I have actually made the trip from Sioux Falls to Rapid City on that road. Except for hitting heavy rain around the Badlands it was a nice trip on a quiet road. We spent the night in Rapid and headed up through the Hills the next morning. West of Edgemont we tried a "shortcut" on a back road and I got a little sideways in a soft spot. I managed not to dump it so no foul I guess. That pretty much set the tone for my sense of adventure for the rest of the trip. We spent a lot of time waiting in road construction zones between there and Laramie, but for the most part they were pleasant breaks by the side of the road. I wanted to take two passes west of Laramie and the pass over the Snowy Range- you can judge by the photos how true that was-had just been cleared. We spent that night in Saratoga, where the North Platte river was over it's banks and still rising. There are a couple of photos from there. The next morning we were going to head west over the next pass to Baggs, but he motel clerk said that they had not even started working on clearing that one. So, change of plans, we cruised up to Rawlins, Thermopolis, Ten Sleep canyon and Crazy Woman canyon, where one of the photos shows a babbling brook, so to speak. Coming out of the canyon on the east side of the Big Horns we outran another rain storm and stopped at Gillette for the night. The next morning we were going so well that we agreed to try for home after a detour through the Hills on back roads. Eli did some shopping at the Rochford Mall, which can be seen in a picture. We pushed on to the east and home for what seemed like an awfully long time, due to the high cross winds all of the way home, but we made it shortly after sundown. Not too bad, over 600 miles with stops in Rochford and Rapid City on the way. I have fallen way behind in my blogging and have one more to do covering a fabulous trip to Wisconsin that Jan and I just returned from. So there will be more in the future.
7 comments:
Crazy Woman Canyon--like that one! OK, what exactly did Eli buy at the "mall" in Rochford? By the looks of it, mall is a loosely applied term. Curious.
Imagine all that snow in July! Yuck! What fantastic memories for you and Eli.
Yes, it's very admirable that you and Eli did this trip and are planning more...something you've been waiting for/wanting to do ever since we saw that father/son duo on ducatis many years ago. Now when Rach and Gen get their bikes, you can plan trips with them too...wouldn't that be a hoot! Glad you had another good adventure.
Just about three years and I will be looking into it! Hopefully for my 40th birthday...
Corresponds nicely with having the S4 paid off, actually...
I hate to mention "starter bikes" but Hondas' CBR250 sounds like a good one. Read some reports. I can see the whole gang invading a motel somewhere out west. Good reason to keep going on going on.
Is there a starter BMW?
Well ya, there are a couple of 650 cc singles in BMW's line-up. I guess they could be considered starter bikes. Years back I did see a 650 Beemer in Kayenta, Az, so long distance travel is feasible. Try their web site out.
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