Custer State Pàrk & Crazy Horse

We traveled another scenic route today thru Custer State Park. There are several different routes in the park. We took the Wildlife route, parts of Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway. We saw Buffalo, deer, begging burros and more prairie dogs. We plan on traveling the other loops next week.

The other pics I took needed a zoom so they are on my camera. We then headed to Crazy Horse, which is the world's largest mountain carving now in progress. It was very interesting and amazing the scope of this project.

The head alone is 87 1\2 ft. Tall. The completed carving will look like this model.

We plan to stay in Sturgis tomorrow, since we have risen about 200 miles a day for the last week. Plus the joint is jumping now. We need to check out all the goings on!

Devil's Tower and Steak!

Awesome ride out to Devil's Tower today, our nation's first monument proclaimed by Theodore Roosevelt.

We took lots of pictures today, lots of beautiful scenery. We also enjoyed the Black -tailed prairie dogs in their little town at the park entrance. I was able to get some great ones with the camera.

We have met some very interesting people in our travels. There was a group from Australia who shipped their Motorcycle here, so they could experience Sturgis. We also met a guy from Melrose,Florida who had a homemade trailer and was carrying his pitbull with him!

It is starting to get pretty wild here, with hundreds of bikes coming in droves. We have seen many antiques,also. We will take lots of bike pics once the rally starts. 

We are really enjoying all the touring and experiencing it on the bike. The smells, air and sun while riding is fun.

Since hitting the West we have wanted really good beef and Beef was for dinner! It did not disappoint! 

To close out the night I wanted to share a sign posted outside the shower\bathrooms.

Mount Rushmore Plus!

Started the day hitting the laundry mat. The chores never cease! Ha! It was fun watching all the bikers doing laundry.

We headed to Mount Rushmore after chores completed. Riding some very winding roads thru the Black Hills, giving our Guardian angel pause especially when I video taped our ride!

We rode by many babbling brooks and lakes, the scenery is so breath taking. I especially love all the wildflowers scattered throughout the hillside.

 The ride thru Keystone before Mount Rushmore was busy. There are groups of bikers in all the surrounding towns. They estimate 1.5 million people for the 75th ralley. We were more impressed with the President carvings after watching the movie in the amphitheater. The efforts of so many created this Masterpiece .

After enjoying Thomas Jefferson Vanilla ice cream & phone call from our son, we headed to the scenic route from Deadwood thru Spearfish Canyon. We will take that route again, it was magnificent..

We rode about 200 miles today,so we will decide where to go after we are rested. So many routes and beautiful scenery.....so little time.

Sturgis: The good with the bad

Last night and today we have had very high winds. Not comfortable for camping or biking. We heard the sirens went off downtown which only go off if the winds are over 60 MPH. If we were not so nervous we would have video taped the tent action. We were prepared and well staked and did not go rolling across the field like some. Today winds were 30 MPH gusting to 45MPH. One of camping niegbors had a stove fire this morning & Tom saved the day by putting it out with water we had.
We went downtown to explore and shopped for some needed things and we were able to get a warrantied item on the bike replaced very quickly that just failed.

We then took a ride to Spearfish to check out the area & did more shopping and headed over to Deadwood on a very scenic ride thru the Black Hills. Deadwood was fun to explore and many bikers are arriving.

The scenic road back from Deadwood to Sturgis was amazing. The winds are expected to die down shortly and tomorrow's forecast is wonderful for touring, so that's what we'll do!

Sturgis, we have arrived

The ride from Murdo to Sturgis was fabulous. Rode through portions of the Badlands, Buffalo Gap & Grasslands. Our first stop was at the famous Wall Drug. Where we had some fun.

Glasses to match my Sons of Arthritis Shirt.

Buffalo head!

The Town has an Old West Flavor.

They also had multiple silos that we have seen everywhere.

The homemade donuts & 5cent coffee were heavenly. Tom got his free since he is a veteran.

We tore ourselves away from all of this (we will go back) fun and headed to our campsite thru the Black Hills.

Shade Valley accommodations were much better than expected.

There is even a big rusty thing near our site. Hmmm....how will I ever get this home. We are thrilled with our site and have a beautiful view of  Bear Butte.

Bikers are coming in a steady stream. Time to kick back and enjoy this 75th Rally.

Big Sioux State Park

After drying out in Jordan,MN we headed to Big Sioux on pretty quick trip in relation to our others. We passed many trains fueling up with bio fuel from a few plants. More corn and wheat fields along with hundreds more wind mills.

We set up quick and went see the falls in SiouxCity.

We had torrential rain and high winds last night. Many fellow campers came to check on us to see how we fared. We stayed dry and tent intact! Have to love REI! The mid westerners here are so nice and friendly. We may leave by tomorrow! Sturgis tonight! Took pics with camera after a morning hike of an original cabin where a family raised 8 children in one room. Some pics on camera I will post after we finish blog in a gallery post. 

Not sure what happened this blog did not publish previously. So this one is out of order.

Not quite there

We had a late start yesterday, but did not want to miss anything. We started our day down a mile dirt road in Montrose,  to see the most fun art display.

Bull sculpture at Porter Sculpture Garden. Inside the bull is a humanoid surrounded by light. All Sculptures are made from recycled farm equipment. Right up my alley. Loved all of his work. Tom feels he may need medication. It was a very unique experience with a gopher eating chocolate kisses, too.

Then we happened across this tiny church near a cow pasture. Looks like the cows are going to church!

We then headed to the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell,SD.

The murals are made out of colored cobs & husks. The inside had everything corn!

We then headed west towards Sturgis. The route became more scenic after we crossed the Missouri River. Tom is loving the 80 mph speed limit. I don't think I need a facelift now!

We then started singing the Rolling Stone's song "Gimme Shelter"

"Oh, a storm is threatening my very life today" 

With a severe thunderstorm with hail & gusty winds. We decided to stay in Murdo for the night in a hotel. What a nice treat & we both enjoyed it. Now back to our adventure. We are 2 hours to our next campground but will make a few more stops along the way.

Minneapolis & St.Paul

WiFi stunk last night so posting yesterday blog, while waiting for laundry.....master of multi tasking!

We had a wonderful day visiting a few sights & visiting with cousins who live in the area.
We started out a little late due to heavy rain storms the night before. We stayed dry in the tent and bike was covered. We had only a few things to dry out & wipe down.
We went to Mall of America which was very cool to see the roller coasters and enormous Lego characters.

We then met up with my cousin Ken Geer for lunch at the mall then he gave us a tour of the Minneapolis area and went to the famous sculpture garden for a pho to op.

We met up with Ken Geer's beautiful daughter Olivia  & handsome son in law Cesare at the adorable restaurant in St. Paul called the Mason Jar.

We missed seeing Rosie this trip. We also thought of Joyce & Carl Berdie, missed seeing you too!
Next stop Sioux Falls, South Dakota today.

Jordan,Minnesota

Racoons and Owls made for an interesting night. The hooters were many and loud. The racoons kept setting off the bike alarm trying to get on it for a ride or Tom's Nutrigrain bar! We luckily had enough rest to continue on this morning.
We rode thru more beautiful  byways of rolling hills and farms. After leaving Missouri, we went thru Part of Kansas and Iowa. Arriving at our  Minnesota destination around 6pm.
Tom said we have traveled about 1800 miles to this point. We are talking serious ass time!  Thank goodness the bike is super comfortable and I have lots of music. Favorite tunes today were The Sons of Anarchy sound track......Forever Young! & The Crow flies straight! We are good about stopping for breaks and photo ops, even if they are not legal and off color!

There are serious farmers and commercial food and seed producers here. We loved seeing the hundreds of windmills  turning and generating power  for miles and miles.

We rode by John Wayne's birthplace and the bridges of Madison County.

The wildflowers of purple coneflower, black eyed susans and white, yellow, lavender flowers blanket the roadways.

I also love any old Americana so I couldn't resist this pic in the bathroom in Iowa. Who remembers these?

Laundry, pool time & rest tonight. Exploring Minneapolis and visiting with some family will fill our day tomorrow and we get to keep camp set up for another night😀

Weston Bend State Park

We departed our 1 1\2 thumbs down campground in Kentucky this morning and headed thru the Land of Lincoln & Superman in Illinois. We saw corn, more corn and more corn after that! Seriously, we saw some very dedicated farmers with some very prosperous farms.

We then rode into Missouri and  thru St. Louis and saw this view of the arch. It was too dangerous on the bike to take this photo, so I borrowed it from an unknown photographer from the web. We also went by the St. Louis Cardnial stadium.

Between St. Louis and Kansas City we were entertained with a couple of cropdusters doing their aerial magic. My goodness they get close to the power lines. We enjoyed seeing a coyote sneaking across a freshly plowed field too.

One our favorite refueling spots is Cracker Barrel and Tom took a photo op!

Favorite Playlists today were Classics by Madonna, Bob Dylan & Rolling Stones. New tunes were Maroon Five & Loude. It was a long ride but we were rewarded with some more beautiful farm views and a nice campground. 

Kathy got her photo op in of Tom too. He pulls over for my photo ops.

We are running into more and more bikers headed our way and some who have done our planned trip in reverse and heading home. Always fun to chat with similar interested folks.

We are able to get our campsite set up in less than 10min.

We will now relax, enjoy all the lightning bugs and plan our trip onward to Minnesota.

Kentucky Dam

We arrived safely. No pics today with ipad as we mistakenly buried it. We did get some with our camera though.
The cicada's and songbirds woke us up early.
We were happy to leave Unicoi with no bear sightings. We did see a small scorpion under our tent footprint map.
When we left peaches and boiled peanut country, we headed thru the Chattahoochee Forest and thru the Blue Ridge Mountains, skirting part of the Appalachians. Pretty thrilling ride with cool mountain breezes that we savored. There were many twists and turns going  up and down the mountains.
We are now in the land of moonshine and smokin' barbecues.
We rode by many streams & lakes. Beautiful scenery.
When we hit Tennessee, Tom said " I think a few people play the banjo here". We also said a prayer for the fallen Marines. When we stopped for gas a guy working there, said " what can I do for you Miss Biker Chick?!" Really?! Lol!
 Favorite tunes today: CCR & Janis Joplin. Thoroughly enjoyed a Cracker Barrel breakfast for lunch. Tom opted for the meatloaf.
Many thanks to all who are keeping us close as we travel. Showers, laundry & early night. Another long ride to Missouri tomorrow. We started seeing a few bikes headed in the same direction. Rock & ride is on!

Unicoi State Park

We started out on our adventure yesterday,with kickstands up at 6am. We arrived at our campsite and set up pretty quick around 4pm. We both slept about 10hrs like a couple of rocks.😁
Our ride was great, we even appreciated a brief rain shower as it cooled us off. The only real ass ache was when we got to Helen and we were met with bumper to bumper traffic. Not fun with a packed bike and rain gear on. One of our favorite sites along the way was an old pick up truck with trees growing out of the engine. May need to go back for photos. The town itself looks very quaint with a Bavarian flair. It was pretty warm yesterday so it was bumper tubing on the Chattahoochee River. We are off to explore the town & falls. We are here one more night. Will blog more later.

We explored the Town of Helen and had a great lunch of a Ruben & German Chocolate Cake Torte at Hofer's

. We needed to fuel up before our hike to Anna Ruby Falls. It was uphill a half mile from the parking lot. We are in the mountain at our campsite and had to travel a couple of miles further up the mountain. We were rewarded with the spectacular views of side by side falls. They have had several inches of rain lately so it was awesome! Did I say it was awesome! Some of our favorite things are waterfalls