Cross Country Trip August 2001
What a trip/adventure. For a write up of the trip to STAR Days in Bowling Green Kentucky from Phoenix and STAR DAYS ITSELF select that link below the one that got you here.
After STAR DAYS Sue and I started out on our own little adventure. Riding through a drizzle to a pretty hard rain we finally dried out around Louisville Kentucky. We proceeded up to the Parkman/Middlefield Ohio area where I grew up. This is Amish country and Sue was amazed at the Amish buggies going down the road. Some with Boom Boxes blasting. :) We spent Friday Night, Saturday and Sunday visiting old Friends and relatives. I showed Sue the house I grew up in and where I went to school. While at the Beach where I learned to swim as a child the local Skydiving Club did a jump into the lake where 3 of the jumpers skimmed the top of the water with their feet then running up on shore. While 1 jumper actually did a water jump. It had been around 12 years since I was last back and I had a great time visiting back there once again.
On Monday Morning we headed for Chicago where Sue grew up. We spent Monday Evening, and Tuesday visiting Sues relatives and finding the house where she grew up. Other than the traffic and the roads going through Chicago this was a great time as well being able to meet Sues relatives.
Wednesday Morning we were hitting the road running so to speak. We took off from Chicago and rode through Wisconsin. As soon as we hit Minnesota we got hit with a very hard rain. This rain lasted for around a 100 miles. I miscalculated the stops and had to hit reserve shortly before getting to Dexter Minn. The rain stopped just prior to Dexter and we filled up there. Upon entering the on Ramp to continue our trip the bike started running like crap. I turned it around on the on ramp and attempted to make it back to the gas station but only made it back up the ramp and came to a stop not quite on the overpass over the freeway. I found I had water in the float bowl. I didn't have an allen that I could loosen the float bowl screw with without removing the carb. So I commenced to remove the seat tank air filter and carb so I could drain the float bowl. With the Tank off of the bike I drained gas from both the reserve and regular petcock spouts then rehooked up the gas line with the screw out and pumped some gas through the lines and float bowl. I then hooked everything back up and we never had another problem. That evening we actually made it to Mitchell South Dakota.
Thursday Morning we took off from Mitchell and our first sightseeing stop was Wall Drug in Wall S.D. They had Billboards up from the time we entered South Dakota and well it worked I had to see what Wall Drug was. It acutally is a pretty cool place to stop and check out if you ever are that way.
After Wall Drug we headed for Mount Rushmore This is really an amazing feat and again is worth the stop. From Mount Rushmore we headed to Crazy Horse Mountain where a carving of the Mountain is in progress. This carving was started in 1948 and by the pic you will see it still has quite a way to go but again a very impressive site and well worth the stop. The goats you see on a bridge below were at Old MacDonalds farm on the way to Mt Rushmore from Rapid City and the Yogi was at an RV PARK not far from there.
WE then headed for Sturgis to spend the night. If you didn't know any better you wouldn't beleive that this town could hold an event of the size of Sturgis. I was told that their are 6,500 residents and last years event had 350,000 people.
Friday Morning the plan was to ride by the Devils Tower in Wyoming then ride into Yellowstone and try to stay at Old Faithful Lodge. Well we rode by the Devils Tower after taking what looked like a great road on the map but turned out to be mud and gravel due to construction. We then headed across Wyoming for Yellowstone. We rode over Big Horn Mtn and just as we were entering Cody Wyoming we could see a storm front ahead and coud feel the sprinkles of an oncoming rain. We decided to stop in Cody for the evening. This town in an of itself is worth checking out on a trip The have the Wild Bill Cody Museum and they hold a rodeo nightly.
Saturday Morning was clear and we headed into Yellowstone. What a gorgeous park. Yellowstone Lake is Massive. There were Buffalo free roaming around the park and I rode as close as 8' away from one. We got to Old Faithful approximately 10 minutes before it was to erupt so we headed over there and got a few pics then had lunch at the Old Faithful Inn. We then headed out and had a very long ride to make up for the lost distance the previous day. We stopped at our planned stop in Fillmore Utah that evening approximately 630 miles later.
Sunday brought an easy section for us as we were only riding into Flagstaff to visit with our Daughter. On the Way though we rode past Lake Powell and stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam to get a couple of pics. We ended our trip so to speak in Flagstaff at Black Barts for Dinner Sept 2nd the same as we had started on August 17th .
Monday Labor Day was a sprint compared to what we had been doing as we only had to ride from Flagstaff back home around 160 miles.
All in all what a great trip. I hope you all can experience something similar sometime. I hope you enjoy the pics. Just click on the pic and you will get a larger picture
