South Dakota to Wyoming to Montana

I had so many ideas for a blog title, but which one???  So this is it.
Here are the runners up:
    Singin in the wind.... Dodging Goliath Grasshoppers.... Yet another Tire!
But after how our ride ended today, I had lost my excitement for any of those titles or the story they told. 

We stayed in Sundance, Wyoming last night.  Yesterday started later than usual so we could get the front tire on Jeffs bike replaced.  The Yamaha dealership was next door to our motel in Sturgis, and they got his bike right in.  We were pleased... they know what they are doing, they have the same tires as are put on at a Harley shop... but for alot less.  But that is now 3 tires out of 4... for a total of $800... This trip is getting real expensive!

We saw a lot on our ride yesterday, but it was partly cloudy and cool... infact, I was cold much of the ride.  After the tire replacement, we still fit in all this!!

We visited Deadwood, SD

We visited Mount Rushmore

Before leaving the area, we stopped to refresh our mind on our route.  We try to plan out the most scenic routes.  On our phone was a message from Alan and Phyllis... RV friends from New Mexico... they saw our blog, and were calling to let us know that they were in Custer State Park.  Well, thats where we were headed.  We took the route through the park as planned, and met up with them for lunch in Custer, SD.

After saying our Hellos and Good-Byes... we continued on.

We visited Crazy Horse

 The plan had been to make it to Devils Tower... but at Sundance, we decided to stop for the night.  It was already 7:30.

Sunday - Today was a beautiful ride with beautiful sunny hot weather. 

We visited Devils Tower

We stopped for a breakfast / lunch in Hulett, Wyoming

Then we enjoyed an awesome ride up the 112 into Montana...

Then we took the 212, which would take us all the way to Crows Agency...  with a couple more brief stops to cool us off.

The ride was awesome...

At Crow Agency... We visited Little Big Horn (Custers last stand)

There are trails and a 5 mile road to follow to view all the graves of where soldiers fell... but by then I was overheating.  So we went to the cafe/gift shop/museum across the road to cool off.

I found an Air Conditioner vent, and just stood there... trying to cool down.

Then we looked around a little more...

and headed out for the final leg of todays trip.. West on the I-90 to Billings, MT.

As soon as we headed West, we saw the dark thunder clouds.  So we set our speed at 75mph, to make it as far as we could before we were hit with rain.  Lightning was striking all around us, which made me nervous, but the rain was still off in the distance.  I was so hot... I was actually welcoming the thought of rain to cool me off. 

 But THEN....

A furious Wind suddenly hit!.  I slowed to 50... then I had to pull over to the side and put my flashers on as I poked along trying to keep the bike on the two wheels.  Jeff was getting tossed all over, as well, but he didnt let him freak him out like I did.   We stopped at one point, and I just wanted to wait it out. It was rocking our bikes all over, and we had trouble just holding ourselves up.  But the rain was coming and we had only a few miles remaining, so we kept on, and took the first exit with a motel.  I want to find out the speed of these wind gusts, because they were FURIOUS and they freaked me out!

BUT WE MADE IT!!!  Thank You once again GOD!!

I thought my hands would have to be pried off my handlebars, and I was shaking when we arrived at a motel.  Its a real nice place and a little more expensive than we normally pay, but tonight, I didnt care!  I was just glad to be safe once again.

We have 1192 pictures of our Harley Road Trip so far, so if you would like to see more pictures of our travels, you can click here:
 Brights Harley Road Trip

although.... I havent been able to upload all the pictures yet.  Maybe later tonight.

Wyoming to Nebraska to South Dakota

Yesterday - About 40 miles up I-25 from Cheyenne, Wyoming... we pulled over for a break from the strong winds.  This is what we saw at a glance of Jeff's back tire... YIKES!  This was a "God watching out for us" thing.  Not only did we decide to pull over, but where he stopped gave us a clear view of this crack in his tire.

We road on the side of the freeway with our flashers on, trying to make it the 14 miles to Wheatland, Wyoming, and hoping that there was a motorcycle shop that could replace his tire.

At the exit, we rode to the Chevron station where I asked for a phone book and/or if they knew of a motorcycle shop... immediately they told us of a guy with a shop just around the corner.  We rode to the shop, but it was closed up... so we rode back to the Chevron... where the clerk took the initiative to call Tommy at home.  He was just taking a lunch break and would be back in half hour.  So we went back.

Tommy DID have the tire we needed so we took it right in and on the rack....

... where Tommy and Joey got to work on it... and we discovered it had not one but 3 big cracks in the tire by the time we got it there.

We praise God for keeping us safe.  We got it fixed and were on the road again, headed for Nebraska, on the way to South Dakota.

We made it the 260 miles to Chadron, Nebraska, as intended, even with the unexpected event and some horrible wind.

All the motels in town were full... so we set up our tent at the Eagles Rest RV Park. 

We met a fellow full-time RV'er, who helped us out getting our tent strapped down, our air mattress pumped up, and provided us with morning coffee!

Our new friend, Vince.  He's been doing the RV life for 12 years.

It was cloudy when we woke up this morning, so we got torn down and packed up as quickly as we could, then left after our coffee.  We prepared for hitting rain, but it didnt happen... though the wind was horrific and felt cold while riding.

We made it into South Dakota...

... where our first stop was the Wounded Knee memorial.

We continued up the Big Foot Memorial Trail, on the way up to Rapid City.

We planned on taking a short break then continuing on to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, but as we headed out after our break, we decided we were too tired to tour the area.  Fighting the wind really kicks our butt.

So we took I-90 to Sturgis, where we got a very comfortable motel room, and we are here thoroughly enjoying the rest and relaxation.  (as if this vacation is difficult and stressful)

CHECK BACK SOON... for a continuation of Bright's 2 Wheel Adventures!

Friends... Thunder Storm.... and Wyoming!

We crossed the border from Colorado into Wyoming this afternoon.

We left our friends place in Woodland Park, Colorado this morning, and hoped to get a rear tire for my bike at the Harley Dealership in Colorado Springs.. but they couldnt get to it until this evening, so we continued up the I-25 in search of a dealership that had time to replace my tire.  We stopped in Loveland, Colorado at Thunder Mountain Harley, and they were able to do it.  We had to wait a couple hours, but it was worth it.

I rode my bike right through the sliding door on the carpet into the service dept!

There was a HOOTERS next door to visit while we waited. 

 (ok... I thought Hooters was a topless bar... really) 

If you were to zoom in on that picture, I was trying to prove that I could work at Hooters. (HaHa)

Yesterday, Tim and Deni took us to Cripple Creek... a historic mining and gambling town.

When we left, a thunder storm had come through, and it was freezing cold!

We made it back to the house, though it wasnt easy.  The rain started again, and we were soaked... not to mention not being able to see because of wet and fogged up lenses. 

Monday night, we (Tim, Deni, Quentin, Debbie, and us two) went out for burgers at a local burger joint.  The band that is normally there for Monday nights, was not there... but it certainly didnt stop us from having a good time.

Back at the house we all played games again... Golf and LRC.

We had such a wonderful time.  Tim and Deni really opened there home to us and treated us as family.  Its so good to have such good friends.

Thunder Storm Run

That's what we're calling todays ride.  We debated for an hour this morning about whether to venture out, with the forecast calling for thunderstorms, monsoon rain with flash floods... all the way from Delta (where we were) to Woodland Park (where we were going).  Finally we decided to just go for it.  We would ride town to town, and if we had to stop we would.

It started raining on us just a few miles out, but it didn't last.  We rode on, and at one point we were riding the line with partly clear skies on our left and dark gloomy thunder clouds on our right.  But then the road turned to the right and we were riding right into it. 

We rode faster today than we have any of the other days, just trying to get to the next town before a storm hit us.  That's the way the day went racing from town to town, hoping to make it a little further before we got hit with a storm.  Unbelievably we made it all the way to Woodland Park, and with only a few drops of rain.  The day was actually a great ride, in its own way!

We arrived at Woodland Park around 4:00 I think.  Our friends met us at the bottom of their hill on their bike, and we followed them to their house.  We were shocked at their home... its so beautiful!  And they have wildlife that visits their property regularly.  We met one of the deer (dont remember her name), but we havent seen the foxes, and we should see the bear on garbage day.

putting fresh aloe vera plant on my burnt face

bartender Tim servin up drinks

Deni had fixed a wonderful dinner of lasagne and salad... and invited their best friends

And here is our room downstairs!

We have all sorts of plans for things to say and do while we are here... so we may be here a few days.  They have made us feel SO welcome!  They are awesome friends.

Day 8 of Road Trip

It was one week ago, this morning, that we left Grants Pass, on the ride. And after one week, we had only ridden about 1340 miles!  That's called Cruisin'!

Our first stop today was "The Arches" at Moab. 

We had driven 30 miles off the interstate to arrive at "The Arches" national park... then once there, we found out that the road through the park to view the arches was 42 miles.  Whew!  Normally, that wouldnt bother me, but today the heat was really getting to me.  It was about 100 degrees and it seemed more humid than usual.  So we shortened the trip.

The park map showed another road that looped back to I-70 out of Moab, so we decided to take it... and we're so glad we did.  It was an awesome ride.... even got a little bit of shade.

The road followed the Colorado River, and there were great tent campsites right beside the river.  That would be a place we would love to tent camp.

Another 32 miles East on I-70, we crossed into COLORADO!

We visited the Welcome Center... mainly to cool off, I think.  We drank water, soaked our doo-rags, and chatted with the couple there, and looked for motels on their internet, while we let our bodies cool down.

From there, we only made it another 52 miles to the city of Delta, where we got a room at the motel that the man at the welcome center had recommended.  We cooled off in the pool, and have been playing on our computers in our room.  But now it is beyond time for bed.

Night-Night.