Kevin (Artemedes) had ridden from Great Bend, KS, in rain and hail to get to our house in Greeley last night. We had a good visit and he and Joanne shared a pizza while I did my Nutrisystems thing. I woke up a bit before 6AM this morning to pack and eat. We went so I could get gas and I realized I'd left my coffee cup (with my 2nd cup of coffee!) in the garage. I called Joanne to tell her I was going to swing back by to get it and she didn't answer the phone. Turned out I'd bumped the door opener I keep in my tank bag with my still-too-fat belly and locked her out of the house. She'd managed to get back in and was in the alley with my cup when we went back by. So, we were on the road by 8:10, on 10 minutes behind schedule (pretty amazing for me, huh, Jungle Jim?)
We rode northeast to Briggsdale, CO, and then up to Hereford, and into Wyoming. I'd planned on Kevin and I hopping onto I-80 to go east to Pine Bluffs, WY, and then north. But my GPS showed that we could go straight north past Burns, WY, and hit US-85 south of La Grange, WY, which saved us about 20 miles. We went through La Grange on WY-151, and then turned north on the Stegall Road, which I'd never taken before. It was "blessed" with expansion joints about every 50-100' and before we'd gone too far, Kevin pulled alongside of me to let me know that my left pannier had come open (thinking back, I remembered that it hadn't felt 'normal' when I'd closed it in the garage). I looked at him and figured out what he was telling me, when he slowed dramatically because a cow was standing right on the edge of the road in front of us. I slowed, too, and we got around the cow with no mishaps. We stopped maybe 100 yards past the cow while I closed the pannier properly. By the time we were ready to go again, the cow was within 40-50 yards of us -- she'd never seen an NT700 or a Super Tenere before.
We got gas in Mitchell, NE, and learned that our bikes have similar range. I got a little better mileage than Kevin's Super Tenere, but not a whole lot better. We road north through Sioux County, NE, to Harrison, where we stopped to call Jim Moore in Whitney, NE, so he could meet us in Crawford. We had a couple of one-lane bridges and then a looooong traffic stop due to construction just before we met Jim on his Honda CB500X. It's an impressive little bike and Jim has put Shad panniers and a top case on it. Kevin had some BBQ while I had V8 juice.
Once we got past the construction on US-20 and onto NE-71, we headed on north through country that looks like the Sioux should still be ruling over it. The cattle we saw should have been buffalo!
Into SD, we went through Hot Springs, and then into Wind Cave National Park and admired the real buffalo we saw there. Through Custer (after being followed by a highway patrolman for a few miles, past the Crazy Horse monument, which now has a recognizable face, and then through Hill City. We got gas again a few miles north of Hill City. On this leg of the trip, I got 56.6mpg and probably could have made it to Spearfish before I ran out of gas 2 miles from Bell's Motor Lodge Motel.
We went west through Lead (pronounced like "lead me onward" not like "lead is a heavy metal") and then down Spearfish Canyon. We saw some of the damage from last year's tornado that Ken Malone (Red Bird on the Forum) almost got caught in. We passed Rick Ryan (FalconAF) while he was stopped taking pictures of the canyon, but didn't realize who it was. After checking into the motel while Kevin and Jim went to the campground and got their tents up, we met at Applebee's and added Brandon Wade (Buckwheat on the Forum) to our group. I'm back in the motel now and it's rained with wind and lightning but seems to be taking a break. I met Mark, a member of the ST side of the Rally. He's got an '83 GL1100 Goldwing that he's ridden to Prudhoe Bay and had an ST1300, but tomorrow he's picking up a BMW R1200GSA.
And now it's off to bed. We expect Coyote Chris to arrive from Buffalo, WY, and JungleJim to arrive from somewhere east of us at around noon tomorrow.
Wish you were all here!
We rode northeast to Briggsdale, CO, and then up to Hereford, and into Wyoming. I'd planned on Kevin and I hopping onto I-80 to go east to Pine Bluffs, WY, and then north. But my GPS showed that we could go straight north past Burns, WY, and hit US-85 south of La Grange, WY, which saved us about 20 miles. We went through La Grange on WY-151, and then turned north on the Stegall Road, which I'd never taken before. It was "blessed" with expansion joints about every 50-100' and before we'd gone too far, Kevin pulled alongside of me to let me know that my left pannier had come open (thinking back, I remembered that it hadn't felt 'normal' when I'd closed it in the garage). I looked at him and figured out what he was telling me, when he slowed dramatically because a cow was standing right on the edge of the road in front of us. I slowed, too, and we got around the cow with no mishaps. We stopped maybe 100 yards past the cow while I closed the pannier properly. By the time we were ready to go again, the cow was within 40-50 yards of us -- she'd never seen an NT700 or a Super Tenere before.
We got gas in Mitchell, NE, and learned that our bikes have similar range. I got a little better mileage than Kevin's Super Tenere, but not a whole lot better. We road north through Sioux County, NE, to Harrison, where we stopped to call Jim Moore in Whitney, NE, so he could meet us in Crawford. We had a couple of one-lane bridges and then a looooong traffic stop due to construction just before we met Jim on his Honda CB500X. It's an impressive little bike and Jim has put Shad panniers and a top case on it. Kevin had some BBQ while I had V8 juice.
Once we got past the construction on US-20 and onto NE-71, we headed on north through country that looks like the Sioux should still be ruling over it. The cattle we saw should have been buffalo!
Into SD, we went through Hot Springs, and then into Wind Cave National Park and admired the real buffalo we saw there. Through Custer (after being followed by a highway patrolman for a few miles, past the Crazy Horse monument, which now has a recognizable face, and then through Hill City. We got gas again a few miles north of Hill City. On this leg of the trip, I got 56.6mpg and probably could have made it to Spearfish before I ran out of gas 2 miles from Bell's Motor Lodge Motel.
We went west through Lead (pronounced like "lead me onward" not like "lead is a heavy metal") and then down Spearfish Canyon. We saw some of the damage from last year's tornado that Ken Malone (Red Bird on the Forum) almost got caught in. We passed Rick Ryan (FalconAF) while he was stopped taking pictures of the canyon, but didn't realize who it was. After checking into the motel while Kevin and Jim went to the campground and got their tents up, we met at Applebee's and added Brandon Wade (Buckwheat on the Forum) to our group. I'm back in the motel now and it's rained with wind and lightning but seems to be taking a break. I met Mark, a member of the ST side of the Rally. He's got an '83 GL1100 Goldwing that he's ridden to Prudhoe Bay and had an ST1300, but tomorrow he's picking up a BMW R1200GSA.
And now it's off to bed. We expect Coyote Chris to arrive from Buffalo, WY, and JungleJim to arrive from somewhere east of us at around noon tomorrow.
Wish you were all here!
