We're starting motorcycle trip to west coast. I reopened FB acct. to share a kind of trip diary, but will post a more candid version here. It doesn't seem wise to be real candid on Facebook, does it?

Starting out Saturday, which will probably be a tough day, tush-wise. About 350 miles. I figure that will feel like 8-hour double hip replacement, except you have to stay awake during the whole thing, and you can't have drugs. We're hoping for decent weather. Will be traveling pretty slowly, plan 8 days to get to the Pacific.

Last year we had that unfortunate motorcycle failure out in PA which turned out to be a figment of my imagination, never the less caused a 100-mile ride on the bed of a AAA tow truck, wife riding behind on her bike in the rain. This year my motorcycle is almost brand new, as is hers. New tires, too. We have the route planned to a T, have planned for whatever weather we encounter, except a blizzard. So we think we're well-prepared.

Still, this is just crazy.

I told you last night that I thought you were almost as crazy as jim, but you guys know what you are doing and this is what you want to do. Key emphasis on the WANT!!!!


Be safe, have fun and share your adventures with us!!!!

Happy trails!!! Not crazy.

I think the best part about this sort of trip at our age is that we savor it more. There is a feeling of "this may be the last time we are able to do it" and so we tend to relish every sight and sound, good or bad. Even this:





As Chaos says, "live" is a verb.

Wishing you and gramma a happy, relaxing, and fun trip ~ please check in when you can ~ I'm guessing you reconfigured your route around Yellowstone ~

Safe travels!

Sooz

have a great time Gramps!

OK, so today Joan and I started riding our motorcycles to the Pacific Ocean. We made it to Wilmar, Minnesota this afternoon. 375 miles, and we could have gone farther, but I'm glad we didn't. My seat needs some breaking in.

Started out in fog, ended in bright, hot sunshine. New motorcycle is fiiine! Too dark now, but I will take a picture of our mounts (Silver and Scout) tomorrow and post it here.

We checked in to a hotel, changed out of our road warrior clothes, and them walked a mile to find supper, and a mile back, and that felt very good.

Good traveling all the way today, except for that rush through the middle of Minneapolis, handlebar to hubcap with 18 wheelers in high speed traffic in unfamiliar territory, etc.

Joan saw an egret. And a swan.

I've shared with some of you that I've actually dreaded starting this trip, in a way. We've been wanting to do this for years. I've felt we waiterd too long, and grew too old. But we're doing it. My wife is made of sterner, braver stuff. She's asked several times, do you really want to do this, do you want to not go? I told her what I was afraid of, but didn't say we shouldn't do it. She really wants to do it, and I'm glad we're doing it. We'll hang up our helmets pretty soon, maybe after this trip. Take up alligator wrestling or something.

More later.

Where did you see the egret and the swan? I am excited to see Silver and Scout with Gramma and Grampa.

Remember to have fun!!!!!!

Enjoy!!

Sunday, August 17, Wilmar MN to Mobridge SD
We slept in this morning, since we only had 298 miles to ride, and ate the hotel's continental breakfast. While the food wasn't top quality, I did come away from it with a pretty good food product idea, based on what we ate: Egg Leather, a durable, protein-rich snack for church canoe trips, prairie weeding snack breaks, and of course motorcycle trips. Could also be used as youth trip fund raiser product. We already have the chickens. Remind me to mention this to Pastor Jeff. (I suppose a motorcycle youth trip is out of the question.)

We started out in rain, then rode under cool clouds all day, which is IMO the best riding weather. Flat, flat country, straight line road, sparse traffic, 70 mph all day made for a short day, with no excitement until after hotel check-in. Little towns along the way, most with a huge John Deere or Case/IH dealership, with its behemoth wares spread out along US 12 to tempt the farmers. Crops as far as the eye can see - wheat, corn, beans, Sunflowers, no weeds allowed. Some cattle.

The Missouri River is a big surprise, you're riding through mostly flat country, you top a rise and there it is all of a sudden, very wide and backdropped on the distant other side by high, grassy, treeless sunlit bluffs. Very dramatic sight.

Remind me to describe sometime how using a borrowed GPS (for the first time) to find a hotel, with earplugs in your ears on a loudish motorcycle, is not a good idea. And how one's spouse will never let one forget it.

So we walked a mile to supper again, and while we ate a huge storm developed over the prairie. We stopped at a gas/convenience store to get some pepsi for the evening, and suddenly the wind came up, literally was blowing dirt and loose pieces of pavement past the store, and then came the rain, and we were on foot a mile from the hotel, where I had left my leather coat out on my bike. What to do?

The nice clerk offered to give us a ride, and said she would pull her car around to the front of the store. We had no idea what kind of car, of course. A minute or so later an SUV pulled up, we ran out into the wind-driven rain and started frantically yanking on its locked doors. Well, that poor family, whoever they were, were terrified, I suppose. At any rate, the clerk's car appeared a few seconds later, and we didn't have an opportunity to explain or apologize.

We got back safe, coat's drying out, and we were treated to the most magnificent rainbow ever seen when the storm passed. I will try to post the pictures later.

Sounds lovely and much like our car trips with the views! I love the unexpected ones that pop up as you crest a hill or go around a steep curve.

LMAO @ the SUV family. They probably thought they were being carjacked. It's a good thing the clerk came along quickly, or you might have been 'splainin yourselves to local law enforcement.

That definitely sounds like a scene from a comedy movie.

So maybe just a little crazy.

Breaking News

In the late afternoon of Sunday, Aug. 17, Attorney General Marty Jackley and Hughes County States Attorney Wendy Kloeppner announced that a Hughes County grand jury had indicted an elderly biker couple, Wisconsin, on one count of first degree attempted carjacking, a Class C felony punishable by up to life in the state retirement home.

These a additional charges to those filed by federal officials in U.S. District Court on Monday, Aug. 18.

The pair are presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty.

The Division of Criminal Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating this case with assistance from the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office and Mobridge Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney Generals’ Office and the Hughes County States Attorney’s Office.





Water restrictions lifted

Mobridge City Administrator Steve Gasser announced on Thursday, Aug. 14, that the water restrictions imposed during the refurbishing of the city’s north water tower have been lifted.

Gasser thanks the residents of Mobridge for abiding by the restriction during this time.

LOL! Good one, jab.

That's not my writing. I swear. Official Tribune Anglese.

Hmmm...

No posts from Gramps.

Well, hopefully the jail or retirement home has internet service...

It takes some time to get bailed out.

Well, we broke out with help of Mobridge Chapter of Heck's Angels. We are hiding out in a gully across the border in Montana, living on jackrabbits and rattlesnakes, with a nice sage garnish, drinking from a buffalo wallow. I came to this ranch to steal some gas, and, while here, asked if I might make use of their wifi. Nice people. What they say about western hospitality is true.

Other than that, the last couple of days have been uneventful, and the trip is going according to plan.

More later.

Later, from Helena Montana. We are holed up in the Days Inn on Prospect Avenue, if anyone from South Dakota comes asking. We rode through low mountains today, very swoopy, curvy road. Tomorrow's any easy day, only 100 miles or so. We'll sleep late, ride the 100 miles, find a hotel, do our laundry, take in the sights of Missoula.

One of the most entertaining trip blogs of the prairie ever.

Mountains are a whole different deal. I'm looking out the hotel 3rd story window at the thunderstorm...the whole storm, with deep black clouds and grey rain and lightning flashing. A bit earlier you could see the storm and the sunny area one mountain down the line from the stormy mountain, all at the same time. Light's fading with evening now, so it all looks darker. You're thinking, "Well, duh".

Only a couple of hours riding today, but interesting riding, climbing the mountain west of Helena, then coasting down to the Little Blackfoot River valley. Absolutely stunnning scenery, glimpsed briefly through narrowed eyes focused mainly on the point where the road curves out of sight behind the rocks. Try not to be hypnotized by the center line flashing yellow in the periphery. Check the mirrors, check the mirrors, she's ok, look ahead, check the morrors, Joan's OK in the mirrors, shift down for the curve, lean, accelerate, car passing on the left...Tomorow we'll ride from Lolo MT to Kooskia ID. It's said to be one of the best motorcycle rides in the country, 145 miles of breathtaking scenery from mountain curves. If you are able to get a real-time satellite view of that road tomorrow, you'll see a line of cars ten miles long behind a cautious old dude on a bike. A very fast bike, ironically.

We've had a nice day. Had time to sit around and read. We took a walk in Missoula, and we did our laundry. We wash clothes every four days. Today I used the borrowed gps to find this hotel. We were only two blocks away from the hotel at the time, so not too much of a challenge for the Garmin. We ate a delicious supper at The Stone Of Accord, just down the street (bangers and mash for me). We've been sleeping well. Life's being pretty good right now.

Happy Birthday Gramps!!!!!

Enjoy the day tomorrow!!!!

Updates are taking a little too long, Grampa!

Well he last 2 days have been pretty uneventful. Yesterday we started out in Missoula. We visited the site of Lewis and Clark's campsite along a nice creek. The site has been positively identified by items in the cooking fire and by the location and contents of the latrine they used. (Made me think of our canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness.) Seems the men of the expedition were given mercury pills to help with stomach problems, and the soil in one small secluded area still has the mercury from their diarrhea. So don't put old hearing aid batteries in the landfill.

We then drove through Lolo pass, a stretch of about 100 miles. Part of it was on fire. I really got to know the handling of this new BMW, it's better than any other I've ridden. Actually got comfortable with the thousands of curves on that road. I'd been afraid of impeding traffic for 100 miles, but didn't. WE made it to Lewiston Idaho.

Today Joan had arranged a meeting with a cousin she had never met, who happens to share a passion for genealogy study. We drove 40 miles to meet her and her husband. they pored over old letters and pictures on a park bench for hours. This town is pretty nearly at sea level. and the mountains rise around it on all sides. We climbed up and up and up out of the valley on the way to the meeting. We coasted all the way back down, I think. Probably didn't use a gallon of gas between us. Good, because gas is expensive here.

Next missive will be from Yakima tomorrow. I will try to get pictures into dropbox, or you can look for me on Facebook, where I have posted some.

later, friends.

What a great trip you are having. I'm jealous.

August 23
I was very tempted to spend more time in Lewiston ID, as they were having a giant old car show (the show was giant, and some of the old cars too), but no, we headed on down the road, west along the bank of the Snake. It's a very beautiful ride, heading west, everything you see washed in that special early morning sunlight color. Saturday traffic was light, the weather was cool, the road of very good quality.

I was especially eager to go through Walla Walla, as it is a town name I've heard all my life. I think there was an old radio comedy show that made fun of the name...Jack Benny's show? (*In the native Wallawallen language, the name means "very walla; extremely walla").

Very interesting agriculture here - lots of apple orchards, vineyards, and, most curiously, hops and sorghum. Miles of hops plants that grow to a height of maybe 20 feet on tall poles. The Sorghum looks like miles and miles of failed corn, but isn't.

Hwy 12 and Interstate 82 run together for a good part of the route so we made good time, got to Yakima, got all settled in the hotel in time to take a nice walk and shop at the local St Vincent's for a couple of books. And there was also an old car show here. Bonus! Nice to look at them, if only from a distance.

Tomorrow we're going to park the bikes at the Pacific Ocean. Won't need the GPS to find that.

*I am not entirely sure about this walla walla definition.

We've achieved the first part of our trip's goal - to reach the Pacific Ocean via land across the continent. I joked earlier on facebook page that some of the credit has to go to Meriweather Lewis and that Clark fellow, who made this trip 200 years ago, and really earned bragging rights. Still, this feels like a big achievement for a couple of old farm kids.

We're at the Days Inn in Ocean Shores, which is a apparently a popular tourist destination. The beach is literally awesome...hundreds of yards wide at ebb tide, and six miles long. Tomorrow we'll take a leisurely drive up 101, look at Lake Chinnault, take in a rain forest or two, and probably stay the night in Port Angeles. I hear they have thee great sculptures in the streets there, depicting ordinary people doing ordinary things. Love that idea. The greatest people in the world are the ordinary ones.

Bikes performing perfectly, although gramma complains that it is unfair mine gets better mileage sometimes. And it probably is unfair, as she tries to drive economically and I do not.