KIWIS on TOUR

Route 66 is a hospitable place...

Even in the rain!

Yes, we've had more rain in the last couple of days, but it has NOT dampened our enthusiasm for riding these old roads.

Today we even became famous in our own lunchtimes by making it onto the blog of the Afton Station Museum: http://journals.aol.com/laurelRK66/AftonStationBlog/.

So what have we been up to you may ask? Well, for the last 5 days we've only been riding about 130 miles each day and yet we leave at about 9am each morning and finally roll into our hotels about 6.30pm - that's how much there is to see and do along this road.

Since I last updated the blog we've been to Joplin (no Janis!) via Springfield, the second Springfield in a matter of days, and still no Bart or Homer to be seen. We did visit an old and original Steak & Shake in Springfield, Missouri where we did partake in Steak Melts and Shakes just to be true to the name!

At Halltown we visited the Whitehall Mercantile and in Paris Springs a replica Sinclair Station as well as a "1926 thru-truss bridge".

Riding into Carterville was an experience, it's like a ghost town and Stu's comment was that he suspects even the ghosts have left! The place did liven up once we hit the main street, notably the bank looks to be surviving wuite nicely!?!?!

...going to dinner now... will write more when I'm back!

Monday morning... hmm... well dinner took a little longer than anticipated! :o)

Anyway, Joplin, our nights stop for Saturday, was just a big town that also appeared to be on the decline. You can really see how the interstates have hurt these towns. The main street was like a ghost town Saturday afternoon, but get a few miles down the road to the Interstate Exit and all the motels and restaurants are right there and the place is humming.

Sunday and we are off to Tulsa. Back through the town, still devoid of human activity. Head out through the 'burbs and onto the Mother Road for another dose of old time charm. Not far out of Joplin we crossed the state line from Missouri into Kansas to the small and CUTE town of Galena.

We happened upon the Dresser Club in Galena (that's Merv, Jenny, Max & Derrick, usually Geoff & Joan are also there but not yesterday), also there was Paul & Nyhra, so we did an impromptu 'group' photo outside the '4 Women on the Route' restored gas station now souvenir shop and snack shop.

Then we all headed off in our separate directions covering various alignments of Route 66. We took on the very cool but very potholed 9 foot wide piece of road. It was really more like driving on shingle than tar-seal, but it was fun to ride it.

We've spent the night in Tulsa, Paul and Nyhra had a great evening in town looking at the Art Deco architecture and having dinner in a cafe by the river, about 10 of us went across the road from the hotel to a 'down home' restaurant called the Golden Saddle BBQ & Grill where the staff were extremely hospitable, bringing us appetizers for us to try, constantly checking that we all had what we wanted, and, their rib-eye steak is divine!!!

Well better go, gotta go riding :o)))

Bye, Jodi

Get Your Kicks on Route 66!

Last Sunday we all departed Milwaukee between 8 -10am. Michael decided to take in the House on the Rock en route to Chicago – just a little detour of about 250 miles!

The rest of us just headed straight for our motel in Willowbrook, south of Chicago City and on Route 66. Friends of ours in Darien (next suburb to Willowbrook) asked us all over for a BBQ and relaxing afternoon at their home. We all rode round to Noel and Terri’s about 3.30pm and WOW what a fabulous afternoon! Sitting outside on their rear patio by the lake watching the swans glide around – just sooooo relaxing. Terri was overjoyed to have 14 Harley Davidsons parked outside her home… (I’m NOT being sarcastic here either – Terri is going to enjoy being the talk of the neighbourhood for a few days I think!) We really do thank them so much for their wonderful hospitality!!!

Monday dawned and sadly we all said our goodbyes to Maurice and Gaylene as they started their trek back to New Zealand.

Monday was also Labor Day in the US, so my plan was, let’s all get on our bikes early and head into the city so that we can ride our bikes right from the start of Route 66 on Jackson Blvd. And, while we are there, let’s have Brunch at Lou Mitchell’s Diner – a Route 66 institution since the inception of the route. Disappointingly it was CLOSED – arrggghhh! I was completely bummed out by this, I so wanted everyone to experience Lou’s. Oh well – another time!

So, once we knew we weren’t dining as planned we all headed off to do other things and find food. Several of us headed off to the Sears Tower to visit the Skydeck on the 103rd floor. Wayne, Pam, Gary, Stu, Alan, Janice and my Paul all headed on up, while me and my vertigo waited at the bottom.

They all came back down smiling and impressed by the views. It’s so high (1400+ feet) that you can actually see the curvature of the earth. From the Sears Tower we jumped on the tourist trolley bus and headed round to Navy Pier where we got some food finally! Paul and I then redid the Architecture Tour on the river seen as last time I was fiddling with my new camera and managed to stuff up a setting L. So now I have my photosJ.

Then it was Mother Road time, we took the trolley back to the stop nearest to the carpark we were in and set off. We soon discovered that the route is actually very well signposted through Chicago. We all commented that we hoped it would be this good over the next few days. We easily found our way back to our hotel through the inner city suburbs.

Tuesday morning everyone was rearing to go and with only 120 miles to go it should be a nice short relaxed ride today! At least, that’s what we thought then!!!

Our first stop of the day was in Joliet where there was a fantastic Route 66 Information Centre & Museum plus the beautifully maintained and functioning Rialto Square Theatre. Paul and Nyhra were lucky enough get inside and be shown around! Next stop was Wilmington to see the Launching Pad Drive In including the Gemini Giant (there are a number of “giants” to be viewed and photographed along 66). The drive in made the most fabulous Banana Shakes too – at least that’s what the gathering of our Kiwis informed Paul and I as we arrived. After this we stopped at the Polka Drive In long enough to photograph it but again Paul & Nyhra headed on in and enjoyed lunch accompanied by some great jukebox music, we also stopped to photograph Becker’s Marathon Station in Dwight and the 1932 Standard Station in Odell both nicely restored for us tourists. Along the road there were plenty of sections of the old concrete road beside us sitting dis-used. At driveways and side roads there would be a couple of poles with a sign saying Road Closed. Well you couldn’t get a car down the roads but you could sure get a motorcycle between the poles so I thought ‘stuff this, I’m here to ride the “old” road’, so at an intersection I rode around the Road Closed signs and proceeded down the old road (Paul came to a grinding halt on the main road, did a u-turn and followed me.  We did this a few times throughout the day including one piece that is called “Memory Lane” and is only opened once a year to vehicles for a rally weekend. So I now have photo evidence of us being on the road and a series of photos of Burma Shave signs as they used to have them many years ago. By the time we did Memory Lane Stu was riding with us which made it all the more fun – 3 naughty children together!!!

The day turned into a scorcher with a high of 98 deg. F – it was hot!

Wednesday was another awesome day on Main Street USA with our first stop at Funks Grove to pick up some Maple Sirup (spelt that way intentionally). We met the lady who along with her husband have been running this business for 61 years! We learnt too that it takes 50 Gallons of Maple sap to make 1 Gallon of Sirup. They get about a bucket of sap from each tree every twelve hours on a good year, so the yield is relatively high and you need it to be for a reduction rate of 50-1!

The rest of Wednesday was spent taking in many more old road sights and as we progressed towards Litchfield for the night the weather was starting to close in on us. We were only at the hotel about 20 mins when the rain started – we were now getting the remnants of Tropical Storm Gustav.

Thursday morning it was still raining steadily and so it did for the entire day, making sight-seeing a little difficult. Luckily it was only a short ride to St Louis and most people made a bee-line for the hotel with a few stopping to see the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Wayne & Pam tell us it was well worth walking, the now dis-used bridge is infamous for the sharp turn half way across it and they have a vintage car parked on the bridge near the turn.

By this morning (Friday) thankfully the rain had turned to just a light drizzle and as we have progressed the drizzle and light showers finally gave way to sunshine yet again, so it was back to stopping frequently for photo opps. We left the hotel at 9.00am this morning and finally completed the 138 miles to Lebanon at 6.30pm – lots to see!

Till next time…

Jodi

Milwaukee Welcomes us with open arms… a retrospective

It was an exciting ride through central Chicago to get us from quiet, calm, sedate Amish country to Milwaukee but from the moment that we arrived in Milwaukee the locals just did not stop welcoming us to their city, state and country!

Thursday 28th August: In the morning our group headed off in many directions, aiming to take in    dealerships, factory tours, Summerfest Park activities etc. Personally we headed off to the newly opened Harley-Davidson museum. H-D have done a wonderful job with the museum displaying their many varied bikes right from the 1903 Serial No.1 bike to the most up to date. They also displayed prototypes, design blue prints and advertising through the years and a range of crazy custom bikes.

We spent about 3 hours at the museum and surrounding complex, including the wall of rivets where we found ours proudly displayed!

Thursday afternoon many of us headed off to Miller Park (the $450 million dollar 40,000 seater baseball park!) for the HOG 25th celebrations. We arrived just at the end of Joan Jetts performance, then watched the Indianapolis Drill Team, Seattle Cossacks Stunt Team and another HOG Drill Team, plus an amazing stunt rider who performed different stunts on 6 different motorcycles including unbelievably an HD Dresser!!! Did an awesome rear wheel stand on it with sparks flying everywhere – ha :o). Then we watched a very funny comedian for and hour before Kid Rock came on stage. So, now here’s where I show that I’m getting old!!! I found Kid Rock just too loud and too crass – I lasted about half an hour… sad but true!

Friday – Michael spent the day touring HD Powertrain (factories) sites and really enjoyed them by all accounts.

We took Alan and Janice (aka. Team Baggage) to see the ‘House on the Rock’ in the Wisconsin Dells. They were completely blown away from the place and cannot decide whether the eccentric Alex Jordan that created this place was a genius or a nutter? Perhaps both? Being that it was 125 miles from Milwaukee we were away the entire day as it takes about 5 hours to tour the place properly. It’s a seven and a half mile assault on the eyes!

Saturday – an early 7am departure for Michael, Paul and Nyrha, Paul and myself as we headed off to join in the parade. Yes, we won tickets to the parade again!!! Yay!!! It is so exhilarating – it really is your 15 minutes of fame. We queued at Miller Park carpark for a 9am start. The parade was led by Willie G Davidson, followed by VIPs, HOG Chapters, MDA riders and then us “Enthusiasts”. It took about 1 hour to ride at around 10-15km/h. And the crowds just scream and cheer at you for the whole 5 mile length of the parade. I tell you, it just gives you goose-bumps!!!

After the parade we headed straight back to the hotel to rest the bikes and jump in a shuttle van to go into the city ready for the Bruce Springsteen concert at Veterans Park. We got into town about 4pm, went to HOG Island for drinks and a little music (exclusively for HOG Members only – that would be just about every person that had come to Milwaukee on an HD!), walked around the Summerfest grounds for a while, went to Discovery World (a museum) for an Overseas Participants event hosted by Harley-Davidson. That was awesome, held in the Maritime section of the Museum with beautiful food and drinks aplenty. Good on HD for putting on such an event!

Then it was off to see the HD Custom Design display. This was a mobile display set up to show how bikes come to fruition through design, mock-up, refinement and then end result.

Finally, it was by then a short walk to Veterans Park for the concert. We arrived just as the supporting band was finishing – don’t ask me who they were – I have no idea. Bruce came on at 9pm, played many a song I did not know but was still very enjoyable. He played 2 encores, the first 8 songs long, then 2 more, the concert finished about 11.45pm. Unbeknown to us, apparently Bruce is renowned for lengthy concerts, he’s apparently played for up to six hours – OMG! We arrived back at the hotel at 1.15am. A rather long day considering we were up at 6am – that would be the age demon rearing his head again!

Amish Country - so serene...

Hello again one and all

We've just spent the last day and a half in the very north of Indiana taking in a snippet of the lifestyle of the Amish. We spent our time in the Shipshewana / Howe area and it is B E A U T I F U L!

The farms in the area, owned by the Amish, Mennonites and "the English" (other Americans) are obviously very fertile, with many crops of Corn and Soy to be seen, as well as general grazing land.

We managed to time our stay in the area perfectly as Tuesday and Wednesday are the local Flea Market days. There was the usual "Flea Market" fodder being sold by the English, then there was gorgeous produce and baking being sold by the Amish. Let me confirm that the Maple Iced Cinnamon Rolls and Snickerdoodle Cookies are yummy!

A couple of people managed to buy quilts from Amish people, Janice buying hers from the same lady that I bought my quilt from 5 years ago.

Others managed to also take in the Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum in Auburn and were really impressed with not only the cars but also the beautiful Art Deco building that they are housed in.

Unfortunately for you there are not many photos from these last two days as the Amish do not like to be photographed so in respect of this we refrained from using our cameras too much.

Today we have travelled from Howe to Milwaukee through the center of Chicago, a relatively easy ride but a tad boring as it was all on Interstates. The two things that did add to the day for me were riding through Chicago, having awesome views of the Sears Tower and the Downtown skyline from the south then the west as we cruised the I-90. Then the other fun thing was having lunch in an Interstate Oasis that spans the 8 lanes of the Interstate, so all the traffic is racing by underneath you as you eat - only in America!

Tomorrow we start in on the HD 105th and HOG 25th Celebrations. The line up for tomorrow includes: Big Bob & the Ballroom Blitz, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, The Billy Bob Thornton Band, Sugarland and Kid Rock... phew!

I'll let you know what we select soon!!!

Bye, Jodi

Absorbing Motor City!

We arrived in Detroit on Thursday afternoon. We were to all meet at the hotel to then ride en masse to the local dealership "Biker Bob's" Motown Harley Davidson to a) drop off the bikes for servicing and b) to meet up with their team for dinner. Well some sneaky little Kiwis decided they would attempt to have their bikes serviced on Thursday and then not have to worry about sourcing other modes of transport on Friday. So our ride to the dealership of 12 bikes (a few weren't going) turned into 5... A tad disappointing and I do thank those that decided to stick with the plan and rode with me to meet the guys at the dealership at 5pm.

Biker Bob's Team were great, welcomed us with open arms! Again, many thanks to Jason Winne (Jay) for organising all of our servicing and making sure that it all happened like clockwork.

You know, they are so busy at the moment in their workshop that they are servicing 270'ish bikes per week!!!

Now, as for Derrick, he has to have been really bad in a past life I think?!?!? He went to the dealership on the way in on Thursday because he was concerned about a noise that was getting progressively worse. What has since transpired is a bit of a miracle. When he arrived and they started looking at his bike they discovered that there was no oil in the transmission at all - that's zero, zip, none at all! Where had it all gone you may ask? Well, when he had his bike "repaired" in Rapid City they had to empty the transmission and they just forgot to fill it up again... So Derrick had, by the time we reached Detroit, clocked 3500 kms with no oil where it really needs some!

There were some hasty phone calls made and then some investigative work done with the preliminary presumed outcome being that a replacement transmission would be required. But as miracles will be, there is not a worn part inside that transmission and the only thing that is happening is that they are replacing all the bearings. How lucky is that?! Says something for robustness of the "agricultural machinery" that we are riding I think!!!

So, what have the rest of us been up to? Well, we are in Motor City after all, so with some gentle persuasion by me, many of the group are taking the opportunity to visit "the Henry Ford", that's the Museum, Greenfield Village and the Rouge Assembly Plant. Others have also taken in the Motown Museum, the central city sights etc.

So the reason that I have recommended the Henry Ford to everyone is that when we were last here we rocked on up to the Ford Museum with a perception that we are going to see just a bunch of Ford cars on display - how wrong we were. This has to be one of the most amazing places to visit, it was Henry Ford's desire to capture life and times through the ages and keep it on display so that generations can see what has gone before us. So you not only get to see cars but trains, planes, carriages, tractors, furniture, kitchens right through to Vacuum cleaners but also get to see Thomas Edison's Lab, the Wright Brothers workshop, Lincoln's Courthouse, Cotswold Cottages plus two working farms. It is incredible. I will post some photos progressively over the next few days, as we have only seen the Museum and Assembly Plant (no photos allowed) so far, we visit Greenfield Village tomorrow.

Talk again soon...

Jodi

P.S. You'll never guess what my Paul has just done... One of my headlights had blown, so we bought the replacement bulb and now back at the hotel he was going out to replace the bulb. He wanders out,  turns on the ignition, checks which is out, pulls the lense off, replaces the bulb, gets everything back together and Stu walks along and says "great, the bulb needed replacing!" Paul looks again, he's just fixed Stu's bike not mine - doh!

Our last day in Canada...

Greetings

Yes, today is our last day in Ontario and Canada and it is a rest day for us. We are at the tourist trap of Niagara Falls. As we sat discussing this place yesterday evening we likened it to Queenstown - completely over priced! 

Don't get us wrong, the Falls themselves are great, well worth the visit. I'm posting some great shots of them, including the illuminations and fireworks last night, but you'll also be surprised (if you haven't been here) to see the Las Vegas style Clifton Hill!

People are off (on foot) in different directions today, taking a cruise on the "Maid of the Mist", Journeying behind the Falls, etc etc.

Our hotel is in a great location too, just off Clifton Hill and within easy walking distance of the Falls themselves.

To get here yesterday we left Barrie for the short but predicted hectic ride through Toronto. And were the predictions right about being hectic! It was hilarious, the posted speed limit is 100km which means the freeways move at 110-120 kmh. It gets quite hairy when you are trying to keep up with the flow, work out whether you should be going on to the 401 or 407 freeway and there are 5 lanes splitting to the different freeways! By all accounts there were some hasty maneuvers made along the way, Paul and I included!

One local said that Toronto traffic is known as second worst to Chicago traffic and having already driven/ridden in Chicago I beg to differ there... A few people on arrival were suggesting a change of underwear was required!

The joys and experiences of roadtrips!

Tomorrow we're off to Cleveland, Ohio, skirting the bottom of Lake Erie - that's three States in one day, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

I also must offer a special thanks to all those people that are sending our crew emails and messages from the blog. Everyone is getting a kick out of knowing that you are all keeping an eye on us! Keep it up please!

Bye for now

Jodi

Everyone's a little saddle weary at the mo...

Yes, well, we've had several looonnnggg days on the bikes and everyone is looking forward to hitting Niagara Falls tomorrow where we have a 2 night stop - a whole day where we actually don't have to hop on the bikes if we don't want to. BUT, it has been well worth the effort of the long days to go over the top of Lake Superior and now down the eastern edge of Lake Huron.

Lake Superior really is massive, from many vantage points along Highway 17 it looked like you were looking out at the ocean - no other side to see - being that it is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide that explains the view. (Just another interesting fact since we are in the land of the "biggest", "best" and "world's only" Lake Superior holds 3,000,000,000,000,000 - that's 3 quadrillion gallons of water - and that's enough water to cover Canada, United States, Mexico and South America in a foot of water!)

Okay enough of the Geography lesson!

Along the way in the last few days only a few critters have been spotted surprisingly. Stu, Loop and Paul were lucky enough to see a black bear come out of the woods while they were sitting at a Road Construction zone waiting for the Go.

We stayed in Wawa (Land of the Goose) the other night, a sleepy little town of 3,700 people. This meant a shorter run into Sault Ste Marie the next day so that those that were interested (everyone) could take in a ride down to the Mackinac Bridge at the top of Michigan, at the convergence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, a 120 mile round trip. Only thing was that Paul and Loop managed to add in another 130 miles. This all came about because Zig suggested a side trip to the Shipwreck Museum near Mackinaw City, only thing was he actually meant the Maritime Museum and when Zig and Stu got separated from Paul and Loop there was no chance to tell them of the mix-up. Anyway, Loop and Paul had a quick look at the Shipwreck Museum and finally arrived back at the hotel in Sault Ste Marie at 8pm!

Last night we were in Sudbury, a University town and tonight we are in Barrie. As I said earlier, tomorrow Niagara...

Till next time

Au revoir

Bonjour Canada

Well we've survived the last two days of Sturgis! Yeah, it was real hard to keep having fun!!!

On Sunday we departed Sturgis to start our trek to Lake Superior. Sunday consisted of a 330 miles ride across the Prairies of South Dakota, ending our day in Aberdeen. We were all shattered at the end of the day as it was quite a monotonous ride, my GPS told me to turn right then continue straight for 200 miles - say what?! And yep, it was pretty much straight, just a little up and down to add some interest.

Then yesterday we rode north east across Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin for our night stop, a total of 400 miles (one of the longest days of the trip). That was a far more interesting ride as we left the Prairie behind and entered Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes.

We also discovered the virtues of Red Bull yesterday too!

Today we've ridden the 200 miles top Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, a very pretty ride, but very slow compared to US roads, but then we do have to watch for frightened deer and wandering Moose now...

If any of you are trying to get hold of us, we are all being plagued by technology difficulties on this trip, both Vodafone and Telecom mobiles work sporadically and so too is my whiz bang US Broadband connection. So if you've emailed or phoned and haven't had a reply please know that we are all safe and well.

Well being that I am on the hotel Internet connection which is rather slow, I'm closing now and I will update you again in a couple of days as we navigate our way around the Great Lakes.

See you

Jodi

Beartooth Pass was stunning...

By all accounts this side trip was MAGIC! The gang arrived back here in Spearfish Thursday night absolutely buzzing as they told of what they had seen.

Being that I wasn't there, I'm going to hand over to Joan to tell you all about the experience...

“Had an early start from Spearfish with our first stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield site, if you remember your history that was where Custer made his last stand. There are markers where various soldiers fell and also the place where Custer himself fell. It is quite a moving experience to be there. Moving on our next stop was in Red Lodge to check out the Harley dealership but they had sold out of t-shirts, pins and patches a few days earlier. We then climbed the Beartooth Pass where we started to notice the temperature change, still quite a bit of snow lying around. With my video camera round my neck I have got some great footage. The GPS is working well with an elevation screen so Fam was checking to see how high we were climbing but it cut out at 10,000. Checking maps later we must have been nearly 11,000 ft (10947). Scenery was stunning. Our overnight was in Cooke City – quite a small town really and not quite a city. We were in a Super8 that night and we were unfortunate enough to be in the room next to a guy who either had altitude sickness, food poisoning or alcohol poisoning or all three!! as he was sick all night with the result that we got very little sleep as the walls weren’t exactly soundproofed.  We then discovered that all that activity blocked the drains as our bathroom overflowed in the morning. All adding to the rich tapestry of the tour!!

Leaving Cooke City with a long day ahead to get back to Spearfish, we rode the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, towering cliffs and wildlife warnings – Fam’s  reactions were severely tested when a deer lying in the grass at the side of the road, leapt up and ran across straight in front of us, a bike length and Fam has no idea how he missed its hind legs. We saw several more later but further off the road. Continuing on we rode up the Dead Indian Pass to an altitude of just over 8,000 ft (8048) – again stunning views and when we stopped at the lookout point the little ground squirrels/chipmunks came racing out to check if we had any food.

The next major point of interest was Granite Pass which being roughly the same height as Mt Ruapehu, was 9033 ft and there were various signs indicating the age of between 3 and 4.5 billion years old. It is a geologist’s dream out there.

We hit the interstate (I-90) after a refuel and Fam set the cruise control at 75mph (120kp) and we stayed on that for 2 hours before pulling off at Moorcroft to refuel – the most we’ve put in at one stop!! so we really chewed through the gas. We rode through to Devils Tower – another national monument near Hulett. This is quite an incredible sight, a giant monolith which has been formed by erosion and wind leaving just a tall core of rock. Again there were hundreds of bikes out there as this is another of the Sturgis highlights.

With the day drawing on and we could see thunderstorms building, we called it a day and headed for home in Spearfish where we relaxed with a cold beer and a scratch dinner to all talk about our various experiences – and the stories of near misses with deer are the same as fishermen’s tales.”

We RODE our bikes to Sturgis!

And many of us now have the patches to prove it! It may not sound like much of a big deal but believe me it is! For the last 600 miles there has been numerous bikes on the road, but equally, there has been many many utes, trailers, RVs etc all transporting HDs too, my question is, WHY? Looking at some of the vehicles they must bring everything bar the kitchen sink and those in RVs even bring that!!!

But, let me start back a few days and catch you up on what we've been doing since my last post.

Saturday, 2nd August was a riding day, we rode across Iowa from Anamosa to Sioux City. I got to know my GPS unit a little better too! I learnt, quickly, how to turn off the use of Highways so that we were not led south to Iowa City en route to Sioux City! All the GPS units on this trip seem to favour Interstates if you let them - and the irony is that you really don't need a GPS to follow an Interstate! Towards the end of the day we did end up on a beautiful little road into Sioux City with a few bends in it!!! The first corner I approached had a speed sign indication 40 mph (65 kmh), so I slowed as I wasn't sure how accurate they are with signing corners, when I rode around the corner completely upright, not having to lean into the corner, I knew we could keep the speed up a "little" more. All corners from them on were nice sweeping curves taken at about 60mph (96 kmh) and that's with my inexperience!

Sunday, 3rd August saw the group split up in many directions as we took in Mitchell and the famous Corn Palace, Yankton Indian Reservation and other country roads. Arriving at Murdo everyone was full of details of what they had seen during the day.

Zig, Loop, Maurice, Gaye and Stu were amazed when on a small country road they came across a John Deere Combined Harvester that took up the entire road and more, that's the lanes in both directions plus the shoulder in both directions. They had no hope of passing so it meant an instant photo opportunity. They also took in a traction engine and tractor display in a little local community. The things you come across...

Several of us enjoyed the quirkiness of the Corn Palace, this year the exterior of the building is decorated in the theme of "Everyday Heroes" with scenes depicting paramedics, school crossing officers etc. I've posted some photos for you to see.

+ FIRST AID REQUIRED...

...of the bike kind! Once we arrived in Murdo Derrick came to Paul worried about a noise in his bike, so then there was the "gathering of the males" in the carpark to diagnose the problem! The concensus was that the noise was significant enough to warrant being put on the trailer and taken to the dealership in Rapid City next morning.

The night was spent in the little "one horse town" of Murdo and this was our last sleep before Sturgis.

Monday, 4th August

Again everyone had various plans for the ride to Sturgis today. Everyone though was taking in the South Dakota Badlands at some stage during their day. Some were even doing it twice?!?! (They wanted to ride another road below the Badlands so needed to double back.)

The first people away were Geoff and Joan at about 7am, followed not long after by many others. In the meanwhile we were getting all the bags packed and talking to the others and as we did we noted that the sky to the West was getting blacker and blacker.

At about 8am the last of the riders were about to leave, so i headed over to the lobby to grab some breakfast and check out. While in the lobby I hear the hotel manager say that there is an approaching hail storm on the I90 (Interstate that we needed to ride on) with hail the size of golf balls. That signalled a rapid exit by me to stop the last of our group from leaving, but I was too late, they were riding out the gate! So I went to Paul and told him we weren't going anywhere because of the storm and that all the Americans were pulling their bikes in under the verandahs of the hotel - so we did too - and phew - thank goodness we did. Next thing we were beseiged by fork lightening, wind up to 60 mph, sheet lightening, unbelievable thunder that rippled its way across the sky. It was bloody awesome from the hotel verandah, my only hope was that we did not have any of our crew in the thick of it!?!

Later that day I found the Grahame & Kath were in fact caught and here is their experience:

"Kath and I decided to do our own thing today as we had a different agenda from the others.  We left the motel at Murdo via the "back" road to the interstate.  We must have been the first vehicle to use the road today as the deer sleeping in the wide grassy drain got a big fright as we passed... so did we as it ran across the road just in front of us.

As we rode west we noticed the distant black clouds and forked lightening (quite spectacular). It started to rain so we put on wets, it started to really blow so we went faster, it got really dark (pitch dark) so we went slower.  We noticed bikes parked up under bridges (wimps), we noticed trucks pulling to the side and parking up (more wimps), we noticed that we were the only people on the freeway (a country full of wimps) after all it was only wind, rain and darkness.

And then it hit us - a full blown hail storm like we have never experienced in our lives. Immediate stop on the road.  The hail was like jaffas being fired from a shotgun. Even though we had jeans and wets on the hail was extremely painful on our legs. In fact the only parts of our bodies that did not suffer were our helmet enclosed heads and where the armour was in our jackets. The wind became so strong the bike was in danger of tipping right over the stand.  We huddled down at the side of the bike with our shoulders on the tank and seat bracing our legs on the edge of the tar seal.  The noise was deafening as the hail hit the bike and our helmets. So loud that thinking was impossible let alone trying to talk. It seemed to go on for hours but 10 minutes was more likely. The road was a river of water and hailstone marbles, it was freezing cold, and then the hail stopped and the wind eased. We stood there in the almost pitch black pouring rain and just a normal gail force wind. The rain was so heavy it got in everywhere, down our necks, in our gloves, down our arms and up our legs.  But we felt we had survived something quite unique.

After a few minutes a large vehicle came towards us on the other side of the freeway (heading into the storm) it had all lights flashing and travelled very slow. A few more followed.  Then a truck came up from behind us, we jumped on the bike and followed closely in its wake.  It was hard to start the bike as it needed the choke on because the fins on the engine were jammed with ice (hail). Just down the road (about 50 miles) where we next stopped it had not rained and the local we spoke to did not realise there had been a storm.

It turned out we were quite lucky as a town not too far from where we stopped had hail the size of golf balls!

Moral of the story...the locals know best.

Grahame"

Too right Grahame - trust the locals! But in the aftermath it is a "life experience".

Others sheltered with other bikers at gas stations etc. The most hilarious shelter experience was from the now named "Mr & Mrs Porter", Wayne and Pam came to a grinding halt at one of the off ramps of the freeway and parked their bike and raced into the only building near them. Once in with door closed they realised they were in a "Port-a-loo"?

By 10am the storm had passed and the sun was out again and we were all back on track for the Badlands. I might add though that the temperature had dropped significantly and we kept our wet weather gear on for the warmth factor for the next couple of hours.

The Badlands are spectacular - photos in album to prove it! The land is so rugged and provided great hideouts for the Indians as the Confederate Army approached while "conquering the west".

After the amble through there we headed to Wall to have lunch at the infamous Wall Drug - serving free water and 5 cent coffees to the passing traveller since the 1930s. By the time we arrived the street outside the store was lined with bikes - all either en route to or from Sturgis. Oh - yes - really starting to feel the atmosphere now!

As we arrived at Wall so too did Janice and Alan (our backup vehicle team) along with Derrick, returning from their drive to Rapid City with Derrick's bike, where the bike was admitted and would be treated on Tuesday with hopefully a release possible at about 4pm.

We all did lunch in the cafe then moved on our way to Sturgis / Spearfish, with Janice, Alan and Derrick taking in the Badlands before returning West.

So by evening we were all settled into the homes that we have rented for the week. Staying in private homes is a wonderful way of being able to relax just that little bit more!

Tuesday, 5th August - STURGIS

Again, the group split off in different directions. This non-regimented way of travelling seems to be suiting everyone, they all seem to be into pairing up and going off and doing things, it's great, just how I had hoped it would be!

We decided to go to Sturgis and park on main street today! It's something you have to do... So we left the house early and were parked in the centre of Main St by 8am. Had a "diner" breakfast - you know Bacon, Eggs, Pancakes, has browns etc. Yum-oh! Then it was time to wander and catch the sights of what is Sturgis! We spent the day with Zig and Loop and I have to say that Paul's and Zig's cameras were working overtime!!! - Take a look at the Sturgis pics to see why!

We all find it amazing that Sturgis is one of those places where middle America can really let their hair down where other people just accept or get over it real quick. You'll note that adhesive covering of body parts is quite popular this time round...

Hey, guess what? This is the end of this post, did you make it all the way to here? If so, well done!!!

Bye

Jodi