Day #11:Kellog, IA to Indianapolis, IN
OUR LAST DAY! This morning was a warm one, since we knew there wasn't food in the area, we had planned on heading up the road before breakfast. As we packed away our humidity filled tents a fellow camper stopped by. We asked about food and he suggested that we take US 6 to Gillete, which was about 10-15 miles in the direction we were heading.
By this time we had our camp packing routine pretty much down, and we got out of there at a pretty good time. We headed up the road to Gillete where we found gas was about $.20 cheeper and we had seen in days. We ate at McDonalds, again... and filled up the tanks. Unfortunately there isn't too much to write about on these last few days. Much like the first two days, the terrain is flat and boring.
The heat came up again, and we both knew the end of the day would be the end of the trip. This fact, I think, made the day not as enjoyable as the rest. Just before we entered Indiana we noticed a pretty good looking rain storm. As the sprinkles fell we stopped to gear-up. This turned out to be a good idea, since less than 1 mile up the road, the rains poured from the heavens. This was a huge rain, second only to our first in Pueblo CO. I guess you could consider it a welcome home so to speak. Today I had to ride without music, because the mount for my XMradio had finally broken on the 10th day. This was good time for reflecting on the trip, and life. I had plenty of think about it too.
The day ended at about 6pm when I got home. I put the bike away and rested inside the cool house.
I will soon be posting a reflection piece on this trip. Look for this to come in the next few days...
Thanks for reading!
-matt-
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
Wild West Tour: Issue 11
Day #10: Valentine, NE. to Kellog, IA
The day started out a little earlier, so that we could make up some time. The route today was a bit more boring, we also knew it would be much hotter. We had only one real place to see and that was Beemer, NE. Since Mike rides a BMW, he had found the only Beemer in the country, and it just happened to be in our route.
We ate lunch in Beemer at a the Beemer Cafe. It was a small restaraunt with about 10 farmers in it playing cards. Beemer was located in the middle of pretty much nowhere. After lunch we headed toward Kellog. The heat was up again, and the ride was pretty flat. I think we hit about 4 curves the whole day.
We got off the interstate at Newton, IA. which ended up being the wrong exit. But we were able to pretty quickly locate our route. We headed to the campground which was a State Park, the first of our trip. Rock Creek State Park, a nice state park campground, with self-service camping. We were hungry so we headed back towards Kellog to eat. There wasn't much there, but 2 bars, so we went in one and ate. The food was pretty good. I had a cheeseburger, I think my 200th for the trip.
After eating we set up camp and chilled out for a while. It was HOT so we didn't need much for warmth. Since we had entered Iowa, the humidity had come back too.
Only One Day Left
-matt-
The day started out a little earlier, so that we could make up some time. The route today was a bit more boring, we also knew it would be much hotter. We had only one real place to see and that was Beemer, NE. Since Mike rides a BMW, he had found the only Beemer in the country, and it just happened to be in our route.
We ate lunch in Beemer at a the Beemer Cafe. It was a small restaraunt with about 10 farmers in it playing cards. Beemer was located in the middle of pretty much nowhere. After lunch we headed toward Kellog. The heat was up again, and the ride was pretty flat. I think we hit about 4 curves the whole day.
We got off the interstate at Newton, IA. which ended up being the wrong exit. But we were able to pretty quickly locate our route. We headed to the campground which was a State Park, the first of our trip. Rock Creek State Park, a nice state park campground, with self-service camping. We were hungry so we headed back towards Kellog to eat. There wasn't much there, but 2 bars, so we went in one and ate. The food was pretty good. I had a cheeseburger, I think my 200th for the trip.
After eating we set up camp and chilled out for a while. It was HOT so we didn't need much for warmth. Since we had entered Iowa, the humidity had come back too.
Only One Day Left
-matt-
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wild West Tour: Issue 10
Day #9: Devil's Tower, WY. to Valentine, NE.
Today's route was full of sites to see. We left pretty early today, around 7:45 AM. There isn't much in the close area to Devil's Tower so we had to ride for a while to get to some food. We ended up eating breakfast in Sundance WY. This little town was about 30 miles from Devil's Tower and a nice gal at the gas station told us where to eat. It was a little restaurant, of which I have forgotten the name already. The food was really good, I had there flagship breakfast the Devil's Tower. This was a biscuit, sausage and egg all covered with sausage gravy. I thought it was very good.
After eating we knew that we had a big day ahead of us, on the plate for today was, Sturgis, Deadwood, Crazy Horse, and Rushmore. We also had a ride of about 400 miles to get to our end point of Valentine NE.
Sturgis, as you probably know, is home to the World's most popular biker rally. Even though the rally doesn't start for another 2 weeks the town is already getting busy. Sturgis is really a small town with a population of around 8600 people. During the 2 weeks that the Sturgis Bike Week occurs the population jumps to about 160,000 people. The vendors are already set up in some places, which was nice for us to be able to look around. We were able to look at the shirts that were all still very organized, and on the radio, you could here ads for businesses, looking for employees for the rally.
After finding a few shirts there, we left for Deadwood, the place where Bill Hickcock is buried. This town is now very touristy and was bustling with tourists. We noticed that a lot of the upstairs windows had photos of or manikins of women. We took a few photos and moved on through towards Rushmore and Crazy Horse. This area of the Black Hills seems to be pretty tourist focused, the scenery was great none-the-less. We ate lunch at a cafe in Hill City, across the street was some sort of museum that had some trains, they would blow the whistle every little while.
We headed next to Crazy Horse Memorial which was really quite a site to see. The size of this project really was amazing. You don't get to get really close to the memorial unless you want to pay a hefty fee, but this memorial is amazing. There really is a great story behind not only Crazy Horse himself but the designer and originally creator of the mountain side sculpture.
After Crazy Horse we checked out Rushmore, which was also a great feat. Up close you get an idea of the detail that went into the memorial. I think we got some good photos of it. It was starting to get hot and we had a long way to go so we really didn't stay too long there. We did get one bit of information from the booklet. This granite is among the hardest and oldest rock on the planet. It erodes at the rate of 1 inch every ten thousand years. This is really amazing when you think about it.
So as the heat rose we moved on, we came to Wall, WY which is the home to Wall Drug, probably one of the most famous stores in the U.S. It is a huge store that contains, just about anything you can think of. There claim to fame comes from there, $.05 coffee and there FREE Ice Water. Here I got to sit on a Jackalope for a picture. Again, we didn't stay too long, but long enough to eat an ice cream.
After Wall Drug we still had about 140 miles to go and it was getting later. We also knew that we would be headed into Central time so we would actually loose an hour. We finally arrived in Valentine NE at around 9:10PM. We checked in to the camp site, but didn't set up because we hadn't eaten yet. We ate at the PepperMill Restaurant downtown Valentine. Oh, Valentine is really in the middle of nowhere, but the people here are amazingly nice. We found out that the closest WalMart is 2.5 hours away. Did I mention that we are in the middle of nowhere.
Our campsite is nice, and right next to some sort of cattle place, we get to hear the cows moo all night long. Fortunately the wind is blowing the other direction or I am sure we would also smell them :).
Well that was our day, full yes, but again another FUN day. We only have 1 more campground to stay at on the way home, and that will be in Newton, IA.
See you next time!
-matt-
Today's route was full of sites to see. We left pretty early today, around 7:45 AM. There isn't much in the close area to Devil's Tower so we had to ride for a while to get to some food. We ended up eating breakfast in Sundance WY. This little town was about 30 miles from Devil's Tower and a nice gal at the gas station told us where to eat. It was a little restaurant, of which I have forgotten the name already. The food was really good, I had there flagship breakfast the Devil's Tower. This was a biscuit, sausage and egg all covered with sausage gravy. I thought it was very good.
After eating we knew that we had a big day ahead of us, on the plate for today was, Sturgis, Deadwood, Crazy Horse, and Rushmore. We also had a ride of about 400 miles to get to our end point of Valentine NE.
Sturgis, as you probably know, is home to the World's most popular biker rally. Even though the rally doesn't start for another 2 weeks the town is already getting busy. Sturgis is really a small town with a population of around 8600 people. During the 2 weeks that the Sturgis Bike Week occurs the population jumps to about 160,000 people. The vendors are already set up in some places, which was nice for us to be able to look around. We were able to look at the shirts that were all still very organized, and on the radio, you could here ads for businesses, looking for employees for the rally.
After finding a few shirts there, we left for Deadwood, the place where Bill Hickcock is buried. This town is now very touristy and was bustling with tourists. We noticed that a lot of the upstairs windows had photos of or manikins of women. We took a few photos and moved on through towards Rushmore and Crazy Horse. This area of the Black Hills seems to be pretty tourist focused, the scenery was great none-the-less. We ate lunch at a cafe in Hill City, across the street was some sort of museum that had some trains, they would blow the whistle every little while.
We headed next to Crazy Horse Memorial which was really quite a site to see. The size of this project really was amazing. You don't get to get really close to the memorial unless you want to pay a hefty fee, but this memorial is amazing. There really is a great story behind not only Crazy Horse himself but the designer and originally creator of the mountain side sculpture.
After Crazy Horse we checked out Rushmore, which was also a great feat. Up close you get an idea of the detail that went into the memorial. I think we got some good photos of it. It was starting to get hot and we had a long way to go so we really didn't stay too long there. We did get one bit of information from the booklet. This granite is among the hardest and oldest rock on the planet. It erodes at the rate of 1 inch every ten thousand years. This is really amazing when you think about it.
So as the heat rose we moved on, we came to Wall, WY which is the home to Wall Drug, probably one of the most famous stores in the U.S. It is a huge store that contains, just about anything you can think of. There claim to fame comes from there, $.05 coffee and there FREE Ice Water. Here I got to sit on a Jackalope for a picture. Again, we didn't stay too long, but long enough to eat an ice cream.
After Wall Drug we still had about 140 miles to go and it was getting later. We also knew that we would be headed into Central time so we would actually loose an hour. We finally arrived in Valentine NE at around 9:10PM. We checked in to the camp site, but didn't set up because we hadn't eaten yet. We ate at the PepperMill Restaurant downtown Valentine. Oh, Valentine is really in the middle of nowhere, but the people here are amazingly nice. We found out that the closest WalMart is 2.5 hours away. Did I mention that we are in the middle of nowhere.
Our campsite is nice, and right next to some sort of cattle place, we get to hear the cows moo all night long. Fortunately the wind is blowing the other direction or I am sure we would also smell them :).
Well that was our day, full yes, but again another FUN day. We only have 1 more campground to stay at on the way home, and that will be in Newton, IA.
See you next time!
-matt-
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Wild West Tour: Issue 9
Day #8: Cody, WY. to Devil's Tower, WY.
The KOA in Cody offered a pancake breakfast right on site, which was fantastic! Cody had very little humidity and we were able to quickly pack up our camp, head to breakfast and get on the road. We ate with the Star folks from WA and then we all headed to get fuel.
From Cody we had 320 miles to Devil's Tower, there were some good twisties on 14 for about the first 130 miles. This was basically our last hooray for the mountains, it was so sad to say goodbye to the mountains. The route from here home will be much more flat and straight.
To make some time today we hopped on I90 to head to Devil's Tower. We made really good time and got into Devil's Tower around 4pm. This was amazing, and the first time we had made a destination before 6:30 or 7 PM. This gave us time to set up camp, which is literally the first thing outside of the park. We set up camp and headed into the park.
Devil's Tower is AMAZING. We had some extra time to actually explore the park and I took a 1.3 mile loop trail around the tower. This was an up close exploration of the Monument which was actually the FIRST US Monument Established in 1906. I was able to get some great photo graphs of the Tower which projects from the ground up to about 1200 feet. We saw more deer here, and I was looking for some porcupine, but wasn't able to see any.
At the base of the monument is a prairie where you can find hundreds of Prairie Dogs. These interesting creature pop out of the ground like a "Whack-A-Mole" game. They are everywhere. I got a few photos of them, but they don't like you to get too close.
After the park we headed back and eat some Chili dogs at the store next to the campgrounds. Tonight the Campground is showing "Close Encounters", which features the Devil's Tower Monument. I am excited about that since I have never seen the movie.
Well that is all for now, I am all caught up. What a fantastic trip this has been, unbelievable really that I have been able to see everything that I have. I can't wait to get home and share the stories with so many people. It really gives you a sense for how large the United States really is. I don't think you can appreciate it until you do something like this.
I am at awe from this trip, which is something that will stick with me for a very long time!
Thanks for reading! E-mail me if you have any questions!
-matt-
The KOA in Cody offered a pancake breakfast right on site, which was fantastic! Cody had very little humidity and we were able to quickly pack up our camp, head to breakfast and get on the road. We ate with the Star folks from WA and then we all headed to get fuel.
From Cody we had 320 miles to Devil's Tower, there were some good twisties on 14 for about the first 130 miles. This was basically our last hooray for the mountains, it was so sad to say goodbye to the mountains. The route from here home will be much more flat and straight.
To make some time today we hopped on I90 to head to Devil's Tower. We made really good time and got into Devil's Tower around 4pm. This was amazing, and the first time we had made a destination before 6:30 or 7 PM. This gave us time to set up camp, which is literally the first thing outside of the park. We set up camp and headed into the park.
Devil's Tower is AMAZING. We had some extra time to actually explore the park and I took a 1.3 mile loop trail around the tower. This was an up close exploration of the Monument which was actually the FIRST US Monument Established in 1906. I was able to get some great photo graphs of the Tower which projects from the ground up to about 1200 feet. We saw more deer here, and I was looking for some porcupine, but wasn't able to see any.
At the base of the monument is a prairie where you can find hundreds of Prairie Dogs. These interesting creature pop out of the ground like a "Whack-A-Mole" game. They are everywhere. I got a few photos of them, but they don't like you to get too close.
After the park we headed back and eat some Chili dogs at the store next to the campgrounds. Tonight the Campground is showing "Close Encounters", which features the Devil's Tower Monument. I am excited about that since I have never seen the movie.
Well that is all for now, I am all caught up. What a fantastic trip this has been, unbelievable really that I have been able to see everything that I have. I can't wait to get home and share the stories with so many people. It really gives you a sense for how large the United States really is. I don't think you can appreciate it until you do something like this.
I am at awe from this trip, which is something that will stick with me for a very long time!
Thanks for reading! E-mail me if you have any questions!
-matt-
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