Day 6 - Deadwood, SD to Loveland, CO

Last day of the first leg of my trip...  I made plans to meet my dad in Scottsbluff, NE at noon, so I left Deadwood at 7:30 intending to take a pretty direct route south through Custer.  But in looking at the map one last time, I noticed that Needles Highway intersected with route 385 twice and realized that I could check that road out on the way.  Eight years ago I had met my dad and stepmom in Spearfish and we rode to Loveland this way, taking Iron Mountain Highway instead, but I knew Needles was a similar type of road and wanted to try it.  It couldn't add that much time to my trip, right?  Well, it turned out to be a very challenging road with many sharp switchbacks, climbs, descents, and loop overs, not to mention the wildlife.  It was slow going but gorgeous and exhilarating and scary at the same time.  You know it's going to be a bit of a challenge when there are signs posted saying Motorcyclists Use Extreme Caution!  I saw some mountain goats near Cathedral Spires, a mule deer doe and her still-spotted fawn, and later, going through part of the Custer State Park wildlife loop, several herds of bison with multiple young calves, numerous prairie dogs, many on sentry duty, and a coyote.  Needles added more time to my trip than I had expected, and I was late meeting my dad in Nebraska, but it was worth it!

After a quick lunch, dad and I rode to Scotts Bluff National Monument.  These huge bluffs jutting out of the ground were landmarks for the pioneers traveling west and the pony express rode through Mitchell's Pass at Scotts Bluff as well.  The bluff sits over 4600 feet above sea level and rises 800 feet above the North Platte River, with geologic strata exposed providing insight into the conditions 33 to 22 million years ago.  For $3, the National Park Service will let you drive the winding road up to the top of the bluff so you can look down on the city of Scottsbluff and the surrounding North Platte River valley.  After a quick selfie, we headed back down and made for Loveland, running into a thunderstorm in southern Wyoming.  Luckily we just skirted the south edge of it and then turned south towards Cheyenne, putting safe distance between us and the lightning that was visible in the distance.  We passed some pronghorn antelope on the way, and made it into Loveland just after 6:00.  After 2770 miles, I was finally going to get a day where I didn't have to sit on the bike!  On Tuesday we leave for Wyoming again, heading to Grand Tetons National Park, followed by Yellowstone.  Stay tuned!

 Mountain goats in Custer State Park

Looking down from Scotts Bluff

 After passing through Needle's Eye Tunnel, behind me to the right

 Buffalo herd in Custer

 Dad and me atop Scotts Bluff

Buddy, the Loveland welcoming committee

Day 5 - Fargo, ND to Deadwood, SD

I got into Fargo so late that I didn't really get a chance to see any of it, but I wasn't willing to hang around in the morning again after how the previous day turned out so I was on the road again by 7:30, headed west on the interstate.  I made a stop in Jamestown for breakfast and then another brief stop in Bismarck before heading south.  Today's ride took me across the Missouri River and through the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River reservation lands.  It was a beautiful ride, with very little in the way of development anywhere along the way.  In fact, it made me think that I'd be kind of screwed if I ran out of gas or broke down!  But that's been true of quite a few areas on this trip.  Lots of fields of endless corn, wheat, and sunflowers - what a sight to see sunflowers covering acres and acres of land!  I just meandered through south-central North Dakota into South Dakota, gradually making my way to the southwest and STURGIS!  This wasn't originally on my itinerary, but how could I pass up the chance to see the legendary Black Hills motorcycle rally when it was going on right where I was headed?!  I had been in Sturgis on my first motorcycle trip out west, but that was earlier in the summer when nothing was going on.  This was completely different!  My dad had told me that motorcycles at Sturgis were like ants streaming in and out of their anthill and that's a really good analogy.  Any possible type of motorcycle and rider you can imagine is here - every iteration of 2, 3, and even 4 wheels.  Parking lots jammed with bikes in Sturgis and in every nearby town, including Deadwood, where I'm staying tonight!  I rode through Sturgis with my jaw hanging open inside my helmet, just in awe of everything.  Unfortunately I didn't see any easy place to park and I never really got a chance to pull my phone out and take pictures.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a few on the way out in the morning.

Lastly, I was able to catch up with one of my mom's childhood friends who lives in nearby Spearfish.  She and her husband were kind enough to buy me dinner and we had a wonderful time catching each other up on everything that's been going on in our lives since the last time I stopped to see them 8 years ago. 

 Just a sampling of some of the bikes in Deadwood

 Catching up with Peggy and Bill

 Sunflowers for miles!

Day 4 - Chippewa Falls, WI to Fargo, ND

I was disappointed enough at missing the last Leinenkugel's tour that I decided to catch the first one in the morning before hitting the road, so at 10am there I was standing outside the doors of the Leinie Lodge waiting to buy my ticket.  For $5 you get the tour plus a wristband for 5 5-oz. samples of beer.  Normally 10am would be a little too early for me to start drinking, but...  Now I wish they sold some of their other beers outside the Wisconsin-Minnesota area!  The tour took about an hour and led us through the history of the family brewing business and what their brewing process is.  We got to go through the brewhouse and see the tanks where they cook and ferment the beers and the bottling house where everything is bottled or canned, and the "beer heaven" warehouse.  Some things I learned about Leinenkugel's that made me like them even better:

• They still use the same Big Eddy spring water that they have always used.  They just can't pull enough of it from the old spring house they started with so they get it from the city of Chippewa Falls.
• They are on their 6th generation of family learning the business and they've always taught it the same way - every family member going into the business works their way from the bottom up, learning every position in the business, from cooking the wort to fermentation to bottling and warehousing.
• Their whole brewery only employs about 50 people and they still give them weekends off.
• They use mostly locally/regionally sourced ingredients - local water, wheat from North Dakota, barley from nearby states, etc.  The hops they have to get from west of the Rockies because a fungal blight decades ago made it impossible to grow hops in Wisconsin.
• They have a pomegranate shandy coming out in November!!!
• They make a Wisconsin red pale ale that is only available in Wisconsin. 
• Finally, their Summer Shandy outsells all of their other beers combined and is the only one available in all 50 states.

After my tour was finished, I finally got on the road to Duluth, Minnesota.  I guess I was a little worried about leaving so late because I got pulled over in an aerial speed trap further north in Wisconsin!  Whoops!  The state trooper was very nice and only gave me a warning, but I was much more observant of my speed after that.  The bridge over the St. Louis River/Bay and Superior Bay from Superior, WI to Duluth, MN was rather high and a bit windy, which made for a little bit of white-knuckling on the way over, but I made it into Duluth and found the Duluth Trading store on Superior Street.  I don't know what I was expecting - I guess I thought it would be huge like Bass Pro or REI.  It was a perfectly acceptable and respectable store of all their catalog goods, and I was very happy to purchase a new pair of jeans.  I was just underwhelmed for some reason.  Maybe it's because I was still stressed for time, especially having run into some rain on the way there.  That and the weather wasn't looking any more promising for the 4 hour ride across Minnesota to Fargo.

So, long story short, I got wet on the way to Fargo.  But it could have been SO much worse.  I think I somehow managed to ride the line between thunderstorms to the north and to the south of the road I was on, which was gorgeous!  Many of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, it seemed, and I got to cross the Mississippi River where, as the Indigo Girls sing "at a place where you can walk across with 5 steps down," it was that small.  Anyway, I finally rolled across the Red River and into Fargo at 9pm, just before it got dark.  A little soggy but safe nonetheless, and I definitely didn't need to use the word "uneventful" to describe the day!

 Bottling house (left), brew house (center), and malt house (right)

 The old stables, now used for storage

 The original spring house, where water was drawn for brewing

 The enormous "Leinie Lounger"

 Some of the more friendly skies of the day

 Margo's snapchat to her family about me getting pulled over

 Duluth Trading Co. in Duluth, Minnesota

Day 3 - Paradise MI to Eau Claire, WI

A brief thunderstorm woke me up at 4am Tuesday morning and it poured for about 15 minutes.  Good thing I was given a towel for my bike when I checked in!  The ride out of Paradise was gorgeous, through woods and lakes, past Tahquamenon Falls and on to Lake Michigan.  Once I reached the north end of Lake Michigan, it was down the west side along Green Bay until I crossed the Menominee River into Wisconsin and the city of Marinette.  The ride west across Wisconsin to Chippewa Falls was mostly unremarkable, except for the lane closures every few miles that slowed traffic down considerably.  That paired with one or two one-lane construction sections in Michigan meant that I arrived in Chippewa Falls and the Leinenkugel's Brewery about a half hour later than I expected, which meant that I missed the last brewery tour of the day.  So I bought a bracelet to do some beer sampling - 5 tasters gets you a souvenir tasting glass - and tried some of the beers I was unfamiliar with while I wandered around the Leinie Lodge and checked out the merchandise.  When they closed at 6, I headed for Eau Claire and my hotel room.  I was pretty tired since I didn't sleep well the night before, and couldn't get back to sleep after the thunderstorm so I basically crashed as soon as I got in.  I'm taking my time this morning, going back to Leinenkugel's to get that tour before heading on to Duluth and Fargo.

 My view Tuesday night over Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay

 The Menominee River

Day 2 - Toledo, OH to Paradise, MI

Woke up to chilly temperatures this morning and was looking for it to warm up as I headed north, but instead I got some rain showers heading into Flint!  I missed most of the initial rain with a fortuitously timed coffee stop at Tim Horton's but I ran into it again through Saginaw.  Nothing too heavy, but it kept the chill around for a while.  My first sightseeing stop of the day was in Mackinaw City, prior to crossing the Mackinac Bridge.  I took a few minutes to walk around Michilimackinac State Park, view the bridge and Mackinac Island, and look over the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, which was first lit in 1892 to help guide ships safely through the Straits of Mackinac, the narrow shipping lane that connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.  By then the skies had cleared and it was beautifully sunny and much warmer than it had been earlier.

But my main destination was still about 90 miles away so I didn't linger too long.  I crossed the Mackinac Bridge, doing my best to stay in the lane made of concrete rather than the one with the open grate floor!  Once across the bridge, one can stay on I-75 to Sault Ste. Marie or do as I did and take route 123 toward Whitefish Bay.  I did a quick check in at Curley's Paradise Motel, where I was treated to a room facing the water and a free "old" towel to wipe the dew off my motorcycle in the morning!  I dropped off my back and immediately jumped back on the road, up Whitefish Point Road to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.  The museum, on Lake Superior at the entrance to Whitefish Bay, is home to a working lighthouse (fully automated now and controlled from Sault Ste. Marie) and several old Coast Guard buildings, including a "rescue station" where they display an original surf boat, used to rescue sailors tossed into the water from shipwrecks off Whitefish Point.  You can also tour the old lighthouse keeper's original house and view a short film, but the main thing I was there to see was in the museum exhibit.  I've been somewhat fascinated (and horrified) by the Edmund Fitzgerald ever since my dad introduced me to Gordon Lightfoot's music when I was a kid.  "The Mighty Fitz" was like the Titanic of the Great Lakes, but she broke in half during a terrible November storm in 1975 and no one has really ever definitively answered the question of "why?"  In 1995, the Great Lakes Historical Society and the National Geographic Society teamed up with the US Navy and Coast Guard to send a diver down over 500 feet to retrieve the Fitz's bell, which is now on display at the museum.  In its place was left a replica bell engraved with the names of the 29 sailors lost when she sank.  It's actually illegal to dive on the wreckage because it's so deep and so cold - there's a $1 million fine if you're caught!  So the diver they sent down had to wear a pressurized Newtsuit, which is an aluminum hard suit that maintains 1 atmosphere of pressure inside so the diver does not have to decompress on the way back to the surface. 

Day 1 - Catonsville to Toledo, OH

I have to say, today was pretty uneventful.  That's good, but that also means that I don't have any really good stories to tell!  The weather was great, although a little chilly until after noon, when the sun finally came out in Ohio.  Margo saw me off at about 7:45am and I stuck to the interstates today in order to make better time on my 485 mile drive.  There were a few scattered raindrops, but all in all, it was a good riding day with very light traffic.

By the time I got into Toledo on a Sunday afternoon, any attractions I might have wanted to see were already closed (not that there were many).  Margo and I had just finished talking on the phone about how there really weren't any places in the visitor's guide that I was willing to go back out for.  Even the Mud Hens are out of town tonight, or I would have checked out Fifth Third Field to see them.  Fifth Third, in case you are wondering, as we were, is the name of a bank in this area.  The original bank was taken over by a 3rd National Bank, and that was bought by a 5th Bank, thus the very strange stadium name of Fifth Third Field.  Anyway, I had just settled on the idea of staying in when JY (Margo's dad) texted me "If you're interested http://www.tonypacko.com/history.php".  Turns out Tony Packo's is a Hungarian hot dog place that Jamie Farr's character Corporal Klinger mentioned at least 6 different times on the tv show M*A*S*H.  How could I pass up the opportunity to check it out?!  There was a location only 4 miles away so that's where I went for dinner.  Interesting place.  They have Hungarian-type food, including stuffed cabbage rolls and chicken paprikas with dumplings, but their big thing is a Hungarian sausage on a hot dog bun with chili, onions, and mustard.  It was decent, but I don't need to go back again and it probably wasn't worth the calories I blew on it, but the wall decor was interesting.  Any time a famous person eats there, they have them sign a foam hot dog bun and they hang it on the wall.  Their hot dog chili has even been to space on a space shuttle Columbia mission. 

Tomorrow I'll make my way north through Michigan to the upper peninsula to visit the 3 great lakes I haven't seen yet!

 Ready to roll

 Signed hot dog buns at Tony Packo's in Toledo

 The M*A*S*H - Tony Packo's connection

Hungarian hot dog with pickles and paprikas dumplings

I'm calling this trip the Great Western Solar Eclipse tour...

New year, new trip!  This time I'm off to Colorado again on my motorcycle to meet up with Dad, Ellen, and Margo for a 7-day adventure ride through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, Bear Tooth Pass, with a final stop in Casper, WY for the total solar eclipse on August 21st. The trip out will take me through Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, with planned stops at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Leinenkugel's Brewery, the Duluth Trading flagship store, Fargo, and Spearfish (and maybe Sturgis for bike week).  The main tour, once we're all together, will take us through Wyoming, Idaho, Montana.  I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning so follow along!

 Packed and ready!

All gassed up!