bucket list

Day 29 – Main Street, Sturgis, South Dakota

America 2014

This morning, we woke up in Deadwood, South Dakota. We jumped on the bikes and headed over to Sturgis.  It’s 15 miles away, but the ride is all along the mountains and hills, in, out, around, up, down.  All good.

We got to Main Street, Sturgis and parked the bikes like hundreds of others did and just walked around looking at all the people, stores, displays, etc.

Sturgis - Road Trip

Sturgis - Road TripWe walked around for a few hours and decided to head over to Rapid City, Harley Davidson where they were having an open house of sports with about a hundred vendors, all bike-related. We spent a couple of hours there and headed back to Sturgis.

We parked the bikes again and went for another walk to look at people and do a little shopping.

In total, we drove another 105 miles today.

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Day 28 – Riverton, Wyoming to Deadwood, South Dakota

America 2014

So we looked at the weather and took a deep breath and away we went.  We weren’t out of Riverton 10 minutes when it started to rain.  Motorcycles, rain and open road with no place to hide is not an enjoyable experience. But we kept going.  We made it to Casper, Wyoming by noon so we decided to find a place for lunch and dry out a little. So we’re eating lunch and looking up the weather in the direction we were  going.  It wasn’t pretty. We traveled 65 mph in the rain for another 4 hours. Ouch!

We finally got through the weather and made it to the South Dakota border.

7-29_South-DakotaThe sun came out. The temperature got to 75º and the last hour of the ride was great, especially because there were hundreds of other bikes all heading in the same direction, to Sturgis!

We made it to the Black Hills Inn and off-loaded the bikes.

Today’s ride was pretty tiring, so we grabbed a bite to eat in downtown Deadwood and headed in to chill.

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Rode 364 miles today.

Riverton, Wyoming to Deadwood, South Dakota

Total 8,116 miles.

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Day 27 – Buffalo, Geyser and Mountains

America 2014

It was sprinkling a little in Big Sky this morning, but the forecast called for passing showers, so we headed to Yellowstone National Park. We got back on Route 191 south to Route 287 which takes you to and through the Park.

We stopped at a couple of scenic view points and then headed to “Old Faithful”  On the way, we hit some traffic.  The traffic turned out to be due to a buffalo taking a walk along the side of the road. How to describe a wild, 2-ton animal and 2 motorcycles within 15 feet of it? The traffic is in front of us – so we really couldn’t get anywhere. He looked right at us – needless to say,we felt a bit anxious.

Yellowstone National Park

But, it all turned out good.  “Old Faithful” had just spewed before we got there, so we saw it sort of dormantold faithful

We went into the museum fo a bit and then continued our trip to Grand Teton National Park.

7-28_Wyoming

We jumped off of Route 287 onto Teton Park Road to the Teton Mountains.  We are so glad we did.  The Tetons are simply an amazing set of mountains.  Majestic. Beautiful.

Then, we grabbed Route 26 east and headed to Riverton, Wyoming. Another beautiful state.  The mountains are different from any other we’ve seen. Then, we hit the plains and fields.  Sooooooo many fields, all the way to our destination, Riverton.

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We rode 355 miles today.Big Sky, Montana to Riverton, Wyoming

Current total: 7,752 miles

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Day 26 – Heading East Through Montana

America 2014

We left the Millers’ home at around 10am.  Of course, we had to stop at Grizzly Harley Davidson, because of the name.

We jumped on Route 90 east and got off at Route 85 in Belgrade, MT to take Route 191 to Big Sky, MT.

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Montana is another great state to ride a motorcycle through, from the mountains to fields and rivers.  Beautiful.

We stopped short of Yellowstone, and will do that park tomorrow.

Missoula, Montana to Big Sky, Montana

We rode 255 miles today.

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Day 25 – Glacier National Park, Montana

America 2014

We left Bonner’s Ferry somewhat early (8:30) because we knew it would be a long day.

Out of Bonner’s Ferry, we took Route 2 towards Glacier National Park.  Along the way, we stopped at Kootenai Falls. It was one of those Montana raging rivers that you could have easily just passed by.  We ended up spending over an hour just walking around the woods and the river in AWE!

Eventually, we ended up back on Route 2 and continued toward Glacier.

We finally got to Glacier National Park around 2:30 pm.  We realized we crossed a time line, so we lost an hour. Glacier National Park is an amazing example of the wonders that exist in this country that Mother Nature has provided us.  Amazing, stunning, and so alive.7-26_Montana (5)

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7-26_Montana (2)We left Glacier around 5 and headed south to Missoula Mountain via Route 35 past Flathead Lake and  all the cherry stands. (This is prime cherry season).  The lake was HUGE. It felt like being next to an ocean.  Sometimes you’re at the level of the lake, sometimes you’re looking down from 500 feet up.  Beautiful ride!

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Route 35 connected us to Route 93 and then to Route 90 into Missoula.

The Millers welcomed us with open arms.  It was really nice to see some familiar faces.  Shawna, Tucker, their daughter, Andrea and her boyfriend, Mike.  We were happy to see Kira here when we got here, and Keith when he arrived on a later flight.

Millers - Missoula

It was a late night, but a good one.

Bonners Ferry, Idaho to Missoula, Montana

354 miles today.

Tomorrow, we are heading towards Yellowstone.

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Day 24 – Washington to Idaho

America 2014

We left Yakima after doing a load of laundry this morning.  We headed out on Route 12 to Route 82 and to Route 90 east.  We never knew how many “plains” there were in Washington State.  Beautiful rolling plains.  They grow a lot of hay here.  Massive buildings filled with huge bales of hay.  And lots of them.

Route 90 took us through Spokane, WA – a really beautiful town.  Then, we grabbed Route 95 north all the way to Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, only 30 miles from the Canadian border. Route 95 took us through a town called, Sandpoint.  Wow!  It was stunning. It’s on a lake surrounded by mountains.

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We did not know how beautiful Idaho is!  It is really nice, clean, green – all of the people that we met were all so nice.

7-25_hotel-wallsRode 311 miles today.

Yakima, WA to Bonner's Ferry, ID

Tomorrow, we head into and through Glacier National Park on the “Going to the Sun Road”

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Day 23 – Cascade Mountains

America 2014

The weather is still not that great, but we had to get out and ride.  We jumped on Route 5 North toward Portland and continued beyond Portland to Route 12 East. Route 12 takes you up to the Cascade Mountains and by Mount Rainier and to Yakima, WA.

When we got on Route 12, we started to hit some rain, clouds and fog and going through these mountain passes in those conditions is not always so great.  But, we still pushed ahead.coltonfinn.com (1)  When we got nearer to Mount Ranier it was raining, cold (46°) and yuk! We pulled in to the nearest gas station to fill up and warm up.  It was well worth the stop.

coltonfinn.com

colton climbs down rock wall

clear lake cascade mtn

clear lake, mt. rainier

Then, we headed down the east side of the Cascades and the weather started to get better.  It seemed like every mile on the downhill side got 5° warmer.

Eventually, it was completely clear and 74°.  The scenery was beautiful  Route 12 runs parallel to the Tieton River.

It was a really nice ride ( the second half of the day)

eugene oregon to yakima, washington

Rode 345 miles today.

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