WWR 7

Day 1

August 9, 2013

We left town somewhat early. The Sturgis motorcycle rally was going on, and we wanted to get out of town while before traffic got too bad. We took I-90 to Billings because there was road construction on US-212.

When we got to Billings, Melanie had found a place that sounded good, so we looked for it for a little while, but we found the "Burger Dive"!. It is a little building, and you have to be looking for it to find it, but the food was good, and the Garlic Fries were some of the best fries I have ever eaten.

This was overlooking Billings, MT. The rain showers in the distance nearly got us, but we kept going and stayed dry all day, and we were checking in when it started raining. I had told Melanie it was going to be close!

This is just a mirror shot of Melanie.

This is where the bikes spent the night, beside our little cabin at the Tenderfoot Motel in White Sulphur Springs, MT. The mineral springs were right across the road and they felt good at the end of the day.

These Hollyhocks were right outside our door.

 Here is the route for the first day.

555 miles,  and only a few rain drops.

Days 2 to 4

We made it to Kalispell, MT and stayed dry today too. We went the long way, through Great Falls and Browning MT, then we rode the Going to the Sun road. 

The storm in the picture below tried to get us wet though. We stayed at Melanies sisters house. They have a nice spare bedroom, and we always have fun with them.

The next day was our anniversary, and Melanie wanted to do a hike to Avalanche Lake. we both enjoy it, and it is beautiful.

Every time we have been to Avalanche Lake, we have done a self portrait. I don't know how this got started, but we did it again.

Day 5

We stayed at Arco, ID at the DK Motel. It was an older motel, but it was clean and comfortable.

There were several neat things in this town, one of them was this is the first town to be completely powered by nuclear power.

This is a picture of "Number Hill". It was started back in 1920.

This was from a Sturgeon Class submarine. Those were the actual numbers it had when it was in service.

This was an actual torpedo.

We ate two meals here, and the food was very good both times.

403 miles, and no rain.

Day 6

We started the day by going to Craters of the Moon Nat. Monument. We discovered this when we were driving through Idaho on our way home form WWR2 in Coos Bay, Oregon.
This place was incredibly beautiful in its own way. We both want to come back again.

There was snow in the bottom of a cone on August 14th, in the middle of a heat wave!

These next two were taken from on top of a large cinder cone that they let you hike to the top of. There were no board walks or anything, just a foot path on the cinders.

I was really interested in the lava tubes. They actually have a path that you can go inside of one and hike through it, and come up at a different spot, then "scramble" back to the foot path.

Melanie is in this picture to give an idea how big this lava tube was. We were both amazed that we were able to walk inside of one.

We blew it. Not one picture. We stayed at Lava Hot Springs, ID. We had so much fun, we never thought to take a picture of anything. The Home Motel was incredible. We went there to enjoy another hot springs, but it was so hot when we got there, I was not looking forward to it. At all. BUT, we noticed lots of people walking by the motel with inner tubes. We asked one couple what was up, and they clued us in to the tubing of the Portneuf River through town. We were getting swim clothes on very soon after that. It was very refreshing, not to mention a lot of fun. After that, we mentioned to the motel clerk that we were going to go to the pools to soak, when they asked us why we would do that when the same water was in our room. That town just kept getting better. We had supper at the Blue Moon Bar and Grill. Walking in it just looked like a bar, but they had great food. We both want to go back to this place, and if we are ever in the area we will stay here again.

165 Miles, hot and dry. At least until we got in the river.

Day 7

Logan, UT

We had a short ride to get to the Kaw Pasture, so we took out time. We stopped at Soda Springs ID to see the most consistant geyser there is. The sign said it goes off "Every hour, on the hour". We were there an hour, and it never went off. We took a couple of pictures, but somehow I forgot to include one.

This was overlooking Bear Lake, Idaho and Utah.

Here was the motel for the Rally. There were fires in the area, and a lot of helicopter traffic.

Here the bikes got shade in the afternoon.

The meals, the raffle, and a lot of visiting happened under these big shade trees.

Saturday, some of us decided to go on a ride, but we couldn't find anywhere to ride to. We tried a scenic canyon that Jack 4E heard about, but we couldn't get there. We ended up having to settle for going to Paradise. It sounds better than it really was.

Melanie liked this little car.

And this house.

I don't know what she liked here!

The group looking for a ride.

And we found this!

And we ate here. I will say one thing, the food in Paradise is good. So was the company.

The group. Jack and Barb 4E, Sherm, KrazyBob, KrazyBarb, and Trouble.

We wanted to get some thing for breakfast, and we think Sherm just needed another Walmart fix. He really enjoyed the special parking!

It was 122 miles from Lava Hot Springs to Logan UT they route we took.

Day 10

Heading home. I did some video of Logan Canyon early in the morning, and Melanie spotted a moose along the road, and it showed up in the video, but no real clear.

This was some of the landscaping mother nature did in Wyoming.

605 miles, it was long, it was very hot, and we stayed dry.

This was one of my favorite vacations ever. Good riding, good food, and great people.

Heading to Yankton, SD.

The first picture is from the campsite. The second picture was the old bridge in Yankton that crosses the Missouri river at Yankton. It is a double deck bridge. One direction went on top, the other direction went on the bottom. It has been turned into a walking bridge now.

2013 and we are finally riding.

When spring finally arrived we started riding.

We hosted the first Black  Hills  rally. I thought it was a great success. We had people here from 17 states  and Canada.

We did two trips to.Abrdeen on the bikes, but they werd uneventful. We were just visiting family. On the first trip,I did notice I had cords showing on my rear tire, so I had to scramble for a replacement. Melanie needed a new chain at the start of that trip so I guess it wasn't totally uneventful.

On July 31st, I had to go to Yankton to my past supervisors funeral. This one is hard to do. Shortly before my surgery we drove to Wisconsin for a training seminar. We had fun, and I would have done it again with him any time. He died of cancer. He never failed to ask if I was "...getting any miles on my scoot."

I will definitely miss that man, and my life is better for really getting to know him before he found out about the cancer.
Here  are some pictures of the ride.

2013

April 22, 2013
We have still not had spring. We had 12 straight days of snow, then we got a break of a day and a half with some warmer weather to melt a bunch of it.
Last night it snowed about 10 more inches.
Miles for the year, 0.

This is the view from our house. It should be green by now, not white.

This is our dog Jazz. She is 14 years old in this picture, a 70 lb. yellow Labrador. The snow is that deep.

This is a picture taken from work. The skies are clearing, but the temperatures are below freezing, and it is supposed to get down to single digits tonight. This has been a tough spring for everyone.

April 24, 2013

Its snowing again. At least it is supposed to warm up by this weekend to start melting it.

 

2012 Eureka Springs

This is going to be our first motorcycle trip of the year. It is late in the year already, but it has been a tough year. Things at work have been demanding, and personal things have taken a toll since my heart valve replacement in December. After recovering from that, we had a very good friend suddenly and unexpectedly pass away, followed by Melanies mom. Like I said, it has been a trying year.
I just got back from Silt Colorado over the Labor Day weekend. I haven't been able to make that ride since 2009. I really enjoy that ride, and had a lot of fun. On the way home, the exhaust pipe on my rear cylinder started leaking and developing a crack. By the time I got home, it was very bad. That just got fixed today, and I feel a lot better about having both bikes ready to go.

I will post some things about that along with this ride. So stay tuned. :)

Day 1 Sunday

It was a dark and stormy night. No wait, it was just a windy day. We took our time getting going, getting the bikes loaded, and just took our time in general. We couldn't get breakfast when we were hoping to,  so we settled for a piece of toast at home. Riding through the plains of South Dakota and Nebraska isn't very scenic country, so there are very few pictures. The highlight of the day was when Melanie got a train to honk as they passed by in Nebraska.  She got one out of ten to honk.
Things went pretty well, but it was a strong headwind all day. We used more fuel than I thought we should have, so I included an extra fuel stop to make up for the range of the 800, but I really thought I would have been pushing my range with the wind too.

Remember the pictures get bigger the more you click on them. Well, maybe they only get bigger if you click on them once.

 This was a picture of Trouble backing out of her spot with our gourmet meal. Subway.

 Here Troubles bike is sitting in front of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at. We have never stayed at a Bed and Breakfast before, mainly because I don't like dealing with people. I just couldn't help liking this one, and when we got here, it was as good as the descriptions on the internet. It is the Balcony House Bed and Breakfast in Imperial Nebraska. If you EVER need a place to stay in this part of the country, you are cheating yourself if you don't stay here. It is wonderful. Great clean private rooms, with your own bathroom,  and  a community kitchen stocked with beer. There was other stuff in the fridge too, but there was BEER! Oh yeah, and soft fresh ginger cookies. Chocolate chip too (my usual favorite), but the ginger cookies were our favorite.

 Here is the front of the B&B. It looks good from the outside, but is better on the inside. The owners are super friendly, without being pushy, which I was grateful for.

Here is where we called it a night after 370 miles. Probably one of our shortest days ever. We are not going to have a day over 500 miles on the way to Eureka Springs 2012, unless we feel like it tomorrow.

Day 2 Monday

This was another hot windy day. The head winds are really cutting down on the mileage. This is also our high mile day. 475 miles. We are taking it easy, and it is a good thing, because the heat is making the days longer.

We stayed at the Sonner motel in Winfield Kansas, and won't ever stay there again. We wished we would have stayed at the Econolodge. We kind of get a kick out of the small mom and pop motels, and we don't like spending much money on motels when all we are using is a bed. Still, this one wasn't  good, except for the wifi. it was one of the best we have had at a motel. Go figure. Why can't motels figure this out?

Day 3 Tuesday

We are here! Let the fun begin.
We ordered several pizzas for eats this evening.

 Trouble got a pigpile when she accidently left the door to her room open!The first night always has some extra "stress relief" libations.

 

Day 4 Wednesday

 Today several people are rolling in today.
 Sqrll had some extra curricular activities happen on his bike with HIS squirrels! They were doing fine until he took the cover off his bike. They did keep on for a while though.

Here people are getting ready to head in to the supper at 

Day 5 Thursday

The weather so far has been almost hot! This is unlike any VROC Reunion I have been to.
Again, there were extra curricular activities going on. Mitch (now known as Keyless) was worried about his bike being messed with when he left it at the motel when he had to work, so VROCers being the caring thoughtful people they are wanted to be sure nothing would happen to his bike, so they protected it.

The day included a group ride to Lamberts near Springfield. Here is a picture of the bikes lined up for the meal. This is the place with the "Throwed Rolls". The meal was exceptional, and I don't think anyone could go away without feeling stuffed. The meals have very large portions, and then there are the folks wandering around with even more, rolls, fried potatoes, and ocra. I had never had ocra, and I liked it.

Trouble and I visited the Thorncrown chapel again. Sherm had taken us here in 2009, along with showing us other things in town. We didn't go to the Crescent Motel again, just because we forgot about it when we were in town. The Crescent is said to be haunted, and they offer tours.

The Thorncrown chapel is absolutely beautiful and peaceful. I hadn't noticed before, but the wooden structure in the  middle form the Star of David. If you ever get here, it is a must see.

WWR 5 Deadwood 2011

Sunday June 5, 2011.
Sherm showed up first, with Vette, and Mal showing up soon after. Skid and Sandy are in the close area, and should be here my 8 am. The ROK crew is supposed to be in Deadwood now also.

We had a small get together with those who we could find that were here.








Monday June 6, 2011
Here are some pictures from the Kaw pasture.

Here is Sherm getting his electronics situated.

Skid.

Mal, and Corvette looking on from the registration table.

Could Sherm be working on his blog?

Kopperhed just pulled in.

 Brillo and Deb are here!

Lucky Al is still up, and it is late afternoon after his 1500 miles in 24 hours ride and he looks good.

Sandy, Cranky, Reverse, Flamekiller and Bucky.

Motowriter and John.

Bucky, Sandy ans Sherm. I promised Bucky I would keep the pictures to myself, so they are only on my blog.

The motel provided a bike wash, and Redeemed is getting some bugs washed off.

 

 Skid couldn't handle folding the tickets, so Sandy took over before he hurt himself.

Visiting early arrivals.

 The late early arrivals, the newlyweds Wrongturn and KT, surrounded by wellwishers Kopperhead, Corvette, and Mal.

Sandy, Deb and Trouble.