DAY
21, SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013
Well, this was a first!
Last night I was finished with the Blog and pictures at a little after 9
PM. I couldn’t believe it. I showered and packed a few things and got
ready for bed. Jan and I were watching
TV and it was turned off at about 11 PM.
We were ready to go to sleep but we stayed up talking until just before
midnight. Both of our alarms sounded at
6:30 AM. We got up, got dressed and
packed our bags. I went through our room
to make sure that we had collected all of our stuff. We walked down to breakfast and all of the
guys had breakfast together. C.E. told
Chuck that he heard a “rubbing” on his Trike and was concerned. He told Chuck that he wanted to stop at a
Honda Dealer in Rapid City. I finished
and went to my Motor and wiped it down. I
went to my room and I got my bags to pack them.
We all packed our bags in our Motors and we were ready to leave. We hoped for a long day of riding and racking
up a lot of miles. We left at 8:08 AM
with Greg in the lead.
We rode out of the parking lot and turned right. Greg in the lead, followed by Ken, Bruce,
Jan, Me, C.E. and Chuck. After turning,
we rode onto the Bridge of the Missouri River.
What a beautiful, picturesque sight.
We rode along the river for a while.
Greg had accelerated to 5 miles over the speed limit of 75. We all accelerated to keep up with him. There was a slight gap between Ken and
Bruce. C.E. was about a quarter mile
behind me and Chuck was about a half mile behind C.E. Greg accelerated to 85, back down to 75 and
back to 80. Ken rode up to Greg and
yelled to him to SET his cruise control.
Ken yelling at Greg must have worked because we continued at a very
steady 78 mph as per my speedometer. We
continued west. We rode for 75 miles and
stopped at 9:06 AM at a Pilot Truck Stop in Murdo, SD. Just as we all parked together, Chuck told
everyone to get off the bikes, go in and pee and get back on the bikes so that
we could go. We were all still there
when Chuck made the announcement, then I ran inside to the restroom! We all used the facilities and went outside
by our Motors. I went inside to get
change so that I could pay Jan the difference for the last two nights hotel
stays. As I got to the cashier, Greg was
in line with a large cup of hot chocolate!
Chuck didn’t even buy coffee!
After Greg went outside with the guys, he got yelled at for getting the
hot chocolate and not hurrying. Chuck
told Greg to stop at Wall Drug. We have
passed numerous signs advertising Wall Drug.
Greg downed his hot chocolate and we were off again. We left at 9:25 AM.
We all lined up along side of the street, across from the
Pilot Truck Stop, waiting for Greg. He
came out and we got back on I-90 west.
We rode on and Greg set his cruise control to 80 mph. Again, there was a large gap between Ken and
Bruce. Jan and I were behind Bruce. C.E. was about a quarter mile behind me and
Chuck was at least three quarters of a mile behind C.E. We rode like this for a while and Bruce
wasn’t closing the gap. We were all in
the right lane of a two lane interstate.
I was in the left lane. Jan
changed to the left lane and motioned to me as to say, “shall we pass?’ I motioned to Jan, “Yes, do it!” We screamed by Bruce, passing him and we
positioned ourselves behind Greg and Ken.
The gap between Bruce and Me increased.
I was watching my rearview mirror and saw that C.E. had changed to the
left lane. They were very far behind me
and Chuck was very far behind them. I
saw C.E. then pass Bruce and closed the distance between him and me. C.E. was now behind me, close by, and Bruce and
Chuck were very far behind. We continued
until we got to the exit for Wall, SD.
Greg exited and we were in this little town of Wall. We followed the signs to Wall Drug. I expected to see a large building, such as a
Costco. It appeared to be about four
square blocks of stores. We parked the
Motors at 10:34 AM after riding 85 miles.
We started to walk the sidewalks and I noticed above each door, there
was a sign that said, “Wall Drug 1st Main Entrance, Wall Drug 2nd
Main Entrance, Wall Drug 3rd Main Entrance, “etc. Now, I followed Chuck, Bruce and Jan. Guess where they went? Yes, you are right! They went to the “Badlands Harley Davidson”
store. They each bought a quart of oil
and a Harley shirt. I bet you would have
never guessed! We walked around for a
few more minutes and found C.E. and Ken sitting in a coffee shop. We soon all headed back to our Motors to get
ready to leave. We left at 11:20 AM.
Prior to leaving, Jan told Greg that Chuck had about
enough gas to go another 20 or so miles.
Greg led us back to I-90. After
riding 15 miles, Greg stopped at a Mobile gas station at 11:35 AM in Wasta,
SD. The drive off of the road was a
little shaky. The driveway was
rock. It made for interesting riding to
the pumps. There was a U.S. Marine Jet
parked, for display, just a short distance from the pumps. We all gassed up and Ken suggested to Greg to
walk over to the Jet so that he could take a picture of Greg and the Jet. We all got back on our Motors and left at
11:44 AM with Jan in the lead.
Jan got us back onto I-90 and we were going about 80 mph,
steady. This was very beautiful
landscape and everything was GREEN! At
one point, I saw a small herd of about 15 antelope by the side of the road on
the right side. Nobody else saw them and
we passed too quickly for me to take a picture, so I guess I didn’t see them
and it didn’t happen! That’s the
standing rule! We went a little further
and there was a sign that stated that we were in a different time zone. We gained another hour. We rode for another 41 miles and arrived at
Rice Honda & Suzuki in Rapid City, SD at 11:23 AM. That is the correct time. Remember, we gained another hour!
We rode up to the parking lot of Rice Honda and parked. C.E. rode to the Service Department. Earlier, Greg told C.E. that he was familiar
with Rice Honda. At last year’s ride,
this is the Dealership that took care of him when he wrecked his Honda. His Honda was towed to a Dealership in
Casper, WY. They couldn’t fix it and
Rice Honda could. The Motorcycle was
shipped to Rice Honda to be repaired.
The Motor was “totaled”. One of the mechanics was the one who bought
Greg’s wrecked Honda from the insurance company. I walked into the store and was immediately
greeted by a young lady at a table with pizzas.
The store was having a Victory Motorcycle celebration. There was free pizza, juice, tea, Klondike
Bars and popcorn. We all enjoyed the
“free” food. This took the place of
having to go out to lunch. I couldn’t
resist getting two slices of the Little Caesar’s Pizza. Ken saw a Motorcycle that he really
liked. Jan told a salesman and he went to
try and help Ken with the purchase. They
talked and Ken tried to deal. They went
out to appraise his Motor, but the bottom line was that they wanted too much
for the Motorcycle. I called the salesman, who we spoke with in Chattanooga,
TN. He told me that Rice Honda wanted
too much for the Motorcycle and that they could do a MUCH BETTER deal in
Chattanooga. I told Ken. Ken didn’t buy the Motorcycle. We waited for a while and checked out the
“toys” in the showroom and those parked outside in the parking lot. We were told that it would take about four
hours to fix C.E.’s Trike. Also, C.E.
was lucky that this Dealership also builds the same kind of Trike that C.E.
has. Greg told us that he was leaving
the Group to head back to Washington. We
said our goodbyes and told C.E. that we were going ahead to find a hotel and we
would text him the address. We left at
1:23 PM.
Jan led the FIVE of us west towards Sturgis. There is a Best Western there and we hoped to
stay there for the night, thinking that C.E. would be tied up for another four
hours. We arrived in Sturgis at 1:53 PM
after riding 31 miles. We arrived at the
Best Western and a couple of guys went in to “make the deal.” They came out and told us that there were not
enough rooms available. Chuck, Jan and I
checked on our phones looking for a hotel in the area. I had received a text from Greg that C.E.
would be ready to leave in 10 minutes.
Chuck found a hotel in Spearfish and held the three rooms with his
credit card. C.E. arrived to meet us at
about 2:45 PM. C.E. told us that Rice
Honda was in the process of “building” a Trike from the same conversation kit
as C.E.’s. What they did was to take the
parts that they needed from the kit and put it on C.E.’s Trike, under
warranty. We all left at 2:51 PM.
We got back onto I-90 again. The sky was getting darker in the direction
that we were going. I listened to the
Weather Band and heard that in the area, there was a 70% to 80% of a hard rain
in the afternoon. We rode for 23 miles
and arrived at the Day’s Inn at 3:17 PM.
We went in and checked in, got our rooms, unpacked our Motors, parked
them under the awning and “tucked” them in for the night.
After getting my bags into my room with C.E., I took my
computer to the breakfast room to do the blog.
Soon after I got into the breakfast room, it started to rain. There was also a very strong wind. Reports told us that there were wind gusts of
60 mph. As I was looking out of the
window, it started to hail, and then GOLFBALL sized hail. I seriously thought that the windows were
going to break. WOW! We were all very glad that we ended up
staying here for the night. If we
continued, we would have definitely been caught in this storm. As I’m typing the Blog, C.E. told me that the
Weather Service reported several tornado sightings in a few counties. We don’t know which county we are in so we
are going to think that we are not affected!
How is that for thinking? That’s
the Power of Positive Thinking!
Well, today we only road 270 miles. We were able to get C.E.’s Trike fixed. We lost another rider and we escaped one
hellacious storm! We didn’t get to our
destination; however, it’s better than the alternative…getting caught in the
storm.
Tomorrow, depending on the weather, we hope to get to Red
Lodge, Montana. That is the start of Bear
Tooth Pass. Last year, they guys were snowed
out and were unable to ride it. Hopefully,
this year, we will be able to ride it. We
shall see. So, until tomorrow…
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