Finally Home, But Why Not One More Unique Event

When I got home last night, I figured that I'd be done riding for at least a few days. As it turns out, however, fog and bad weather have delayed the arrival of the space shuttle Endeavour until today. You know that it's going to be something you want to see, but that the crowds and the traffic at LAX are going to be huge. Fortunately, we can can "split the lanes" on a motorcycle here in California - that is, we can ride on the stripes between the lanes of traffic (it's not really legal, but not specifically illegal either). And, you can always find room to park a motorcycle.  

Pretty cool thing to see, but the shuttle wasn't as big as I had expected. Neat way to finish my tour, though.

All said and done, I did 6,294 miles over 23 days. I traveled through 14 states, stopped at 8 different state or national parks, went to a fun biker rally, stood in 4 states at the same time, toured the Budweiser brewery, scored a try in the rugby match, saw 3 Big Ten university campuses, and the very last space shuttle landing. I got to see every member of my immediate family, and I got to spend a lot of time and re-live some precious memories with some really, really great friends. And I think that I may have made a few new friends also. 

Looking back, I think that I underestimated just about everything about this trip - how hard it was going to be, how much it was going to cost, how long it was going to take, and how many miles I would have to ride.  But most importantly, I underestimated how much fun it was going to be. I would like to say that this has been the trip of a lifetime, but most of my friends know that I've been incredibly fortunate in my travels, and I have no intention of stopping here.

Here's to hoping that everyone gets a chance to take on an adventure of their choosing!!

Vegas, and Spa Day (for the Harley)

When I first planned my original route, it looked like it was going to be about 5,100 miles, and I had figured that I had enough tread on my back tire to go the distance. Here at Zion, I'm already at 5,700 miles, and I still have another 500 to go.  

My tread is about gone, and the back end had been feeling a little slippery for a while. One thing nice about Harley dealers is that, if you're from out of town and need some service, they will make a real effort to put you at the front of the line in shop.  So, it was spa day for the bike - a new tire, an oil change, new brake-pads front and back, and a wash.

And since I'm in Vegas, maybe I can win enough money at the craps table to pay for all this stuff.  In reality, it turns out that all I have is very expensive rear tire. Ha!

When we were all here for my 50th birthday, the O'Calaghan-Tillman bridge was still under construction. It cost $240 million to build, and at 900 feet above the river, is the 2nd highest bridge in the US (and the longest of its type in the Western hemisphere).  Believe it or not, there's a pedestrian walkway along the top of it - yep, you can walk across it!. For scale, note the size of semi-truck crossing on the left side of the bridge.

Before the bridge, all traffic to and from Arizona had to go over the dam itself. And, since 9/11, there's been a security check-point on each side. The bridge has dramatically reduced the traffic on the dam itself, and made it a much better tourist experience.

Of course, you know the rules. I'd tell you more about my stay here in Vegas, but I'm afraid that I might lose my privileges.

Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks

It was only 36 degrees outside when I hit the road at 8:30 am.  I've got about 100 miles to go, and at 70 mph, I'm going to be really, really cold for about the next 2 hours.  One way to warm up your hands while riding a motorcycle is to stick them down by engine cylinders. But it's so cold that not even touching the cylinders is warming up my hands.

Bryce Canyon isn't really a true canyon - it wasn't actually carved by a running river.  This area was once a great basin - a big pool of water with no outlet. Different layers of sediments settled on the bottom of the basin, and as the water either drained away or evaporated, the sediments turned to rock. We're at about 8,000 feet of elevation here, and the temperature drops below freezing about 200 times a year. The constant freezing and thawing of the moisture creates fissures in the formations, pieces of rock begin crack and fall down. Then, the occasional rain and/or monsoon carries away the debris.

 Bryce Canyon is stunning though.  Absolutely crazy looking formations and colors.

Did a short hike down into the canyon to this little tunnel. It was about 70 degrees, at the top of the canyon and 80 degrees down on the trail. I caught some strange looks because everyone was in shorts and t-shirts but me. I was still wearing all my biker gear because I was still freezing cold from the ride.

Looking up at the beginning of the trail-head after walking through the tunnel in the picture above. Note the people on the observation ledge at the upper right part of the rock formation (you'll need to enlarge the photo).  A couple of the previous pictures were taken from that location.

At this point, I'm about 250 miles from Vegas.  It's early afternoon, and I figure that I can knock that out by early evening and have a little fun.  Google Maps, however, says that I should go about 20 miles north first, then over to I-15.  But I can see that heading south for about 50 miles to Hwy 9 looks quicker.  Hwy 9 also runs through Zion National Park, which beautiful, but I've already been there. So, I figure that I'll just bust on through the park to the freeway and on to Vegas.


Zion National Park

Once I get to Hwy 9, however, there's a sign that says all vehicles have to pay the $25 park fee to cross through to I-15 - perhaps that's why the map directed me north first, duh!  Well, I'm not backtracking 50 miles, and fortunately, motorcycles get into the parks at half-price.

Zion is just as stunning as Bryce Canyon, but the formations are different. Zion is a true, narrow canyon with mountain peaks at an elevation of +/- 7,000 feet, and a canyon floor at +/- 4,000 feet. Rain from the 11,000 foot elevation of the Colorado Plateau to the north flows into the Virgin River, which carves the canyon, flows further south to the Grand Canyon, and ultimately, to the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean. 90% of the runoff from the Colorado Plateau takes this path. This series of formations, from the Plateau, to Bryce, to Zion, and to the Grand Canyon is known as the Grand Staircase.  

Since I'm here, it's hard not to just slow down and enjoy the ride.

The tightest part of the canyon isn't open to traffic.  You have to take a park bus, which takes about 90 minutes round-trip. We didn't do that the last time I was here, so I figured I should take advantage of that this time. Of course, now, I'm way behind on making it to Vegas.

There's a "first-come, first-served" campground inside the park. The sign says it's full, but one of the rangers said I should still troll through and see if there are any empty spots. About 3/4's of the way through, I've seen a couple spots that have a receipt on the post, but no other sign of occupancy.  I thought I'd ask the camp host about them, but then I see a random guy waving at me.

Andre is from Quebec, and is on a 2-month tour of the US park system. He said that the campground has been full for the last two days, and he figured that I was trying to scope out for a spot. Two tents and two vehicles are allowed on each site, so he said that I was welcome to set up my tent there. He'd already been forced out of a couple of park campsites that were full, so he knew what I was up against and figured he help a guy out.

The low temperature was a comfortable 64 degrees that night, and the stars were absolutely brilliant. One of the best views of the Milky Way that I've ever seen.

It's a long way to Bryce Canyon, UT

It's about 900 miles between Deadwood, SD and Bryce Canyon, UT, and there's a whole lot of nothing in between.  I did 500 miles on Sunday and made it to Rock Springs, WY, which is near the middle of the state and just a a few miles north of the Wyoming / Utah border.  Leaving Rock Springs this morning, I made a last second decision to take the exit for Hwy 191, which runs down the east side of Utah's Wasatch Mountains, instead of taking I-80 over to Salt Lake City, and then I-15 south, which goes down the west side of the range.  And what a great decision that turned out to be.

This route begins by going through about 80 miles of open range - meaning, there are no fences to keep live stock off the road.  So, you have to keep an eye out for horses, deer, and cattle.  The horses tended to run away when they heard, or saw me coming, but I came within about 5 feed of a big doe that was just standing on the side of the road (I didn't see it until I was right on top of it).  Then I came upon the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

The name Flaming Gorge comes from the red iron in the rock formations.

The reservoir is 90 miles long, covers over 42,000 square acres, and is over 400 feet deep.

The dam was completed in 1964, rises 455 feet above the river channel, and is made out of 1 million cubic yards of concrete.

Wyoming is relatively high in elevation. Casper and Rock Springs are at 5,200 and 6,200 feet of elevation, respectively. Going into Utah, I thought I'd generally be going down-hill in elevation, but I had to cross several 8,000 foot summits, and one pass that was at 9,100 feet.  Got to see a lot of these beautiful yellow aspen groves along the way.

I finished the day at Richfield, Utah, which is only about 100 miles from Bryce Canyon - something I can knock out early tomorrow.

Deadwood

Deadwood, South Dakota is probably the coolest little town in South Dakota.  It's current population is about 1,200.  The Treaty of Laramie, signed between the US and the various Indian tribes in 1868, was supposed to guarantee that the local Indian tribes would retain control over the sacred Black Hills.  But, gold was discovered in the area in 1870, so renegade miners ignored the treaty and came anyway.  Of course, miners need prostitutes and a place to gamble, and thus, the illegal town of Deadwood was created.

I rode through here a few times when I came up for the Sturgis Bike Rally a couple years ago, but we were really just passing through.  I'm now looking forward to hanging out here for a couple of days.

A number of colorful characters lived here, including Wild Bill Hickok, who was murdered in August of 1876 while playing poker in Saloon No. 10.  He was shot in the back of the head while holding a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights - now known as the "dead-man's hand".  Wild Bill was a former law enforcement officer and soldier, and legend has it that he'd killed over 100 men, including the brother of the guy that shot him in the back of the head (the actual number is believed to be 7).

Wild Bill is buried a local cemetery that sits on top of a hill overlooking the town, and he lies next to Calamity Jane - her dying wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill.

Like Jim Morrison's grave in Paris, people continue to leave little tributes to Wild Bill, like empty whiskey bottles.

This cemetery has one of the largest concentrations of Civil War soldiers.  During World War I, the town received permission from the US Congress to fly the flag 24 hours per day in recognition of all of those that have served the country. 

The town tends to attract a different kind of resident.  This girl has a stud in her wrist - kind of like those that you might see on a girl's nose, only bigger.  She says it's screwed into a small plate that's inserted below the skin.  Never seen that before.

The Deadwood Jam is going on this weekend.  Two full days of music on an outdoor lot next to the old train station.  I watched the show from the two patios here at The Deadwood Grand Casino.

I've been checking the weather for Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and it's going to be really cold at night for the next several days - highs in the 60's and lows in the 20's.  That's just a little too cold for me on the motorcycle, so I've decided that I will head south tomorrow, towards Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.  This puts me on the path towards home, so I celebrated with a nice Ashton Maduro cigar and a good scotch while listening to Styx.  Turns out they had quite a few recognizable songs from my high-school and college days.

The Devil's Tower, Spearfish Canyon

From Deadwood, I rode up to Sturgis (not much is happening there without the biker crowds) , and then over to the Devil's Tower, which is about 60 miles away.  The formation was dedicated as the Nation's first national monument in 1903, and figured prominently in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

On the way back to Deadwood, I rode through Spearfish Canyon.

Which is about 30 miles of this.

Stunning scenery, and an empty road.  Stopped for a road soda at the end, then back to the campsite to unwind a bit.  After dark, I took the campground shuttle into town for the final night of the Deadwood Jam, which featured Styx as the headliner.

The Badlands, Ellsworth AFB, Mt. Rushmore

Looks quiet and peaceful, doesn't it?  Under the ground here in this area, we had 150 Minuteman II missiles armed with nuclear warheads, and aimed at Russia.  The Minuteman silos were located here because, even if the Russians launched an attack from submarines right off our own coasts, we'd still have time to get our missiles in the air.  If launched, they'd fly over the North Pole and strike Russia within 30 minutes.

In the middle 1700's, the French fur traders called this area "bad land to travel across".  Well, that's the English translation of what they called it, and the name stuck.

These formations are relatively young - less than 500,000 years old.

Neat colors.

Ellsworth Air Force Base is just outside Rapid City, SD.  They have a lot of neat planes on display, including  this B-1B bomber.  I had thought that these were decommissioned, but I saw one take off while I was there. They were designed to drop nukes, but are now only configured for conventional weapons.  This piece of "artwork" here, cost us about $300 million.

The rocket to the left is one of the old Minuteman II missiles.  They used a solid propellant, which was very stable and could be stored indefinitely.  Built around 1965, they had a 7,000 mile range, could travel at 15,000 mph, and deliver a 2 mega-ton warhead.  All of the missiles and silos at Ellsworth were decommissioned as part of the 1991 START treaty, but don't worry, the US still has 500 operational Minuteman III missiles.

There is no fee to enter the grounds at Mt. Rushmore, but you have to pay $11 to a private company to park your car.  So I took these pictures from the side of the road. Been here before, anyway.

Profile of George.

The Black Hills are full of beautiful scenery like this.

Here's my little campsite at the KOA near Deadwood.

North to South Dakota

There is not a single north-south freeway in Nebraska.  Hmm......

So, I took small, two-lane roads the whole way.  Which is fine, except for when you meet on-coming semi's.  A semi tractor and trailer is about the size of a small house and moves a lot of air when in motion. The roads are long and straight, and when I'm travelling at 60 or 70 mph and the on-coming semi is travelling at 60 or 70 mph, we've got a combined closing speed of 140 mph.  We're only going to be 8 to 10 feet apart when we pass, so think about hitting that wall of air - at about a 45 degree angle.

The blast of air hits about a second after we meet, and you have to steer, or lean into it to keep from getting pushed off the other side of the road. You get used to it, but it's really not that much fun.

Other than that, it was a rather pleasant ride.  The state of Nebraska actually looks a lot like Indiana. Lots of cornfields and pasture land.  Once I got into South Dakota, I crossed a lot of beautifully empty Indian reservation land.  At one point, I'll bet I traveled for 100 miles without seeing another car.  Kind of eerie, actually.

Got to Murdo, SD in the evening and had a fine steak dinner here at the elegant Buffalo Bar and Grill.

Lincoln, Nebraska

Never been to Nebraska, and since I came through Kansas on the way TO the EOTW celebration, I'm thinking that this may be my only shot.  Lincoln is a little out of the way, but hey, it's a chance to see another Big Ten school. On top of that, no one can deny that they've played some pretty good football there, so I wanted to see their stadium.

The ride from Iowa City was horrible. I'm riding straight into a storm-front that runs from New Mexico to Minnesota.  It's not if it's going to rain, but when.  And it's cold and windy.  I was lucky to make it to Lincoln and find a hotel just as the sky opened up.  They got an inch and a half of rain that night, but it was all clear by morning.

The Fall of 1978 was my very first semester at IU, and Nebraska came in and just beat the crap out of us.  Something like 55 to 0.  They had a Heisman caliber running back named I.M. Hipp, and he scored 4 touchdowns that day (and was Nebraska's all-time rushing leader, even though he missed part of his senior year due to injury).

I'd call this the alumni side of the stadium.

This is the student side, and it looks like they are spending a little money to make some more room.  Also known as Memorial Stadium, it currently seats about 86,000.  Capacity will still be less than 100,000 when the construction is done, but they are also building a brand-new basketball stadium.

The amazing part is that Nebraska has sold out every football game since 1962.  That's every single game for 50 years!!  Having 5 national championships has got to help, but either way, this has got to be a fun place to watch a college football game.

This is the Nebraska Union building.  Enough said.

I have to say that the city of Lincoln really is a dump.  Not a single attractive building there.  I had some pretty good bbq, though.  The place had a sign that said it took "three years, two fist-fights, and one kitchen- fire" to perfect the recipe for their bbq sauce.