RTTMS June 29, 2011 Headin' South

Spent the past few days with family and friends in Milwaukee. It was a great time visiting with brother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, nieces, nephew, grand niece, grand nephews and assorted other familiar folks.

It was nice to spend a couple of days of down time off the road but alas, Florida is calling me home.

I loaded up this morning, hugged my brother Al and his wife Judy, goodbye and off I went south toward Chicago and Florida. The traffic and road construction slowed my progress somewhat getting out of Milwaukee but soon I was making good time on I-94 south.

Progress was interrupted when I entered Illinois as the road is a toll road so I had to stop 7 times to pay tolls. The money is not the issue, it is the stopping and digging out the necessary $$$. I wish they had a universal toll pass that worked everywhere in the USA ....what a concept. Or they could just not charge motorcycles as they are very fuel efficient and do not damage the highway. Another amazing concept....

My Garmin GPS routed me west of Chicago and through southern Illinois instead of through Indiana, so I just took that route for a change. Not a bad ride and the difference in distance is just a few miles but it seemed faster.

Rail yard in south Chicago.
Much of the scenery is the same in Illinois and Indiana. Crops of corn for miles and miles. Flat miles and miles. I didn't take a lot of pictures since this is familiar views.
An interesting "Geodesic"Dome Home in the middle of corn fields.
A large cross on the side of the road.
In southern Illinois, I ended up stopping for road construction for about 30 minutes as the road was down to one lane and the worked blocked the bridge crossing to move equipment. Considering this was the biggest stoppage I have had, I cannot complain.

Bridge crossing in to Kentucky.
Kentucky corn fields.
And more corn.
I did get a slowdown in the southern part of Nashville, Tn., due to an accident in the northbound lane and people had to "rubberneck" the wreck. Glad it was not in our lane as the other side was totally stopped for 4 miles that I measured.

Got to the hotel in Columbia,TN., and checked in without incident. Rode 645 miles today in nice weather. The temperature got as high as 89 degrees while stopped but it was comfortable while riding.

Going to get up early and hit the road home in the morning to Tallahassee. It should be about 450 miles and therefor a shorter ride day. Should be hotter but shorter and I'll be home finally.

Thanks to Al and Judy and their family for a wonderful time while I was in Milwaukee.

More tomorrow.

Mike

RTTMS June 24,2011 East Bound and Down

Got up to moderate temperatures and a little bit of clouds in Rapid City, SD. We loaded up our bikes, grabbed a quick "Continental Breakfast" before getting on the road.
Our plan is to ride east on I-90 to Sioux Falls and then Jeff will head south toward Missouri, Tennessee and home in Jacksonville, Florida. I plan to continue east toward Wisconsin and my brother's home in Milwaukee.

We were quickly east of town and heading toward Wall, the home of Wall Drugs, the home of a glass of water with ice......kinda of a sales gimmick. This place is very famous in this area as a tourist attraction.

The hills were low with some low hills that lead to the Badlands National Park. This is a very interesting geology area and worth a stop if you are in the area.

After passing this area, the wind started to make its presence felt on our right sides and we assumed a lean to the right riding posture. It wasn't too bad as the wind was steady and not gusty which is much less fun to ride in.

The low ridges with water and wind erosion soon gave way to low rounded hills covered with grasslands and cattle. This part of South Dakota is mostly grasslands and cattle country. Nice and green but windy none the less.

We crossed the Missouri River and noticed that the water level was very high and outside the normal river banks. I know the people in North Dakota are suffering a lot of flooding and this is part of the the situation.
After crossing the river, the sky started to cloud up to the south and I thought that we may get some rain as it was in the weather forecast but the rain never showed up. The wind wasn't too bad but we hoped it would disappear.

A picture of roadside artwork. Not sure what it is but there it is.

We arrived at Mitchell, SD., and stopped for lunch and fuel. A few more mile east, we hit I-29 and Jeff took the right turn to the South and toward home.
So long Jeff, have a safe and fun ride home. I have enjoyed your company on the ride.

I continued into Minnesota and found that the southern portion of the state has several wind farms for electric generation. Also, the terrain made a noticeable change to croplands and trees on the hills.
The road quickly crossed the state and I was at the Mississippi River crossing into Wisconsin at La Crosse. The river here as also high but not out of its banks like the Missouri was earlier in the day.
The neat, well kept dairy farms of Wisconsin quickly appeared along the highway as I continued to Milwaukee. I decided to go all of the way to my brother's house as the weather was clear and comfortable so down the road I rode.
As the darkness started to fall, I passed through Madison, the road construction picked up and I passed through several zones that slowed me down but soon I at Al and Judy's house.
Total miles driven today 844. Long day riding but had perfect weather and good traffic flow.

The end of the ride.
I am taking a couple of days off from updating the blog in order to spend some time with my family, do laundry and clean up my motorcycle, "Oh Baby".

I will update on Wednesday evening as I plan to leave Milwaukee for Florida on Wednesday morning.

I received a call from Jeff on Sunday that he was home safely in Jacksonville and had a safe ride. I was glad to hear from him and that all went well.

Done for today.

Mike

RTTMS June 23, 2011 Ride into The Heat

It was a good morning to go for a motorcycle ride. Some rain clouds, a little wind with the sun rising in the East. Temperature about 61 degrees.

We ate breakfast at the hotel, loaded the bikes and headed out. We checked to see if there are actually falls in Great Falls and there are three sets of falls. We were going to visit them but a little liquid sunshine started to fall and we decided to get the heck out of town before we ended up having to fight the rain. More than likely, the rain was just a small shower but we did not hang around to find out.

Runnin' from the rain.
We were quickly outside of Great Falls heading east. The rolling grasslands were covered with cattle ranches. Lots of acres of land and very few homes. I guess it takes a lot of land to raise cattle in Montana.

The mountains were on the horizon to the west and south but the grasslands were green, lush and aromatic. The road took us through a couple of small valleys that were scenic and seemed to be centers of businesses and homes.
We passed through a couple of towns that had become somewhat deserted and then again, we passed through a couple that were more prosperous and well kept.
Yes, that is my glove in the picture.
Found a wind farm in the middle of nowhere with about 40 huge wind generators.
The terrain stayed pretty much the same as we continued east as this is grasslands all the way to South Dakota.

We decided to stop at the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Monument. We did the tourist thing while there and enjoyed the time. It is a very picturesque place as it is on a high hill overlooking the river valley. It would have been very interesting to see this landscape before the white man moved in.
The wind started to pick up after we left the Monument....what a surprise in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, and this made the ride less enjoyable but the temperature we about 72 degrees so things were fine.

We hit road construction a couple of time on Highway 212. Our stimulus money at work I'm sure. We ended up stopping to wait for an escort vehicle but that is part of the season in the north. In the north, just like Canada, they have two seasons......Winter and Construction.

Today we traveled in 3 states......not mental states but US States.

The wind picked up as we crossed the northeast corner of Wyoming and entered South Dakota. At the end of the day, the wind was out of the east at about 15 mph so the riding interesting.

As I mentioned earlier, the terrain didn't change much so I will not bore you with more pictures of grasslands.

Tomorrow Jeff and I part ways as he will head more due south at I-29 at Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I will continue east to my brother's home in Wisconsin.

I have enjoyed riding with Jeff and we seemed to get along well. I will miss his company and sense of humor at the end of the day when we are winding down from riding.

I wish Jeff a safe and quick ride home to his wife Mary without any problems and dry, cool riding weather.

544 miles ridden today.

Done for now.

Mike

RTTMS June 22, 2011 Mountains to the Great Plains

Time to leave the mountains and head south and east and US of A.

Once again the sun was up before we were. We hit the road going south to Montana at about 6:30 am under blue skies and comfortable temperatures. It was about 52 degrees so the ride was fun since we were still in the mountains.

We grabbed a light breakfast after about 40 minutes of riding at a small local restaurant that was pretty good for the price.

Once again the mountain views were the attraction. Also the road was pretty nice except there was more traffic going toward the US Border.

Some pictures of the views.

We passed through the customs building without a problem however, Jeff won the lottery by being a random selection for a search. Lucky guy!!

We were now back in the US and glad to be home. Money made sense, speed made sense, time made sense and the cell phone works.....Life is Good!!!

We continued south and went around the south end of Glacier National Park as the Road to The Sun is still closed due to ice and snow in the high elevations. They are not sure when it will be open due to the snow.

The views along the park were once again wonderful with a river flowing around much of the boundary.















On the east side of the park, the road is under construction so we had one of our few stoppages for road work.

As we left the eastern park boundary, the terrain immediately turned into rolling pastureland filled with cattle ranches. Very flat and really pretty featureless for mile after mile.

With the grasslands, came the ever present wind showed up from the southeast that made the riding a more interesting but nothing severe.

We were quickly in Great Falls, Montana, and our motel for the evening.

The we hit the warmest temperature for the past 17 days at 82 degrees when we arrived.

More tomorrow as we head to Rapid City, South Dakota and try to stay ahead of the rain.

Mike

RTTMS June 21, 2011 To the Mountains

Bright, clear blue skies greeted us this morning when we got up. Dry riding once again!!!

Jeff and I loaded up in Grande Prairie, AB., and headed south on Highway 40 toward the Canadian Rockies in Jasper, Banff and Kootenay National Parks.
The route south passed through large forests used for logging and we passed a couple of very large lumber mills that make plywood, oriented strand board and medium density fiberboard.

The road was in good shape and provided wonderful views of the valleys, rivers and high ridges that cover this area. Not a lot of development with the exception of natural gas wells and pumping locations. It seems they have figured out a way not to screw up the local land to do the well drilling and collection of the gas.
We found a little wildlife while on the road with deer showing up once and a while. No moose, elk, sheep or bison.

We passed a large coal fired power plant next to a river and the coal mining operation was just across the highway. This was along Sheep Creek which was very fast flowing and didn't look like it was being polluted but the power plant. We could see the veins of coal in the side of the mountain.
We stopped at Grande Cache which is located on a high plateau with a wonderful view of the snow covered mountains to the south....the way we were going.
The further south we traveled, the mountains grew larger and more numerous in our windshields.

We quickly entered Jasper National Park and were treated to some of the most fantastic view of shear walled, snow capped mountains on all sides. Words are hard to use to describe the variety of sights before our eves. I will let some of these pictures tell part of the story.
We stopped several times to get better views of some of the peaks and valleys. Again, I will let the pictures talk. Even though a picture is worth a thousand words, these pictures do not begin to tell of the grandeur.
Aren't the views spectacular!!!! And more to come.

Jeff then had a mechanical problem and we stopped to adjust his chain. Not a big deal and we were quickly on our way.
The wonderful views continued.
This is called the Weeping Wall because of all of the waterfalls.

I could continue on for a long time but I think you get the idea about the views. The roads were terrific also.

We quickly passed out of the parks and into Radium Hot Springs. You have to pass through a large slot in the canyon. Kinda neat.
The motel was OK but the Internet connection was terrible and that is why I am completing this entry today.

Rode about 416 miles today, or 670 km.

More tomorrow.

Mike