Corps of Discovery

Day 4 Guthrie Center, Iowa to Crofton, Nebraska 258 miles
Today we stared off with another worlds biggest. Yesterday it was the truckstop and today we saw the World's Largest Bull. Albert the Bull is in Audobon, Ia is 35 feet tall. The cool part was he led us to the worlds crankiest waitress at the local cafe. We had a great time teasing back and forth and in the end she agreed not to charge me a nuisance fee. They also had the Best sausage gravy and bisquits.

The rest of the day was spent following the Missouri River and the Lewis and Clark Trail. We saw a reproduction of the keelboat the Corps of Discovery used on the expedition and met the most talkative tour guide. He must not get many visitors because he wouldn't let us go. He just kept talking and talking and talking.

We crossed the Missouri on the longest steel grate bridge I've ever seen. All you bike riders know how wobbly it is riding over them. White knuckles on the handlebars.

We definitely made the transition from the mid west to the west today. We're seeing more cattle and grazing with ranches instead of farms. Still alot of corn though and still very beautiful.

We spent the night at the historic Argo Hotel in Crofton. You can imagine what it was like stepping off a steam locomotive train and walking into an old West hotel in 1912. Take a look at their web site for some great pics of their lobby. The owners did a great job of restoring this old hotel.

We ended the day at the local bar where they looked shocked to see strangers walking though the door at 10 pm. We chatted abit with the locals and saw a six legged stuffed baby pig that has been sitting behind the bar for 30 years.

You never know what you'll see out here!

Don't forget to leave comments and take a look at the pictures link.

Pretty Corny

Day 3, Buffalo, IA to Guthrie Center, IA, 331 miles.

Today was a much slower pace and we enjoyed every minute taking in the sights. We started out at Iowa 80 which is the largest truckstop in the world. It was really something; more trucks then I have ever seen before. There were actually 3 beautiful trucks inside that were really nicely done up. There was everything you could imagine in this place; a library, dentist, Laundromat, barber and all sorts of cool truck stuff to buy. Tom wouldn’t let me buy anything. He said the truck wouldn’t fit in the saddlebags.

We ventured off of I80 and took some secondary roads which took us thru tons of cornfields and soybeans. The corn is unbelievably perfect-looking. Iowa is not totally flat. There are many rolling hills. We stopped at the National Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame in Anamosa. It was full of all sorts of old bikes that looked like bicycles, racing bikes, snowmobiles made by Harley (?) There were a bunch of old relics looking at a bunch of old relics!

We took a side trip to Amana. It is an interesting little community that started out as place where they all worked together and shared the daily chores etc. of life. It is where Amana appliances was started and they still have a factory there now. Hmmm, that was actually all they had there.

We met a really neat farmer who answered a bunch of our questions about the corn. He told us that he rents a field to a seed corn company, either Pioneer or Monsanto, and they plant just 1/3 of the field, in the very middle. The corn that they grow is the parent seed for a new variety and it is worth over 1 million dollars. Wow, there’s money in that corn!! He also said that much of the corn that is grown is used for chemicals (biochemicals). Who knew?

So, we bought some corn for dinner. It was a new variety; it doesn’t even have a name yet, just a number. It was delicious. Believe it or not, it was $5 for 14! No bargains here. We finished off with a dinner of cheese curds and brats. Ah, just like being in Milwaulkee again!

I took a picture just for you, Steveo, I am sure you can figure out which one. Tom was wondering, would you buy milk from that store? Hmmmm…..

The bugs are getting me pretty bad so I’m signing off….

I Just Rode in from Massachusetts and does my butt HURT!!!

Day 1-2 Windsor, Mass to Buffalo, Iowa, 1046 miles.

We started our trip by attempting an Iron Butt Association, Saddlesore 1000 ride, which is 1000 documented miles completed in under 24 hours. We had to have starting and ending witnesses and keep a log of all our stops along the way. We finished up 1019 miles on the Mississippi River at Moline, IL in 2 ½ hours.

We started out in Windsor at Friendly Fred’s at 2 PM with hot and humid weather. I decided to be the designated Kimball by putting on the rain gear when it wasn’t raining. On our trip to Nova Scotia, Mark warded off the rain for about 900 miles by always wearing the rain gear when it wasn’t needed. It didn’t work for me because we hit our first thunder storm just west of Albany, only 2 hours in. I guess we need to take the real Kimball with us for that trick to work.

After a quick stop for everyone else to put their gear on we rode through the storm and back onto dry Interstate. In all we rode through 5 thunderstorms between Albany and Buffalo. Nothing bad enough to slow us down but a little annoying. Once we passed Buffalo, the skies cleared and we had a great ride through the vineyards with the sun setting to the west and the almost full moon rising in the east.

I have to give a lot of credit to everyone for some quick stops for gas and shovelling some food down except for one stop in Pennslyvania where Mary Ann had words with a gas station clerk over one of our gas receipts.

We rolled on through Pennsylvania and into Ohio. The traffic picked up as we came into Cleveland which slowed us down a bit. By now it was around 11:00 so we started looking for a campground for the night. Funny how few campgrounds there are in downtown Cleveland… So we just kept going west onto the Ohio Turnpike. We finally had to get off the highway as Scotts bike was running on fumes. We asked the lady at the toll booth if there was a campground nearby and she said the closest was about 20 miles away. Oh well, I guess we’re motelling it tonite. We took a right off the exit and within 100 yards there’s a big sign- CAMPING. I guess the toll lady doesn’t get out much. We set up in the dark and hit the sleeping bags at 12:45 with 570 miles. Not bad for an afternoon ride.

In order to make 1000 miles we needed an early start so we were up and on the road at 4:50 AM. Lets see, that gave us about 3 hours of sleep.

It was a nice peaceful morning with no traffic,riding through the Lake Erie fog and waiting for the sun to come up. We made really good time until the I-80 split in Gary, In where the traffic slowed us down again. Once we got through the city we were into corn country through Indiana and Illinois.

We got to Moline with plenty of time to spare for our 1000/24 and a nother minor incident with gas receipts for proof of our ending time. Overall it wasn’t a bad ride, not too rushed or tiring. We all just had headaches from lack of sleep and caffeine. We skipped the morning coffee to avoid having to stop and pee every 20 miles.

We toured the John Deere attractions (Moline is world HQ for John Deere) and had lunch. We crossed the Mississippi on the Centennial Bridge and found our campground in Buffalo, Iowa. It was a nice place right on the Mississippi. We had a swim in the river then watched the full moon rise before finally pooping out at about 9:00. It was a LONG day!

Final Details

The finals details are about done with only two days until we leave. The usual last minute worries are kicking in-constantly checking the weather (108 degress in Sturgis, possible showers Buffalo to Cleveland), wondering if we remembered everything we need, hoping we won't have any problems along the way. It always seems to work out. The bikes and trailer are all set and 99% of the camping gear is packed in the trailer. Sandy managed to get her plane ticket at the last minute and will be leaving only two days before we all head for home.

We all had dinner together Saturday night to decide what to bring, loading the route into the GPS (more changes to come Scott-sorry), possible campgrounds we'll try to hit and some finances. We decided to pool some money to cover shared expenses like tolls, groceries and campground fees. It should be a lot easier than trying to keep track of who has paid for what.

So alls that left is to throw some clothes together Thursday night and be ready to hit the road on Friday afternoon.

Pre Trip

Its now under two weeks until we leave for Sturgis, its amazing how fast this trip came up. It seemed like August would never come back in the winter when we started planning for it. Actually, the trip has been planned for years but the time is finally right to do it

The plan is to leave on Friday July 27 and take about a week getting out to the Black Hills. The route will take us out to Illinois on I-90 and 80 and then switch to a more relaxed sightseeing mode, with lots of backroads, through Iowa and Nebraska. We'll have about 5 days to take in the Sturgis Rally before heading home. We hope to make it home in 3 1/2 days, not fun but sometimes you just have to do it.

At this point, there should be 4 of us taking the trip. Me and Mare, Scott and Sandy on our 04 Electra Glide Classics. Sandy just decided at the last minute to take the trip out with us and fly home after a week or 10 days on the road. I hope it works out and she can arrange a flight on short notice.

Other than that we're still gathering gear and doing some last minute maintenance on the bikes. New batteries, fluid changes and basic adjustments.