Day 1: NJ, PA. I had planned to leave late Friday afternoon but when do I ever leave for a trip on time? I probably didn’t get going until after 5:00, with my plan to get to Pittsburgh. I knew it was supposed to rain a little farther west so I started out with rain gear on. I’d never been on 76 west of Harrisburg before and I imagine it was very pretty, but it was dark by the time I got out there. There are a bunch of tunnels on the route too, which I enjoy. When I did finally get to Pittsburgh, I missed my turn off the exit and when I went to turn around, I ended up underneath the road I wanted and back on the highway but I remembered the name of the neighborhood Iris lives in and followed signs for that. Once I got there I took out my phone to check the map only to find out my battery had died. I was using a GPS tracking software which was apparently set to transmit my location too much and drained the battery. There were quite a lot of people walking around so I asked for directions, turns out I was only a few blocks away. Then when I got to the building, I needed to find a way to get in since I couldn’t call. I missed the fact that you could buzz up to the apartments but I found a security door open and managed to get in myself. A couple of Iris’ other friends from college were also visiting so we hung out for a while.
Day 2: PA, OH. The next morning we met up to go out to breakfast at the Coca Cafe, which was delicious, and walked around a market area for a while. It’s a good thing I was on a bike and had no room for souvenirs or I would have bought a lot. I ended up with only a pair of earrings from a flea market. I did have to get going to make it to Cleveland though so I left mid afternoon. The weather was decent although I noticed that the battery harness on my bike had melted a little bit so I couldn’t plug in my heated gear or charge my phone. It wasn’t really cold so I just put on lots of layers until I could get to a dealership. I made it to Cleveland without incident and found a parking spot right outside my cousin’s apartment building. It’s a pretty cool building that used to be a hotel. Christian and I waited for Sean to walk over, then we went out to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and hung out the rest of the night at Christian’s place.
Day 3: OH, MI, IN. I got up early because I needed to make it to South Bend, which wasn’t too far, but I was also meeting up with some fellow Sportster riders along the way who were going to show me some nice roads along southern Michigan. I met up with Perry at a Cabela’s and we rode along route 12. After filling up at a gas station at one point, I started having problems not getting gas when I twisted the throttle, and of course it also started raining at that point, so we limped along on the shoulder to the next gas station where we got some Gum Out, which fixed it right up. It stopped raining and the sun came out for a while so I took off my rain jacket, and of course it started raining again. So I put the jacket back on and the sun came back out. And nature and I went back and forth like this all day until I finally just left the jacket on so we’d have sun. We found an open dealer so I could get a new battery harness, then stopped for a late lunch and met up with Joe, then continued riding for a while. Perry had to break off to get home so Joe and I continued on and met up with Bud. They took me right into South Bend and we found my great uncle and aunt’s house. I hadn’t seen my Uncle Charles and Aunt Mickey in a long time so it was great to see them. They took me on a tour of Notre Dame’s campus, where my uncle used to teach, and I got to see the cathedral and grotto and lake, all very pretty. We went out to dinner then hung out for a while more at the house.
Day 4: IN, IL, IA, MO, KS. It was hard to leave the next morning but I had a long day ahead of me, all highway to Kansas City. The weather was gorgeous, sun and clear skies all day, which made the highway very enjoyable. I didn’t stop much since I had far to go but I did stop for the World’s Largest Truck Stop (Iowa 80), and the Iowa Firefighter Memorial. I made it to Cindy’s late but she had some chili waiting. It was great to meet her, she has something like 127,000 miles on a 2007 Sportster.
Day 5: KS. We stopped by the local dealer then I had to get on the road. I took highway for a little while west across Kansas, then broke off to hit some touristy spots. First stop was Cawker City to see the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, which I actually missed on my first way through the town because I was expecting to see this ball of twine looming up over the houses. It’s not actually that big though so I found it on my second pass through. After that I stopped at a little red schoolhouse from 1874 that had been restored. Then on to Lebanon to see the Geographical Center of the Continental United States. I finally made it across to Goodland where I planned on seeing a giant Van Gogh and camping for the night. I had seen on a map that morning a place called the Mid America Camp Inn and planned on staying there, but when I arrived there wasn’t anyone in the office and it looked pretty run down so I went back to the KOA I had seen listed on the exit sign and got a spot there for the night. It was pretty cold so as soon as I was done cleaning up after dinner I got in my sleeping bag. I was in Mountain Time at this point but still sort of running on Eastern Time so it felt later than it actually was.
Day 6: KS, CO. I woke up way too early but I managed to fall back asleep for a little bit. I was very impressed with the bathrooms when I showered, very clean (important when camping!), and took my time packing up to get back on the road. I wanted to get to Boulder so just took all highway to Tim’s house there. We went out for a ride on some nice twisty roads, especially nice after the endlessly straight roads of Kansas. We ran into some elk crossing the street (not literally) so I stopped to take pictures, although they started getting a little too close so we moved on. We also stopped by the hotel from The Shining, one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen. It was a nice loop and we went out for dinner when we got back then stopped at REI so I could pick up another baselayer for the coming very cold days.
Day 7: CO, WY, SD. I had planned to ride around Colorado and Wyoming for two days on my way to Rapid City but my cousin there told me there was supposed to be snow and very cold temperatures so I went straight up in one shot to beat it. I left Boulder early and there was some rain mixed with snow falling but I was okay in my heated gear. Nothing was collecting on the road but a thick crust of ice managed to accumulate on the front of my bike and my lower legs. I didn’t even notice at first since I had so many layers on, I just happened to look down and see it, pretty surreal. Once I got into Wyoming for a little bit, the sun came out and it warmed up enough that the ice started melting enough for some of it to start falling off. I knocked off the rest at a gas stop. I didn’t make too many stops since it was so cold. I rarely even got off the bike at gas stops since that would’ve meant unplugging the heated gear. I did get off at the first gas stop to put toe warmers in my boots, and at the second gas stop to put more toe warmers in my boots. I made it into South Dakota before I realized I hadn’t made a single stop or taken a single picture in Wyoming. I wanted to stop at Ft. Laramie but it seemed too far off the exit and I wanted to make time to Rapid since I was unsure of the weather. I think for a future trip I want to trace the Oregon Trail, I’ve always been really interested in that. Any way, I hopped off the highway to take back roads the rest of the way in since the sun seemed to be staying out. I knew I probably wouldn’t get much chance to ride around western South Dakota like I’d planned because of the weather so I wanted to at least get some nice riding in before the snow. I took a route through the Black Hills National Forrest, which was beautiful. I saw Crazy Horse and went past the turnoff for Mount Rushmore but didn’t go in since I knew I’d probably be sightseeing with my cousin over the weekend. I arrived much earlier than I thought I would, only Erin was home. Once Matt got home we went out to dinner at the Firehouse Brewing Co, then out for a drink at the Hotel Alex Johnson, a cool old place built in 1927.
Day 8-12: SD. Temperatures were below freezing and I worried about black ice on the back roads I wanted to ride so I didn’t do any riding. Mainly just went out in downtown Rapid at night and did some touristy things. Matt took me in to Ellsworth AFB for a tour and I got to see the inside of the B1 Bomber that he flies, very interesting. We went out to see Mount Rushmore one afternoon as well.
Day 13: SD. I had decided to stay in South Dakota longer if the weather was nice and just miss some later planned stops, but of course the weather was still crappy so I just got going. It was raining but I went through the Badlands and stopped at a prairie homestead any way. Once I got back on the highway though, it was miserable with the rain and really strong winds so I stopped early and got a room to dry out in since I don’t like riding sideways on an already slick road.
Day 14-15: SD, NE, MO, IL, IN, KY, WV, VA. I had to do all highway and lots of it to make it to my friend’s house in southern VA so I didn’t make any really long stops. I did go through the Nebraska sand hills and check out a few historical things (Pony Express station, sod house), along with being caught in a NE State Police check point, but they were all quick. I made it to Caz and Scott’s late but we managed to stay up even later to hang out.
Day 16: VA. Caz had to work so Scott and I went out for a barbecue lunch and then hiking at the Cascade Falls with their dog. Once she got home we went out for a tour of Virginia Tech’s campus and a very good Italian dinner then hung out some more at the house.
Day 17: VA, PA, NJ. I took all highway home since I was expecting to run into some storms but I actually had sun the whole way. I must have been right behind the storm because everything was still wet when I got home. I was exhausted so didn’t even bother to unpack. It’s very nice to be back in my own bed.
Note: I had this song stuck in my head for most of the trip.