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Chicago, Detroit, Windsor Canada

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The next few days, actually 4 days of my trip was about visiting family and friends. Chicago: The toll roads gave me a hard time, not fun paying tool on a motorcycle, especially when the toll is $0.60! The routine was something like, stop bike-> take gloves off, fish for change-> pay the bloke-> put gloves on and head off. Traffic was bad, it was Friday evening so that probably added...nice dose of a Bay Area reminder. I stayed with a cousin and Aunt in Chicago. Was nice catching up with them. Detroit: I stayed with an ex-roomate and good friend from the Bay Area who now lives with his family in Detroit. Parts of Detroit are a little depressing, ghost towns/sections, some of them seem really bad. Feel bad for the people who are going through job loss in an industry that is not doing well. Windsor, Canada: Windsor is a small town the other side of the border from Detroit. About 30mins, 2 ways 2 cross over, the bridge and a tunnel. I 1st went the tunnel route only to find when I...
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Sioux Falls and Rochester

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I spent one night in Sioux Falls. Cutting across SD on Hwy 90, was , well uninspiring...but had to be done. Thankfully the freeway isn't all that boring. A ton of bugs, bees and other insects kept me and the windshield busy :) Corn fields line the entire freeway of about 900 miles or more. In some places, I would squeegee the windshield and 30 mins later it would be completely splattered I didn't do much in Sioux Falls, but had to figure out how the city got its name, voila, the falls in Sioux Falls. Kinda nice to have a falls smack dab in the middle of town One of the earliest buildings in the area...a mill that was built on the river/falls to harness the energy of the water drive the machinery. Apparently they shut down within a couple of years of opening :( Why Rochester? A special guest had flown all the way to meet me and cheer me on. For those who don't know him, this is my BIL, Jon, another...
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Badlands Nat'l Park

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Rough terrain, the story is that the discoverers found it inhospitable and a nightmare to cross and hence the name 'Badlands', apparently the natives had a similar name. Interesting to know that over the years they actually found paths through the area. Lots of hikes, picnic spots (if this type of scenery is your thing), if you have a capable off-road vehicle you can do a few trails too. Some of the hills/mounds have an interesting coloration...mineral induced...this one is a lookout called Yellow lookout or some such thing Badlands is probably the last place that i saw another CA license plate, it wouldn't be until NY/NJ when I would see my next set. About here is when I started getting 'CA, that is a looong way off!' kind of comment from people. I was barely at the half way point :)
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Assorted...

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In the parking lot at Mt Rushmore, I met a couple on this Honda Goldwing. They were headed from Penn to Seattle, apparently they have everything they need in the trailer. They have about 90,000 miles on the thing and they go every where on it...pretty cool huh? For the kiddies - Dinosaur Park...a small park on the outskirts of Rapid City, SD....all of the models are life size I made it to Sturgis!! I didn't spend much time there, the famous Harley annual rally was 2 weeks before I got there. Amazing how much of what in the town is Harley and bikes related. I just wanted to to visit the Hall of Fame museum...really good collection of motorcycles There are 2 floors of restored and unique motorcycles, apparently they are all donated for display by the owners, so every year a few change.
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Mount Rushmore

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The roads that lead to Mount Rushmore....more than one way to get there. As Yogi Berra would have said, if you come to the fork in the road, take it. For everyone who has had a good laugh at his malapropisms, you should know that when he made the famous quote, the situation was that he was giving directions to get to get to his home in NJ and what he meant was that both sides of fork in the road actually lead to his house, hence the 'take the fork'. Guess being slightly less articulate has its downside :) 87 is Iron Mountain hwy, all you bikers out there, this is one of the coolest rides that I did on the trip. In the far distance, where the tree lines meet above the road is actually the monument...zoomed in shot below Nice road eh? It is on roads such as this that I missed my R1...hardly any traffic, a little narrow, road surface okay-ish Really nice details.....to give you some idea of size, each eye is about 11 feet across
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Jewel Cave

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The other cave in the SD area around Custer. I guess this is the more popular one since it is visually more impressive. Gets its name from the fact that in parts the cave sparkles from the jewel like formations. I believe that the discoverers, like most people who moved West seeking gold were initially disappointed, but then thought that these were precious and they'd struck it big...little did they know at the time. Popcorn anyone? Might not be easy to read but this type is called Nailhead spar...actually does look deceptively precious Off the cave walls...again, my camera couldn't do justice. I'd recommend a visit for sure. Interesting to learn how micro-life forms in caves are an important aspect of medical research. Didn't know that from Carlsbad caves (New Mexico), a group of scientists were able to extract bio-thingies that help with cancer research - guess evolving in super harsh conditions does that.
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Rides in SD

There are a # of really nice twisties in the SD area around Custer City. Pine Needles Highway, Iron Mountain (the approach to Mt Rushmore). Pretty good quality surface, low traffic...if you go off the road no one will know :) The rides lone are worth 3-4 days...me thinks, me will go back some day to just do the rides :) The place was already getting cold in the middle of September, to give you an idea, early mornings could be in the 40s
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