391 miles today. North Platte, Nebraska to Woodward, Oklahoma.
KSU was 8:00 AM, a little later than normal since it was 54 degrees. Brrr! Bundled up, layered up, buckled up and… eventually it warmed up to around 80 and the layers came off. With the exception of those two massive construction delays , it was, as many folks along the way commented, “a beautiful day for a ride!”
This flagger was quite chatty. But she would not let us put our kickstands down for our FIFTEEN MINUTE delay. She said the blacktop was too soft, so we had to hold the bikes up in the wind. The trucker behind us got out to ask how long, and then made a snide remark about being a female on a construction crew. She ended up switching to our pilot car driver after the wait, of which we were thankful because the other driver was really slow.
It was a super duper wicked windy day…and has been for the past several days.
Tomorrow does not look as promising. For the first time in ten days, it looks like we are heading into a storm. Yikes!
Rapid City, SD to North Platte, Nebraska. On our way home!
We rode on the Gold Rush and Western Trails Scenic Byways and stopped for a brief, cool-off, museum visit in Bayard Nebraska to see the Chimney Rock National Historic Site. The pioneer emigrants used this landmark to navigate the trails. More emigrants wrote about Chimney Rock in their diaries than any other trail landmark. The museum is interactive and pretty cool for being in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We agreed the entrance fee was our contribution to education. We didn’t walk all the way out to the Rock, as it was very hot and we had on our riding gear, but maybe when we were in our twenties we would have enjoyed the climb!
Me and my riding buddy at Chimney Rock Historical Site
Chimney Rock
After the museum, we rode through some horrible wind. Actually, we rode through strong winds all day. The byways are spattered with idyllic views. In the distance we saw Courthouse Rock (where we are told they used to put criminals on trial) and Jailhouse Rock (where they would hang them). We were on the bikes so I didn’t get a picture of those, but it entertained us nonetheless. I would like to visit them up close, as well as the remains of the pony express and other sites on the byways. This trip is the first we have spent riding through Nebraska and we left much for future trips. It’s a beautiful and historic state!
The bikes got thirsty so we stopped at Sinclair to fill up. It’s a popular gas station in this area, famous for their dinosaur icon. Even the DINO (Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus?) has a unique history. It was fun to see how each Sinclair presents the DINO. We like this local chain as it is clean and all, but they don’t usually have premium gasoline as it is harder to get. We settled for unleaded without ethanol. 🙄
Short site seeing trip through the Badlands National Park and an early lunch at Wall Drug. If you’ve never been there, it’s like a shopping mall but every store is owned by the same family. Their story is incredibly inspiring. While we were there we learned that my brother Shawn had passed away.
The day was bittersweet. While we were enjoying sights and capturing wildlife on camera, my brother was struggling with his life. He had a triple bypass surgery a few weeks ago, came home from the hospital, and today I received the call that he was in cardiac arrest. He died about an hour later.
Tim had just recorded me singing Amazing Grace in a chapel in Wall, South Dakota, which was our last stop of the day. The chapel is dedicated to the travelers who came through the area. The acoustics were beautiful and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sing. It seems appropriate to share this story in memory of my older brother. We are all just passing through. We are travelers…don’t get too settled because this is only a temporary home! Shawn is HOME now. Heaven must look good.
My brother was sixty years old and the oldest of us three (I’m the baby). I am still in shock that he is gone. We just talked about a week ago. Now, he is probably partying with Mom and Dee (Mom died in 2014, and his wife died in 2017.) This is one of the first pictures I have of us three kids. This was taken in our home on McKinley Street, in Middletown Ohio. Our street recently became famous in the best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy, soon to be released as a movie. Small world indeed.
Providentially, today is our last day in South Dakota, and we had already planned to leave and head toward home tomorrow. I don’t know any details on the funeral, or whether I will be able to go. Their 23-year old son Christian is the only one left in the family, and he will be planning everything. It will take us about four days to get home as we see some heat in the forecast. Then we can decide. We washed clothes and we are all packed.
Aside, when I was diagnosed with terminal cancer I assumed everyone would outlive me. Here I am four years later and going strong. You never know how much time you have! Every day is precious. Live life abundantly as Christ would have you to live.
Site seeing around Rapid City, South Dakota. Some people trailer their bikes, then ride around when they get there. Not us. We rode our bikes to South Dakota and then rented a truck 😂😂. It’s not quite the same thing as those trailers. After all, we do ride! But we wanted to see more than we could accomplish in a day on a bike. We went all the places we missed (or didn’t see as completely) when we came here before.
Last time we came through the Black Hills, we pulled over on the motorcycle and took a picture, but we didn’t go in. This time, we went inside and walked all those steps. 😳 My legs were just beginning to feel normal after that climb at Happy Jack’s Peak, so I felt a bit of a burn on the thighs. However, these steps were not nearly as intense as the Peak. Of interest was how the sculptor chose the four presidents according to birth, growth, development, and preservation. We also remembered seeing Nicholas Cage on these same steps in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Mount Rushmore is an amazing wonder!
After Mount Rushmore we drove through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway (SD-87). The bison had just walked through some wildflowers, so they had a lot of hitchhikers. (No, those aren’t bees LOL). One of my FaceBook friends said she wants to brush the poor thing. I agree; but, I don’t want to get any closer than my camera lens will take me. They did walk right by the car but generally left us alone. We saw lots of wildlife, in addition to the donkeys 😂, one-lane tunnels and magnificent views. We went to Custer State Park last time, but this time we drove on the extra tiny roads. We ended up on the Needles Highway somewhat by accident, but it was well worth the drive! A local told us about an RV who had to drive in reverse all the way back down that mountain, as the tunnels on SD-87 are too narrow and clearance too low. There’s an example of poor planning! I said to Tim multiple times while spinning around the 10 mph hairpin turns and narrow roads cluttered by traffic, “I’m so glad we are not on the bikes!!” Yikes! We had “plenty” of room, but we did fold in the mirrors on that big truck, just in case. A bit claustrophobic at times. To sum it up…Wow! Go there!
Crazy Horse Memorial was a quick stop for a photo but we didn’t go inside to save time. My great-grandmother was Cherokee, so I am always interested in learning more about Native American history. Maybe you know the story about the negotiation for Mount Rushmore. This was the Indian alternative to the other mountain sculpture. They declined government funding. The sculpture is still under construction.
It’s a steam engine, round trip ride to Hill City from Keystone (a very crowded city, so we were glad we didn’t wait until Saturday to do this one). We saw beautiful sites, more wildlife, and smiled at the joy of children on the train reminding us of our grandkids.
We learned lots of fun facts about the Black Hills from the narrators, but our favorite story revolves around “The letter Q.” If you’ve ever wondered why a train does too long whistles followed by a short whistle and another long whistle at the crossings, it is Morse code for the letter Q. Why? Because this was the signal ships would use when the Queen was on board, signifying she had the right of way. This remains the signal at Railroad crossings today, and of course a train always has the right of way. Don’t debate it. 😂 😂 It was a refreshing ride in the warm afternoon.
Our last stop was Bear Country USA. We have never seen so many bears in one place!! I especially loved, loved, loved the bear cubs, and learning the different brown and black bear 🐻 subspecies. We also enjoyed watching the Timberwolves playing. This was a fantastic stop with lots of wildlife on the drive through safari. It was well worth the money. We could not have done that on a motorcycle (not because we wouldn’t, although one might be a bit mental to try it, but because they do not permit it.)
I took many, many pictures! These are only a few. I love ❤️ checking items off my bucket list. I don’t know if I will ever finish the list, but traveling to these great icons and spending time with my honey is such a wonderful treat.
The weather was perfect. Nice and cool, breezy, and sunny. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. 🌞
Day 5 of our 35th Anniversary HOG Ride. From Kearney, Nebraska to Rapid City, South Dakota.
We rode 436 miles today.
The projected storm ended up delayed so we made it all the way to Rapid City where we will stay three or four nights. We road the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway for a couple hundred miles, following the Middle Loup River and a railroad most of the way. Ruins and cemeteries decorated the path, making us wonder if there were any unique tombstones or gravesites of famous locals. This is a pretty cool ride, actually. We saw three out of the 10 “must sees” on the link above. In the spring, sandhill cranes migrate through this area, and the prairie chickens put on a show (apparently). We’ve seen the cranes in Florida, but they are here in abundance so we want to go back in some future spring.
We took the scenic byway all the way to Alliance, which has brick roads downtown for a super cool ride. Tim said he saw some old guy checking me out as I passed by 😂. You can hear me commenting on it in this brief video.
Before leaving Alliance, we stopped at a unique art exhibit called Carhenge (cars painted and put in the ground patterned after Stonehenge) 😂😂, then rode through the Nebraska National Forest and two more scenic byways and on to Rapid City (through miles of construction).
We decided to give our legs a break for a few days. We have seen some of the sights from the road on a previous bike trip, so now we plan to get closer. They only had two options…a 1500 Dodge Ram or a minivan. You can guess which one we picked 😂. We didn’t realize it was missing running boards until Tim had to hoist me in, laughable for sure.
Found a fabulous pizza place before heading back to the hotel. It rivals our favorite pizza joint in Florida. I had the Wisconsin Cheese soup and garlic knots, but Tim’s pizza was some of the best we have tasted. The weather was perfect for outside dining, and again no one seemed too concerned about the coronavirus. Few if any masks out in public. We steered clear of people and kept our faces covered, but it was nice to feel a sense of normal again.
As we were heading to bed the sky lit up and gave us a beautiful show. What a storm!
Day 4 of our 35th Anniversary HOG trip: Loup Rivers Scenic Byway. We jumped on Tim’s bike and went for a scenic ride through countryside, with a few stops along the way.
First stop was Platte-River Harley-Davidson in Grand Island. Couldn’t resist the GREAT sale on shirts! Buy two discounted shirts and get one free.
Tim got one, and I got two. Good deal…for me!
Next stop was Happy Jack Peak and Chalk Mine. This is the only underground chalk mine in the United States. No longer a working mine but an interesting tour for sure!
There are very small bats in the mine!
We followed the tour with a challenging hike up the hill to Happy Jack Peak. My legs barely worked after that but the view was spectacular.
Third stop in Ord, had lunch at Arby’s … because we could … not wear a mask . They were open at 100% capacity. We felt a sense of normalcy for the first time in days. The whole town did not appear to care about social distancing or wearing masks. In fact, much of Nebraska is that way. I guess when you live in a town of about 200 you don’t care about coronavirus coming to meet you. We walked around the Ord town square (the museum is closed this year – no help from Yelp on that one ) then headed back toward the hotel with at least two other stops for construction zones.
So, what then? Time to do laundry, play Scrabble and Chess, eat a steak dinner, and have a face chat with two of the grands. Now we are trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. We planned to go to Rapid City, but there are storms so we’re probably only going half-way. To be continued…
Day 3 of our 35th Anniversary HOG trip: Manhattan Kansas to Kearney Nebraska.
We only rode 238 miles today. Last trip we learned that I get tired after about three days on the bike, so we changed it up this time. We are staying in Kearney (pronounced KAR-nee) for two nights. I’ll jump on Tim’s bike for some sight seeing tomorrow, and then we will leave the area the next day.
Today we were on some really beautiful rural roads. Three flaggers with one lane roads delayed our trip … twice. Someone said we could have been the flagger – we sure were colorful!
At one point Tim’s GPS warned us of dirt roads ahead 🙀😱😬😳. Fortunately, we turned right before the pavement ended, but we were sweating bullets for a few miles!
I woke up to a Scripture saying “Be alert.” This was much needed advice with all the farm equipment and rough roads today!
We rode through the geographical center of the United States, and past the birthplace of Home on the Range (🎼 while singing said song) on the Home on the Range Byway.
Once we arrived in Kearney, we visited the only American museum in an archway that spans across an interstate (I-80), the Kearney Museum. It was excellent and the narration is very informational! Good suggestion Harley-Davidson!
And we had some Poutine for dinner.
If you’ve never eaten it, be prepared for calorie and carb overload! LOL. The description is house cut fries, cheese curds, white pepper gravy, bacon, shredded cheese, scallions.
I managed to stay upright on my bike (which was not true yesterday…a story too boring to share), so… All in all, a very good day.
Day 2 of our 35th Anniversary HOG Trip: Prague, OK to Manhattan, KS.
Happy Anniversary to us! Today is the official day. Thirty-five years. May we have at least 35 more.
Great ride through some scenic byways in Kansas. We’ve never been in this part of the state before. Weather was perfect. Cool morning with some heat in the afternoon. Found a perfect picnic spot in Florence for lunch, with cold 99.99% pure spring water running from an old fashioned pump. It was a blessing which brought us much needed relief from the afternoon heat! We soaked our clothes, which were dry within ten minutes of leaving the picnic area. But those were a nice ten minutes!
Today is our actual anniversary (35 years!) so we went for a walk to an open restaurant in Manhattan, Kansas where we are staying tonight. It’s hard to find things open with this pandemic, but this was a treasured spot indeed. Locals call this town “The Little Apple”. 😂 Get it? 😂
Bourbon and Baker is a small plate specialist where we had our anniversary dinner. We shared three entrees: St. Louis style ribs, Fried Chicken and Biscuit, Cornbread Slider. And for dessert: Purple Pride (buttermilk cake). It was all so very tasty and delicious!
Total miles Days 1-2 are 750. I forgot to post our miles last night. We rode about 413 yesterday and 337 today.
I will take this opportunity on our special day to say that while we have our ups and downs, moments, squabbles or frustrations, there is no one I would rather be sharing life with. Weirdos get weirdos, and Timothy — you get me! I can’t believe it’s been 35 years!! To my Riding Buddy, Lover, BFF, Favorite Human, Handsomest Husband, Housekeeper, ChemoBuddy, Snoring (purring) Buddy, Caretaker, Father to my kids, Yoda to our Jedi, and Lifelong Partner in the Ministry, HAPPY 35th!! I love you … more. 🥰😉
Day 1 of our 35th Anniversary HOG Trip. Conroe, TX to Prague, OK.
We left early this morning, eager to get started and avoid the potential storms coming through. Packed and ready to go, we rode from Conroe Texas to Prague Oklahoma, where we would stay with the Seyferts. They are friends from Tim’s childhood and a couple he recently married.
Passing through Seminole on the way to Prague was nostalgic. I heard Tim speaking to me in the Sina com system, telling me all about the places he remembers: his first job location, the farm where they lived (that is now a large open field), the new gas station (wow Seminole is looking pretty good!), and the golf course where he learned to play. It was good to hear him reminisce.
It’s always good to have him in my ear. I usually lead since I have the maps open on my phone. And he thinks I go faster when I’m in front 😂. It’s always comforting to see him in my rear-view mirrors. I love riding with him. He’s always got my back. He looks out for me when cars are passing or he sees something in the road ahead when he is in the lead. This is true of life as well. He’s my caretaker, even though I don’t need to be cared for as much as when I first started this breast cancer journey. I love my riding buddy!
Staying with friends is such a treat. They reserved a spot for us in the garage. Even though it was our first day on the road, they let us wash clothes. They made us a wonderful homemade meal of fish and veggies.
We played Spades (both teams won one, but we were too tired for a rubber match). This was the first time playing cards in a while. It was good fun! A great stopping place. Thanks Jeff and Melissa for your wonderful hospitality!
I’m not sure how I do it, but God. I could stop there, actually. I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for God. He has given me the strength to continue to ride my 2019 Heritage Classic. I call her “Free.” I wrote a whole blog about this a couple of years ago.
We took a motorcycle trip a few months ago to Colorado but we had to cut it short, because, well, it wasn’t as much fun with the pandemic and frankly I got tired. I don’t think I ever wrote about that trip! It was a great trip with lots of sites, but the ride through the mountains was challenging. This time we decided to spread out the ride, with lots of rest in between, and avoid the mountains with all the clutching. We are heading to the Black Hills!
We’ve been planning a HOG ride to commemorate our 35th anniversary (which is coming up on Monday) because our trip to Alaska was cancelled by United. (Boo!) It’s a special year and deserves a special trip. (Any reason is a good one to jump on the bikes, right?) We were planning on leaving Tuesday, but there are two hurricanes happening in the Gulf.
Sooooo, we are leaving early tomorrow morning to beat the storm. That is, after we drive home from comedy driving school (another whole story) through horrible Houston traffic, pick up Tim’s bike (5,000 mile service), finish packing, keep our granddaughters for a couple of hours and overnight sleepover, then off we will go. Weather looks like it will be beautiful for the entire trip.
, it was, as many folks along the way commented, “a beautiful day for a ride!”
She ended up switching to our pilot car driver after the wait, of which we were thankful because the other driver was really slow.
We rode 436 miles today. 
. They were open at 100% capacity. We felt a sense of normalcy for the first time in days. The whole town did not appear to care about social distancing or wearing masks. In fact, much of Nebraska is that way. I guess when you live in a town of about 200 you don’t care about coronavirus coming to meet you. 
We walked around the Ord town square (the museum is closed this year – no help from Yelp on that one 
