It all started with pie.

[jar675]

It all started with the Hico pie run. I decided that I needed to get away from Houston and take a break from reality. The Destination was Mt. Rushmore.

I met the gang for the pie run in Navasota.

From there we headed to Hico.

We finished the day by wandering to Temple the long way. The end of day one somewhere around 440 miles

The next morning we all met for breakfast. The group was going to head east and I headed north.

I slabbed it from Temple to Kansas City. Not very exciting but I had loved ones waiting on me.

Leaving Texas and crossing the Red River.

Welcome to Oklahoma in there somewhere, I didn't want to stop. But I get better along the way.

Not a whole lot to see In Oklahoma.

Then there was the Welcome to Kansas Turnpike.

The sun was sitting on me and I was getting close.

My brother had a cookout so the family was there, I was in time for cold hamburgers and cake.
Day 2 650 something miles.

 

[ToroGuy]

Ok...you can't post this teaser and go away. Gotta have more ride report!!!

 

[Gilk51]

 

[shootergal]

Ohhhhh....this is gonna be good. I can tell! Keep 'em coming!

 

[jar675]

I made it in Sunday night. I spent a few days visiting with family friends and most of all my kids(Who were visiting also).

We Branded the wing.

Then we posed for the Camera.

Somewhere near Temple I picked this guy up off of the side of the road. I figured he was ready for the trip with his rain gear on and all.

Some old friends came by but only one road his bike. Of course Dad had to check it out. He is in the process of making it road worthy. Can anyone name the bike?

Later that evening we went for BBQ. The downtown skyline.

My original plan was to leave out Saturday the fifth and head north. Dad decided leaving on the fourth was a better idea. I was ready either way so the morning of the fourth we headed out. The bikes were packed and ready.

We geared up and left the house around six in the morning. (I like this flip up I can still smoke with my helmet on)

As we neared the mighty Mo. it was kinda spooky.

We headed north into Mo. and back into Kansas again. I almost got the sign coming back into Kansas.

We followed the Lewis and Clark trail for a bit.

I really didn't find any fun roads just allot of these.

Nebraska was not as bad as Oklahoma but we had somewhere to be and I only stopped for fuel and food. So somewhere into three hundred miles he suggested we swap for a bit. Fine by me I wanted to sit on the couch for a while.

I probably made it twenty miles before I was ready to get off the wing. It was just to hot for me. And another view of Nebraska.

So we pushed on into western Nebraska and finally got to a hotel. It was clean and cheap and suited us just fine.

After cleaning up we headed to the Family restaurant. We had dinner and called it a night.

The end of another five hundred plus day.

 

[jar675]

The beginning of day three. We headed back to the restaurant. Over breakfast we discussed the day. It looked as if we would have a easy day ahead of us.

We packed the bikes up and headed out.

We headed north into South Dakota.

We stopped to water the grass and stare at the prairie.

As we went north the roads became more interesting. The punishment of straight roads was finally starting to pay off.

We made it into Hot Springs I think. The blue buffalo stood out. We also stopped in front of a little waterfall and took a break.

And the little waterfall.

We headed in to Custer State park on some nice roads with large animals in the roadway!

As I rounded a turn I noticed a cool bridge between the branches.

And another bridge but this one was made of wood. One of many on the trip.

I saw quite a few of these signs.

The roads were just awesome!

I believe these guys have a bit more sense than the average deer. I never saw one on the roadside dead.

And then the donkey's. I had better words for the ones in the cars. But they must have been city folk and never seen a donkey.

I don't know what happened next other than the road turned and I didn't. I scrubbed enough speed off that when I hit the grass and low sided it didn't hurt. I had the bike up when dad showed up. He had a grin and asked if I was ok. I told him yeah I am fine and that's when he started laughing. He said he saw the cloud of dust and knew what happened. Needless to say I payed more attention to the road the rest of the trip. The frame slider did its job.

I pulled the grass out of the bike and continued on.

We also passed through a few of these. This one in particular one had the view of M.t Rushmore through it. My cheap camera just couldn't get the shot.

The road divided and became interesting.

The entrance to Mt. Rushmore! I was dissapointed at the $20 to park for both of us. We could have shared a parking spot but we didn't want to waste our ten dollars.

And the ride was worth it!!

We spent a couple of hours wandering around the place getting souvenirs and decided we needed lunch.

 

[tjbrandt50]

I believe these guys have a bit more sense than the average deer. I never saw one on the roadside dead.

I don't know how smart they are, but they're really fast. I used to encounter large herds of pronghorn in Wyoming and could pace them at over 4o mph for extended periods of time.

 

[Tracker]

Can anyone name the bike?

Honda TransAlp? Nice report, btw.

 

[Moose]

Keep her comming J

 

[donroger1]

 

[M38A1]

Bravo..... Nice report so far.

 

[ed29]

Nice trip report!

Some old friends came by but only one road his bike. Of course Dad had to check it out. He is in the process of making it road worthy. Can anyone name the bike?

Older KLX???

 

[jar675]

Older KLX???

That's it a 86 600cc. The predecessor to the KLR.

 

[jar675]

We decided to head back to Keystone for lunch. I followed dad to the German Cafe. Ordered lunch and decided that we should go to the Devils Tower. Our original plan was to ride the area and end up in Custer for the night. The route was very nice and quite a few nice photos

In Custer I picked the motel and it turned out to be $140 for the night . Dad decided that we should push to Wyoming and get a room there. So we pushed west to Wyoming.

We encountered allot of wild fire damage.

Then I noticed some bright weeds on the side of the road that would make a nice photo.

As it turned out He was allergic to Yellow Rod. At least that's what he called it.

We were getting close to Wyoming

And there it is. I said I get better at these sign pics.

The motel was nestled back in the trees. It had wildlife. And it was only $120 a night but at that point I didn't care and neither did he.

The end of day three mileage ??

The start of Day four

In the morning we headed north destination The Devils Tower.

I decided that if they need this drift fence that I wouldn't be visiting in the winter time! The more I saw the more it confirmed my thoughts.

The days destination from a distance.

And there it was. I was just amazed at the formation. We saw rock climbers half way up. The Indian legend of the tower was interesting. But some scientist had to put his .02 in and ruin it.

After the tower we decided to ride a loop that put us 30 miles from Montana and when I asked I received one of those your out of your mind looks! So we didn't hit Montana and saved it for another day.

Then we encountered this sign,

Turns out it was all cleaned up and not any delays. We made it through Spearfish and headed towards Deadwood.

Coming into deadwood.

We continued on to Crazy horse monument taking the two lanes as much as possible.

We didn't want to pay to park since it was already nearing dinner and I was getting hungry.

So the stop for the night would be Rapid City. This was a spectacular bridge the best of the trip!

We had weather move in during the night and I think the ole man was going to cry. The wing was going to sit out in the rain for the first time! But rest assured he was up in the morning drying it off.

The end of day four
Mileage ??

 

[Tracker]

great report. just curious, what would you say was the average cost you found on motels. I've been poking around in the net and it seems like even the basic, plain-jane chains are all $90+ now. I guess it's been awhile since I've stayed at motels very much.

 

[TxGL1500]

We were at Mt Rushmore the very end of July. The week of the start of the Sturgis Rally. The pics you posted were great! However you should have gone
into Crazyhorse and paid the parking. There is a restaurant there that had really very decent food and the prices were reasonable. There is a museum
there as well the we spent several hours looking at all the indian history, artifacts etc.
Was the ranger at Rushmore still working on the buffalo hide? While we were there they had a buffalo hide stretched out and a ranger was scrapping a layer of skin and dried fat off of it. Found it interesting the indians used every part of the buffalo. We did not get to go see several other places like Custer, Deadwood etc. So its going to be a return trip for us.