Sunday, April 24, 2011

CFO, Day 6. 9-15-08 Home!

We made it the rest of the way home today. That was 6 days, and 1934 miles. A great way to spend a long weekend!

CFO, Day 5. 9-14-08, Sun.

At 6:58 A.M. on Sunday morning it was a frosty 30 degrees. I didn't reset the clock from central time.

John and I waited for the sun to warm things up a bit before we packed our bikes. We watched as other people loaded up and headed out. When we finaly did pack up, we took a loop through Custer State Park. Lots of wildlife!
When the sun did come out and warm things up a bit, the weather was beautiful! Road signs like this make the trip all worth while!!
After riding through Custer S.P., John and I went to Deadwood to meet up with his wife, Wendi, and her friend. They were in the Black Hills on a girls only vacation. At dinner time we all met up at the Millstone restaurant in Rapid City. In the group picture it's, Me, Lee, Gabi, Theresa, John, and Wendi.
After dinner John and I took off down Hwy 90 and made it as far as Kimball, SD before we decided to stop pushing our luck with the dark. I had only the dark face shield with me and didn't want to smack another antelope or a deer.

CFO, Day 4. 9-13-08, Sat.

Another group ride day. This time the group went on a loop to Devils Tower. Up 385 to Lead, over to Spearfish Canyon, up the canyon, through Spearfish, up 85 to Belle Fourche with a quick stop at Wyatt's Hideaway Campground to see Kent and Marta, the owners. Then it was out 34 to Aladin, to Hulett, to Devils Tower. At Devils Tower, I bought a fleece vest. The weather was very cool for September. From Devils Tower we headed down to Sundance and stopped for gas and a pop. In the picture that I took at that stop, I see gas was 3.75 a gallon! From Sundance we went down 585 to Four Corners, 85 to Newcastle, then 16 back to Custer. Once we got back to the motel we lined all the bikes up for a few group pictures. Then it was time for dinner and prizes.

The gas stop in Sundance. Bill, John, Marsha and Dale. Not sure where Fred is.

The group at Devils Tower.

The group bike shot in the parking lot of the Bavarian Inn.

I won this banner at the dinner!

CFO, Day 3. 9-12-08, Fri.

A group of us took a day trip from Custer. We went up 89, down the Needles Hwy, up 16A Iron Mountain Rd into Keystone, then 323 Old Hill City Rd to Hill City, 17 through Rochford up to Lead and Deadwood, to Sturgis on 14A, and down Vanocker Canyon, through Nemo, to Johnson Siding, to Lake Pactola, then down to Hill City, and back to Custer. We hit a little off-and-on rain throughout the day. It made the gravel road on the way to Rochford fun.

Marsha taking Dales picture.
Marsha, John, Dale and Fred.

One of the many tunnels through the rock.

The view of Mount Rushmore from an overlook on 16A.

CFO, Day 2. 9-11-08, Thurs.

We left the KOA and took Hwy 90 all the way to Rapid City. The weather was kind of gray and gloomy. Most of the day looked like this.


From Rapid City we continued to Hill City and stopped for lunch at Subway. After lunch we went to Custer and checked into the Bavarian Inn. We hung around outside and watched the others arrive. Someone brought a huge Yamaha banner and hung it from the stairs. Most everyone spent the rest of the day socializing.

CFO-2008 Day 1. 9-10-08, Wed.

This is day one of my trip to the CFO-2008 (Central FJR Owners rally 2008) in Custer, South Dakota. It's my second trip to SD for the year, and my second CFO. I left home about 11:45 and met John about an hour later at a small parking lot at the intersection of Hwy 19 and CR 86 in Rice County, MN. We took 19 west to Marshall, MN. From Marshall, we took Hwy 23 down to Pipestone, MN, then 30/34 thru Madison, SD to Mitchell, SD. We stopped for the night at the Mitchell KOA and rented a camper cabin.


After we checked in to the KOA, we took off for downtown Mitchell to find food. We ended up at Chef Louie's Steak House. It was a very nice place with great food. We both had the full rack of bbq spare rib dinner, complete with potato, salad, and bread. The bill came to less than $15.00 each.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

8-13-08 Day 8.... Back Home from Sturgis.

Wednesday, the 13th. This picture says it all.


A pretty uneventful day. Grand Forks to home by way of Climax, MN. We had to stop to get a picture of the sign.


Total miles = 2606

8-12-08 Day 7

Tuesday, the 12th. John and I packed the bikes, had breakfast at Hardee's and started out. We stopped 2 miles later at the air museum at the north end of the Minot airport. The museum had lots of old airplanes and displays. They are working on putting together a WWII vintage P-40 Warhawk.


There was a 9 cylinder radial engine on the floor in the back room, right next to a JATO unit (jet assisted take off).


Outside of the museum were a few planes.

In another area of the museum they had a dozen or so beautiful 30's to 60's vintage small planes. All in flying condition.
After the museum, we continued north and east. We headed for the International Peace Garden just north of Dunseith, ND. It lays on the border of the U.S. and Canada and covers over 2300 acres. It was interesting, but I've lived in MN and WI all my life so I've seen lots of trees and lakes before. Also, my maps showed it as being in ND, but we had to go past a U.S. Customs building to get into the garden. Not a problem, but I wasn't expecting to have to stop back at the U.S. Customs building and have to prove my citizenship status to get back in to the USA. We never went past the Canadian Customs building that was maybe 100 feet down the road. Call me dumb, but a sign telling the U.S. citizens that are visiting the Peace Garden, that they're actually leaving the U.S., and should have a passport, even though they never passed the Canadian Customs building, would be nice.



The garden has a display of steel from the World Trade Centers in NY.


Also on the grounds was a North American Game Warden Museum. It was full of interesting animal mounts taken from poachers. Each display also had the story of how the animal was confiscated.
We made it as far as Grand Forks, ND.

8-11-08 Day 6

Monday, the 11th. After things dried out in the morning, we headed north. We stopped in Regent, ND for a break and ice cream. Regent is the start of the Enchanted Highway. It runs north from Regent, up to Gladstone, near I-94. Along that stretch of highway there are huge metal sculptures every few miles.


The legs of the Pheasants are tall enough to stand under and still have 2-3 feet of headroom to the body.
We drove across the earthen dam on Audubon Lake and continued north on hwy 83 to Minot. We spent the night at the Travel Lodge Motel in Minot.

8-10-08 Day 5

Sunday, the 10th. We didn't do too much that day. Garth packed up and left for home. The campground really had emptied out.


We had a nice heavy rain shower in the afternoon. I got to take a 2-3 hour nap in the tent. The rain made the trails in the campground kind of muddy.


The rain let up around dinner time, so John and I went to the American West Restaurant in Belle Fourche and I had the beef tips, MMMM! I've said it before, their Rancher Plate Beef Tips are worth the 675 mile ride from WI to Belle Fourche.

8-9-08 Day 4

Saturday, the 9th. Lyle, Carl, Larrie and Julie packed up and left in the morning. It's just me, John and Garth left. We met up with Lee and Gabi and their friends Ruben and Christy at the DQ in Hill City. We went on a group ride through the hills. On the Needles Hwy, we had to stop to let a small herd of Bison cross the road. The Bison were along the shoulder licking the gravel.


We continued the ride and stopped in Keystone just as it started to rain. We endend up at a Mexican restaurant called Arriba. By the time we were done with dinner, the rain had stopped, so we headed for Box Elder. In box Elder, I broke off from the group and went back to Wyatt's Hideaway. John and Garth stayed in Box Elder for a few hours, then came back to camp.

8-8-08 Day 3

Friday, the 8th. John and I took a long 300 mile drive that took us down to Edgemont SD. We stopped and checked out the museum in town. They had a pair of old 105mm guns out front.


We also rode the old section of hwy 18 between Edgemont and Minnekahta Junction. We stopped in Custer and I made reservations for September at the hotel that will host the CFO again. From Custer it was on through Hill City and past Sheridan Lake. We made it to Lee and Gabi's house in Box Elder for a BBQ. We were joined by Lyle, Carl and Garth. We carved the date into the top of their picnic table.

John, carving the table.

The view from Lee and Gabi's back deck. That's Bear Butte in the distance. 27 miles away.

We made it back to to camp after sun down.

8-7-08 Day 2

Thursday the 7th. "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same!"


We all had breakfast at the VFW, then everyone did a little collectable memorabilia shopping.  Everyone went for a short walk up and down Lazelle Street. I was shopping with John. After our brief shopping trip, we walked back to the bikes and found that ALL the others had left without us....
We went back to camp and hung around for a while, thinking that the others would come back and we'd go for a ride. No one came back...


So John and I decided to go on a ride through the Black Hills. We stopped at the Lake Pactola Reservoir. The lake has come up a lot this year, compared to where it was last year.


Ever feel Shunned???