First, I want everyone to know that my sore butt came from riding 4800 miles, NOT from passing out backstage at a gay rights benefit ballet! You guys on the left coast.............
Well. we made it back home yesterday. Came back three days early due to the heat. We only had two days that the high temp was below 90 degrees. The day we rode thru Cody WY on Hwy. 14 to the Bighorn Hational Forest the high was 110. My bike and wife both started to revolt that day! I took JCZ's advice and drank lots of Gatorade.
We had very little rain. Going out we rode about 15 minutes in a light rain in Kansas and coming home about one hour near St. Louis. Blue skys the rest of the time! No high head or cross winds when coming accross the plains!
Besides the heat, it was a great trip!
The things I enjoy about a cross country bike trip is the adventure, the people you meet and the diverse country side around every turn! If you haven't done a cross country bike trip, you need to plan one. When You make a trip in a car and stop for gas you're lucky if anyone even speaks to you! When you're on a bike, there's always someone who want's to know about your bike, where you're from or where you're going!
Only saw four Sceamin' Eagle bikes, One V-Rod, three SEEG's. Three recieved FLHRSEI.ORG business cards. Fourth was going too fast for me to catch him!
My 03 Ultra did great! The only problems was when we started up the Bighorn mountains on the 110 degree day it ran hot. Had to let it cool down about every thirty minutes until we made it to higher altitudes and lower temps. On the way home the spline on my front shift lever stripped out. Took it off and put the rear lever in its place. Worked fine.
Traffic and road conditions, for the most part, was good. Getting thru St. Louis was slow, but not too bad. The last time I rode From St. Louis to Kansas City (about 250 miles), it took 12 hours due to road construction! When we came out the northeast gate of Yellowstone on Hwy 212, we had to ride on about 15 miles on dirt/gravel road. Most of it was packed pretty good except for about a three miles. Made the bike skate around. Felt like two flat tires. All you can do is keep your speed steady and your feet down.
We rode thru a lot of beautiful country! Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the highways in and around Jackson Hole, Teaton National Park, Yellowstone, all in Wyoming, and the Black Hills in South Dakota. My favorite road was one that someone on the site recommended, Cheif Joseph Scenic Highway (Hwy 296). It runs from Hwy 212 (near the northeast gate at Yellowstone to Hwy 14 near Cody, WY. Great bike road. Lots of long sweeping turns and lots of 15 mph switch backs, and of course, lots of scenery! The day we were on this road Iron Horse Magizine was having their annual poker run from Red Lodge Montana to Cooke City Wyoming. I've never seen that many bikes on a poker run! We were traveling the oppisite way from the bikes on the run. Two of their stops was on Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy. There was at least 200 bikes at each stop! We must have pased at least a 1000 bikes heading in the other direction. I felt sorry for those guys riding fat tire custom bikes! No way they were going to make it up the section of Hwy 212 that was dirt and gravel. Then again, maybe if you're from that part of the country, you're use to riding that kind of road.
The best thing that I brought with me on the trip (besides my Wife) was the Garmin 2620 Street PIlot GPS. It's nice to ride thirteen days and never have to unfold a map!
When I got home yeasterday, I was beat. Told by wife I was gettin' too old for that kind of trip and that would probably be my last one! Well, after getting about 12 hours sleep and writing this post I'm sure I'll do it again. After all, the memories are what it's all about!
Hmm, I do have two more weeks vacation. How about a fall trip to Key West or New Orleans?
I've got a lot of pic's to post. Will do that later.
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Topic: Mid West trip (Read 6525 times)