Topic: 7000 mile, 21 state road trip (Read 8114 times)

howtodoit · « **on:** June 15, 2010, 03:13:56 PM »

Left the Phx Arizona area on May 23 traveled to Clovis NM, via I-10 and US 70, was a interesting ride across the White Sands Missile Range. From Clovis NM I went to Bartlesville, OK, via I-40, and US 60 mostly, was dodging storms from Amarillo, Tx east to Clinton, Ok. Thank HD for the weather bands, used them a lot. From Bartlesville I travel to Effingham, Ill. Used US 60, to MO 68 (68 was a great road going through the Ozark Nat'l Scenic Riverways, took it up to I-44 to I -70 over to Effingham to make up some time.
From Effingham I travel I70 to Terre Haute, Ind and then took Ind 46 to Ind 446 to 58 to 135, made a loop around the Brown County State park, great ride, lots of curves and rolling hills, narrow roads in places and you will meet an occasional piece of farm equipment, so keep your eyes open. End the day in Greenfield visiting a brother there, next day was up to Fort Wayne, Ind to visit another brother.
May 28th we left for Washington DC for Rolling Thunder, took 30 out of Indiana, and picked up I-70 for the most part across Ohio, Ohio was boring, things got more fun when we got into WV taking US 250 and 50, both fun roads, got a lot of rain in places. We were headed to our stay over in Hughesville, Maryland, so we took 50 on 495, it was about 11 pm when we got to 495, and at one point it was raining so hard that we could not see the lane markers, if one of the four bikes we were riding with went down we all would have, and then a 18 wheeler pulled up along side us, just dredging us with his wheel spray.
We finally arrived in Hughesville, a little water logged but other wise fine.
Did some sight seeing around the area, going down to Chesapeake Bay, sampling some great crab cakes, etc.

The ride from Washington DC HD to the Pentagon was very touching there were cars pulled off the side of the road, people out with flags waving and cheering as the several thousand bikes passed them. Rolling Thunder has to be experienced to realize what it is all about, it was awesome. In our group, all we vets, some Viet Nam vets, on lost his brother,so the meaning was special for all of us.
Return trip out of DC has us going down the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway for a ways, it was a great ride, but the roads leading to and from it and better, since the parkway has a 45 mph speed limit, and lots of "cages" to have to watch out for.We finally got one ^$ and headed over to US 60 in WV. We took 60 to 219 and took it south to US460, taking it through Virgina and into Kentucky. 460 through Ky is a must do road, it took us through some of the most beautiful horse country, the roadway was good with nice rolling hills, and everywhere you looked, looked like a picture out of a magazine.
We did a little back tracking here, going back to US 68 and taking it up to US 52/62, that runs along the Ohio River. A lot of the routes we took are in the HD Ride Atlas, and I can tell you that I was not disappointed in any of them. Returning to Indiana, we took Indiana 1 north. I stayed the night in Indiana, and headed out the next day for Milwaukee, with my brother in law, sister in law, and now my wife who flew back to Indiana to join me.

howtodoit · « **Reply #1 on:** June 15, 2010, 03:40:27 PM »

7000 mile trip continued
My brother in law I thought liked me, but he said he knew how to get us up through Chicago, and was going to take us on the lake Shore Drive, well if anyone ever wants you to take US 41 through Chicago, don't! We went through areas we should not have been in, and thee must have been 100 stop lights if there was one! Did get to see Solider Field though.
We finally got to Milwaukee and the HD museum, it was a great experience, lots of cool bikes, the people there were great, and the cafe serves great food. After Milwaukee, my wife and I departed west by ourselves, We took I 43 down to Beloit and then 81 and 11 across to Dubuque we then went up along the Mississippi River to La Crosse but did it one the Iowa side using Route 26. The Mississippi that far north sure looks different than it does further south. We then headed west to Sioux Falls, SD, pretty much hammering it down on I-90.
From Sioux Falls we went over to Sturgis, with a side trip through the Bad Lands National Park, they were repaving the roadway through the park, so thee were lots of construction zones, stopping, and lots of loose gravel.
I have been to Sturgis before for the rally, but Sturgis without the rally was like a ghost town, we went down to Deadwood and stayed the night.
Next day we headed down to Greeley Co. via US 385, 89, 18, and 85. Great ride out of South Dakota, across Wyoming, US85 is wide open, some construction but not much, and the road is in great shape, you can make some serious time, that is if the wind doesn't blow you off the bike, man there is nothing out there to stop the wind and it really rips across there. Antelope are everywhere, so you have to kind of watch for them.
We spent the night in Greeley and then head out to visit a friend in Avon, Co.US 6 west of Denver was a great little stretch of roadway, going through 6 different tunnels. We then jumped on I-70 and took it over to Avon. The Eisenhower Tunnel is pretty neat, about a mile long and at nearly 12000 feet elevation. From Avon we went down to Glenwood Springs, and took 82 to 133 to 92 to 50 and headed to Montrose where we picked up US 550 down to Durango. This is a great stretch of road way, scenery is great, high passes, still lots of snow on the mountains, the streams are all running, waterfalls everywhere, just a great road to ride. We spent the night in Farmington NM, the next day we headed back home, pretty much 491 to I-40 to US 191, down to Springerville, then 260 across the White Mountains, this too is a great ride, down to 73 over to US 60 and continued back to the valley of the sun, or the furnace as it is this time of the year. All in all a great ride!