MDA Poker Run

Signed in at City Cycle Sales in Junction City around 1115 for the MDA poker run. Kickstand was up at 1200 and after 120 miles and two stops we were at RC McGraws in Manhattan to determine the best poker hand. I was tied for second with three kings, so we had to draw to see who would be the winner of two $50 visa check cards. I let the lady go first, because I am like that, and had to beat a 7. I drew a 3 and that was that. The ride was great and the weather was fantastic.

Stockton Lake

We did it again and I survived! We spent the weekend camping at Stockton Lake in MO. Ryan and his brothers, dad and nephew fished like crazy all weekend. They had very few successes. Gab, the only girl fishing (hahaha) caught the biggest fish of the weekend. On Saturday we rented a pontoon boat and spent the day on the lake with the boys fishing and the girls laying on rafts floating around just relaxing. It was great to have nothing to do all weekend. I hate to admit it, but I had a blast and am looking forward to the trip next year!

Deployment Ceremony, OIF 7 (2009-2010)

On Thursday, August 13 the colors of the 4 IBCT cased their colors. They will be uncased once the brigade arrives in Iraq and sets up for the year ahead. Ryan and 1SG Mike Clauss lead B. Co. 4-1 BSTB.

AZ visit

Ryan, Eric and Alex went to Arizona to visit Grandma Bea and Aunt Deb on the weekend of August 8, 2009. Eric and Alex flew out of STL and Ryan from KC. They all met up in Denver for the trip to Phoenix where they rented a car and drove to Prescott. Over the weekend they ate (a lot), hiked, swan and visited with family. The trip was fast and fun.

...until the house is flooded

When Ryan and I left Mexico we spent the night in St. Louis and hung out with the family. On Saturday afternoon we arrived home to quite the surprise. First there were two huge limbs laying in the side yard. Ryan went to check on those while I went inside the house. I immediately heard running water. I though the ice maker was messed up. Then I looked to my right. There was standing water everywhere. Ryan came in pulled the refrigerator out and the water supply line was spraying water everywhere. He got that turned off while I went downstairs to assess the damage. I was shocked! I found water pouring from the ceiling, or what was left of it, standing water on the floor and the paint dripping off the walls. About this time Ryan came downstairs. Neither one of us knew where to begin with the cleanup and we were thinking of all the hard work to finish the basement the was literally washed away. SO...then we collected ourselves and called USAA. They are awesome!

Talked to the claim rep for about an hour and within two hours. There were two guys from ServiceMaster cleaning up the mess. The guy in charge, Roy, did a walk through and gave us the run down of what was damaged. As it turns out, it was even more of a disaster than first thought. Not only was the basement a loss, but the tile we did last summer on the main floor was a loss too. Apparently there is no way to dry the subfloor without removing the tile first. Because of all the work to be done Roy called in two more guys to help with the demo and drying process. From 2100 to 0110, there were four guys steadily working, drilling holes in drywall, ripping out carpet and padding, pulling down drywall, breaking up tile and backer board and setting up fans and dehumidifiers. The drying process, which sounds like a Chinook landing in the living room, will take 3-4 days. Tomorrow the adjuster comes out to begin to figure out the loss and get someone here to start rebuilding.

As best we can put together (with the help of Roy's assessment) about 5 days ago (while we were sipping drinks on the beach) the water began spewing out of the supply line. The water ran down the wall behind the fridge, all over the first floor and down the air conditioning ducts (which means those have to be inspected before we can turn on the a/c). The water pooled in the ceiling in the basement and it eventually fell in. The water continued to run until we turned it off yesterday. (I can only imagine what the water bill will be this month :) The water fiasco pictures pretty much tell the story. At this point we have no idea what will be a total loss and what can be salvaged. We'll keep you posted.

What a way to end vacation!

Mexico

For four wonderful days we laid on the beach, drank yummy tropical concoctions, and completely relaxed. The resort was fantastic; the food and service, too. The only disappointment was the beach. Out in front of the resort was a reef. The waves churned up all sorts of seaweed and ocean gunk. The water was also only knee deep as far out as we could walk. Instead of playing in the ocean we just headed to the pool to cool off. We are already planning our next trip!

There's no place like home

Today was all about the ride. We left North Platte, NE at 0900 and drove home. We got home around 1615. It was a great trip. We learned a few things; you have to ride a day and a half out of Kansas to see pretty scenery, your butt gets numb after 6 days on the bike and America IS beautiful. If you haven't taken a trip to the national parks I would suggest it.

This afternoon has been all about getting ready for Mexico. Ryan has done the yardwork and I've done laundry and repacked, although not nearly as efficiently this time!

Headed for home

Today was a day full of riding. We started the morning visiting Mt. Rushmore. It was beautiful to see and amazing to learn how they created it. Who knew 90% of the mountain was carved with dynamite? When we left Mt. Rushmore we took SD 16A. It was 15 miles of beautiful winding road through the Black Hills National Forest. The only thing that would have made it better was if the old man with handicap license plate would have pulled over at one of the many pull outs rather than going 10 mph on the road. After tooling around the Black Hills for a couple hours we started heading for home.

The rest of the day we spent driving for home. There is officially nothing in Nebraska. We took what the map called a scenic route. As you can see from the picture there wasn’t much scenery. To be completely fair there were some trees in some places along the road and we even saw some glimpses of the North Platte River and some plateau and cliffs.

We stopped for the night in North Platte, NE. Tomorrow finish the ride for home.

Delay after delay

We started the day with a short ride from Hardin, MT to Little Big Horn National Monument. After spending about an hour trying to figure out what Custer did wrong, we discovered that he was simply out numbered and underestimated the strength of the Indians.

When we left the battlefield traveling southeast on US212 we were simply trying to make good time to our next stop of Sturgis. Along the route we witnessed a car have an accident. The car was traveling toward us about a half mile away it made a quick turn to the right and then fishtailed into the ditch on the right side of the road crossing our lane. When we arrived on site some of the family was already out of the car. They had a right rear tire blow out. I am not sure how fast they were going at the time, but they are lucky they did not roll the car over. No body was hurt, but Sabrina called 911 to get some help to the scene. We waited around for about 45 minutes before a sheriff finally arrived. He did not need a statement from us, but we left our name and number with him in case the accident scene investigator had any questions for us. The family of four with two small children was South Koreans from Michigan.

We ran into more construction going into South Dakota and had to wait about 30 minutes for pilot car to take us through the 1 lane that was available. We stopped in Belle Fourche, SD to see the monument for the Geographic Center of the United States.

After lunch we were off to Sturgis. The 69th annual Black Hills Rally is less that a month away. We ran into a little rain through Rapid City on our way down to Keystone to stay for the night. We had a nice dinner and a couple of drinks at the Red Garter Saloon and listened to a couple of guys play some old country songs. We will hit Mount Rushmore that opens at 8 am and then start making our way back home.

On top of the world

Today we spent most of the day in Yellowstone. We started looking for info and ended up a junior ranger station. There we saw the first wildlife of the day. There was a bison just outside the window walking around eating grass like there weren’t 20 pairs of eyes staring at him and taking his picture. Unfortunately, I left the camera on the bike…dork! From there we went to Norris and on to Canyon Park to the Upper and Lower Falls. I took a million pictures. We had a picnic lunch in the park. Then we went to Tower Canyon where we took fewer pictures but it was still beautiful. Then we headed out of the park. We came upon a bison herd grazing and hanging out. We were able to see them really close up. We even got a picture of a baby bison. Ryan scared it when we crept passed. It darted off to finds its mom and tattle on us. It doesn’t sound like a long day, but we were in the park from 0900 to 1500. We should have scheduled two full days for the park because we only saw half of the park sites.

We left Yellowstone from the Northeast entrance on the Beartooth Highway. Just outside the park the road was all torn up. A guy we met yesterday, from Salt Lake City, who rides through the park often, told us there are two seasons, “winter and construction”. So we dealt with that and followed a lead vehicle for 5 miles until we got back to two lane pavement. The pass itself was certainly something to experience. It was a beautiful drive but a little scary. The road climbs to nearly 11000 feet between Wyoming and Montana. It took about at least an hour and a half to go 70 miles. There was a gentle (yet super windy and chilly) ascent to the top in Wyoming. Then the decent into Montana was rather rapid. The Beartooth Highways ends in Red Lodge, which is a tourist town that looks almost identical to West Yellowstone. If we weren’t trying to make time it would have been a perfect place to call it a day. However, we continued on 212 to Billings where we got on I-90 and came to Hardin for the night. From Billings to Hardin was all interstate and really boring. What was even worse was the wind was blowing like crazy.

Hardin is a two exit town, but there is nothing here, except Custer museums and the like. Tomorrow we are going to see Battle of Little Big Horn site, to Rapid City and Mount Rushmore. It is going to be a busy day.

Faithful Tetons

Yesterday we left Rock Springs early, around 0745. Our first stop of the day was a Kawasaki dealership in Rock Springs to get the front tire replaced. They were still closed for the holiday, so we rolled on. The ride north out of Rock Springs was beautiful, but mostly the same. It was green rolling hills. Sometimes the Hoback River was in view other times not. We could see the Tetons way off in the distance the whole ride. 75 miles outside of Rock Springs was a town of 1400 people. We stopped there to look for someplace to replace the tire. There was no one in town with the capability, but Ryan called Jackson and found a Harley dealership that was able to help. On to Jackson we rode.

In Jackson we stopped at the Harley shop got directions to a Yamaha dealer and got the tire repaired (see Quickie from yesterday for details). After a two hour delay and some lunch at a bagel shop (still not a replacement for Bagels & Java) we were back on the road with a much safer ride.

Jackson was a mad house. People were everywhere. We have decided that tourist towns are not high on our list of things to do. We did get pictures of the antler arches around City Park and off we rode.

Grand Teton National Park was a pretty ride. As we left GTNP on the way to Yellowstone (the two parks are connected on the road we were on) there was a ton of road construction which made for a slow and cautious ride. In Yellowstone we were pretty frustrated. Traffic was really slow due to road construction. Several times we stopped for 10+ minutes just to wait. It was only the south entrance that was undergoing construction so once we passed it; things were fine as far as the road is concerned. We met another rider as we entered Yellowstone and he commented on his riding in Alaska. He said “there are two seasons; winter and construction. It seams to apply here also.

We got to Old Faithful around 1930. As we were driving up we saw him going off in the distance over the trees. Then we waited with the throngs of other tourists for him to fire up again. So worth the wait! It was an amazing site. By this time it was 2015 and getting dark. We had thirty miles to go and it took almost an hour. As Dierks Bentley sings “people are crazy”. At any sign of wildlife people slam on their brakes in the middle of the road to take pictures. OK for a car, but on a bike not the best.

We had dinner at Bear claw BBQ in West Yellowstone, MT. It was tasty and went down nice with the beers.

The theme for yesterday was hurry up and wait and look out for crazies. We are off to Yellowstone again today then on to Hardin, MT for the night.

Quickie

The post detailing the trip from Steamboat Springs to Rock Springs was late. The Internet connectivity was nonexistent last night. I was finally able to update as we sit in the Yamaha dealership in Jackson Hole. And that's a whole different story...

The odd tire wear is due to improper tire inflation. Ryan runs the tires at 38psi. The manufacturer recommends 42. He read in a magazine that 42 makes the ride too stiff and that 38 works just fine. We have discovered that is not the case. The back tire is not too bad. We are going to increase to 42 and keep an eye it. The front tire would be fine on dry roads, but has enough wear that it would not be safe on wet roads that we are sure to encounter. It is currently being changed. We should be back on the road in about 45 minutes to an hour and the peace of mind will make the rest of the trip that much more enjoyable. The lesson learned is not to follow recommendations read in a magazine. Follow the manufacturer's recommendation in the owners manual.

We are still planning on going to West Yellowstone for the night, but we'll have a later day than we've had so far. Weather is still gorgeous and we'll update again later.

BFE. It's beautiful. You should visit.

Today we started in the ski town and summer home of rich kids spending daddy’s money, Steamboat Springs, CO. It was gorgeous there. We got a relatively late start today, not leaving the hotel around 0845. After 40 or so miles we stopped in Craig, CO to add cold weather gear. It was 45 degrees when we left Steamboat and were not fully prepared for 45 degrees going 70 mph. The disparity between Craig and Steamboat Spring is stark and startling. Steamboat brings in millions in tourists dollars, but only 40 miles to the west the town of Craig is ramshackle and nearly deserted. The people in the town were friendly though. At the gas station we met two guys from Birmingham who’d just picked up one of the brand new 2009 BMW motorcycles in Denver for one of the guys and were riding back to AL via Yellowstone. There was another guy on a big ole Hawg, who was local and very helpful with directions (even though we’ve had the route planned, had a map out and the Garmin was visible on the handle bars, nice guy all the same). Inside the gas station we had our first critter encounter of the day. Pipsqueak, a 12 week old Chihuahua, miniature dachshund mix was prancing around the store. (We were told that Teddy was the same mix, but in fact they are NOTHING alike). After gassing up we were off to Dinosaur National Monument.

Dinosaur National Monument is a random out of the way national park where all sorts of dinosaur fossils have been unearthed. From what we read, more intact and nicely preserved skeletons have been found there than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any of the bones. The dig site has been closed since 2006 and we were not up for a mile hike up the canyon (in full gear) to see the alternate sight with a few bones. Instead we took a two hour round trip ride on the same road to see several beautiful vistas. As you’ll see from the slideshow, I got a bit carried away taking pictures. The camera was strapped to my wrist so I felt inclined to snap away.

By the time we left DNM it was almost 1400 and we were starving. We got into Vernal, UT around 1430 and hoped to find a great mom and pop place for a great Sunday afternoon meal. Apparently, that’s not possible. No local restaurants were opened for business, so we had KFC and watched a thunderstorm roll through. From Vernal we turned north on 191 toward Flaming Gorge National Park.

Flaming Gorge National Park is a canyon of red rocks. There is a dam that made a 66 square mile, 438 feet deep lake. There are camping areas and trails all over the place. We passed many a ski boat and RV. Every ski boat we passed, Ryan would remind me that he wants a ski boat. (Maybe someday, but for now that is something I don’t want to deal with moving.) From Flaming Gorge we continued on to Wyoming. On the way out of the park we saw something I didn’t believe to exist. There on the side of the road was a 5’7” 145lb hairy beast known as Bigfoot. He was a lot smaller than I expected. We spend past him and continued on to Wyoming.

Wyoming is beautiful. However there were miles of nothing but high plains pastures. Most of the area we rode along 191 was open range, free stock land. Ryan had to slam on the brakes a couple times to avoid antelope. One was particularly close. The antelope was right on the side of the road. Instead of continuing on his merry way into the field, he dashed back across the road in front of us. My heart was beating fast. Ryan commented that he wouldn’t want to ride those roads at night. You might end up with 200 pounds of venison in your lap. After a short mileage day, but long touring day we stopped in Rock Springs, WY for the night. The city has 187,000 people or at least half the population of the state! We did a load of laundry at a Texaco truck stop (one of the downsides of packing light) and had dinner at a Taco Bell wannabe that was 100% better, than called it a night.

Check the slideshow for today’s pictures. Tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone, after a quick stop at a Kawasaki dealership to check some funny tire wear and a battery in the tire pressure sensor gauge.

Rocky Mountain High

Man! What a day. It started early. We were having Daylight Donuts at 0630. By 0715 we were on the road. Our first stop of the day was a Veterans Memorial in Yuma. We spotted it the previous night while we were walking to watch the fireworks. The oddest thing happened there. A crazy little deer dashed across the street and ran so close to us that we could have reached out and touched it. We were surprised, to say the very least. After leaving Yuma we set off west toward Rocky Mountain National Park. The first few hours were similar to the views in KS.

The first signs of beautiful scenery was along the road following the Big Thompson river. We were unable to stop for pictures due to the narrow road and heavy traffic. It only got better from there. In Estes Park, just outside RMNP we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had been in Estes Park for 61 years. The food was great.

As we entered the park we began climbing in elevation. I was cold. My teeth chattered ...a lot. Even with multiple layers and all the rain gear. The views were beautiful. Just look at the pictures. We also saw several packs (not full herds of moose [or maybe elk]). They just went about their business while dozens of people stopped to take their pictures. It was neat to see, but we did not stop for pictures because stopping on motorcycle with all the unpredictable traffic is asking for trouble. I'm hoping to get some wildlife photos in Yellowstone day after tomorrow. The only bad part of the day was the ride out of the park. They were doing road construction and the last 25 miles were loose gravel. To top it off it was raining and hailing and cold.

After leaving RMNP we had a bit of weather to ride through. The views were still gorgeous. The road out of the higher elevation of RMNP leading into Steamboat Springs had a lot of curves and would have been even better without the rain.

We stopped in Steamboat for the night. We pulled in about 1630, got cleaned up and took the free bus to the downtown area for a great dinner. We fully intended to stay for the rodeo and fireworks. Unfortunately, the rodeo was well underway before we were done with dinner and the fireworks were still two hours away. Since we saw fireworks last night in Yuma we decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow we are traveling from Steamboat Springs to Rock Spring, WY. We are taking a circuitous path through Utah and then into Wyoming. There are two random national parks we're planning to stop in and check out. Visit us again tomorrow for more pictures and news from the road.

And we're off!

We pulled out of the driveway at 0900 this morning. It was a surprisingly chilly start, but I am certainly not complaining. With all the hot weather we've had lately we could have been melting before we even left JC.

We headed north on US77 where we caught 82 up to US24. We altered the path a bit to avoid some rain that was on the KS/NE border. We continued west on 24 for a while passing by the world's largest ball of twine. I mentioned it in jest, but we saw it and have the pictures to prove it. After the twine we took 281 north to continue on 36 west (the original planned route). Kansas is pretty flat and boring. Early afternoon we found ourselves in Norton, KS where we had lunch at a mom & pop place called Town & Country. All the menu items were named for (what we assume were) their kids. For most of the rest of the ride we looked at corn fields and passed many a farm implements on the roadway. I always waved, just to be nice to the farmer; he could crush us with his big tractor-thingy!

About an hour before stopping for the night (at only 1600, because of time change) we snuck across the NE border via 27 and 34 into a very picturesque piece of Earth before heading into CO. In CO the landscape turned flat again. Tonight we are staying in Yuma, CO resting up for a ride through the Rockies and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Check the slide show for a few pictures from today. More to come...

Let's ride

We're all packed and ready to head off in the morning. Ryan has been tracking the weather and right now everything looks good.

Take a look at the luggage pics...can you believe I packed for 8 days in one little bag with all that room to spare?!

The pups were a bit unsure about what was going on and why I packed all their stuff!

Update

Last night Ryan and I sat down to do the final plan of the trip and we had to make some changes. We are eliminating the Glacier leg of the trip. I'm pretty bummed about it, but there just isn't enough time to do it all. We'll have to catch that when we head to Alaska (maybe!) after Ryan gets back from Iraq.

Itinerary

Our motorcycle trip is just about a week away and we can't wait. Current plans have us departing Junction City on July 3rd heading for Rocky Mountain National Park. We'll spend the holiday in the park looking for some Fourth of July celebrations. From Colorado we plan to go west to just across the Utah border, then turn north continuing into Wyoming where we'll visit Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. After spending the day with Old Faithful, the plan is to head northwest-ish to Glacier National Park. The Northern loop of our route will take us east out of Glacier, across Montana and into North Dakota. If time allows (or we feel like it) we may scoot over the border to Canada, just to say we did :-) In North Dakota, we plan to stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. (just can't pass up visiting any site of the President the puppy is named for). Then our route takes us to South Dakota to see the Badlands, Mount Rushmore and because we're on a motorcycle trip, Sturgis. From there we're making a mad dash across Nebraska and Iowa ending in St. Louis. From St. Louis we depart for Mexico on Sunday, July 12 for four days of beach time. We fly back to St. Louis on the 16th. After visiting the family and friends in St. Louis we'll head back home to Junction City on the 19th. Vacation will be over, (so sad) and the laundry and clean-up will begin. As we travel I plan to update nightly with the cool stuff we see, places we eaten and oddities of the road (to include pictures of me on the motorcycle-an oddity in and of itself).