SW Adventure

[Lapchik]

Heading out Monday May 18th. Follow along if you like.
https://maps.findmespot.com/s/DS28#history/assets

I will do text updates along the way, but I probably won't do pictures until I get back home because trying to do html coding on a cell phone is a real pain.

[Lapchik]

Monday, May 18, 2026 (585 miles)

The Honda had exactly 42,000 miles on the odometer as I pulled it out of the garage today. It was at 41,999 the last time I pulled into the parking lot, so I had done 8 big donuts in front of the garage to roll it over. After starting the day with a 40 mile drive to drop the kids off at their mom's house, I swapped the grey mobility blob for the freedom machine and headed south like an overly excitable dog that had just slipped its collar. I left with a gray sky above, wet road below, hazy horizon ahead, and in every other direction was a Canadian goose, hissing and honking at any vehicle that dared to drive to near its freshly hatched goslings. Unfortunately, the weather never improved. It was 55° when I left the Minnesota lakes, it drizzled and rained off and on through South Dakota and Nebraska, and it was 41° as I finished riding through the sand hills pulled into the hotel in North Platte.

[Lapchik]

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 (626 miles)
Today was another day mostly dedicated to getting farther south, but I did do a little sightseeing. If you are ever in St Francis Kansas, stop in at the motorcycle museum and ask Lyle about his Maico dirt bike and the collection of trophies surrounding it. I stopped at a couple tri-point markers today, and mount sunflower which is the highest point in kansas. A couple minutes after I got there, some people showed up and they told me they were revisiting the place where their wedding proposal happened 35 years ago. After that, I went through the Kansas Badlands, which to be honest, was less impressive than I thought it would be. It is interesting in that it is so incongruous with everything around it for quite a distance. After leaving that area, it was flatlands all the way to Boise City Oklahoma. It seemed like every town I went through had a town on the left, comprised of mostly abandoned buildings or buildings that should be abandoned, co-op silos on the right, and an oddly well-kept cemetery. There must have been a dozen of those towns. When I got to the hotel, a pair pulled up on motorcycles as I was unloading. The lady turned out to be an anthropology professor from chicago, riding back home after transversing most of route 66. She and her riding companion had just come up through Las Cruces and Taos, NM. She was also on a CB500X Honda, but one version older than mine.

[Lapchik]

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 (614 miles)
I started the day with a bit of a downer. Black Mesa Oklahoma was closed due to a fire. Honestly I'm not sure if I wanted to walk nine miles anyway, and I'm only upset about the trail being closed because of how boring the drive is to get there if I ever decide to try again. The Alpine Hot shot crew said the fire should be out but they are going to be monitoring it all day as the wind comes up. The guy I was talking to said no one on their crew would care if I climbed it, but that they also wouldn't go out of their way to save my dumb a** if I did it. Without a concrete answer on is the fire out from the hotshot crew, and the Oklahoma parks department saying the trail is closed, I just checked out the dinosaur prints in the creek bed nearby and grabbed a Tri-State marker before continuing on my way south. I got both CO NM OK and NM OK TX tri-point markers today. At first I thought Oklahoma had the worst unsealed roads I had ever driven on, but then Texas made itself known. Just fast enough to click into second gear, with ruts ranging from a little tickle on the suspension to full on ski moguls, it was the worst washboard road I've ever seen. I just plodded along for 5 miles rather than backtracking 10 and finding a paved route around it. As a reward for that punishment, the road pastbboys ranch was newly paved and just curvy enough to keep your attention but not so much so that it took serious effort. That didn't last long, and it was like I was in the Oklahoma panhandle or southwest Kansas again. Flat. Dusty. Cows. As I got further into new mexico, the plants became stranger, like I drove into a Dr Seuss book. Sure, it's normal for the locals, but it's pretty wild stuff to me. Since I had nearly half a day freed up by the black Mesa fire, I decided to go farther along my route then I had planned. I'm very glad I had that extra time, because Amarillo Texas and Clovis New Mexico are not towns that I would want to have to spend the night in. Speaking of which, $20 to spray paint a Cadillac half buried in a field? No thanks. I drove to Roswell and took a drive-thru tour of downtown. There's no shortage of gift shops all selling the same alien stuff. Since it was only 4:00, I decided to keep going. When I got to artesia, I needed to head west, but there was a considerable storm cell that direction. I made a big loop through that town as well, trying to decide on Carlsbad, adding about a hundred miles to my route and probably taking up half the day tomorrow, we're heading over the mountains. When there was a break in the storm, I took off for Alamogordo. The flatlands started to undulate, the yucca plants went from little bushes to being 6 ft tall, and the incredible smell of the desert after rain greeted me as did the flowering cacti. That didn't last for too long, as the elevation read out on the GPS started to shoot up. I stopped at about 5800 ft to loosen all of my sealed containers. You have a stack of Pringles explode in your saddle bag once on Pikes Peak and you don't let it happen again. I probably should have stayed there for a while and made myself one of my little dehydrated camp meals, because when I got to cloudcroft, I found the air to be far too thin. I stopped by the train trestle to catch my breath a bit, and then headed down the mountain to lush thick air below. The view just after the tunnel between cloudcroft and Alamogordo is pretty incredible. So is the difference in weather. Uphill side it was just above 50° and sprinkling rain, and a couple turns after the tunnel it was at least 20° warmer and sunny. It's the first time I've felt too warm on this entire trip so far. I wandered through Alamogordo and picked the hotel near some nice restaurants, where I made up for my previous couple days of gas station warming tray food by having calamari and chicken scallopini. I'm wishfully hoping that my ever reddening face is a result of wind burn, but I have the data to suggest that I am not applying sunscreen frequently enough and am going to have to find some aloe tomorrow morning.

[Lapchik]

Thursday, May 21, 2026 (415 miles)
On my way out of Alamogordo, I saw a business called Kory's used cars. It is the first time I've ever seen my name spelled correctly on a public sign. It's a pretty short drive from town to the White sands national Park, and I didn't have any wait time to get in. I drove all the way to the back of the park, and climbed a dune. It is eerily quiet there. All I can hear were people talking, and they had to be at least half a mile away speaking in normal conversation tones. When I went to the bottom of the dune by my motorcycle, it was the most quiet place I have ever been in nature. Not a bird, bug, passing vehicle, or even a breath of wind to Russell what very little vegetation there was in the area. I could hear my own heartbeat, which is really something when usually the best I can hope for is my baseline tinnitus. When I came out of the gift shop, a Blackhawk was landing just past the forestry service building. It took off again shortly after, and arced over the parking lot. There were also a couple jets that took off from holloman Air Force base, and took hard turns towards the White sands missile range. If you want to go, get there right as it opens. The sun bouncing off that white gypsum sand can be pretty forceful, and it heats up pretty fast out there. Also, all the tourists seem to show up at about 10:30. When I left, the line was about two dozen cars deep. After leaving, I went to Las Cruces to get a grand tour picture and see the Rio grande. When I was at the city park, I talked to a local and asked where the river water was. That was a mistake. I believe I found the local wandering mental health case, because he went on an epic tirade about how all the pecan farmers north of town suck up every drop of water (which is true to a certain extent) and nothing ever makes it to town, and suggested he had something for them that they could also suck on. I went up the two-lane road to Hatch instead of using the interstate. I don't really enjoy super spicy food, but I know a few guys at work that do so I grab some hot sauce. Also on that road, I found part of the Rio grande that actually had water. I took a break underneath the radium springs bridge, when the sun was being oppressive. After that I went North up to Truth or consequences, and had lunch at the State Park below the dam. The next stop was the very large array, a radio telescope that has been used for seti (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and as a backdrop in the movie Contact. It's a long ways out of the way to get to that, but it's a sort of Mecca for nerds. While I was there they changed the orientation of the array, but I don't know what they were looking at or if they were just doing maintenance. I continued Westward to arizona, but found that Alpine had no available rooms. That turned out to be just fine, as I found a nice enough bed and breakfast in Reserve, New Mexico. The road from Alpine to reserve is a minimally challenging mountain road that was a really nice drive. Probably not quite as nice as Arizona 191, which is what I will be doing first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast.

[Lapchik]

I promise I'll come back and fix spelling and put proper paragraphs on these posts when I add the pictures.

Friday, May 22, 2026 (350 miles)
A short day for me, but I wanted to get to Phoenix (and before rush hour traffic) so I could spend some time visiting my aunt. I started the day by returning to Alpine arizona, and then heading south on 191. This incredible road has to be one of the best ones to take a motorcycle on in the entire country. This time of year there is hardly anyone there, and if you start in the morning the weather isn't too bad. It was 60° up in the mountains, and 85° in the desert. I started up in the mountains at over 7,000 ft. It is a very technical road with lots of twists and turns and elevation changes. I rode aggressively, but certainly nowhere near as hard as I could go. There are plenty of decreasing radius turns on crests and 15 mile an hour hairpins. I used the entire back tire, and in a couple spots a little bit of the sidewall. No chicken strips on this bike. The surroundings change from mountains and pine trees to high desert, and it ends down in the desert valley at just under 3000 ft as it spits you out into an active copper mine in the town of Morenci. If you're in the area, beware of blasting. They announce it with several loud horn blasts before setting off the charges. There is a scenic overlook where you can watch the gigantic trucks hauling copper ore, so far below you they look like Tonka trucks. While 191 is a full width two lane road, there are almost no guardrails and the pavement is not always the best. The momentary lapse of concentration or a misjudged corner could result in a thousand foot drop off of a cliff. After this extreme workout of a road, I rode up to globe Arizona and fueled up before heading west on Apache trail. Roosevelt dam recreation area is a sparkling blue Jewel in the red and tan desert, and it's somewhat difficult to leave behind as you turn down a newly black topped slightly too narrow road. The heat of the day is really beginning to make itself known, but fortunately the two vehicles in front of me turned off in one of the first few recreation area pull-offs. I had a free road in front of me nearly all the way to tortilla flat. There was just one vehicle that I had to pass, and luckily it was on one of the very few straight open stretches. There is a pretty significant section of gravel (8 miles or so, I was too distracted to remember exactly), and if it isn't constant washboards it is a rocky and potholed mess. The pavement begins again near tortilla flat, which is where all the tourists from the Phoenix side go to. They rarely go past that, probably because of the gravel. A lot of that unpaved section is a single lane wide, with very few turnout spots. The pounding gravel followed by new blacker than black scorching pavement and the Friday afternoon tourists moving at half the speed of smell begin to test my patience. The temperature had risen to around 95°, and I needed some air movement. I drove about 6 mi at 10 to 20 miles an hour, and finally found an opportunity to pass. I went around four vehicles in one shot, and finally had a clear road ahead of me for quite a while. The next car saw me come up behind them and moved over, which I thank them for as I passed. The one after that couldn't stay in their lane, and it didn't have the courtesy or common sense to move out of the way. I was stuck behind them for a bit but also found a chance to pass on one of the extremely rare sections where you can see ahead. Much like 191 earlier in the day, Apache trail does not have many guardrails and severe consequences for misjudging corners. What makes it more dangerous is the fact that it is mostly less than two lanes wide, and on occasion barely a single Lane wide. There are also lots of people who do not drive as a hobby on this road, unaware of their lane positioning and frequently crossing into oncoming traffic, even on the marked two lane portions. On 60 across phoenix, a large roll of pink insulation fell off a vehicle about a quarter mile in front of me, and a few vehicles hit it, turning it into a cotton candy colored interstate free for all. People started whipping across lanes and slamming on their brakes. Luckily I just had to slow down enough to let one person by and I shot over into the HOV lane, just in time to miss the worst of it. People had little bits of pink fluff coming out from under their vehicles for the next several miles. I took the wrong road and ended up going through downtown Gilbert, but traffic was moving well enough that I didn't overheat myself too badly. Most of the businesses downtown also have evaporative cooling water spraying from their eaves, which even helps poor motorcyclists sitting at the lights. I got to my aunt's house very sweaty but in one piece, got a shower and a good meal, and visited for the rest of the night.[php]

[DownUnder]

Spelling is not a problem, but I find the lack of paragraphs makes it difficult to read. I just "cut and paste" your text into Notepad and add a line break every 2 or 3 sentences. eassiee peassie.

It sounds like you are having a great ride.

[Lapchik]

(05-23-2026 03:38 PM)DownUnder Wrote:  Spelling is not a problem, but I find the lack of paragraphs makes it difficult to read. I just "cut and paste" your text into Notepad and add a line break every 2 or 3 sentences. eassiee peassie.

It sounds like you are having a great ride.

Yeah, when I go back through and add pictures I'll split up the text.

[Lapchik]

I didn't double check speech to text, but here's today:

Saturday, May 23, 2026 (540 miles)

Yesterday I saw the high altitude pine forest Arizona and the valley of Phoenix, and today I saw more sides of the state. I left my aunt's house in Gilbert and rode North to Montezuma's Castle. The line was out to the parking lot, so I skipped that. In Winslow, there was a line around the block to stand on the corner, and I don't really like to eagles, so I just drove by that. There weren't many crowds at Barringer Crater, but $32 admission is a pretty hard pill to swallow. It seems worth it if you take your time and their little museum, and go on the guided tour which is included, but I had researched the area before I got there and I just wanted to see the big hole in the ground. Next was sedona, which would be a wonderful place if it wasn't packed completely full of people. I prefer 89A from the cliff town of Jerome down to Prescott rather than the northern portion. Less people, faster roads. Well not as technical as 191 is in the northeast corner of the state, it is still a very intense road with amazing views. As you continue, the Red cliffs of Sedona turn into the big boulder mountains of Peeples Valley between Wilhoit and Yarnell. This is also where the Granite Mountain Hot shots memorial highway is. I had seen the movie before planning this trip, but I did not remember the location until my aunt mentioned that I would be driving right through it. It was getting late in the day, but I wanted to make it to Kingman. On day three I got to smell the desert after a rain shower, and today I got to watch the sunset over the desert. Both are incredible experiences that everyone should have on their bucket list. Coming into kingman, I was a little disappointed that most of the signs were turned off. I expected more kitschy route 66 stuff, but perhaps it's hiding in another part of town. It certainly isn't where I ended up. The first four hotels I stopped at had no vacancy, but the fifth time was the charm. They must roll the streets up at 8:00 p.m., because hardly anything was open for food. The nearby Mexican restaurant was packed, so I tried Sonic for the first time. It's fine. It's food. I was hoping for a neon lit route 66 town, but got crusty diesel soaked highway interchange instead. Not even that could ruin the wonderful ride I had through the many different biomes of Arizona today.

[theemightyorbit]

Kory,

I recall Williams having pretty nice restored lit-up neon at night.

Regarding the AZ sunset, yeah...



I'm enjoying your ride reports.

Thanks for sharing.

[Lapchik]

Sunday, May 24, 2026 (forgot to get miles, but somewhere just north of 500)
The day didn't exactly start well, waking up at 1:00 a.m. in the middle of a panic attack. Not sure how that happens when you're asleep, but that's a fun new side of my anxiety. I got my breathing under control, and drink some water to settle my stomach. About 5:00 a.m. all the desert people were up and active, so I didn't get very solid sleep. I took off through Kingman, but didn't want to wait in line for the route 66 archway, so I just took a picture at a sign in the park. I got a little bit of route 66 done on this tour at least. I do have a small Oklahoma route 66 trip, three or four days, planned for later this year as well.

I continued down route 66 to oatman, and I was a little concerned at first that I had picked a bad section. Outside of Kingman it is straight and mostly flat, and very boring. That changes pretty drastically, as the old road narrows and then gets thrown up and down the mountains. While I was happy to see the road change into something worthwhile, I am feeling the effects of a week on the road. My hands and calf muscles are pretty shot, as is my neck. I also have a pretty deep cut on the end of my left middle finger which makes every clutch pull a happy little stinging reminder. The last three days I have had some motion sickness at night as well. I'm actually looking forward to the long straight stretches tomorrow into Nevada to help reduce that motion sickness.

After you get through the town of oatman, the road straightens out. There are also donkeys wandering around, which I stopped to feed. Similar to the begging burrows in Custer State Park of South dakota, they love produce and Ritz crackers. Apparently sour cream and onion Pringles are on the approved list also, because that's all I had with me at the time and they went after it. The big one didn't want to stick around long, but there was also a really little guy who let me pet him.

Next I did some different sightseeing. I went to lake Havasu. Lots of interesting boats that we don't get much of back in Minnesota. They are all painted in garish colors and pulled almost exclusively by lifted trucks with really poorly fitting aftermarket rims. There are also side by sides everywhere.

For some stark contrast, I next went to slab City and salvation mountain. I climbed up to the top and made a quick loop around the other art projects on display, but didn't spend too much time as the 95° heat was only combated by the breeze generated by moving. I rode back to East Jesus to see some of the sculptures and art, but didn't stop to look. I just kept rolling, and then rolled right back out of there. I didn't ever feel unsafe, but exploring back there didn't feel right either.

I made a loop around the Salton Sea, and saw some of the defunct resorts along the west side of the lake. Had a gas station near mecca, I got to feel like a celebrity for 5 minutes. I have a license plate frame that has my YouTube channel on it, and some random guy had seen me before back when I had my crf250l. We talked for a while, and then I continued Northeast to Joshua tree. I didn't have the mental or physical energy left to get off the bike and wander around in the rocks, which I probably would have only done at one or two points of interest anyway. I rode through the entire park in one shot and only stopped at the North end to take a picture of the sign. I did take several video clips with my 360 camera as well. The plan for today had been to also do Mojave and end up in either primm or Las Vegas, but I was so tired and sore that I stopped for the day in 29 palms at the El Rancho Dolores Motel.

[Lapchik]

Monday, May 25th, 2026 (forgot to check mileage, 540 something I think.)

I didn't get a really early start, but earlier than usual for me. I thought Mojave preserve would be full of people like Joshua tree, but it turned out to be the opposite. Hardly anyone was in mojave. Had I known that I could see Joshua trees, little scurrying lizards, and the amazing valleys surrounded by mountains there, without the tourists stopping to take pictures of every rock, I would have completely skipped Joshua tree.

I was worried about traffic in Las vegas, but I was going the wrong direction for traffic. Headed in, I barely had to wait behind anyone at a stoplight. Leaving Vegas today, towards California, at the end of a holiday weekend, would have been a nightmare. I noticed the traffic picked up significantly at the California Port of entry choke point. It was unmanned, but you still have to slow down and go through the stalls. Westbound traffic on the interstate was about 30 to 40 miles an hour from there all the way to Las vegas. That's nearly 50 miles. I drove right down Las Vegas boulevard with light easy traffic past the MGM grand, the Luxor, the flamingo, Bellagio, and the horrific circus circus. If hell is real and they custom tailor tortures to you, I'll just be stuck in circus circus with no way out. I'm not a gambler, so the only money Vegas got out of me was about $40 for a shirt, candy bar, and a couple gallons of gas. I could maybe see going back in the future for a show or two, maybe eat somewhere fancy, but the entire town just seems like a cheap amusement park surrounded by a great big sketchy neighborhood. Well, nearly surrounded. All the traffic coming to and from Los Angeles doesn't go through that part of town.

After filling in that checkbox on my big list of places to say I've been to, I went North to the extraterrestrial highway, the teapot Arch (where I met some dirt bike guys), and then over towards Utah. I have another big list of places I'm trying to get to, but this one specific to the Johnny Cash I've been everywhere song. There's a landlocked lighthouse in cedar City, and I missed my exit on the interstate so I just held up my grand tour flag and let my 360 camera take some video. When I get home, I'll have to go back through the footage and take a screen capture. From there, I swung through Zion national park. Not sure if it was a fluke or what, but no one was stationed at either entrance gate. I drove in, drove through, and had a wonderful sunset cruise. After that I flew down the hill to Kanab where I got the nicest $90 hotel room imaginable. The last couple rooms I got at that price were a little on the crusty side, but this is one of the nicest hotel rooms I've stayed in, ever. I think memorial Day marks the end of the season for a lot of the places with desert climates. I got the kids a couple little trinkets at the gift shops while I was waiting for a table at the rocking v cafe, which had a wonderful waitress and really good food.

[Lapchik]

Tuesday May 26, 2026 (forgot to get the mileage again today, but something like 530)

After fueling up on the same continental breakfast available at any mid-range hotel in the United States, I headed out for Page Arizona. I was prepared for heat, but none was to be had today. It only got up to 70°, and it rained off and on the entire way over to four corners and up to Delta colorado. For a little while near Ouray, CO the rain turned into snowflakes.

The first stop of the day was horseshoe bend, which was more of a hike than I was expecting it to be. Well, a long walk anyway. Not much fun when your legs are already screaming from day eight on the road and averaging over 500 miles a day. I think I learned "motorcycle rider" in at least three different languages: Chinese, French, and possibly Hindi. I wore my aerostich as I walked the path, and I only knew how to respond in french. Well, if they were Canadian French it made sense. If they were France French I probably said a bunch of nonsense.

After the bend, I went through monument valley. I got a picture at Forrest Gump point. It was fun to see all the different deserts on this trip, and I realize that my childhood education with roadrunners and coyotes was very inaccurate. The cartoon uses the landscape of Utah, and the plant life of central Arizona. You can find coyotes and in a lot of those areas, and I only saw a roadrunner in New Mexico.

I had to navigate around a little road construction, but I had almost 40 miles of brand new blacktop on my way to four corners. As you approach the monument, the landscape looks like an endless sea of dead dry dirt, that even the hardiest of brush rarely attempts life upon. Between that dull brown expanse and the road, the ditches glittered with sunlight reflecting off of thousands upon thousands of smashed bottles and sun bleached aluminum cans. Every few miles there is a brightly colored sign for a candidate in the Navajo Nation presidential election. $10 entry fee and only a couple minutes of waiting in line, and I have my four corners picture. I walked past a dozen booths all selling genuine native Navajo made jewelry, but I have never been a jewelry person. There was one guy selling T-shirts, and I got myself one of those.

Next up was the moki dugway. The paved road is smooth and wonderful, but the instant it turns to gravel it is absolutely awful. The washboards are so bad your choices are first gear just fast enough to stay upright, or click it up a gear and ride precariously close to the cliff edge. If you try and accelerate in second gear on the washboards, all it does is bounce your suspension around and send your back end sliding. Lots of first gear hairpin turns. I made it to the top, place to go cash, and then headed back down. Similar issues with the washboards, with your options being crawl over them or carry a little speed to float over them and hope your abs doesn't fight you so bad that you go shooting off a corner. A quick stop for the Mexican hat rock, and then I was headed up into colorado.

I rode US550 from Durango through Silverton and Ouray all the way up to Delta. It's a neat road with some good mountain and waterfall views, but I don't think it's one of the ultimate motorcycle roads as some people claim. I've seen the final destination movies, so I had all the patience in the world while waiting for the logging trucks to reach a pull-off to let the tail back drive past.

[Lapchik]

Wednesday May 27th 2026 (515 miles)
I started today in a more bright, vivid,"colorful Colorado" has all the state line signs say. I took off from Delta on us 50, which runs on top of the river canyon until you get to Blue Mesa dam. Then it switches to running in the canyon next to the river. I enjoyed us 50 more than us 550 because the views are just as good, the pavement is better, and the traffic is insignificant. Sure 550 has a few waterfalls and a really narrow cliff road, but the stress level on 50 is a lot less.

Eventually you get spit back out into the same sort of cattle rangeland that you were on near Delta before the canyon. Continuing east, the color faded away and the rain began again. As I was crossing the summit of monarch pass at 11,312 feet, I got a few snowflakes. I started to miss hot Southeast California, 11,600 ft lower than where I was at the moment (yes, slab City area in California is 300 ft below sea level). I took a small detour up to the Midland tunnels, which would barely be worth the detour during nice weather.

I continued on to canon City, where the rain finally dried up for a little while. I took the skyline drive, a less than one lane wide road in some spots along the ridge on the west side of town. As I was going down the back side, there was a large group of what I assume are some sort of paleontologist or nature students looking at the rocks.

I went over to pueblo, and then up to Colorado springs. I needed to get a grand tour picture at Santa's workshop. I also found out that you now need a reservation to drive up Pikes peak. Not sure if that seasonal, or if that's at any point in time now. Either way, I've already been to garden of the gods and up Pikes peak so I skipped them on this trip. It is also started raining again. I continued up the mountains, to areas that were on fire the last time I visited. I continued plodding along through fly fishing country, until I couldn't stand the 50° rain anymore. I headed over to the western suburbs of denver, and then road North until I got sick of it. At least those roads were dry, and 10° warmer.

I ended up in Loveland, and I went to the Mexican restaurant next to the hotel for a hot meal. I had the three enchilada platter at a restaurant called 3 margaritas. Which also sounded tempting, but I settled for a single tecate.

[Lapchik]

Thursday May 28th, 2026 (514 miles)
I had a decision to make this morning. My original plan was to continue to Cody today, Chief Joseph and Beartooth highway to hardin and Custer's last battlefield tomorrow, and then home on saturday. I don't think I have that much left in me for this trip. The last couple days when I wake up, my hands and ankles are stiff and hurt to the point where they don't really work without some stretching and effort. I know arthritis runs in the family, and I don't think it's that, but it could be an early indicator. Instead of two more days of cold mountain riding, I decided to head for the Black hills and see the Sturgis museum and then head home from there on Friday.

Nearly 300 miles of mostly straight road later, and one request to make a mandatory donation of $205 to the state of Wyoming for the privilege of speeding, I arrived in the black hills. This is my family's place to go on vacation, anytime we were not in okoboji anyway. I have been to the Black hills 12 times in 36 years. I have seen pretty much every time tested attraction and monument at this point, and I really couldn't care less about whatever hot new restaurant is the flavor of the season this year. Two things that I have not seen are the Roosevelt friendship tower, and the Sturgis motorcycle museum. I went to the museum first, and it's honestly a letdown for how important Sturgis is to the motorcycling community. The little St Francis Kansas museum from day two had more bikes generally and more rare bikes. The now closed anamosa Iowa museum also put the Sturgis museum to shame. After that, I went up the nice gravel road to the Roosevelt Tower trailhead. As you walk up, the trail to the left is the shorter path, and the one to the right is a little bit of a scenic walk. I took one up and one on the way back. Something to watch out for inside the tower is that all the steps seem to be a different height and it throws you off a bit. It's definitely a less traveled area, but I like the view at the Coolidge lookout tower in Custer State Park a little better. Both are wonderful places to get away from the crowds though.

I took a different road back down from Roosevelt tower, which was a horrendous mistake. There is free dispersed camping along the way if you are into that, but don't take a street bike down that road. Mount Roosevelt road and Denver avenue are not maintained, full of washboards and golf ball to football sized rocks, and have several small washouts. Or at least they do at the moment. One good rain storm and that road could be completely different. I am glad I have a skid plate, because it saved the oil pan on my bike at least three times on that road alone.

Not wanting to torture my shoulders or hands any more than that unfortunate mistake did, I started heading towards rapid City. I didn't want to deal with traffic, so I took Nemo road instead of 385. Nemo is a very gentle, easy road with nice but not drastic scenery. It also doesn't really go to or from anywhere other than a couple small resorts and wonderland cave, so the traffic is very light if there is any at all.

In the northeast corner of rapid city, I was going to get something to eat and get a hotel for a long night's sleep before the 550 mile ride home, but the hotels are ridiculous. If you have multiple (more than 10) reviews that mention bed bugs and you still feel like you can charge over $200 a night, I guess I'm not as dumb as they need me to be. I can't believe people keep staying there.

I got on the interstate, and was immediately greeted by that good old South Dakota wind. My cb500x Honda remained wide open from rapid City all the way to kadoka, except for the times when I had to let up to shift down into 5th gear. It was all this bike could do to maintain 65 to 75 mph against that neck wrenching wind.

I drove right by the badlands, having been there so many times, and also drove right past Wall because their rooms are still $100 more than they should be. Wall drug is interesting, but it loses its luster after a couple visits. I stopped in kadoka where the hotel price finally dipped under a hundred bucks a night. I'm staying at Grandpa Joe's place. The hotel, as I don't have any Grandpa's left. I got a complimentary water and a free seed company hat as I was checked in by the nicest lady.

[Lapchik]

Friday May 29, 2026 (453 miles)
Today I knew I'd be home, but I had that South Dakota wind to deal with first. Wide open throttle, getting just 70-80 mph. I avoided the reservations, since my experiences have ranged from unpleasant to life threatening on them. I criss crossed the old deadwood/black and yellow trail, and saw a herd of buffalo. They had calves, and quite a number of white buffalo as well. I stopped at South shore for a quick break, and got a phone call from my dad. "Mom hit something in a construction zone on the way to get your kids and the car is messed up. She can't explain what's going on, and I'm 3.5 hours away. How close are you to DeGraff?"

Luckily I was only 80 miles out, instead of in East Montana as I had originally routed. I called Mom and then headed towards her. When I pulled up, she was under the car pulling rocks out of the guards. She had followed the GPS around some construction, and hit a pile of milled asphalt when returning to the pavement. It did a number on the plastic covers, but didn't hurt anything mechanically. The brakes had some rock in the dust guards, but we got most of it out. I had her start driving, and while going around a corner two rocks bounced out from under the car. One hit my right leg and one hit my face, and the car quit squealing.

We picked up my kids and made it the last twenty miles home. Tomorrow I'll have brakes and suspension to check in detail, and rocks to remove, but we're all where we need to be now.

[Lapchik]

Unsorted and unorganized photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/j5x3Ba38atmp5qXq7

[Lapchik]

6256 miles in 12 days

[theemightyorbit]

Pretty cool, Kory!

A lot of the west is a whole lot of empty.

Then you'll find some really cool stuff.

Like a cotton field.

You had a heck of an adventure, that's for sure!