The most famous palace made of Maze. Bought a few trinkets and caramel corn (yummy). Tried a new way to upload the photos so there are a lot of them (but no commentary). [View Full Entry]

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Here are some photos of the drive from Mitchell, SD to the Bad Lands. We did this on the 4th of July. It was a short drive... only 200 miles or so. Met some nice folks from Minnesota and Wisconsin and helped a stranded driver from Nebraska. [View Full Entry]

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We did some touring, hiking, a trip to the famous Wall Drug Store. We also met some nice folks from other parts of the country. [View Full Entry]

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After a long day of driving we made it to the KOA in Mitchell, SD. Along the way we passed through Iowa and Minnesota. The number of NY drivers went down significantly. Noreen drove more than Tom today. [View Full Entry]

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Visted the southern section of Badlands. Beautiful desolute country. The visitor center was laid back and helpful. I was directed to the local college to view a visual and audio presentation of Wounded Knee. It was a sad but well presented story. What a contrast to my time a few days earlier at Mt. Rushmore. One sight invoking chest-swelling pride, followed with a sight revealing shame and sorrow. What an opportunity to see both sides of America. Keeps one well balanced. [View Full Entry]

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T-minus 3 days and not holding! I've had my Goldwing loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded, making small changes to weight, what I can take and/or leave behind...even driving around the area to get used to the extra weight and feel of the bike. All in all with my weight, gear and bike, I come in over 1000 lbs...not too bad for a 30 day outing! JoLynn and I made a short trip to Spearfish this past weekend to visit my parents before I depart on Saturday and to spend some time together. The Black Hills of South Dakota are [View Full Entry]

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June 24, 2008 We rode the motorcycle today to Mount Rushmore and through both the Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park. WOW!! Oh man, where to start . . .??? Well let's see we saw buffalo, deer (lot's and lot's of them), elk, rabbits, eagles, turkeys, wild burros and, prairie dogs; drove for miles through pristine alpine meadows, 7,000 foot high mountain passes, switchbacks, pigtail roadways that circled back under themselves . . .several times, narrow tunnels carved from soild, sheer rock walls and overlooks that were really hard to walk away from. All I can say is the [View Full Entry]

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Badlands National Park South Dakota We slept in this morning not getting up until 6am. The hotel serves a continental breakfast (I've never figured that term out) which was ok. The weather was threatening thunderstorms with large hail for later in the day so we decided to drive the truck instead of riding the bike. We could have ridden the bike. Weather was great. Tomorrow we ride, rain or shine, actually it is supposed to be beautiful. Fifty miles east of our hotel is Wall, South Dakota, home of the world famous Wall Drug Store. The town of Wall (population 818) [View Full Entry]

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I was way too tired to update in St Louis. The trip to St. Louis was pretty uneventful until I got there. Tennessee and Kentucky looked the same but I finally got to stop and visit in Paducah! The town has really preserved their historic area so I took a lot of pictures. I kept going on my way through Illinois and saw some really odd road signs and construction zones. I got to St. Louis around Sunset and parked in the self park of what I thought was my Hilton Hotel. I grabbed my junk and went inside only to [View Full Entry]

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South Dakota today. The prairies really are unending. Two scenic overlooks in 450 miles and the views were spectacular, one particularly awesome. Again the weather was spectacular; 77 to 80 degrees but with the windows opened and no air conditioner ruunning, we were very comfortable. The air here is really clean and, well . . . sweet. And the wind blows almost constantly. We lunched at a road side rest area comfortably in a constant light breeze. The ranches are huge and the grain silos and hay bales are everywhere. The cattle are the healthiest looking beef and dairy cattle that [View Full Entry]

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