Rochester, MN

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Today was a moving day…a big time moving day. We were on the road at 6 AM and 56 degrees and did not land until almost 5 PM (with a time change of one hour). We did not visit anything or take many photos…if you have seen one corn field, you have seen them all.

First let me tell you about yesterday and last night. Have you ever heard of Sturgis? It is a small town off I-90 in South Dakota, just 30 minutes west of Rapid City. Every year they have a motorcycle rally that draws upwards of a million riders. It lasts for 10 days and in that time there are activities going on like concerts. There are 2-4 concerts each day for 10 days straight. Now Sturgis has a population of a whopping 7,000 residents. Where they put all of these people is a mystery to me. They come from all over the country. Some ride in and many ship their bikes in on trucks. When we drove through Sturgis yesterday, we saw staging areas where these trucks were unloading the bikes and we saw lots and lots of riders coming from both directions. The rally starts today, August 2^nd. It is no surprise that many stay in hotels in the surrounding area, like Rapid City, where we were staying last night. We saw many at our hotel. This is not the first time we cross paths with a motorcycle rally. A few years ago we ended up in the middle of one in Winnemucca, NV. And we discovered that they are mostly older people, not rabble rousers as one might think, and quiet right down by 8 PM. Last night was the same. They did not disturb us at all…well…lets get on to the rest of the story.

Knowing that we were leaving very early in the morning, we went to bed at 9 PM. At 12:15 the fire alarms went blazing and woke everyone up. We jumped out of bed and were throwing on some clothing and ready to run out the door when it stopped. So we went back to bed only to hear them go off again a few minutes later, only to stop again. Once we were sure there was no issue and we could hear people returning to their rooms, we went back to bed…but with all of that adrenalin in our blood streams, who could sleep, right? We found out in the morning that someone had pulled a fire alarm for no reason (there was no fire) and they were going to review the videos to find out who the culprit was. I was hoping to hear the cops in the hall putting hand cuffs on someone and towing them away. Was it a biker? Or a kid? Who knows. We will never know. But it did not prepare us well for today’s drive, as it took a long time to get back to sleep.

Now, I would like to compliment the hotel we were in, despite the untimely rousing. It was not their fault. Anyway, in the evening, Steve found out that the breakfast room does not open until 6:30 AM. We were planning a getaway at 6 AM. So he asked the desk clerk if they had a grab and go breakfast. They said no, but they would ask the food manager if he would let Steve into the room early to grab whatever might be out by then. So when Steve went down this morning to check out, he was planning to pick up a few items, if available, for the ride. When he got to the desk, the clerk said he had something for him. He went out back and brought out two bags of food…one for each of us. Each bag contained an apple, an orange, 2 hard boiled eggs, yogurt, a juice box, a bagel with cream cheese and a muffin. Call it breakfast. We made it breakfast AND lunch. We could not believe how accommodating they were for us. If you are ever in Rapid City, stay at the La Quinta on the east side just off I-90. They actually have an inside water park. And the price is reasonable.

So we were on the road at 6 AM and it was FOGGY to the nth degree. We drove the first hour in dense fog. And when that let up, the rains came. We drove for another hour through an absolute deluge of rain. It was hard to see the road, it was so bad. And the next hour was a steady rainfall. The system was moving eastward and we were right on the leading edge of it. We managed to get ahead of it, but had to work to stay there.

The rest of the ride was through miles and miles of corn fields, with a thick cloud ceiling above, so I did not take much for photos, today. We are now settled into our hotel in Rochester, MN and looking to put more miles on tomorrow as we make our way to South Bend, Indiana, with another time change.

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