A 4,000 mile Spyder ride tale in segments

[BamaJohn]

With a plan to ride “somewhere west of Wall Street”, My Spyder protested being loaded upon a trailer for the first and last legs of a 4,000+ ride.
It was a hot summer day when I headed to Springfield MO to meet up with my buddy Joe. Since I try not to do more than 300 miles a day riding, I trailered instead of riding to Springfield to save a night’s lodging going and coming, but the rest of the 4,000+ miles will be on 3 wheels.

Joe had just moved to Springfield, so we spent the next day catching up on events of the move and the list of projects Joe has in mind for the house. And a healthy list it was. I was glad it was HIS list and not mine!
I downloaded the routes we’d be taking from my GPS onto Joe’s GPS, but I later learned that Joe’s maps were not the same as my updated maps, so the routes were not the same (more on that later).

Today begins a 12 day journey that would take us from Missouri through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Kansas, and back to Missouri. Logging miles, we headed northward through Kansas City MO and over into Nebraska, overnighting in Lincoln…chosen only because it was 300 miles from Joe’s home. Our 2nd overnight was in Kadoka SD, for the same reason...it was around 300 miles from the first night’s stop.
When I was planning/plotting this trip, the timing of it put us right in the middle of tourist season in most of the areas we’d visit. We had reservations for the Spyder event at Deadwood, in Red Lodge, and in Yellowstone. No winging it on lodging this trip.
Our plan had us arriving Deadwood on the 4th riding day, via a tour through The Badlands and the requisite visit to Wall Drugs in Wall, SD.
The Badlands seem to be an arid, scarred land with little signs of life or foliage, but Native Americans take issue with the term “Badlands”, feeling that no land is bad, it’s all good. It seems that we’re all realizing that more and more.
It’s only a short hop over to Wall SD, where we overnighted our 3rd night.

[Calimusjohn]

Ah!
Thanks, Bamajohn.

I had something enjoyable to read with my first cup of coffee this morning. I'm looking forward to reading ensuring segments.

[BamaJohn]

Back to our different GPS maps: I try to have the latest version of Garmin maps on my Zumo at all times, because two GPS’s with different version maps can cause discrepancies, confusion, and grouchiness. Since Joe was covered up with buying/selling houses and moving to Springfield, I had made all the routes in Garmin Basecamp, but never checked to see if Joe’s maps were up to date…Hint #1.
The second hint is a conversation we had prior to leaving:
1. I would lead, since I had made the routes and had a general knowledge of where we were going;
2. We agreed riding at “speed limit +5”, and our helmet comms would allow us to stay in touch, and we would keep within sight of each other.
And so it was that we departed. Within the first hour, I noticed that Joe was dropping back more and more, so I asked if he was ok, and he said he was ok. A bit later, I couldn’t see Joe and couldn’t get him to answer on his helmet comms. Not wanting to think the worst, I slowed down a lot…but no Joe, so I pulled over and sat, hoping he’d show up rather than being transported to a hospital. (did I mention that it was July and HOT?)
Joe finally came into view, so I pulled out onto the highway and asked him if he was ok. He said his gps told him to turn off, so he did, but couldn’t find me! I suggested again that he should stay in sight of me at all times, so that we could both make the same mistake or not. Then, I committed the sin of reminding him that we agreed that 5 over the speed limit was ok. He said “I just like to take it easy and see what’s around me”. I had to bite my tongue! We were on MO13, a 4 lane major highway, just burning up miles to get to the sightseeing areas! This was to become the new normal.

By the time we got to The Badlands, I’d learned that the leader of this ride doesn’t get to set the pace, it’s set by the guy who doesn’t want to lead. And so it was for the duration of this 12 day ride. Did it sour things? Not at all, once I learned how to forget everything I’d learned about group riding courtesy and adopt this new normal. We got back home still speaking to each other.

[blacklightning]

By the time we got to The Badlands, I’d learned that the leader of this ride doesn’t get to set the pace, it’s set by the guy who doesn’t want to lead. And so it was for the duration of this 12 day ride. Did it sour things? Not at all, once I learned how to forget everything I’d learned about group riding courtesy and adopt this new normal. We got back home still speaking to each other.

I feel you on that "leader doesn't set the pace" thing. I have 2 great guys that I ride with. They both always want me to lead. But one of them always seem to drop back a bit too far. It usually isn't a problem, but sometimes it does cause the person behind him to get caught by the occasional stop light. I often ask is my pace ok, and always get that it is fine. The funny thing is that whenever he does lead, instead of the 5-10 over that I go, he will go a 10-15 over. Still wouldn't give them up for anything. I will continue to follow your ride.

[RayBJ]

"Water seeks it's own level" comes to mind. From a larger group of riders, I found 5 other riders with my mindset/risk tolerance. We stopped riding in parades that made crossing highways a *****Show.

We have gone on several 3-7 day loops and 2 13 day loops with everyone still speaking at the end.

[rjinaz86323]

I do 1-2 trips a year with a group of friends (other trips are with the wife). We know where we are stopping for the night so everyone gets to ride at their own pace. I am more of a sightseer, while a couple of the guys like more of an adrenaline rush. This has only caused a problem once in several years. One of the guys (always the slowest in the group) got lost, and it took a while to find him. We also start out with the idea of 5 over, but sometimes that seems to change for a couple of them...

[BamaJohn]

3rd segment:
In South Dakota, the speed limit on I-90 is 85mph, so I decided to see what number my loaded down Spyder could show on the speedometer. Choosing a flat area with a long line of sight, I hammered down. At 105mph she was slow to gain speed, so I backed off. Considering my large carcass, and the load of gear on the bike, I’m thinking around 110-115 would be max for this Spyder…which I’ll not be doing, it was just a test. Now, back to riding at Joe’s pace of 70 in an 80 zone.

No more drama as we eased through The Black Hills National Forest to Deadwood, where the “Dead Man’s Hand” (aces and 8’s) became famous. Neither Joe nor I were interested in poker, so we checked into the casino hotel. The Devil’s Tower & The Needles Hwy were calling us.

Highway 87, best-known as “Needles Highway”, is fabulous! It’s not to be missed if you get to that area! (See video herein). Insert needles video
Full of sensory overload, Mount Rushmore was next.
If you like twisty roads with tunnels that open to a distant view of Mount Rushmore, 16A is your road, riding from south to north.
Remember that this is July. And South Dakota weather in July might conjure up some excitement. About 5 miles out of Mount Rushmore we got hit with a hailstorm! The marble-sized ice pellets felt like cannon balls! With no cover in sight, we could only pull over and hunker down until the pelting stopped. Another 2 miles, and Mother Nature decided that we’d not yet paid our penance, so more hail!
We got to the hotel wet and a little bruised, but no real damage. A bit of scotch and a hand-rolled cigar smoothed out the day.

The next day was a northwest loop into Wyoming to “The Devil’s Tower”.
The Devil’s Tower (technically named “Devil’s National Monument”, is known to us luddites mostly from its role in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.
The oldest rocks found at the Devil’s National Monument were deposited in a shallow inland sea 225 to 195 million years ago, but Scientists are still arguing over how the Tower was formed. Insert photo of the tower
Somehow, a LOT of other travelers found out that we were coming and met us there.
So far today, we’d avoided Mother Nature’s Ire.

The loop was completed by heading Eastward over to Spearfish SD, and back down to Deadwood to our hotel. But Mother Nature blessed us once again with a hailstorm, only this time we had just made it back to the hotel as it hit. We dared NOT thumb our noses at Her, ‘cause we had a LOT of miles to go on roads less traveled.

[BamaJohn]

4th segment:

The next segment of our ride included Cody, Wyoming; Red Lodge, Montana and; and Yellowstone National Park via some world-famous roads.

Cody WY was our next staging point, and It’s a long day in the saddle from Deadwood to Cody.

After settling in at our room, we were hungry for a decent meal, and learned that the world-famous Irma Hotel had a prime rib all-you-can-eat special…plus, we could see the street fight shoot-out after dinner! Yep, we went straight to the Irma Hotel. A couple of prime ribs and the fixn’s topped us up for tomorrow’s travels on some of America’s most-scenic roads!

The next day would be a sensory overload ride, taking the Chief Joseph Highway (296) over to Hwy 212 Northward (known world-wide as “The Beartooth Hwy”), ending the day at Red Lodge MT, where we’d overnight. It was a good thing that we had a short day, ‘cause I’m guessing we stopped at every scenic vista. Life is good!
Even in July snow is still piled up and surviving where it hides in the shade.
Beartooth Pass elevation is 10,947’, so pack layers to keep you warm, because the wind can blow cold and hard.
We were both enjoying the natural high from the altitude and vista-overload, so an early toast to life, and a quick dinner finished us off, and sleep came easily.

The end-point of this segment is Yellowstone National Park. So far, every place we’ve ridden has been a first-time for Joe, and he was hankering to see some wildlife.
Entering the Park from the NE, it’s a bit of a ride at 30 mph getting to our lodging for the next 2 nights at “Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lodge”, and Joe saw so many bison that I heard him say “oh, it’s just more bison”…I chuckled within my helmet. Now the search is for Elk.
Once again, all of America knew we were coming and met us there!

We visited Old Faithful the next day, then rode counter-clockwise, stopping at various time-bomb pools of various colors, consistencies, & poisonous smoke…but no Elk for Joe.
Yellowstone is a two-sided beauty, and I kept wondering when it will explode.

At the cabin in Yellowstone is where I dumped my riding boots in the trash can…the soles were flopping loose and embarrassing Joe.

[BamaJohn]

Final Segment:
After Yellowstone, the ride took us southward to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park in particular.

The punishing winds of Wyoming kicked our butts for the next two days, but Colorado invited us back home and into Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. Earlier, I’d mentioned that Joe had a hankering to see Elk, and Estes Park is known for a large Elk population. When I lived in the Denver area, I rode up to Estes Park fairly often and always saw Elk wandering around, but not today. Joe kept asking “where are the Elk you promised?”.

You might have noticed that there isn’t much drama reported on this ride. Well, up to this point, there wasn’t much. But when we dismounted after arriving at the hotel in Estes Park, I happened to notice that Joe’s rear tire was worn out!
With both of us on our cell phones searching for a dealer to help us, we found one in Denver who (a) had a tire in stock, and (b) could replace Joe’s tire the next day.
Our last day in Colorado was spent getting Joe’s rear tire replaced, but we were thankful to get it done. A good night’s rest and then it will be time to head East toward Joe’s home in Springfield, MO. To me, the last leg of a long trip is the worst. Like old horses heading for the barn…head down and running, heading for home.

If you’ve ever ridden across Kansas after a jaunt through the areas we had just traveled, you know that Kansas is a place to make up miles quickly on 2 or 3 wheels. And so it was that we rode 2 days back-to-back 400 miles each day to get to Springfield.
I needed the next day to recuperate, then loaded up my Spyder and drove back to Sweet Home Alabama and The Treehouse.
AHHHHHHHHHH, my own bed!

[ARtraveler]

3rd segment:
In South Dakota, the speed limit on I-90 is 85mph, so I decided to see what number my loaded down Spyder could show on the speedometer. Choosing a flat area with a long line of sight, I hammered down. At 105mph she was slow to gain speed, so I backed off. Considering my large carcass, and the load of gear on the bike, I’m thinking around 110-115 would be max for this Spyder…which I’ll not be doing, it was just a test. Now, back to riding at Joe’s pace of 70 in an 80 zone.

No more drama as we eased through The Black Hills National Forest to Deadwood, where the “Dead Man’s Hand” (aces and 8’s) became famous. Neither Joe nor I were interested in poker, so we checked into the casino hotel. The Devil’s Tower & The Needles Hwy were calling us.

Highway 87, best-known as “Needles Highway”, is fabulous! It’s not to be missed if you get to that area! (See video herein). Insert needles video
Full of sensory overload, Mount Rushmore was next.
If you like twisty roads with tunnels that open to a distant view of Mount Rushmore, 16A is your road, riding from south to north.
Remember that this is July. And South Dakota weather in July might conjure up some excitement. About 5 miles out of Mount Rushmore we got hit with a hailstorm! The marble-sized ice pellets felt like cannon balls! With no cover in sight, we could only pull over and hunker down until the pelting stopped. Another 2 miles, and Mother Nature decided that we’d not yet paid our penance, so more hail!
We got to the hotel wet and a little bruised, but no real damage. A bit of scotch and a hand-rolled cigar smoothed out the day.

The next day was a northwest loop into Wyoming to “The Devil’s Tower”.
The Devil’s Tower (technically named “Devil’s National Monument”, is known to us luddites mostly from its role in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.
The oldest rocks found at the Devil’s National Monument were deposited in a shallow inland sea 225 to 195 million years ago, but Scientists are still arguing over how the Tower was formed. Insert photo of the tower
Somehow, a LOT of other travelers found out that we were coming and met us there.
So far today, we’d avoided Mother Nature’s Ire.

The loop was completed by heading Eastward over to Spearfish SD, and back down to Deadwood to our hotel. But Mother Nature blessed us once again with a hailstorm, only this time we had just made it back to the hotel as it hit. We dared NOT thumb our noses at Her, ‘cause we had a LOT of miles to go on roads less traveled.

This used to be a yearly ride for me and spouse. We lived in MN and WI at the times. Thanks for some memories.