For many people, the trek to Sturgis, South Dakota still holds great anticipation. For my group of friends the 1200 mile journey is something to endure before we can enjoy the amazing beauty of the Black Hills area. I’ve probably been there half a dozen times. I find it most enjoyable outside the dates considered the “official” rally dates. With that in mind, I put together a “route” that should take 4 days to get to the area, stay 7 days, then pack up all the good memories and head back to the ranch. The math is pretty easy. 4 days – 1200 miles should be a relatively sedate 300 miles a day to reach our goal. What got in to me I’m not sure. I created a path that took us to Newton, Iowa on the first day. Our starting point was breakfast. More specifically Cracker Barrel Breakfast in Crawfordsville, Indiana. According to the planning software I use, Crawfordsville is 86.1 miles from my front door. We were to meet up at 9:30. If you’re not from Indiana, you may not know that Indianapolis is the orange barrel capital of the midwest. Traffic is usually heavy but when the DOT shuts down half of the highway system, it gets really crazy. I rolled into the parking lot of said restaurant exactly 86.2 miles from home. Chalk one up to the planning software and my trusty motorcycle.

Not surprisingly, we were all right on time for breakfast. I wanted to capture the momentous occasion by getting our group’s picture taken. We should have stepped away from the window while our helpful server pressed the button. At least no one will recognize us when they use this picture to hang in the post office.

Traveling with this group is such great fun and really easy. We’re always on time, especially when food is involved.

I discovered that I had put together the route consisting of mostly riding on the interstate highway system through Indiana and Illinois. That’s not my favorite way to move around. Couple that with the fact that the end point was 509 miles from my front door. Ugh!

OK – lots of interstate miles but at least it wasn’t raining. Oops! Now it’s raining. Half way a cross Illinois, the thunder started followed by liquid sunshine. Out came the dreaded rubber suits. These are a real joy when the temp is in the mid 80’s (temps in degrees Fahrenheit). It can be kind of humorous watching badly out of shape me try to put on the necessary sauna suit while being careful not to sit down on anything wet or hot-enough-to-melt-plastic suits.

I tried to get the guys to sing “Gray Skies are Gonna Clear Up – Put on a Happy Face”. I couldn’t convince them we could become a famous singing group. Maybe they didn’t believe the gray skies were actually going to clear up. Onward and upward.

As usually happens, the rainsuits worked their magic and within 3 to 5 miles the rain stopped and we were stuck wearing a portable steam bath for the next couple of hours.

There wasn’t a lot of excitement today – a couple of gas stops and a slight detour on some country roads (the sign said there was gas 2 miles down that road – I suspect that it was an old sign). My GPS isn’t working and for a gadget guy like me that is a real issue. Fortunately, 2 of the guys had working electronics and we safely (and sweaty) pulled in to our Newton, Iowa hotel.

Dinner was really good at Montana Mikes and our server, Cassie made it an enjoyable time.

I’m stuck at the desk in the Best Western trying to figure why my Garmin GPS seems to be lost. The hotel staff was gracious enough to let us park our motorcycles under the portico (fancy word) in case of rain. Another great experience this great bunch. Thank you Max, Mike, and Mason for making this possible. Tomorrow is another day.