Clint, TX

We are in Clint, TX tonight in a motel. Last night, we stayed in a truck stop in Phoenix and it was 101 when we stopped at 8:30 and it took a long time to go to sleep. We dipped a washcloth in the cooler water to cool off. Tonight. we decided to stay in a motel since it was 98.

We traveled about 500 miles today, with a stop in Tombstone and saw a bank robbery. It's something I will never forget!!! The worse actors in the world! But, the town has a lot of history.

Off to Dallas-Fort Worth tomorrow.

Still In Durango

We are still in Durango   and are resting from a lot of traveling in the last few days. We went on a day trip to Mesa Verde National Park and saw the cave dwellers' homes in the side of the cliffs. It is amazing to swee how they made their homes in the sides of the cliffs.

We didn't like the motel we stayed at last night, so we moved to one with a pool. Jed is happy now. In the pictures attached, the first one is the mesa we went to the top to see the dwellings. It took an hour to drive from the entrance to the top. Needless to say, there were a lot of curves and hill to climb.

Tomorrow, we leave to go somewhere. We have not decided yet!

Durango, Colorado

Sorry about not updating for several days, but we have been busy and on the road with no wifi.  Friday we got the truck repaired under warranty by 9:30 am in Rapid City and 48 miles later, we were back in Custer, SD and hooked the trailer and left for Colorado. We traveled the back roads most of the day and arrived near Janis Rochester's house and spent the night at a truck stop parking lot.

Sat morning, we had lunch with Janis and Dick and had a great visit. That afternoon we went to Estes Park, CO, the entrance to Rocky MT Natl Park and stayed in a motel. Sunday we went through the park. That was a great trip!! We started just under 7000 ft elevation and went to over 12000 ft, sucking air the whole way. The roads were right on the side of the MT with no guard rails! We ended up in Grand Junction and stayed in a motel parking lot. Can you say "CHEAP"?

Today we traveled through Ouray, Silverton and ended up in Durango, where we are in a motel. We had to park the truck and trailer at a Harley Davidson dealer as there is no room at the motel. Going out for BBQ, Jed is hungry. We are here for 2 nights, I think!

Another Motorcycle Tour Day

Today was another day on the motorcycle touring the black hills area. After breakfast, we left about 8:30 on our way to Lead, an old mining town with an open pit mine. Lead is situated on a steep hill and is hard to start and stop a motorcycle with a passenger. Then, we went down the hill to Deadwood, the town where Wild Bill Hickok was shot. After driving around, we went to Sturgis, home of the motorcycle rally.

We then went to Belle Fourche, looking for John Wayne and "The Cowboys", but the lady at the visitor center said he had left the area. All we found was the Geographic Center of the Nation.

Headed back to Custer, we rode through Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway.

We had a full couple of days, but I think Jed is ready for a break from the motorcycle. We have to leave early in the morning to be at the Ford Dealer.

Custer State Park

We had a full day today! Boy, daylight comes early in South Dakota. I woke up at 5 AM and it was full daylight. After eating breakfast in the lobby, we left at 8:15 to go to Custer State Park. We went on the wildlife route and saw lots of wildlife, buffalos, some type of deer, and prairie dogs. The roads in this area are up and down mountains, with lots of twists and turns. We saw a large herd of buffalo and took several pictures.

We then took the “Iron Mountain Road”, which is the original road that the workers took while carving MT. RUSHMORE. This road is twice as twisty and curvy as the other one. It got to the point that Jed would see the hill going down with several turns, he would say, “Oh, Lord!” We went through 4 or 5 one lane tunnels with the last one with Mt Rushmore framed in the tunnel, pretty neat!

We stopped at Mt Rushmore and ate lunch, looking out the window at the carving. Jed enjoyed this. We then took the Needles Highway route. If you thought the other roads were steep, twisty, and curvy, this road was twice as bad!! I could feel Jed’s knees punch my back and sides many times. We were both drained when we got back to the room.

We have had dinner and Jed is at the pool. We have not decided what we are going to do tomorrow, but I’ll bet we will have a good time!

We did make it to Custer, SD, barely. We were on I-90 about 20 miles from Wall, SD when the
" check engine" light came on.  We nursed the truck until we reached Wall and unloaded the motorcycle and rode through the Badlands of South Dakota. Jed really enjoyed this, although the wind was pretty strong and was blowing us around and he didn't like that at all!

After loading back up, we slowly went to Rapid City to the Ford dealer to find that a temp sensor needs replacing. We have an appointment fri morning to replace it. We slowly made our way to Custer, 42 miles, and checked in. Boy, did the shower feel good!!

After dining on our dinner at the local Pizza Hut, we are ready for a good night's sleep and doing a lot of bike touring tomorrow.

We left Monday at 6:45 on our trip to Custer, S D.  The weather was cloudy all day and we went thru 3 rain showers. We both were excited about leaving and we drove a total of 13 hours and 724 miles. We stayed in a truck stop parking lot on I64 in Illinois. Of course I woke up early and after drinking truck stop coffee, I woke Jed up a 5 am and after packing, we left at 5:30. Again, we drove all day and arrives in Mitchell, SD around 5 pm and are spending the night in Cabela’s parking lot, after 721 miles. How’s that for splitting the miles in half?

Tuesday morning, we are going to see the Corn Palace in Mitchell, then going to Wall to Wall Drug Store and The Badlands. I plan to unload the motorcycle and ride it as it is a 50+ mile trip. That should be fun for Jed. Then on to Custer.

This is being written Monday night and I will post it when I can.

Packing and gettting ready!!

Jed and I spent most of the day packing and getting ready to leave sunday morning. We also made a quick trip to Chapin to say goodbye to Hallee, Stacey, and Lee. It's going to be hard not seeing Hallee the next several days.

We got the trailer packed with lots of bungee cords, so we should be ready to head out early in the morning. Hope to have some pictures later.

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