Denny and Teresa's Rides

We left home and headed towards Lexington, KY. The country side and farms are beautiful. Lexington: Million Dollar homes and Five Million Dollar pets. The horses are beautiful. We stayed on the intersatate and made it to Charleston, WV and spent the night. Next Stop- Pittsburgh!!!

Teresa and I are heading to Niagra Falls on Saturday July 31st. We are planning a few interesting stops along the way, so stay tuned.

We are winding down our trip and decided to spend the night in Metropolis, IL. Of course everyone knows that this is the home of Superman, you know, Clark Kent and Lois Lane!! We ate at Harrah’s casino and contributed a small amount to their bottom line,
In the morning it is back on the road for the short(200 miles) ride home. It has been a great trip. We enjoyed it and hope you did to.

Today we had a relatively short ride of 179 mile to Milwaukee. We ended up at the Harley Davidson Museum!!! Imagine that! The Museum is awesome and everyone who has even the slightest interest in motorcycles should try and visit. The collection bikes from the smallest minibike to some rather hefty customized tourng bikes is facsinating. A bike names King Kong comes to mind with 2 engines mated to 2 frames with 2 full sized touring seats!! We spent several hours looking at the bikes and reading and looking at the history of Harley Davidson. As an added bonus we were luckey enough to meet Karen Davidson. Tomorrow the vacation winds down as we head home to Tennessee. What a ride.

Today was a very interesting ride- 389 miles from Sioux Falls, SD to Mauston Park, Wisconsin. It wasn’t the number of miles by any means, but WIND!!! When you are riding and see hundreds of wind turbines, you can bet they are there for a reason. We rode 300 plus miles in 30 mph crosswinds. Ok, enough whining! We left this morning at about 9am and of course we had to first visit J&L Harley again-a great store! We left J&L and visited the City Park in downtown Sioux Falls and were pleasantly surprised. The city is lucky to have such beautiful waterfalls right in the middle of downtown. A plus here is that it is not fenced in and people are free to climb and explore to their hearts content!
We also found a little bit of Roadside America in the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota! Where else would you find a giant statue of the Jolly Green Giant???
Tomorrow we will be at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee which should be a real treat.

We left Wall, SD but not before visiting the Wounded Knee Museum. This is a must see, but be prepared to learn about some history that we really cannot be proud of. The carnage at Wounded Knee make most if not all others pale in comparison. I truly had a history lesson today. We left Wall and headed east on I-90 headed for Souix Falls. If anyone ever tells you it is not windy in SD they have never been there. We were in a constant 30MPH wind. Interesting to say the least!! We visited the J&L Harley Dealership of Sioux Falls and we were pleasantly surprised. The sales staff was amazing and even called ahead to make dinner reservations for us. When we arrived at the restaurant the hostess handed us a Harley bag with a T-shirt and pin for each of us, and a note from their motorclothes manager, Dustin, thanking us for our business. How do you beat that??? If you are EVER through Souix Falls, stop at J&L Harley.
Tomorrow we are heading East !!

Up bright and early this morning and packed up our tents and loaded the bikes and the trailer. We headed east to the Badlands National Park. We know why they call them the Badlands!!! Beautiful but very desolate country. One has to respect the people who earn a living out here. The ride through the park was absolutely amazing! Here the pictures are truly worth a thousand words. We saw Pragorn Antelope and Prarie Dogs by the hundreds. We ended up at the infamous Wall Drug Store and of course played the typical tourist role!!! lol Now, instead camping we are enjoying a much deserved hotel room with a real shower!!!!! and television. Tomorrow we will visit the Wounded Knee Museum and then head to Souix City, SD.

Finally a full day of sunshine and near 70 degrees!! We actually slept in(8:00) and headed for Custer State Park. What a beautiful ride full of Buffalo, Antelope, Deer and Big Horn Sheep! No fences or boundaries just open land and wildlife everywhere. We felt lucky to see these animals in their natural habitat and not behind some fence!! Along with the animals the scenery is absolutely beautiful and the roads are a great ride.
We left the Park and hit the Needles Highway. If you only have time for one ride in the Black Hills, make it the Needles Highway. It is hard to describe but breathtaking. Winding roads up to 6700 feet and back down with no guard rails and rock formations that look surreal. It is a must ride!!!
We ended the day with a trip to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is hard to describe this incredible endeavor. Started in 1948 by a single individual at the request of a consortium of Lacota Indian Chiefs. This is a not-for-profit effort headed by the Ziolkowski family that refuses to accept any type of state or federal funding. It is a herculean task that when finished will dwarf Mount Rushmore!

Sorry we didn’t post last eveing, but it was raining and 40 degrees so we were resting comfortably in our tents. Actually we were very warm!!! We rode up 385 to Deadwood which is a fantastic town!!! You can almost picture yourself in the old west. If you are a gambler you will be in heaven! Tables and slots everywhere. We actually won enough to pay for our lunch and then some! After cashing in our winnings we road over to Sturgis and visited the HD Dealer and the Motorcycle Museum. The Museum is a must see!!! Old Harleys, Indians and Excelsior and the names go on and on. The Sturgis rally was started by Pappy Hoel with just a few friends in 1938. This year will be the 70th Rally(1943 and 44 there was not a rally) and we have heard estimates of 800 thousand expected! Just a few bikes…..!!!!
We left Sturgis and think we were on Rte 79 from Sturgis to Rapid City- What a great road!! Absolutely beautiful country!
Today we headed out early, had breakfast and then went to the National Wood Carving Museum in Custer. It is amazing what can be done with a stick and some artistic ability! We mounted up and took “Old Iron Mountain Road” from Custer to Mount Rushmore. This road will definitely give The Dragon a run for its money!! Many hairpins and switchbacks that went up and down the mountain and several single lane tunnels carved in the mountains!! A GREAT ride.
We made it to Mount Rushmore just before the skies let loose and saw what has to be one of the greatest engineering accomplishments ever! Mount Rushmore is breathtaking and a must see in your lifetime!!!!

We spent the night in Chadron and this morning we visited “The Museum of the Fur Trade”. What an amazing display of the fur trade industry. In fact, they house the worlds largest collection of Fur Trade “specific” rifles- over 350 on display! There was also a large collection of the American Indian fur trading artifacts. Don’t miss this on your way to the Black Hills. Then we continued on to South Dakota!! We had a short ride from Chadron, but it was an interesting one! The sudden change in terrain from rolling hills to the steep hills and cliffs in Custer was amazing. We then came across a herd of Buffalo just grazing by the side of the road. And being the city folk we are, and ignoring the signs warning that Buffalo are dangerous, we got up close and personal. But, unlike the “real” Wild Hogs, we didn’t slap the Buffalo’s “butt”!!
Nancy and Teresa were extremely excited about seeing Prairie Dogs, until we told them they were simply prairie rats!!!! We also saw Antelope!
A wrong turn put us at the Crazy Horse Memorial and it is quite a site!!! We are now resting comfortably in 40 degree weather at the Custer KOA.