So not only is Wall conveniently located 8 miles away from the entrance to the Badlands, there’s also a little tourist attraction called Wall Drug here. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
Wall Drug
Month: September 2016
Crossing South Dakota
When last we left, I was sitting in a gas station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I knew my destination was in the neighborhood just down the road, my waterlogged cell phone with directions had fizzled out, and it was still raining. I rode into the subdivision thinking I had a vague idea of the street name and might remember the number. Turns out there are two streets with the same name, one was a Lane and one a Place and both had addresses that could have been correct, and I was a bit fuzzy on the last digit anyways. Also, each house had four units. Blast.
Earplugs
At times like this I wonder, “who am I expecting to read this blog?” I have no idea. It’s time for a post about earplugs.
If you ride motorbikes for any length of time you eventually read, are told or just figure out that the wind noise is loud and constant and that you should wear earplugs. Driving in the city it’s not too bad, but you get to any decent speed and it starts to get LOUD. That’s assuming your bike isn’t super loud to begin with.
Iowa Sends Its Love
Right, so forget all the recent posts and let’s set the way-back machine to last Friday. After work I snuggled all the Airbnb bonus pets one last time and loaded up the bike. Packing the bike is not a quick process, I don’t feel like I even have all that much stuff but it takes me a solid 20 minutes even after the luggage is all packed. So much for traveling light!
Starry, Starry Night
This evening was supposed to be when I got a lot of stuff done, like assemble signs (done!) and update some blog posts (um…). Instead I saw Wall Drug (more in another post, one word summary: lazy), researched cloud backup (ugh) and then gave up, tossed on my gear and headed out to see the star swept sky over the Badlands.
The Welcoming Badlands
New week’s resolution: post more frequent and smaller posts. I’ll try to back-fill the journey here, but now it’s Monday, I’m in a shockingly nice room in a motel near the Badlands in South Dakota. The giant window is open allowing cool, dry western air to breeze in. This weekend’s driving involved a rain of bugs, a torrent of actual rain (with bonus lightning), leaking coolant in the middle of nowhere and hours of driving in 40-50mph wind. So sitting here finishing my lunch late in a calm working day seems a bit surreal.
Madison, Wisconsin
When last we left off, I was stumbling out of House on the Rock feeling dazed and slightly in love. My plan was to leave here and motor over to Madison to check into my Airbnb. Except that a couple of miles down the highway I see a sign for “Frank Lloyd Wright Center”. Britt had just told me the day before to check out Taliesin, so I took an educated guess, slammed on the brakes and pulled in.
House on the Rock II: Vidjas
This is me experimenting with video. I suspect WordPress doesn’t natively handle streaming, so you’ll probably have to download each of these in full. Sorry, it’s going to be a pain. But if you just can’t get enough of House on the Rock, here are a few random videos. I am very new to taking video (and especially editing it), so this is Amateur Hour 101.
House on the Rock
I’m writing this entry from sunny (today) Madison, sitting on the Terrace at Memorial Union. An excellent suggestion from Britt; it involves beautiful weather, beer, a veggie brat and ice cream. Life is good.
Except that in blog-time I’m not yet in Madison. Instead, I’m headed to House on the Rock…
First Leg: Cincinnati to St. Joseph to Wisconsin
On Friday morning I packed up all my gear and started my journey by heading west. You can see here a photo my mother took as I was headed off. The new light bar is looking good!
The plan was to leave Cincinnati and head up towards Indianapolis and continue heading west and a bit north until I arrived at my friends Britt & Nate’s house, a few towns over the border in Illinois.
Britt had the day off, and I wanted to start my trip off by being able to see the countryside and not take interstates the whole way. So I took a vacation day and rode country highways up. It was a beautiful drive; I hadn’t noticed it as much in Cincinnati but out in the country fall has begun. The trees haven’t turned, but one of the common crops (soybeans?) have started taking on a beautiful golden hue.
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