WhaDaRide!

Time for another ride. The group we belong to "Temple Riders Association" are going on a ride to Yellowstone NP and then over BearTooth Pass.... sounds like good fun, Beverly and I join them.

Then after the Park and Beartooth, I leave the group and head east. My goal on this ride is the last 5 National Park Stamps in CONUS and more importantly visits with family and friends.

So I get stamps from NPs in Minnesota, and Michigan - Voyagers NP and Isle Royale NP, then drop into Missouri to visit son Jacob and family. It was a typical visit, which means it was too short, and then I was on my way to pick up two more parks; Indiana Dunes NP and Cuyahoga NP - Indiana and Ohio.

Then a stop at another son Fenton and family. Again, a super visit, to short and then I'm heading north to get Acadia NP in Maine....the Last Stamp in the CONUS!

Then south to Fenton's again - its hard to leave the first time so I visit twice to make leaving doubly hard!  LOL and it is - and just possibly this is why, I find a note left for me by my grand-daughter...talk about sweet!!

(The grand kids call me 'Poppy')

So farther south to Tennessee I ride to visit friend Sean, Kris, and daughter Nora (actually also son Jack but he is currently serving in the Army)

Another excellent visit (Kris made Lasagna especially for me) ((awwwwwwww what a life!))

I depart Tenn pointed (loosely) for home. When I see this cut out I couldn't resist....

Super pic eh?

Another stop at Jacob's to watch the grand kids games....and to keep from riding in the dark I spend a night at this Mom and Pop motel.

I'm pretty sure when they refer to a 'honey hole' they are talking about good places to find 'morel' mushrooms....I think. :) 

I decide I need to reward myself for all this miles and miles of riding I've done so far....Ohhhh the misery of 'having' to get up and ride each day.....  ;)

Then it is time to head home for real.

West from Mizzou I take US 36 across Kansas which takes me past Lebanon, Kansas.

I have been near Lebanon before but never actually visited. And what is special about Lebanon? Well, they claim to be smack dab in the center of the 'lower 48'.

And...they have very friendly people there. I met several in my short time at the visitor center.  If I visit again I'll be certain to spend more time there.

Also in Kansas, a stop at the Pony Express museum and sights in Marysville - Very worth while!

And my last day in Kansas I wake up to some pea soup! I decided to not wait for it to clear and ended up riding in 80+ miles of sort of bad to very bad visibility.  My fault for starting out in it. Alls well that ends well.

And a few other pics taken along the way

Notice the train tracks reflecting the sun set.

I know I shouldn't drink and drive....but I couldn't resist this one....

A fast and not very detailed RR...most importantly I wanted to crow  a little about finishing the lower 48 Nat Park stamps.

This ended up being 8400 miles - true to form I covered a bunch of miles on the last day in a hurry to get home. 550 miles mostly in rain and wind....but worth it to get home to my awesome wife!

Life is good!

 

First lengthy trip after the butt trip

So, three months after my back breaking butt fall....its time to get back on the bike.

I'll ride to Jacob's place in Missouri, and from there decide if I want to go further.

And it turned out Missouri was as far as I wanted/could go. More pain than I wanted would come on after walking even just a few hundred feet.

But still, I had a good time. Between my lodging and Jacob's house there was this vegetable stand...I stopped and got a bunch of tomatoes. The owners are not there, its on the honor system.

I spent a very enjoyable 3 days in Missouri, but then it was time to get home.

Leaving I took US 36 across Kansas. I stopped at the Lebenon marker - which if the geographical center of the US. While there my brother called me and after asking if  I was home, "no, I'm in Kansas", invited me to go to the races in Denver. Well, HECK YES!

As I continued on my way, Beverly made the arrangements and sure enough we all (6 total) met at our hotel near Denver.

The races were fast and fun to watch.

There was spectator drags at halftime that was a lot fun. They had a Dodge Challenger, and a Subaru WRX for one of the races. It was the second race for both of them, and the Subaru was able to win, pretty much based on how it could corner better than the Challenger. 

And ....oh by the way....... we have a Subaru WRX in our garage. LOL

There was actually two days of racing, but the bench seats there were brutal on my back. So Saturday morning I got on the road making it home in about 10 hours of riding (550 miles).

 

 I spent my last night in Kansas in Norton, Kansas. In the morning I went outside to check and see if my bike was still there. A hail, wind storm blew threw that area that last night. Lucky for me my bike was safe and sound. Additionally there were two HD trikes parked by my bike. As I was checking my bike for damage the two HD owners came out to prepare to leave.

They were both members of the "Motor Maids" which is the oldest biker organization in the USA, founded in 1941

I had never had the pleasure of meeting a Motor Maid until that morning in Kansas.

These two ladies are the ows that I forgot to ask their names.

My phone doesn't take selfies very well.....but here we are in a 'group selfie'.

Maybe I'm the problem, because the Motor Maids both look good....me on the other hand...  HAHA

They both had Motor Maid jackets on 

 And the races were fun!! They had fireworks (above) and spectator drags.

Well, thats it I made it home and enjoyed the ride in spite of back pain