Motorcycle Trip 2010 " Wonderful Colorado"

Motorcycle Trip Blog Accounts

Its Memorial Day 2010

Lets be sure to take the time to remember our Military personnel for their service to us and our country. Also remember to think of and pray for their families. Whenever you see a Veteran on the street stop, shake their hand and thank them for their service. God bless all of the men and women of our armed forces and pray that they all come home safe. Honor – Remember – Respect all Veterans Thank You

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this Blogging thing. I am kind of having fun with it, along with reminiscing about our previous trips. This is my third blog and my hopes are to continiue writing about all of my motorcycle adventures. RIDE ON.

This is my first trip pulling a trailer. My lovely wife Eva and wonderful daughter Samantha got me a Bushtec Quantum GL trailer for Christmas. Wow what another awesome gift. I really think she got it so she would have room to buy more shoes and purses when we are traveling.

I am going to try and update this blog on a daily basis during our trip if time and internet access permits so all my family and friends at home can see our trip as it progresses. Everyone be sure to check back often to see our motorcycle journey updates. Love ya all, see ya soon and stay safe.



6/04/10 Friday

After all the planning and hoping that the routes that I planned were going to be like. My Bushtec trailer was finally loaded up and ready to go. I have all of my electronics: Cell Phone, IPod, Digital Camera, Video setup and a GPS. Michael and Wally departed Tennessee this morning.I am anxiously awaiting thier arrival to my house in Illinois for the start of our 3rd Annual Motorcycle Trip. My brother Michael and our friend Wally arrived from Tennessee to my house. We were all on adrenalin rushes and excited to get going

Eva got home from work and Eva, Samantha, Michael, Wally and a old high school friend of Michael's got together for some pizza and cold beverages that evening at Papa’s Pizza in Woodridge, Illinois. The food and service was wonderful like always.

Thank you Sandy, Andrew, and the entire Papa’s staff.

6/05/10 Saturday

We donned our rain before leaving my house in Lockport because it looked like we were going to be hitting rain for awhile since the rain appeared to be coming from the direction that we were head. It had stopped raining at that time but we were sure that it was not going to be completely dry. We did encounter a few brief showers until we got to the Iowa border then it cleared up for the most part only being a little overcast. We arrived at Grand Island, Nebraska found a place called T-Bones for dinner. We had a good dinner and then proceeded to the Grand Island KOA for then night. We checked into our cabin, went to the pool for a bit and it was cold. Shot the breeze for awhile discussing tomorrow’s route and went, back to the cabin and called it a night.

6/6/10 Sunday

Got up this morning and started loading the bike’s and trailers for today’s ride. Had a few sprinkles but decided not to don or rain gear. Steve told Michael come on we are burning day light. “Tick Tock Tick Tock” We went to fuel up and got on the road. We got to Cheyenne Wyoming and had reports of bad storms. We were lucky to have dodged the storms and only hit a couple of brief showers. We arrived at Fort Collins, Colorado Poudre Canyon KOA got checked into our cabin and went into downtown Fort Collins and had dinner at Austin’s American Grill. Had a nice dinner left there and stopped at Safeway foods to get some water, and fruit for tomorrows ride. We went back to camp had a couple of cold beverages and talked about tomorrows ride thru Poudre Canyon over to Estes Park Colorado where we will stay for the night. The trailer is great and it makes it a lot easier every day the trying to pack everything on the bike. What an awesome gift from my girls. It’s a nice evening with a nice cool breeze. I will post more later, enjoy the reading and everything is good here.

6/07/10 Monday

Got up this morning and started loading the bike’s and trailers for today’s ride. It’s a beautiful day morning and should make for some awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Fort Collins area and move on. We seen two moose’s which was really cool. We arrived in Estes Park Colorado after stopping in Boulder for dinner. It was another great day of riding. Weather couldn’t have been any better. We will get up in the morning and head out to Rocky Mountain National Park. Everyone is doing well and we are have a great time. Everyone have a great day and I will post more later.

6/08/10 Tuesday

Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Estes Park KOA and we will return here tonight before moving on to another location on Wednesday. We had another great day of riding. We rode thru Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw Elk and Moose during today’s ride. The temperatures ranged from 74 degrees to 46 degrees. We hit some rain late today right before stopping for dinner. Everyone is doing good and just excited for tomorrow ride. We will be leaving Estes Park and moving on to Gunnison Colorado KOA. I will post more later. Love ya all back home.

6/09/10 Wednesday

Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We are getting ready to depart Estes Park KOA and we will head on over to Gunnison, Colorado KOA where we will be spending the next two nights. We had another great day of riding. Weather was 84 degrees and we skirted a couple of showers late in the day. We stopped at South Park City in Fairplay, Colorado which is an old mining town from the 1800’s. We were able to walk thru several of the original town building. It actually was pretty cool to see. Everyone is doing good and just excited for tomorrows ride. We will be riding the Black Canyon route tomorrow. I will post more later. Thanks honey for the hockey updates.

6/10/10 Thursday

Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We left Gunnison, Colorado KOA to go ride Black Canyon of Gunnison. We saw the Painted Wall which is the tallest cliff in the state of Colorado. We also saw several other spectacular gorges. Boy the scenery just gets better each day. I will post pictures at a later date when I am able to download the photos. We had another great day of riding. Weather was good and we will be heading over to Ouray Colorado KOA tomorrow for the next two nights. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.

6/11/10 Friday

Got up this morning and it’s another beautiful day and should make for some more awesome riding. We left Gunnison, Colorado KOA to head to Ouray, Colorado KOA. We rode thru Red Canyon, Unaweep Scenic Byway, and several other awesome rides. If we would have taken the direct route from Gunnison to Ouray it would only be about 80 miles but we went the back way which was about 280 miles. Anyone one that has a motorcycle and just rides around town doesn’t realize what they are missing. Words can’t explain it. If someone would ask me today which ride on this trip was my favorite I couldn’t pick one right know. It just seems when you think you’ve seen it all and couldn’t top that days the next day’s ride just seems to prove you wrong. We will be here at Ouray for the next two nights before moving on to Durango, Colorado. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. So be sure to visit back at the site. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.

6/12/10 Saturday

Got up this morning and it’s very cloudy and calling for thunderstorms. We left and headed over Red Mountain Pass towards Silverton,, Colorado. We ran into some sleet on the pass. Then it got a little sunny and warmer as we got closer to Durango. When we left Durango and headed over Lizard Head Pass it started looking stormy again. We stopped to don our rain gear. We proceeded to be in and out of Ran until we got to Telluride then we encountered rain the rest of the way back to Ouray. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better and clearer day. I ‘m hoping that the rain stops by the morning. We will be heading on over to Durango, Colorado KOA and we need to be able to get across Red Canyon Pass. Because we need to be able to get over Red Mountain Pass without any snow. Today’s ride was good considering the rain. We did San Juan Skyway and Million Dollard Highway. The temperatures were down to 42 degrees and raining. Thank goodness for my heated clothing. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.

6/13/10 Sunday

Got up this morning and it appeared to be another beautiful day for riding? Once again it’s a clear skies and sunny. We left Ouray, Colorado and headed over Red Mountain Pass towards Silverton,, Colorado. We were not sure what it was going to be like since yesterday the Pass had snow. The Pass ended up being open and clear. We were a little worried since there is only two ways to get over to Durango, Colorado. We also choose to take the shorter route to Durango because we wanted to stop in Silverton, Colorado to see if we would be able to get to and old ghost town that someone had told us about earlier into this trip. We stopped to see about that ghost town and asked about a guided tour. We choose to take a four hour tour that ended up being about a five hour tour. Our guide was out of the world he was awesome (Thanks again John). We were at the top of so many summits and seen so many abandoned mines. We were able to walk around and look into the different buildings. We hit all four seasons in one day. We also had to help push a jeep out of a snow bank. We got done with the tour around five o’clock and still had to get to Durango. We were worried that with the previous weather that we might have a little problem getting there. We had two more summits to cross before arriving there. We hit a little snow flurries crossing the passes but nothing earth shattering. Right know all I can think to say about today’s experience is ‘‘WOW”. Tomorrow we will be leaving Durango, Colorado and headed over into New Mexico before ending our day in Alamosa, Colorado KOA. I hope everyone enjoys reading this and I will post photos and a better day by day account when I get back home. Everyone is just excited once again for our next day’s ride. I will post more later.

Motorcycle Trip 2009 "Go West"

Motorcycle Trip Blog Accounts

Blogging is still somewhat new to me, trying to figure out what format to use, how to get things so it makes for easy reading, and get the photo layout looking half way decent. Now that I started this Michael has started a blog also. I will link his blog site from my page when his is published. Eva said to me that I have just created a monster. Come on Steve your next what are you waiting for. This is my second blog and my hopes are on my 2010 motorcycle trip that I will try and sit down every night or two and make an entry of the day’s activities so everyone back home can log in and see our daily adventures RIDE ON.

After all the planning and hoping that the routes that I planned were going to be good, the day finally arrived. I’d spent the last few days trying to figure out what to bring, and what to leave behind, with the very limited storage space available to me. Though time would show that I often guess wrong in that regard, I was comfortable with my selections. My Wing was finally loaded up and ready to go, with a fresh set of tires, brakes, oil and filter change. I had all of my electronics: Cell Phone, IPod, Digital Camera, Video setup and a GPS. All my clothes crammed into my trunk mounted luggage bag, one saddle bag stored my rain gear, visor, tools, and maps. The other saddle bag stored my riding gear, leather jacket, chaps, hood, and gloves. On the back seat I stored my tent, sleeping bag, and air mattress. The night before our departure, my brother Michael arrived from Tennessee to my house. We got together for some pizza and cold beverages that evening. We were all on adrenalin rushes and excited to get going. We got up on Saturday morning and departed from my house.

6/19/09 Friday

Michael departed Tennessee to meet Steve and me at my house in Illinois for the start of our 2nd Annual Motorcycle Trip. Eva got home from work and Eva, Samantha, Michael, and I got together for some pizza and cold beverages that evening at Papa’s Pizza in Woodridge, Illinois. The food and service was wonderful like always. Thank you Sandy, Andrew, and the entire Papa’s staff.

6/20/09 Saturday

We all departed from my house in Lockport, Illinois around 6:30 A.M and arrived at Sioux Falls, South Dakota KOA that evening. We set up camp and then went to dinner. We asked the KOA caretaker where there was a decent place to sit down for a good dinner. He gave us directions to place in town and we went to locate it. Finally after a little riding we found it. We walked into to the restaurant and knew that we were out of place and under dressed to say the least. We looked at the menu, and decided that we did not think that this was a place for us to eat. Just as we were getting ready to walk out a man came up and said come on in I will give you a free appetizer. We still decided not to eat there. So we checked with GPS Jill for another place to eat, followed her directions to a Ruby Tuesday only to find that it was no longer there. So once again we moved onto another place and finally were able to find a place and we got to sit down and eat. We got back to camp and was sitting around talking, when a lady from the motor home across the road from us came strolling over. She said that her and her husband made some Jiffy pop, and they would never be able to eat it all and wondered if we would like some. Michael said to her in a kidding way, sure you said to your husband that those bikers will probably eat anything. We thanked her and she went back to her motor home. We talked with the people in the camp on the one side of us some, but the people camping on the opposite side of us was not very friendly, I don’t recall them saying a word to us at all.

6/21/09 Sunday

Got up, departed Sioux Falls, South Dakota KOA and continued on our journey. We stopped in Wall, South Dakota just like probably every other traveler to see the "Worlds Famous" one and only Wall Drugs. We found a parking place and walked around there for a while. We then departed

Wall Drug, fueled up and got back on our journey. We decided to stop at Rapid City, South Dakota KAO for the night. This was the first time we decided to see if there was a cabin available. We got a cabin instead of a tent site. A monster had just been created. We unpacked the motorcycles, put up the tents to dry out from the previous night’s rain. I happened to check my phone and saw that I had a few voice mails. Come to find out Larry from work wife Sara had passed away from a long battle with cancer. My thoughts and prayers to Larry and his family also two other guys from work were injured in separate off duty accidents. Bob fell off of his roof and busted up his leg and Terry landed wrong when he went sky diving for his birthday and busted up both legs and ankles. My thoughts and prayers go out to them also for a speedy recovery.

6/22/09 Monday

Got up, broke camp, donned our rain gear, departed Rapid City, South Dakota KOA and continued on our journey. Along the way we ran into construction traffic on the Interstate, the lanes merged into one lane each way in the east bound lanes. We were riding along, it was cold and damp and I was getting rain up my sleeve. So I was messing with my glove cuff trying to get it over my jacket sleeve. The next thing I knew was that my motorcycle died, I was trying to figure out what was wrong as I started to pull off on the side of the road where there was really no shoulder, Steve says you can’t stop here I replied that I have to because my motorcycle died. I ended up stopping on the muddy shoulder. Stupid me, I didn’t realize that I accidentally hit the kill switch with my thumb DA! Boy my bike is pretty muddy now from stopping in that mud. I guess you would have to of been there. We got back on the road and shortly after that the construction zone ended. We then stopped at the entrance ramp of the next exit to doff our rain gear. While getting out of our rain gear an SUV pulled up in front of us. Four occupants of the vehicle exited and hurried back to us, we did not know what was going on, the next thing we knew they were taking pictures of us like we were celebrities or someone of importance. One of them asked Michael if he would stand still so they could get a picture of the back of his shirt. We then talked for a couple of minutes and they explained that they were from Italy and came to the United States for a coast to coast vacation. They started in Florida and were on their way to Yellowstone before ending in San Francisco, California where they will depart to go back to Italy. We did not think to give them our contact information so we could see if we could possibility get copies of their photos. We then saddled up and continued our journey.

We spotted this pickup truck on a frontage road pulling a cattle trailer. He had a dog in that back of his truck and the dog was walking from side to side. We were on the interstate and could barely keep up with this pickup. I was amazed that the dog was able to stay on the toolbox without falling off. Soon we would be getting off the Interstate and heading over to Red Lodge, Montana via Big Horn Canyon. What an awesome road just like many others. We arrived at Red Lodge, Montana KOA that evening. Here is that monster again, we decided to get a cabin once again. Boy are we spoiling ourselves. We unpacked the motorcycles and went into Red Lodge for dinner. We ate at a neat little bar in town, the food and service was good. We then went back to camp. sat around the picnic table eating some nuts and had a couple of cold beverages while we chatted.




























6/23/09 Tuesday

Got up, departed Red Lodge, Montana KOA and continued on our journey to "Bear Tooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway". Wow Bear Tooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway was another Awesome ride you would have to experience it yourself to really appreciate it.





I don’t think one really realizes how many wonderful roads there are. We continued on our journey through Cody, Wyoming and onto Gillette, Wyoming where we decided to get a hotel for the night. We checked into a hotel and went to dinner at Pokey’s Smoke House in Gillette. We left the restaurant and were sitting at the stop light in the turn lane, behind a police car, wondering if I was going to get stopped because I had a headlight out. We were probably about four cars back from the intersection and the light had just turned yellow; the next thing I heard was a loud exhaust, It was coming from a pickup truck speeding upon my right and went right through the traffic light probably not realizing that there was a squad car sitting in the turn lane. The next thing I knew was here goes the squad after that pickup truck. I guess that solves my problem wondering if I am going to get stopped.


6/24/09 Wednesday

Got up, departed from Gillette, Wyoming and continued on our journey. We rode to Devils Tower, Spearfish, Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, Sturgis, the Honda dealer for a head light bulb, and then onto Rapid City, South Dakota KOA. We stopped at Devils Tower and walked around.

Have you ever heard the term stop and smell the flowers, Michael took in one step further, he stopped and smelled the tree?
Look a Moose - obviously that guy was from the city and does not know what Bullwinkle looks like. We made it to the KOA campground but this time we had to pitch tents since there were no cabins available. I attempted to change my highlight bulb with the assistance of Michael and believe me it was a PAIN. We then went to dinner at the Golden Corral and we saw the Geico Caveman having dinner there also. We finished our dinner and then went to Wal-Mart to get some water and fruit for the next day’s ride and happen to see Elvis at Wal-Mart. This must be the trip for celebrities being on vacation too. Finally we got back to the KOA campground, started some laundry, and had some cold beverages while sitting in the hot tub until it was lights out.




6/25/09 Thursday

Got up, had breakfast at the campground and departed for a day trip to Badlands National Park,







Continued on to Keystone, South Dakota stopped for lunch at an Old Fashion Soda Shop and scene a group of ladies from the Red Hat Society.We then continued on to Custard State Park,


Needles Highway, and Iron Mountain Highway, and then back to the KOA campground. We went out to dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s in Rapid City. We then returned to the KOA campground for the evening, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub while having a cold beverage.

6/26/09 Friday

Got up, packed the motorcycles and departed Rapid City, South Dakota KOA and continued on our journey. We arrived in Albert Lea, Minnesota KOA for the evening. We unpacked the motorcycles and Steve and I was sitting there waiting on Michael so we could go to dinner. The next thing I knew was my cell phone was ringing, I looked at it and it was Michael calling, I thought for a minute and could not figure out what he was doing. So I answer it and he said to me hey, I am in the bathroom and there is no toilet paper. Can you go to the front office and get some. I laughed and said I would so when I went to the office and told the girl that we need paper in the men's room she said that she would get someone to take care of it. I said you don’t understand my brother is in there and needs it now. She handed me a roll that was the size of a spare tire. I walked into the bathroom and said loudly is someone in need of toilet paper. Michael finally showed up at the cabin, we saddled up and went into town for dinner at the Green Mill Restaurant and Brewery. The food and service was very good. We returned to the KOA campground and had some cold beverages and chatted before calling it a night. There was a storm that rolled in that night. We would not stay at this KOA again.

6/27/09 Saturday

Got up, packed the motorcycles and departed Albert Lea, Minnesota KOA in between storms and continued on our journey. We were fortunate enough to have the storm to our backs for the remainder of our trip. We arrived at my house in Lockport that afternoon. Michael wanted to stop and get an Italian beef sandwich so we stopped at Fat Ricky’s in Romeoville. We got to my house unpacked the motorcycles and later that evening we went out to Papa’s Pizza in Woodridge for dinner and some cold beverages.

6/28/09 Sunday

Got up, Michael packed his motorcycle and departed for Calhoun, Tennessee. He got to Champagne, Illinois and his motorcycle started making noise he thought that he blew a rod. He pulled over and then realized what had happened. He then continued now on his LOUD journey. He arrived home that evening.

This AWESOME trip has now come to an end. Now we can only reminisce and start planning for 2010.

Ride Safe