After we spent almost two weeks at St.
Paul we got the urge to have some kind of fast forward. For the next
few nights we had only one night camping stands and since our riding
days were not that long it was still enjoyable. We rode along the
Great River Byways along Mississippi where we met a few Beemer riders
from the rally.
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Found a good spot for our award :) |
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Skippy all in blue - sponsored by BMW MoA (thanks!) |
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Hello Tracy! - we met her again on our way along the Mississippi |
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and "The Honey Badger" :) |
We took the smaller roads and passed by
places like Stockholm, Pikes Peak SP, Scotland county and saw several
very long trains (I counted one to have 116 wagons). We decided to
ride asphalt roads even though they were mostly boring, but better
then interstate and faster then gravel – typical for the Mid West.
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Stockholm - with significantly less inhabitants ;) |
A few impressions from Goose Island:
We had a break at Pikes Peak State Park in Iowa.
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Where is mom? |
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Mississippi river. |
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Those hummingbirds were fascinating to watch. |
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Amazing birds! |
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Plenty of those around. |
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The "curves" in flatland :) |
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Skippy relaxing. |
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My second puncture - both in the USA :( |
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Ulpu always want's to be in the tent, no matter is it ready or not! :D |
Our campground in St. Joseph was not
well located as it was directly besides an interstate. On the other
hand they had all the infrastructure we needed (laundry, Wifi,
power), the tent was all day in shade and we could play with girls on
the nearby lawn. We were again quite behind with our travelogues and
blog, so time to catch up.
It was Friday morning and I wondered
what was happening. Maybe hundred of bikers passed us already (I
could see them riding the interstate during our breakfast). After a
quick search I figured out they must be heading for the motorbike
rally in Sturgis. Last year there were over 400.000 people attending.
On the one hand I was curious to see
such a mass of bikes and on the other hand, I can easily stay away
from there. A short look at Skippy's face made it clear that this was
not for us, her dose of biker rallies was more then full! Too many
people, too noisy and certainly no place to stay with three little
dogs! Since we were heading towards that area anyway, I needed to
check that we come there after the event.
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REALLY???? I mean whattheheck? |
One big question to me was, which route
to take towards the wild wild west. Route 66, the TransAmericaTrail
(TAT) or which one? Route 66 offered the flair of “Born to be wild”
and open roads, where as based on some comments we received earlier
the myth was gone and the road would be really dull riding on our
bikes. The TAT – a gravel only trail – offered much more
adventure and variety, however since it was raining so much the past
weeks (when I recall right, many areas got their yearly dose already
by July) and the experiences we had from the UP Michigan, the TAT did
not sound too inviting either.
During my search I came across a great
ride report from an inmate called Canonshot. He rode with a big bike
along the Pony Express and documented his journey very well in
text and pictures. Besides this he shared the route in downloadable
format with tracks and way points. The story fascinated me and Skippy
did not object either and so we left from St. Joseph and followed the
footprints of the legendary Pony Express on our way towards the wild
west.
As I learned the Pony Express Trail
went initially along what was called Oregon trail and California
trail – a route which many settlers took in the 19th
century on their way west before the rail road was built. To visit
historic sites, monuments and parks brought a little variety in the
otherwise monotonic landscape which offered basically four options:
A) the left side was soy whereas the
right side of the road was corn fields
did I already mention that we saw plenty of soy and corn fields :-o
B) the left side was corn whereas the
right side of the road was soy fields
C) on both the left and the right side
of the road were corn fields
D) on both the left and the right side
of the road were soy bean fields
- sorry no picture as this was mostly in Iowa and Missouri -
The trees and grass fields were
statistically not significant enough to make it into this list :D
Days were very warm, temperature in
shade was just below 30C and riding in straight sun made us all
sweat a lot! Lucky for me I had my summer gear which I did put on.
Skippy gave in and change the following day to her very light jogging
outfit – not the safest gear to ride, but at least the temperature
was manageable for her.
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Kansas Indian Monument (Tall Oak) in Troy. |
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Davis memorial in Hiawatha. |
And again plenty of wildlife during our break at Hiawatha lake:
Next points of shooting in Marysville:
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Sod house. |
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Interior |
Another travelogue by Skippy
~ Wolfi