Our Out West Trip Epilogue

We are back home again in Indiana. We left May 28th and returned home June 19th.We traveled 5608 miles and passed through and visited the states of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. We dodged storms for the fist couple of days as tornadoes tore through Oklahoma and Kansas. After that we had great weather with only a few hours of rain here and there. God bless the people who live in Kansas. We took a two lane highway through northern Kansas and I believe it was the most isolated road we've ever been on. Makes US 50 (America's loneliest highway) seem busy. The constant cross winds in Kansas (same as last year) just makes it miserable on a motorcycle. It would be hard to live there. The Harley ran great, used a half quart of oil and averaged over 40 miles per gallon of gas. We passed two broken down bikes, a Harley with a flat tire and a Honda Goldwing trike. They were taking the plastic covers off the engine area. We had the added security of two other couples, also on bikes as we traveled across this great country of ours. Thanks to Ron and Gloria from Wisconsin, and Bob and Bev from Michigan.

The goal of this trip was to visit as many National Parks as possible in this loop around the center of the country on a motorcycle. I think we accomplished that goal. For Becky and I we had never been to the Grand Canyon or any of the other not so well known (to us) national parks. I had my passport book with me and got as many stamps as possible to document this trip. Some of the dates are not right. Didn't check them before I made the stamp.

We took over a 1000 pictures of this amazing country and it's beautiful mountains, arches, canyons, rivers, waterfalls, wildlife, snow, rain and sun. This blog has been a window to a very small portion of this amazing adventure for us. One picture we did not take and now I"m very sorry we didn't think about it at the time were the number of foreigners who were visiting these parks. At times I think we were the only Americans there. One of the funniest  stories was when Becky walked up to a Chinese man who had just gotten off a tour bus and yelled "Where are y'all from??" he looked at her like she was a crazy person and responded "no engrish" and moved away quickly. I'm still laughing. We also had our pictures taken many times by the Chinese tourist (mainly young girls) of these American bikers. They are crazy about Harley's. Go figure. Thanks everyone who followed along.

Bad Lands of South Dakota

Our day began in Wall South Dakota. Nifty little town, touristy, but full of the old west. They tout a huge RX (Wall Drug) that takes up a city block. As you can see we are garbed for rain-cloudy skies and it was cold all day. However, we managed to steer clear of the bad weather. We had 5 cent coffee. Where else could you get coffee that cheap?? Lots of fun-then headed to the Badlands. It was impressive,probably would have been more so had we not already seen so many fabulous rock formations. I do however love the Navajo Rock-the rust colores looks like it has been painted on. It is very unique. We traveled the 50 miles around the park and headed to Yankdon SD. We celebrated our final day of sight seeing with our friends Bev and Bob. Great finish to a wonderful day. We are traveling home for the next two days. It is hard to believe that the trip is almost over. We have had an unbelievable three weeks, memories with our friends that will stay with us forever. This country is magnificent. God's power and beauty are unmatched. We were able to experience a small sample of what his hands have created. Thank you for your prayers, comments and sharing our journey with us. We love you all and can't wait to see everyone.
Philip will provide an epilogue Wednesday.

Devil's Tower

Our last visit to a national park in WYO. was Devil Tower, It was a fantasist site. Very popular for rock climbers, and sacred area for chosen Indian tribes. In the same area,  we came across several fields of prairie dogs. They jumped up every time we whistled. On to Strugis South Dakota. Home of the worlds biggest motorcycle event every August. One half million motorcycle's gather for a week in this very small town. It's wall to wall cycles. Last but not least a stop to Mount  Rushmore let me say we were impressed!! It is a site to behold in person. We were awed by it's magnificence. Tomorrow is our last national park. We are going to visit the badlands in South Dakota then on our way home. More tomorrow.

Wyoming

This group of pictures will hopefully give you an idea of what the Wyoming landscape is like. It went from mountains range to green flat pastures back to mountains. Temperature range was in the 80's at 4000 ft. down to the low 40's at 9000 ft. We left Cody in the morning and God sent us off with a beautiful rainbow. As you see in the pictures we went across the mountain with a severe storm brewing. We then headed to Gillette Wyo. stopping at the Bighorn National Forest. We saw a spectacular waterfall zig-zagging it's way around the mountain canyon. Beautiful. We are a day behind, so tomorrow our travels to Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills national forest in South Dakota are next. Side note we said goodbye to Ron and Gloria, they decided to stay back and visit with family. We were sorry to say goodbye and wish them safe travel back to Wisconsin. Take care everyone.

Yellowstone Day Two

Woke up this morning to beautiful weather. The first day was spent viewing the geyers and today it was all about the waterfalls in Yellowstone. We will let the  pictures speak for themselves. This place unbelievable. Sorry we didn't post last night but we had such a full day and the internet service was  slow.

Jackson Hole

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Grand Tetons

Reflection of the Grand Tetons

Keepler Cascades

Old Faithful

Geyer basin

Osprey nest bird on the right

Buffalo walked right beside us.

Yellowstone Grand Canyon waterfall, unbelievable