I just returned from a 14-day 5,009 mile ride out to Rapid City, SD and then back through Ontario. Traveled across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Minnesota, and into Ontario and around the top of Lake Superior and then the middle passage all the way to the Thousand Islands into New York State, then back through Pennsylvania and home. Spent six of the fourteen days in the Rapid City, SD area doing fantastic day trips and attending the V-Strom Gathering. Met lots of great people. It rained about a third of the time, but who cares. It was a fantastic trip, even with the long days in the saddle and being wet a lot of the time. Saw Pronghorn, Buffalo, White Tail Deer, Prairie Dogs, Moose, two mama bears with their cubs, and lots of other stuff. My '98 ran flawlessly. I did lose the right dumbo to a rock on the interstate, and had some intermittent outages on the right and left mirror turn-signal/running lights (I'll have to solder all of the connections to prevent this from happening again). I had the VFR loaded up pretty heavily with the camping gear and all making it quite top heavy, but once underway, I couldn't really tell it was there except when hitting larger bumps and dips in the road. I'll post some pics when I get a chance, and maybe some video. I don't have a lot because of all the overcast and rainy days. What a fantastic trip! It's the longest ride I've taken since my Deals Gap trip last September. Not too bad for an old guy who just started riding about eleven months ago!
Oh man, my butt hurts just thinking about that..... mostly because I'm way too wimpy to even attempt it. I bet it was fun though!
