River to river

Hi y'all,
Thought I'd jump in here while Bill was busy and give today's rundown.
After an early start, we rode to the top of a lookout that overlooks La Crosse and the bridges over the Mississippi, which forms the border between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The tip for the lookout was given to us by a couple who were riding scooters at the park. He had a neat little Honda scooter with fat tyres and as they passed us later in the street they were honking and waving like we were best friends.

Near the top of the heavily wooded lookout road we saw our first wild deer cross our path.
The lookout was a great tip, spectacular views, and topped with the patriotic American flag.
After some pics we fuelled up and headed west, passing by Rochester and through Mankato, down by Worthington and on to Sioux Falls. The trip was interesting, lots of lush fields & black soil. At one stage we passed a large windfarm with over a hundred wind turbines.
Also found something odd in a cornfield, check the pics for that.

Interstate 90 was in worse condition than the byways until we crossed into South Dakota. We've tried to keep the interstate highway use to a minimum as the state roads are in great condition and with little traffic.
Went to a Walmart for our Sturgis camping gear and then went to the popular Falls Park, the city's main feature, see pics!
I have to go, now, as I'm doing the first load of washing.
Tomorrow will hopefully find us ending in Interior, no doubt we will see hundreds of bikes, the numbers are increasing each day.
Cheers for now,
Tim

Flawless start

First day down and it couldn't have gone better. We had left Chicago by midday and that left us 8 hours to get ~310 miles. Spent a little bit of time on interstate 90 which went quickly, a 75 mph cruise isn't slow! After that things quickly settled down with a lot of travel through corn fields and single lane highway to a winding road following the banks of the Mississippi.

We've been able to talk to each other the whole way using a wireless radio set..  Tim refers to this as the 'Bill abuse line'... In my defence, it can be frustrating following the only guy with a GPS who has to stop at every intersection to check it is OK (glad it is him and not me though!). We've been having a laugh and the scenery keeps things interesting.

A few pubs on the agenda tonight and La Crosse is definetly a country town not to miss. Very easy to leap frog pubs without spending more than a few minutes on the street and the locals are friendly.

Couple of pics below, hitting the sack as it is 6 hours until we ride again!

Until next time.

Roll Out

Few drinks in one of Illinois largest pubs last night, great bar, burgers and service! Left the place with sunlight to spare which seemed unusual. With sunset after 8pm we will have plenty of ride time each day.

Right now we are at the hotel picking up the bikes and have started packing.
Today takes us from Chicago to La Crosse in Wisconsin. We'll be following the Mississippi most of the journey, a nice windy road to get us familiar with our steeds.

Tim's on the Electra glide and I'm chasing on the street glide. If you're viewing on a mobile, this link will let you track us!

Will catch up with you in LA Crosse!

The Ride

A lot to get through but I'll try and keep it short.
Ride across America, on Harleys. Why?
Why not!
My father has always wanted to do this and for a long time I didn't really understand why. I knew it would be fun and I was keen, but it wasn't until I borrowed my dads bike (a 2014 Fat Bob) for awhile that I realised this is going to be an incredible trip (if you haven't ridden a big noisy V-twin I suggest you do so immediately!)

So...where are we going? The route is pretty much finalised (see below), still a few places to book in towards the end of the trip but the schedule is as set as it can be at this stage. Starting in Chicago, we are heading west to the 75th Sturgis Festival before continuing on to Yellowstone. At that point, we are heading south to Bonneville Salt Flats and then onto Monument Valley. From here, we will head for Vegas and then onto L.A. Same start and finish locations as Route 66 but that's about where the similarities end for us.

I'll post a more detailed breakdown of where we are visiting and why later on.

See you then!
Bill