Tuesday June 30th - night

36 days in a row riding a motorcycle around the USA, it is just about over. I really had no idea when I started what this trip would be like. The adventures have been challenging and fun. The people experiences have also been a great part of the trip. Seeing God guide and supply has been so encouraging. Seeing the scenery, the trees, rivers, farms was one of the things that I anticipated most. The USA is very beautiful and amazingly varied. The thing that I have valued most, especially at this stage of the trip, has been the alone time all day long as I have ridden. Alone with God, not just away from people. It is easy to see how easy it is to get distracted from Him. I know I will still get distracted, but I really believe that my ongoing relationship with God has been altered for the rest of my life because of this 36 days of pursuing a goal and a dream.

Tuesday June 30th - evening

Well, my camp is all set up at Gettysburg, South Dakota, a little town of 1100 people. They have a city park in town and camping is free, they even have a shower. When I read in my camping book that there was no fee, I thought it would either be a junk pile or it would be full. Neither was true. Two trailer houses with really old people and nobody else. The camping area is next to the city and school baseball diamond and there is a summer league game starting in an hour. I can watch from my folding camp chair. I rode exactly 400 miles today. Pretty easy day of riding especially this afternoon. I rode one stretch that was 60 miles long and I did not make a turn. It was straight as a string. Tomorrow I am going through the Badlands and Mount Rushmore and will camp in Crawford, Nebraska if all goes according to plan. If there is a ton of traffic, I will skip Mt Rushmore, I have seen it 3 times. Other than wind this morning the day was great. The warmest I saw any reader board say was 75 degrees.

The way the schedule looks now : Tuesday here in Gettysburg, South Dakota. Wednesday July 1st I will camp at Crawford, Nebraska. Thursday July 2nd I will camp at Cody, Wyoming. Friday July 3rd I will camp somewhere the other side of Yellowstone depending on availability, that will be a busy day. Saturday July 4th I will stay someplace in Northern Idaho, possibly Duane Williams' sister's house. Sunday July 5th, I will sleep at my Mom's in Trout Lake, Washington. Monday July 6th I will be home - YEAH. I can't wait. I am getting tired of sleeping with my GPS:-)

Tuesday June 30th - noon

South Dakota is flat rolling grassland, corn, and wheat. Long straight roads. Wind at my back most of the afternoon. Quite pleasant riding, almost boring. Have seen lots of birds, geese, ducks, pelicans, and pheasants.

Tuesday June 30th - mid morning

I am drinking coffee in Hankinson, North Dakota. The ride this morning has been very windy, cold, and pretty. Lots of nice farms and lakes. Minnesota is supposed to be the land of 10,000 lakes. I am now heading for Gettysburg, South Dakota. There are 3 different campgrounds there, I should find an available space. I am heading southwest now, maybe I will have some wind on my back now. Wind while riding a motorcycle is like smoke around a campfire. It doesn't make any difference where you are it is going to be in your face.

Tuesday June 30th - morning

My camp site last didn't have any mosquitoes, but it did have these little black gnats that were quite pesky. They didn't seem to bite, but they liked to land and crawl around on a person. I think they must have been licking me because they were terribly annoying. I left my helmet setting on the picnic table right side up so no rain would get into it, if it happened to rain. It didn't rain, but those little black gnats seemed to like the inside of my helmet. Warm and it smelled good. I didn't look in it this morning when I put it on and about one mile down the road they started crawling into my ears:-O I got stopped and pulled over very quickly and took the next 10 minutes getting those crawly creepy critters out of my helmet and my ears. Whoooeee was that bad!

Not quite as windy this morning, but maybe I am just used to it. Clear and very cold. I have all the clothes I brought on me. I look like a really big fat guy riding down the road. When I left on this trip I had visions of riding in nice hot weather wearing a t-shirt, blue jeans, half helmet, and sunglasses. Hasn't happened yet. Maybe when I get back in Oregon. It is now 8:30 am June 30th and I am about 30 miles from North Dakota.

Monday June 29th - evening

Finished the day with 337 miles. I am now sitting in my comfortable little folding chair at "Redwood Campground" on the Redwood River near Redwood City, Minnesota. Very nice campground, lots of big red oak trees and some other kind that I don't recognize that have my entire area in shade. The river is 10 feet away and is making a very soothing noise for a fisherman. No mosquitoes so far. Hot showers that are clean and free. Lots of RV campers, but no other tent campers so I don't have neighbors to invite me to dinner. Guess I better get busy heating water for some delicious freeze dried dinner. Let's see, I think I will have Teriyaki chicken and rice tonight:-)

By the end of today the wind was just as strong, but I was riding much more comfortably in it. Got used to it and it wasn't nearly as intimidating as earlier in the day. Even got to the point that the wind blowing on me was a bit exhilarating, you know, what this riding is all about, riding with the wind:-) I saw quite a few big wind generators today. I think if they would put one on every acre of land in this prairie that they could supply the world with electricity.

So far Minnesota has the best roads and New Hampshire and Vermont have the worst. Only rode on mountain roads in New Hampshire & Vermont, so that may be unfair. Nice farms in Minnesota. Well kept, good crops, lots of corn, corn, corn.

Monday June 29th - noon

I had another embarrassing thing happen. I put my GPS in my pocket as I have been doing lately, but I forgot to turn the old girl off. When I got into McDonald's she started nagging at me, "wrong turn - recalculating". I am not sure why, but she kept saying it over and over. The problem was I couldn't hear her, but everybody else in the place could. I could see everybody was looking at me. I thought maybe I better get my clothes washed afterall. Then some little kid came up and said that my phone was talking. I turned her off.

The worst thing about riding in this wind is I can't scratch. I am afraid of turning loose of my handle bars with one hand to scratch my nose. Ever notice when you can't scratch and you know it, that your whole body starts to itch. I have had to take a break pretty regularly just to scratch.