2026 March New Zealand Day 1 of 12 - Travel to Rotorua NZ and Skyline

Overlooking Rotorua New Zealand

Back in October my buddy Mike called to ask where I might like to go visit.  Mike travels allot and winds up with more frequent flyer miles than he can make use of.  So if he gets really stressed at work and can arrange the time, he will call me to go power touring with him.

We talked for a while about Europe, Scotland and other places without coming to any conclusions. Somewhere along the line Mike asked if New Zealand would be of interest.  "OF COURSE" .  But I thought another of Mike's friends had pre-dibs'ed New Zealand.  But he'd had some medical issues that not prevent him travelling such a distance.  So now it was open for me and I grabbed at the chance.

So Mike started looking for dates when he could get time off work to go to New Zealand.  I was in the middle of planning my retirement.  I had over 300 hours of vacation time saved up so any time was fine by me.  We wound up with the first couple weeks of March 2026 as our travel dates.

In addition to Mike providing the airline tickets, he also gets a few vouchers each year to upgrade to first class seating, so for our outbound flights, Mike got us Delta One first class tickets to New Zealand.  I was excited because I'm way too cheap to ever do that for myself.

Since I was going to play for 2 weeks, we decided that Nan should also go somewhere.  After a bit of online searching she found reasonably priced round trip tickets to Hawaii to visit Kadi.  I dropped her a Denver Airport on Thursday and I was to fly out on Saturday.

Saturday I tried to sleep in as long as I could but barely made it to 7:00 before my brain forced me to get up.  I ate breakfast, cleaned, emptied the trash around the house and did the dishes.  By then it was 8:30 and I still had over 6 hours before I needed to leave.

I watched some youtube,  played a video game, serviced the robo vac and started it mopping the floor.  Now it was 9:00.  Would this day never end so I could GO TO NEW ZEALAND!!!!

Finally around 10:00 I decided I needed to do something a bit more involved.  I put on a coat and my helmet and headed out on a motorcycle ride.  I wound my way through Black Forrest and eventually made it to a Culvers in Falcon.  I got the smallest milk shake and sat sipping it while watching a young family of 5 deal with kids who suddenly wanted something other than what they'd ordered.  It brought back so many great memories of sitting in restaurants with our own kids.

Trying to kill time before the trip.  Pikes Peak over my shoulder

Eventually I finished  my shake and wound my way back through home.  My daughter Klair picked me up around 1:15 and drove me a few miles to where I'd meet the airport shuttle to Denver.  Finally, the adventure had begun.  I don't think I could have taken much more waiting.

Waiting for the Airport Shuttle

Klair dropping me off

The shuttle ride was uneventful.  TSA pre security screening was empty and fast.  Panda Express lunch was great.  Sitting waiting for the flight for an hour was easy as well.

Because Mike had used the first class pass, it meant my flight from Denver to LA was also first class.  We were on a small regional jet with 1 seat on one side and 2 seats on the other.  I had row 2 on the 1 seat side so I had both a window seat and an isle seat at the same time.  I'm sure there was a bit of extra leg room but it didn't feel much different.  The most notable part of first class was the flight attendant calling me by name and offering me a drink and snacks 3 times before we even left the gate.

Mike had arrived a few hours before me and was waiting when I arrived.  We had a 2 1/2 hour layover so we headed off for the Delta One lounge to eat and relax while we waited.  Not to sound like too much like a hick, but the lounge was very nice.  It was a restaurant where everything was complementary.  I got a diet coke, some tuna sashimi, and an Onion soup.  It was all great.  I wish I hadn't just eaten Panda Express or I'd have ordered more.

Sitting in Delta One

Eventually we left and headed over to the gate to board the plane.  For some reason, my passport didn't scan as we boarded so I had to talk to someone.  They checked the passport and my boarding pass and could find nothing wrong.  It wasn't a big deal but it slowed me down enough that all the overheads near my seat were full and I had to go about 5 rows back to stow my bag.

Now for the real hick part.  We were in the private cubicle seating area.  This is certainly the first and probably the last time I'll ever sit here.  There were pillows, comforters, sleeping pads, and a small zipper case full of things like ear plugs, tooth brush, eye mask, comb, slippers, dental floss, and I don't know what else waiting for me.  I honestly did feel a bit overwhelmed.  How the heck was I going to fit all this stuff under the seat in front of me?  I turns out that they don't care if you stack the pillows and other things on the shelf beside you.  The most uncomfortable part was the endless stream of people heading back into the other sections of the plane and making comments about the cubicles as they walked past.

Me in my private cubicle

I did keep my laptop bag with me and on the shelf in front of my feet.   Again, the flight attendant introduced herself and offered us drinks or snacks.  It might be first class, but not once did she offer me beef jerky which I had in my bag.  First class my A$$.

Mike was in the cubicle next to me and we could slide open a section of the wall to talk.  But shortly after takeoff, Mike laid his chair all the way flat and went to sleep.  I knew that if I tried to sleep this early in the flight I'd wake up long before we landed and be tired through the day, So I stayed away for the first 2+ hours of the flight.

They served a meal after just an hour.  I'd ordered the beef curry but the beef was so overcooked that it was dry and powdery.  It wasn't any better of a meal than I've ever had on other flights.

The cubes did have a big TV in them (roughly 25 inch) but I didn't see any movie or tv show that I wanted to watch so I did a little web browsing on my phone and listened to an audio book.  Finally it was about 9:30 New Zealand time and it felt like I could get some sleep.  I took a couple of over the counter sleeping pills.  I normally sleep with a cpap, but Delta said I couldn't use it unless it was battery powered, but a battery big enough to run the cpap isn't allowed through TSA so I couldn't use it.  That meant I didn't dare lay my seat flat or I'd stop breating and/or snore.  Instead I laid my seat back about 3/4 of the way.

The sleeping pills really helped and I managed to sleep about 6 hours off and on.  That's better than I've ever been able to sleep in previous flights so I counted it as a win.

Laid way back to sleep

Once we landed, I had to throw away the last of my jerky and trail mix.  New Zealand is very protective of their ecology and don't want bugs or other foreign pests to get loose.

Both Mike and I had pre applied for entry to New Zealand so we zipped right through customs and immigration without any problem, and since we had checked no bags, we were off to the rental car within minutes of landing.

The original plan was for me to drive since I have a british license and 2 years experience driving on the lefthand side, but for some reason I was feeling uncomfortable about it.  So Mike hopped behind the wheel and took his first drive on the left hand side.  He did great except for constantly turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal.  Thats not so much a left hand driving thing as Mike being really used to his Jeep's controls.

The other thing he had problems with was wandering off the left side of the lane.  He kept wanting to put himself  in the lane where he would normally drive which meant all of the car to the left of him was now over the lane marker and either in the other lane or hanging off the side of the road.  He hit a few curbs, especially going around left hand turns.  It wasn't too much of a problem except the time that he tried to climb up on the center median and there was already a pedestrian standing there.  He didn't come close to hitting him, but the guys eyes sure got big as the gray SUV bumped up onto the curb 4 feet form him.

The drive from Aukland down to Rotorua where our hotel, was about 223 kilometers and took a couple of hours.  A large part of the drive was on a 4 lane divided motorway and part was on little 2 lane back road.  All of the roads were well maintained and comfortable.  Other then the constant sound of rumble strips, the ride was uneventful.

As soon as we got out of the car I could smell the slight odor of sulfur.  It reminded me so much of Yellowstone.  Mike wasn't surprised because that's one of the things Rotorua is known for and we were going to see some of the geysers and hot pots around the area.

The view out our hotel window

We got checked in then headed back out to find something for lunch.  On the way out, Mike spotted a vending machine with energy drinks in it.  He bought a diet red bull, but when the machine dispensed it, it just released the can from about 4 foot in the air and let it slam down into the delivery tray.  Mike tried to open it carefully but it still sprayed everywhere.  I didn't laugh even a little bit.

There was a walkway nearby that was lined with restaurants.  It was called "Eat Street" so we drove over there and started looking for something to eat.  There were allot of steaks, seafood, asian and other ethnic places to choose from.  They all sounded good but we settled on an Indian restaurant that had a curry chicken lunch special.  Mike got butter chicken and I got Chicken Tika Masala.  The chicken and the naan bread were fantastic.  It was so good that when I should have stopped eating, I didn't.  I felt quite bloated when I got done, but happy.

Riding up Skyline Rotorua

We drove back to the hotel to recover and figure out what to do with our afternoon.  Eventually we decided to go to ride the gondola to the top of Skyline Rotorua.  Thats an adventure center just outside of town with a bobsled course, mountain biking, massive swing, and other activities on the side of a large hill.  The ride to the top was nice but not very long.  Once on top we watched some people do the big swing.  There was allot of joking from the family watching, like, "Do I get your car?" sort of humor.  The guys on the swing actually had a rope that they had to pull to release themselves.  The employees attached a cable and started winching then up the hill and it winched allot longer and higher than I thought was possible.  Probably close to 90 degrees.

Skyline Swing

Then we heard the Ka-Chunk as the guy pulled the rope.  Both guys screamed pretty loud but also sounded pretty happy.

After that we walked over to watch people riding the 3 wheeled carts down the luge track.  It looked pretty fun but also looked like my back would ache by the time I got to the bottom.

Mike was open to doing either ride but this was day 1 and I didn't want to injure myself this early in the trip so we didn't do either thing.

We hunt around for an hour or so watching mountain bikers, lugers, and others till it felt like we'd seen enough and rode back to the bottom.

Riding back down the Skyline

There was still allot of afternoon left so we drove over to the maori museum.  We knew it was closed due to earthquake damage in 2016, but it was still supposed to be a beautiful building to photograph.  But when we got there, the whole building was surrounded by scaffolding and wrapped in plastic to keep the weather out.  Hopefully they'll get it rebuilt because it was supposed to be one of the best maori museums in the country.

Mike wanted to grab some sodas so we drove back and parked by the hotel.  There was a small market across the street that turned out to be a tiny chinese market.  We googled and found a grocery store a couple blocks away so off we went on a small adventure.  We came to a large highway that neither of us felt comfortable running across we walked a ways to a stop light and crossed.

It was a decent sized store and we enjoyed meandering around looking at prices and what was available.  I got a couple nectarines and a diet coke.  Mike got a small case of energy drinks and a bottle of diet coke.  After we paid and started to exit, we realized it was raining.  It had gone from warm and semi cloudy to fully overcast and raining in just 5 minutes.  We'd left all our rain gear in the car so we just had to tough it out and headed back.

We relaxed at the hotel for a couple hours and chatted about world problems but had no solutions.  Eventually we figured it was time for dinner.  Mike had seen a "gastro bar" that he thought would be good so we drove a mile or so back near Eat Street and went into the Fainting Goat.  The menu was (to me) pretty eclectic.  We ordered brisket and bacon spring rolls, Fried potato cubes, A fresh salad, and...

The hostess came over to ask if we'd mind sharing our table with a young couple because the place was packed.  We said sure and they joined us.  We didn't talk much except to joke about how much food came out to our table.  It was packed.

I loved the spring rolls and the potato cubes.  The salad was ok but nothing special.

After dinner we went back to the room and I worked on this blog.  I got about half way done when Mike suggested we go to the maori health spa behind the hotel.   I thought about it for a bit but decided that if I didn't keep working on the blog, it would never happen.   So I worked for another half hour then we just went down stairs to the hot tubs for a bit to soak sore muscles.  By the time we got back to the room I was very ready to go to sleep.  Normally I can't sleep after a hot soak because my body is so hot but I just pulled a sheet over me and dozed off pretty quick.

My daily steps count was 17,200 or 8 miles.  This includes Saturday to Monday, a little over 24 hours and 1 jump over the dateline.

2025 South Dakota Ride with Friends - Day 6

2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota

Today was supposed to be the last day of the Parade of Planets. where 3 planets were visible in the same part of the sky, along with the moon.  I woke up around 5:00 to look at it.  I could see Jupiter and Venus plainly enough, and the moon of course.  But I could not see Mercury.  We have trees between us and the Western horizon but no matter where I went, I couldn't see it.  My SkySafari app said it was well above the horizon and seemed to be in a gap, but no joy.

Sunrise and the Parade of Planets

After I wandered around in my pajamas for 30 minutes I decided to use the hot tub.  The tub said it was 108 degrees but I don't believe it.  It felt just like the last couple of times and the jets felt just as good blasting my shoulders and back.  It was heaven.

I showered and changed but then had no idea what to do.  I was caught up on the blog and didn't need to write anything, so I practiced some ukulele.  I just sat down for a few minutes to write this section so I'll be started for after today's ride.  Then I'll figure out what everyone wants for breakfast and do that.  I can't believe it's already my last day of riding on this trip.  Tomorrow we leave the VRBO and move to a hotel so my bike will be on the trailer and Nan will be with me in the car.

We loaded up at 9:00 and got on the road.  Nan has ridden every day except Sunday and Devil's Tower.  That is more than she's ever ridden on one of these trips ever.  It has been great fun for me to have her on the bike.  I sure hope its been fun for her too.  If she ever comes on another trip, I'll know it was ok.

We started by taking the back road toward Deadwood, then turning onto highway 385.  We stopped at the big Deadwood sign and took a group photo with all the bikes lined up.  The photos seemed to come out nice.

We headed South down highway 385 towards Hill City.  But there has been construction on highway 385 for months now and you can't go all the way to Hill City.  So we chose to turn off 385 onto Nemo road and detour through Rapid City.  It started out really nice with temps in the high 70s the weather clear and the forest around us smelled slightly of rain.  It was heavenly.  We even got the occasional smell of fresh cut grass.

Beautiful meadows

We reached the bottom of Nemo road and chose to go East toward Rapid City.  It started getting warmer and warmer.  By the time we were in Rapid City it was 93 degrees.  We stopped at a gas station to get waters and a bio break.  I parked in the shade but everyone else (all Arizonans) parked in the sun and thought nothing of it.  I thought seriously about getting out my cold vest.  A cold vest is just a vest made of really absorbent material that you can soak in water.  Then as you wear it, the water evaporates and cools you off.  I'd had Nan soak it in water before the ride and put it in a ziplock bag.  But I held off.

We continued through Rapid City taking a seemingly random set of turns that eventually put us on Mount Rushmore highway heading West out of town.  We've been on that road several times before but especially with Grand Kids when we've visited Bear Country USA.  It's a big drive through park that includes about 50 bears in a big open space.  The kids loved it.

Wooden Bridges seems to be a theme around here

Anyway, within about 30 minutes we were pulling up to the Mount Rushmore entrance.  Because we're over 60, it only cost $5.00 for parking.  There is no entrance fee, just the parking which is good for a year.

As normally happens, the lead bike pays then heads off without waiting for the 2nd bike.  Who then takes off without waiting for the 3rd and so forth till we're all spread all over the parking area.  This is about the 3rd trip that this has happened.

Nan and I parked in a covered area, again, for heat.  A few text messages relayed that everyone was just heading into the monument.  We got all our stuff ready, then set off for the gift shop .  We were nearly there when I realized that I didn't have my camera.  I'd left it sitting on the seat of the bike.  So back I went to get it.  It sucks getting old and ....   what was I saying?

We met up with the group after everyone had spent allot of money on un-needed knick-knacks.  We took pictures down the isle of flags then talked about food.  No one really wanted to go to the museum or any of the other things, we'd all done it many times before.

We could either eat National Park food right here or travel back to Keystone.  In the end we decided to go back to Keystone (about 2 miles) and eat there.  We chose the very first place in the first strip mall.  It wasn't great food but it wasn't terrible either. Nan and I split the fish and chips which was just right.

After lunch we wandered through the shops and I'm sure more un-needed items were bought.  We left Keystone but barely crossed the street when we decided to take pictures by the Rushmore sign.

Finally we packed up and head for Iron Mountain road.  Its a pretty famous road in the motorcycling world due to the pig tails.  Those are a set of hairpin turns that exceed 360 degrees.  and they do it by climbing up and over the top of themselves.  It's pretty cool, especially because the bridge that over passes the lower section is made of wood.  Very Very Cool.  And kind of fun.

We climbed up one that turned left, then a half mile later we climbed a 2nd that turned right.  The top of the second leads straight into a one lane tunnel so you have to slow down and take turns.

There are 2 cool tunnels on Iron Mount Road that both face Mount Rushmore, but one in each direction.  Whichever direction on the road you're travelling, the 2nd tunnel will point you right at Rushmore and you'll see the monument as you pass through the tunnel.  It is an awesome picture if you can get it.

Iron Mountain also has many good pullouts and scenic overlooks.  We only have 1 that we normally stop and, and like the tunnels, it has several places where you can get pictures with the monument behind you.

We continued down Iron Mountain Road until we got to the "Iron Mountain Road Visitor's Center" which is just the name of yet another gift shop.  We stopped for yet more water and a rest from the heat.  We did get the wifi password and spent a while browsing and buying yet more t-shirts and hats.

Once we were all rested, we went out to the bikes to leave.  That's when I discovered that I'd left my camera on and videoing.  It was down to 3% battery.  I've done that before, but this was especially bad because the next part of our ride was through the iconic Needles highway where we pass through a super narrow cleft in the rocks.

I led the way back up the road 1/2 mile, then turned onto the cutoff that took us over to the Needles Highway.  The cutoff and highway are pretty narrow roads.  There were no center line stripes, and often we had to pull far to the right to pass oncoming cars and trucks.  Several times a truck would have to wait at a wide spot for us to go past before they could move on.

As we climbed higher, the road got even more narrow and the passing became harder until we finally reached the needle itself.  Just as we came around the corner, I saw the tail end of a motorhome disappear into the gap.  We had just talked about idiots that try to drive the needles highway in big vehicles, but here we were watching one.  The 2 cars ahead of us were positioned to see through the gap and they weren't moving so I figured the RV was either stuck or just going very slow.

Other vehicles began to back up behind us and several walked up to yell at someone till they looked for themselves, shook their heads and walked back.  It took probably 10 minutes till the RV made it through, then the traffic in the other direction started coming and they just kept coming for another 5 to 10 minutes before it slacked enough for us to go.

By this point we were hot and fed up and just wanted to get moving so we didn't stop for any pictures of sight seeing.

I led us out to highway 385, then back toward Mont Rushmore and Keystone.  We stopped at a gas station for another round of water and bathroom break.  The temperature was in the low 90s but the sun had been beating on us for the whole ride and I was especially feeling the heat.  I really soaked my wet vest thoroughly and we headed for Rapid City.  

I knew it was going to get hot, but I was unprepared for the 106 degrees we experienced while going through the city.  Every time we hit a stoplight the heat just grew and grew around me.  I quickly drank all the water in my bottle and even stopped for a quick minute to grab another and finished it too.

Nan and I were at the back and got stuck at a long light.  By the time it changed, we couldn't see the others.  To top it off, my phone ran out of power and turned off.  So I pulled over and plugged the phone in, then sent a text that Nan and I were just going to head for the freeway and drive North to Sturgis and back to the house.  That's the way the GPS had been trying to push us anyway.

Back on the bike we finally managed to get through the traffic and onto the freeway.  We hadn't gone far when I got a text back from John that they were doing the same thing and were just ahead of us.  Then not far out of town, there was a lane closed for construction and traffic started to back up.  People started merging over, but I turned into "that guy" and just kept zooming up the lane that was going to close.  We zipped past lots of cars and even past our other riders (we waved).   At one point a big truck tried to nudge over into our path to prevent us going forward, but I wanted out of that heat in a big way, so we zipped around him too until the lane merged.

The construction was just 100 yards long so we were quickly back out onto open highway and driving 75mph.  I can't go faster because it really makes Nan's helmet shake up near those speeds.  Soon the others passed us back because they were doing about 10 over.  By this time I was drenched in sweat and my legs kept cramping up.  There was no where to pull over and cool off so I just kept going.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached Sturgis and took the exit toward Lead.  I stopped at the first gas station and practically flopped off the bike.  My legs were weak and my helmet was dripping with sweat.  I downed a gatorade and water, then Nan got some peanuts and other salty snacks to much on.

2025 South Dakota Ride with Friends - Day 5

2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota

For breakfast this morning, Ron made us his world famous french toast.  He makes it all the time for his 30+ grandkids and I think he forgot that he was only cooking for 8, because he made a massive stack of  and used 2 full loafs of bread.  Then he made about 2 dozen scrambled eggs to boot.  No one went hungry this morning.

This was going to be our off day and we only planned to go walk the shops of Deadwood.  But we opted to ride Spearfish Canyon (for the 4th time) then ride the highway back to Deadwood.  It was still a beautiful ride.  The ride started at 75 degrees as we left the house, then 72 when we got to Spearfish Canyon.  But the temperature rose steadily the whole way up to Spearfish.  By the end it was 85 degrees when we stopped at a convenience store for water.

After cooling down a bit, we took the highway back to Deadwood.  We parked in the garage for $10 for 24 hours so we could come back tonight during the Deadwood Kool Nites classic car show.

We did allot of trinket and gift shopping up and down the street.  Nan bought an insulated water bottle.  If anyone ever wants to buy a unique cowboy hat, Deadwood is the place.  Every shop had leather hats and one shop even seemed to custom make hats.  If I hadn't already spent all that time a few months ago researching what I wanted and picking out a good hat, this would have been a good opportunity to find one.

After a couple hours of shopping, we met up at the Stockyard for lunch.  We've eaten here several times over the years and it's always been good food.  Everyone split a miles, like chicken sandwich or french dip, but Nan and I each got a crispy chicken salad.  Nan's had ranch and mine had balsamic dressing.  They were really good and it felt good to eat something more healthy than meat and potatos.

Stockyard Restaurant

Can someone explain to me why young people think vertical photos look good for every single picture they take?  I really didn't need half of my photo to be the ceiling of the restaurant.  Do they not look at the phone as they take the picture?  Ok, that's enough grumpy old man voice.

After lunch we walked next door and got Ice Cream.  John took a picture of us......  Hmm, I guess it's not just the younger generation that uses vertical for every picture.  But at least his is well framed.

Nan started getting tired when we finished the ice cream, so we texted the others that we were heading back to the bikes then to the house.  We mounted up and took the back road to Lead.  Nan lay down to rest and I went back to writing the Blog.

Eventually everyone came back.  We chatted for a while about maybe doing a ride.  I thought it would be too long because I miss-understood the route so we didn't go.  Instead I lay down for 45 minutes and got a nice rest.  As a result, I'll probably be awake till 11:30 and wake up at 4:00 tomorrow morning.  Maybe not, it was allot of walking.

We ate spaghetti for dinner.  It's been nice to save some money by cooking dinners rather than going out every night.  We've always made breakfasts on these trip, but this is the first time we've tried to make both breakfast and dinner.  But it can be a challenge to find meals that everyone agrees on.  We had a couple of exceptions to our meals this week but it all worked out.

After dinner we planned on going to the Lead Live a local festival in the town we're staying.  Angela wasn't feeling well, so they stayed but the rest of us hopped on the bikes and headed down.  We say a big tent with about 20 people in it but it didn't look particularly festive so after a short discussion we decided just to go to the car show in Deadwood.

There were allot of people but it wasn't super crowded.  We easily found parking spots in the garage and didn't even have to double up the parking spaces.  This is the first night of the show so it must have had fewer cars.  Only the Northern half of main street had cars.  When I was here years ago there were cars everywhere, including all of the ground level parking lots.

We started browsing cars but soon all the others, including Nan had wandered away from me.  I took my own sweet time and meandered slowly up the street.

Looking up Main Street

1967 Ford Bronco Half Cab

While I was meandering, I saw a group of guys dressed ol' timey and figured some so of re-enactment was going to happen.  Sure enough, one guy asked us to clear the center of the street and they re-enacted the capture of Jack something who shot Wild Bill Hickock.

We spent a couple hours at the car show, then headed back to the house.  No one was really interested in playing cards so I worked on the blog and everyone else got ready for bed.  I've actually managed to finish the blog on the day of, so I might sit and practice my ukulele a bit then go to bed.  I'd like to sit in the Hot Tub, but I can't sleep when it's hot so I always wind up spending an hour cooling off and I'm already going to struggle getting to sleep after this afternoon's nap.  A little quiet time will be nice.

2025 South Dakota Ride with Friends - Day 4

 

2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota

I woke up at 5:00 but just lay in bed and browsed facebook rather than getting up.  Most mornings my nose starts running and I start coughing shortly after I wake up and this morning was no exception.  Maybe it's because I use a cpap machine to help with sleep apnea.  When I start coughing I usually get up so I don't wake up Nannette.

I got up and decided to sit in the hot tub while it was still quiet.  I only opened half of the cover and tuned the jets on high.  It was heaven to sit there getting my muscles massaged by the hot water and listening to some light rock.  I tried to keep the volume down so it didn't wake anyone up.  No one threw a shoe at me so I guess it was ok.

I got out after 20 minutes, showered, dressed and went right back to writing this blog.

Breakfast was made by Brenda.  It was avocado toast and eggs.  I got 2 over easy eggs on mine and it was heavenly.  We had a long discussion over breakfast about the nastiness of runny yolk.  Only 2 of us like over easy eggs.  Everyone else likes dead eggs with rigormortis setting in.

We started talking about soft boiled eggs and why they are so beloved around the world, then I reminded everyone about Gulliver's Travels.  The Lilliputians were at war with the Blefuscu over which end of a soft boiled egg should be opened.  The pointy end or the rounded end.  But the unstated point of the story is that EVERYONE LIKES SOFT BOILED EGGS AND RUNNY YOLKS!!

Anyway, we had a good laugh arguing about eggs for quite a while.

Nan was feeling good today and wanted to ride, so we geared up with everyone else.  Today was a simple riding day.  We headed south then turned up Spearfish canyon for our 3rd run.  It's been everyone's favorite route.  We didn't stop anywhere but just meandered up the canyon in the cool air and clear skies.

Once we reached Spearfish, we hopped on the freeway toward Sturgis.    I tend to drive slower than everyone else so I wound up well behind.  Sturgis has 2 exits and I wasn't sure which one the others had taken.  But I knew we wanted pictures by the Sturgis sign and that's by the 2nd exit so I stayed on the freeway.  Sure enough, as we passed the stop sign on the exit, there sat the other guys.  I honked and Nan waved but no one saw us.  I wasn't too worried since everyone has cell phones and the town's not that big.

By the time I took the other exit, John had called to ask where we were.  I told him we were by the sign and he said "Stay there, we'll be there in a few minutes".  So Nan and I took some pictures with the 360 camera.  Then another couple on a bike came by and were just planning to stand by the sign.  I showed the how to ride up the sidewalk to sit near the sign and took pictures for them.

John and the rest showed up shortly after and began maneuvering up onto the pedestal for pictures.  We talked about trying to get all 4 spyders onto the pedestal but decided against it.  We just posed with all the couples around the sign and called it good.

Posing by the Sturgis Sign

Kissing by the Sturgis Sign

Next we rode down to the main road and parked the bikes.  It was getting hot by now and doing some shopping in air conditioned stores seemed like a good idea.  Everyone had their 2025 shirts, hats, and other souvenirs marked down so almost everyone bought something.  Nan was wearing my ancient Harley baseball hat which I bought in 2008.  She decided she wanted her own nice hat to wear while we're out with the bike.

Nan found a leather outback style hat that she liked.  We asked the lady how much and she thought for a bit and said $40 which is a smoking deal for a real leather hat.  At least I hope it's real leather.  But we bought it and she's happy.  Nan has always looked good in hats.

Nan's new Hat and Sun Glasses

Greg and Brenda bought quite a few t-shirts and other things to bring home to kids and grand kid at the first store where Nan got her hat.  We spent about 30 minutes in that first tent then moved on up the street.  We kept shopping for another half hour until we reached the store with the official rally photos.  We stood as a group in front of the giant photo and tried to make it look like we were part of the crowd.

Part of the Sturgis Crowd

We continued shopping until noon then met back up at the bikes.  We had shopped for well over an hour but only covered about 5 stores.  Many of the stores were already closed for the season and all of the vendor stalls were torn down and gone.  It was getting lunch time and we decided to go to the Iron Horse Saloon.  

I led the way to Iron Horse Saloon, but when I pulled into the parking lot, it looked closed.  No cars anywhere to be seen and no one visible through the windows.  We left and headed back down the street until we saw John.  After some discussion we chose The Knuckle Saloon.  It was nearly empty so we got a nice table in the middle.

The menu was very sparse but everyone chose something off of it.  Nan and I got un-battered steak tips and tater tots but we got fries instead.  The Steak Tips were delicious.  We were the only ones happy with our choice.  Greg ordered some deep fried pickles but missed the fact that they were "hot" pickles and wound up with a bad stomach ache.  John and Angela got the chicken sandwich special but found it to small not tasteless.  Ron and Karen got a rock hard bun on their chicken sandwich.  In all, a really bad meal.

John went outside to get something from his bike and came back warning of black clouds gathering.  The weather app showed a bad thunder cell coming over us but it didn't seem very large so we weren't worried (foreshadowing).

One Storm in hundreds of miles and its over us

Greg's stomach was so bad that they decided to head for the house rather than do any more riding.  We said our goodbyes and headed off.  Our plan was to ride Vanocker Canyon Road down to Johnson Corner then take highway 385 back.  We left Sturgis headed South East toward blue skies but after 5 minutes we began to get light springs.  Then it turned into a light rain which continued falling.  I kept expecting to ride out of it but we never did.

Rain on Vanocker Canyon

We stopped to put on rain gear, but it wasn't raining hard and the sky ahead looked clear, so we only put on jackets.  Except for Nan.  She remembered our last trip here and wanted her full gear.  She can learn from experience, not so much the rest of us.

We started riding down the road again, but instead of getting lighter, the rain just got heavier.  Soon there was water running down the sides of the road and my pants were thoroughly soaked.  I kept talking about how wet I was getting and Nan would just reply "I'm fine" cause she had full gear on.

Finally Karen told Ron to STOP and let her put more gear on.  So Ron stopped and I followed suit.  It only took a few seconds to put my rain pants on and about that time John came back to see where we were.  John and Angela decided not to put on more gear because they were already soaked.  We also decided to turn around and head back to the house.

The rain continued just as hard once we turned around and continued until we drove out of the canyon when it started to slacken.  Finally as we were 5 miles down the road to Deadwood the rain stopped and the sun came out.  I looked in my weather app and the big red blob of rain was sitting just West of Rapid City, right where we would have been if we had continued riding.  Sometimes (most of the time?) us guys need our wives to say "Stop and turn around" and we should listen to them.  I'm sure I've learned my lesson and will never continue pushing a bad decision ever again despite the advice of my wife.

On our way back we drove slowly up Deadwood's main street just to see what was going on.  It wasn't packed with people but it looked pretty active.  I video taped the drive but I'd forgotten to wipe the lens from all the rain so it's blurry and unusable.

Back at the house everyone started showering and drying off, but all my clothes were dirty, so I drip dried.  I wasn't all that wet anyway and within an hour I just had a few damp spots on my jeans and shirt.

I did yet more blog writing, then drove down to the store.  My shopping list was, a case of water, diet dr pepper, peanut m&ms, trash bags, gatorade, fat boy ice cream bars, and ice.  They didn't have the right gatorade, no fat boys and the ice cream sandwiches looked freezer burned, and I forgot the ice.  It wasn't a great shopping trip, so Greg had to make another run later.

Greg cooked burgers for dinner and I cut up a watermelon.  Both were awesome.

Greg Cooking Burgers

We played some cards for a while, then John suggested we go for an evening ride.  That sounded like fun so I started getting ready, then John remembered that his shoes were still soaking wet and decided not to go.  Everyone else dropped out too, but I still wanted to ride and went alone.

I've been experimenting with my 360 camera and my new bluetooth headset.  I can record the audio from my headset while I make a video then pair the two.  With a 360 video, you can make a normal video while pointing the camera in any direction to create a virtual video.  You don't have to pre-point the camera like you do with your phone.  So here's the video I made.

Riding Deadwood's Main Street at Dusk

2025 South Dakota Ride with Friends - Day 3

 

2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota

Day 3 was Sunday morning.  I got up at 5:30 but John was already awake and sitting out in the living room browsing on his phone.  I got up and started working on this blog.  If I haven't mentioned it, writing blogs is hard.  Trying to tell a joke that won't offend or put enough of my personality into a blog so my decedents can know a little bit of who I am and what I'm like.  I also love re-reading my old blogs and reminiscing about the good times and sometimes reminding others of those good times.

Sunrise from the Rental

After an hour or so I managed to finish day 1 of the blog.  Only a day and a half behind.  I'll need to catch up or it becomes very hard and I forget too many details.

Angela got up around 7:30 and started making her wonderful french toast.  Somehow by the time the groceries got into the house, all of the bread I'd bought for Angela was squashed, so Angela stole Karen's bread to cook instead.

Everyone got fed and ready to leave by 9:00 so we could make the 45 minute drive out to Belle Fourche for church.  Nan didn't want to ride today so we were in the Highlander.  Angela and Karen rode with us to church.

All the Spyders in the rental Garage

It was a nice old building, but I started to get one of my allergy attacks.  Some of those old buildings used burlap on the walls for sound deadening and sometimes I react very bad.  My nose started running, my eyes got itchy and I couldn't stop coughing, but after 10 minutes it stopped so I was able to stay.  Sometimes it's so bad I have to leave.

Church was nice and the people were very friendly.  We stayed through Sacrament, then all the ladies headed to the bathrooms to change out of church clothes and into riding clothes.

From church we were heading to Devils Tower in Wyoming, about 50 minutes away.  If you don't know what Devils Tower is, it was the mountain in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  A really striking tall pillar of rock with unique stripes down the sides.  It's the left over core of a volcano that all the debris has washed away from.

The indians called it Bear Lodge thinking that some giant bear had long ago raked it with it's claws to make the stripes.

Anyway, the drive towards Devil's Tower was very nice.  Low hills and scattered trees with beautiful view all around.  I would really have enjoyed the ride except for the heat.  We stopped for a drink at a gas station about 9 miles short of the tower.  It was getting up into the 90s and several ladies were getting uncomfortable.  The lady in the gas station told us that the best food was the Diamond Bar just outside the Tower.

It was pretty good food if very slow service.  No one complained about the food, and at the end, Nan got a blue berry tart with ice cream that everyone sampled and loved.  Ron got a bit bowl of ice cream as well.

We'd been to Devil's Tower on previous trips.  In fact, on one trip, someone make the comment that he'd actually driven to the top of the tower and how neat it was.  Several people questioned him, but he was sure he'd been to the top.  As it turns out, he hadn't.  It was just a winding road around the back side of the tower to a shaded parking lot.  So this time, John took the photo uf us all and our bikes, pasted onto the top of Devil's Tower and sent it to the guys telling him how we'd finally made it to the top.  Some jokes will just never go away.

Rode the bikes to the top of Devil's Tower

The other 3 couples all decided that they didn't really need to see the tower, but Nan really wanted to.  So she and I said goodbye and headed into the national monument.   It was just like I remembered, nice road through trees to the back side.  Then a short hike up toward the tower reading all the information signs. By the time we'd seen enough and headed back to the car it was down right hot.  The car was burning hot too and took a long time to cool back down.

Devil's Tower

Nan at Devil's Tower

On the way back I dropped Nan off to get here nails done and I ran to Walmart to get a few groceries.

Dinner was supposed to be spaghetti but everyone was tired so it turned into "Call Pizza" night. 4 large pizzas was way too much for this group and we wound up putting 2 whole pizzas in the fridge.

Nan headed to bed early, I worked on the blog, and everyone else played Looser for a couple hours.  But by 8:30 everyone had headed to bed.  I stayed up blogging until 10:30 then went to bed.

2025 South Dakota Ride with Friends - Day 2

 

2025 August 15 - 22 South Dakota

I woke up at 5:30 to shower and start preparing breakfast.  This trip we assigned each couple one day to cook breakfast and dinner and today was our day.  I prepped bacon, mushrooms, ham, and green onions by cutting and cooking them.  I brought 10 dozen eggs for the entire week.  I also brought my own sauté pan so I didn't have to cook in whatever leftover scummy pan was in the rental.

I also started writing this blog since I had no chance to do it yesterday.  My blogging has been very spotty lately but I really want to save more memories so I'll try to keep this up.

People started waking up about 8:00 and I began making omelets.  There are several different ways to make omelets and I tend to do the style with just eggs, rapidly stirred until curds form, then smooth it out. Let the eggs solidify, then flip the eggs and sprinkle cheese over the whole thing.  Add whatever fillings they want, then fold it in half.  Let the cheese melt on one side then flip to melt the other side and serve it.

If you add filling directly into the eggs you have to leave the eggs very soft (nearly raw) or the omelet will crack and won't look appealing.

That enough of my omelet making expertise.  Everyone seemed happy with the results.

By 10:00 we began migrating down to the bikes.  It often takes 30 minutes to load cups with ice and water, find gloves, get snacks and all the other important things you need on a ride.  But being in a house and doing day rides is MUCH better than those rides where you are in a different hotel every night and have to unpack and repack every day.

We started by riding down the hill from the house to a gas station where more prep was done.  I started out wearing a jacked but sitting there waiting for others to be ready I began seating, so I tucked the jacket in one of my saddlebags.

We headed South down the highway for 8 miles and turned back North into Spearfish Canyon.  The temp was in the low 70s and felt really good.

Riding down Spearfish Canyon

Spearfish canyon is a relaxing ride.  It's all low speeds, like 35 and 45.  We cruised along for 15 minutes just enjoying the scenery until we got to the first waterfall called Spearfish Falls.  It was just far enough into the ride that many of us old geezers needed to use the bathroom, but these were really bad and smelled it.  You just had to take a deep breath and dash in.  The sad part was, once we left, there were about 10 clean, new, port-a-potties just down the road.  Probably put there for the Sturgis rally.

Once the necessities were done, we walked over to the trail map.  It said the trail was 1.8 miles round trip and neither Nan or myself wanted to do that.  Exactly the same as the last time we visited this place.  So instead we walked over to the overlook and waited for the 2 adventurous couples to get down to the falls and take pictures of each other.

Nan, Clay, John, and Angela 

Brenda, Greg, Karen, and Ron

Once we got back together we all ate some of Brenda's custom made trail mix and got back on the bikes.  We saw the big bank of port-a-potties, then scattered ones every mile or two.  There was a creek running beside the road and fairly often we saw a car or motorcycle parked with no one around.  I assume most were off fishing the creek nearby.  We did see a few, and especially in any ponds or wide spots.  This would probably be a fun place to fish.

Our next stop was at "Bridal Veil Falls".  I think by law, every state MUST have a bridal veil falls somewhere in its borders.

There was a nice view point and we lined up with everyone else to get our picture.  But a couple ladies were just standing there watching their kids cross the creek and hike up to the falls.  We waited a while and eventually someone got up the gumption to ask the to scoot over.  We got a nasty glare from one lady but they did move over and I tried to take our picture as quick as we could.  I narrowed the picture a bit because they wouldn't actually get out of the way, they just scooched over a bit.  Yes, that's a waterfall behind us and yes, it WAS worth a picture.

Bridal Veil Falls

Once the photo drama was over we mounted up again and continued our ride.  Just a few miles down the road I started a video and almost immediately came around a corner to see a bunch of mountain goats beside the road.  I rode pretty slowly past but I probably should have just stopped because one of the babies was being very playful and jumping on the mom.  The wives assures me it was adorable.

Mountain Goats in Spearfish Canyon

After the goats we meandered the rest of the way out of canyon, then stopped at a gas station for refreshment.  It was close to lunch time but no one was hungry yet.  We eventually decided to run to walmart to pick up a few things we needed.  There is a long standing joke between John and Nannette about going to Walmart on vacation.  17 years ago on our first ride together, Nan needed some things so we went to Walmart and John wasn't happy, so we've teased him ever since and this was no exception.

John's facebook post about being drug to Walmart

2008 Picture of John in a Walmart on the PCH ride

Once we decided to go to Walmart I look up directions and we started to head out.  But for some reason, Ron decided to take off first and led the way out of the parking lot.  But he turned right and headed us into downtown Spearfish.  I didn't know if he knew something I didn't so I let him lead on.  Then about 2 miles later Ron finally pulled over and put his hands in the air like "I don't know where I'm going".  So I pulled around him and leds us in a loop back to Walmart.  Sometimes it just happens that you get excited and head down the road before knowing where you're going.

We got to the Walmart, but once you get 8 people in a store, everyone starts remembering stuff they need.  Nan and I originally went in for 2 things but came out with about 10.  But we were all on Spyders and you have to consider what you have room for. We were spread out all over the store and it took almost 30 minutes to get us back out of the store.  Once we got out, someone remembered a restaurant we saw on Ron's  wild ride, so we headed back to downtown.  It was a great lunch.

 
Lunch at Red Water Kitchen

After lunch we decided just to ride right back down Spearfish Canyon back to the rental.  It was just as beautiful on the way back as it was coming, but this time there were no mountain goats.

A week ago we had an "Empty Nesters" dinner with other older couples.  I made chicken fajitas and just made allot more than we need.  I vacuum sealed it, froze it, and brought it with us on this trip.  So tonight I made chicken fajitas for dinner.  I also made guacamole and by the end of the meal, there wasn't much left over chicken or guac, so it must have been pretty good.

After dinner everyone else started playing a card game called "Looser", but Nan and I went out to the Hot tub and soaked for 30 minutes.  The temperature was turned way up to 105 degrees and it took a while to get in.  It was a really nice hot tub with powerful jets.  We took turns moving around the different jet seats with the bubbles turned on and massaging our muscles.  

Everyone started yawning and went to sleep by about 8:30.  I stayed up and kept writing this blog until about 10:30.  I still haven't even finished the first day.