Because this is what Engineers Do - Data and Statistics.

Overall we had a great adventure, we were on the road 14.5 days and we packed a lot into it. Here are some statistics.

The trip was 3,836 miles. We passed through 11 states and Canada. We intentionally tried to avoid covering the same route out and back, we succeeded.

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania

Ohio

Indiana

Illinois

Wisconsin

Minnesota

South Dakota

Wyoming (Motorcycle)

Michigan

We used 236 gallons of diesel fuel, with a total cost of $943.65.

We averaged 240 miles between fill ups

We averaged 16.25 MPG. (I consider this respectable for a vehicle hovering at its  maximum GVW of 8550# towing an enclosed trailer that with load is a bit over 2000#)

Worst mileage was 14.8 mpg, going from Sturgis to Minnesota with a significant head wind.

Best mileage was 17.41 mpg, leaving Minnesota, secondary roads, about 60 mph.

The average price of diesel was $4.01, lowest was $3.70/gal in SD, the highest was $4.96/gal in Canada (currency conversion is tbd).

pic of meal

For the most part we prepared all our meals at camp or in the van. We ate out only when we were without the van on the bikes, so we only had 3 dinners out.

This was the first long trip we took in the van, it worked very well. It holds 30 gallons of fresh water, and getting good water can be an issue. We went over a week on a single fill up, we last filled the tank in Oshkosh on Saturday the 2^nd and still had water when we arrived home on the 11^th. We took our showers at the campgrounds, but used the water for all else, I was surprised it lasted.

We never seemed to have an issue with batteries, even though we never plugged in. We did run the generator when we need to make coffee or use the microwave, so that likely helped keep the batteries topped off. 

Here are the raw numbers. 

Sunday and Monday, August 10 and 11 - Home

We crossed the bridge into Canada and found it interesting that they were not interested in looking in our Van or our trailer, I guess we look beyond suspicion.

The drive through Canada on the Trans-Canada highway (Rt 17) is really not on a highway. It is for the most part a two way traffic road with top speeds of 100 k/h (62 mph), however everyone drives at least 120 k/h so we just went with it. You go through many small towns and frankly you really don't feel like you are in another country at all, everyone speaks English and the signs are first in English second in French.

We crossed back into the USA in Ogdensburgh the bridge is at least a mile long and all steel, including the deck...this would not be fun on a motorcycle.

We arrived at John and Kathy's about 7:30PM, it was great to see our old friends, we sat on their huge porch, relived some old times and had a refreshment (or few).

They live in farm country and in the morning we watched the deer eat the farmers corn. John doesn't hunt, but every time I visit, I think that I should visit him in the fall.

We again hit the road about 7:30 AM, with only 150 miles to cover to get home, piece of cake. We stopped and said hey to my parents on the way through Moriah and then headed home.

We arrived home around 12N, it was a nice sight to see. We had a fabulous trip but it is always nice to arrive where you call home. Our house sitters, Liz and John had the place squeaky clean and left us stocked with food, and spirits. 

 I sure hope they don't expect the same treatment when we visit them in Florida... :-).  

Saturday August 9th - Minnesota to Sault St Marie, Michigan

oday both Uncle Earle and Aunt Carol got up to wish us goodbye and we hit the road about 7:45AM and set off in hopes to make it to Saute St Marie, MI by dark.

As we drove across Wi, we were in Glen Flora and a bear came out in to the road...but I could not get my camera out in time and it ran back in to the brush...this is the second bear sighting for me this year, the last one was back in the NEK of VT just a few weeks ago.

We had picked out a campground in Saute St Marie but did not make a reservation since we were unsure we would make it, so we noted the closest Walmart and went to the Soo Locks Campground. We arrived at about 8:15PM, the office closed at 8PM..doh..should have called. They did leave a map on the door of the campsites still available, and we picked one. Got the passwords for the shower and wifi from a fellow camper and we were all set. We cooked our dinner, watched a bit of TV and called it a night.  

I got up early (4AM) because I the freighters were letting their fog horns blast most of the night.  June never heard them, but I sure did.  It did give me time to update my blog and get through some emails.  I had to sit outside of the office since that is the only place I could get the wifi and by 6:30 AM I was pretty frozen, I cam in the van and turned on the furnace and June thought I was nuts.  It was a beautiful red sunrise.

The office opened at 7AM, we paid our dept ($29) and were headed for Canada by 7:30AM.  We plan to make it to John and Kathy's in Postdam, NY again before dark. Another 600ish miles. 

Friday August 8th - Royalton Minnesota with Aunt Carol and Uncle Earle

We had last visited Aunt Carol and Uncle Earle around 1998 when we did a cross country driving trip with the kids, it is just as I remembered it, Uncle Earle has done a great job keeping up the farm and still has his tractors and his 1964ish Dodge truck he purchased brand new.

We spent an hour or so in the morning touring the Weyerhauser Museum, which chronicles the history of the area, it was a huge lumber producer in the 1800's.

In the afternoon Uncle Earle took June and I out for a tour of the farm on his four wheelers and June got to dip her toe into the mighty Mississippi. We learned from Patti that it is not the longest river in the USA, but the second longest....the Missouri being the longest

One thing we learned is that Uncle Earle makes a mean Margarita, we have the recipe but finding the the ingredients outside of California is going to be a challenge, you need the secret ingredient that Uncle Earle says only can be found in California

We also learned that Aunt Carol makes enchilada's and taco's from scratch, including cooking her own shells for the tacos and they are yummy.

Since they are a farm, no sheep anymore, they have a few cats that come around that they feed but they do get some funny looking cats in their feeder too....we caught this guy stealing a bite.

Overall we had a great visit, both Uncle Earle and Aunt Carol seem to be continuing to enjoy their retirement, they leave shortly for Las Vegas and will visit Bryce and Zion national parks.   

They are always very welcoming hosts and it was a fun visit.

Thursday 7th - Travel to Aunt Carol's and Uncle Earl's in Minnesota

Today we got up, made breakfast, packed, said our goodbyes and were on the road about 9:15AM headed for Minnesota to spend the night at Aunt Carol's and Uncle Earl's. We initially would have liked to cruise through the Badlands and stop and see Jenn and Joe again, but after looking at 600 miles to cover today we decided to head north rather than south. Hopefully we will come back again and spend more time with them, it was great seeing our family out west.

We decided to not take the same route across SD that we took getting here, we swung north to pick up RT 212. It is quite good, a 65 mph speed limit and mostly deserted..if we ever ride the motorcycles this far, it would be the route to take rather than I90 which is 75mph and jammed with trucks, it is a much more leisurely drive. Once again the scenery was amazing.

We arrived at Aunt Carol's and Uncle Earle's about 10:30PM central time, it was dark but we managed to park without hitting anything.

Wednesday August 6th - Wyoming and Devil's Tower Loop.

Today we got up to again iffy weather. It was like we were in a fog bank, but the forecast was for it to improve over the day. We decided to pack our rain gear and attempt the loop that takes you thru Belle Fourche, into Hulett, Wyoming and Sundance. It is about a 165 mile loop.

We stopped a few places along the way, it seems every small town has a watering hole open for bikers.

My favorite was Hulett, it is a small town but 1000's of bikes show up at Captain Ron's Rodeo Bar for a free pork sandwich on Wednesday. They give out free sammiches until they use up 1000 pounds of pork. We got ours and it was delicious. It is also known for 'no panties Wednesday' but it has since been banned by law, but you still see some interesting women..I will leave it at that. Frankly the only person I saw without panties was a man wearing chaps, that was not pretty.

We saw lots of unique cycles and eventually moved on down the road to Devil's Tower.

Devil's tower is very unique, it just jumps out of the ground to over 800ft, it does not look natural, I am sure some alien put it there, possibly in some close encounter.... The ride to devil's tower is just breathtaking, it is big sky for sure with views that go on forever.

From Devil's Tower we departed for Sundance, where Robert Redford is reported to hang out, but he was not there to greet us today, his loss.

 Sundance is known for the Dime Horse Shoe Bar, their Burnout contest and wet Tee shirt contest. I could not get June to enter the tee shirt contest and it looked like rain, so we did not stay.

All of these small towns have their own unique character during bike week and it is hard not to get caught up in the festivities. From Sundance we jumped the interstate and headed back to Sturgis, we logged about 165 miles in the loop. The weather held off and when the sun was out you were smoking hot, but on the bikes you really wanted to have a jacket on.

We went back to camp for dinner, June once again cooked up a good dinner, spare ribs..yum. Since we were leaving tomorrow AM we wanted to at least sample some of the night life at Sturgis outside of downtown, so we headed off to visit a few.

First stop was the 'Full Throttle Saloon', the name really fits this place, I can honestly say I would not have believed it if I had not seen it. It is huge with bridges that have zip lines between them, bars everywhere, and you can entertain yourself just by people watching. They had a band playing - 'Fire House' that was getting the crowd cranked up, but we only stayed for a short time and moved on to see the Buffalo Chip.

BC has headline concerts every evening, Wed was Florida Georgia Line, but we did not buy tickets. This is one venue we will save for a possible next time but we did get to kind of look around the grounds...just huge. From the Buffalo Chip we drove to the Broken Spoke Saloon which is a fair distance from FTS and BC.

The really cool thing about the Broken Spoke is that when you arrive you can ride your motorcycle through the bar, not kidding. You ride in one door and out the other, right by the crowd and the stage, what a hoot. They had a Johnny Cash impersonator on stage who was pretty good. John and I had NA drinks since between these saloons and Sturgis it is like running the gauntlet of police, every few miles they have someone pulled over and they give the statistics on the news each evening...not something you want to be part of.

We made our way back to Sturgis and rode the strip one more time, just to see what we would see....yes you see some very strange people and some very cool bikes.

John and I ended the day with a beer under the canopy, it was a beautiful evening and the end of a packed and fun day. Tomorrow we pack up to head for Minnesota, we hope to make it to Aunt Carol's and Uncle Earle's by end of the day.

June and I both thank John immensely for spending the last few days with us at Sturgis, this is his fifth year coming and he is the best guide you could ask for to help you experience Sturgis. 

John will depart for home in Texas on Friday, he will be going the same way he got to Sturgis, riding his 2006 Softail Custom, he is a real biker. 

 Safe riding John.

It was a great week, we logged just under 600 miles on the bike and had a great time.

Tuesday August 5th - Spearfish Canyon - Rain Gear....

Today when we got up the weather looked a bit grim, so we decided to try to get a ride in early in hopes to beat the rain.

We road up what is called Spearfish Canyon, it was a beautiful ride, the canyon walls go vertical on both sides and the road is a set of very nice turns that just flow. We stopped at Bridal falls for a photo.

We completed the canyon ride to Deadwood for ice cream...John stuck his neck out and said it was very good..we were not disappointed. It was a great ride and we did not get wet.

We wanted to experience the downtown in the daytime and do some shopping so we stopped in Sturgis after the ride and planned to maybe do a ride after that.

There is much to see downtown and we probably spent more time than we planned browsing, then it started to rain. John and I looked at the radar and headed for the Harley store, June and I were clearly going to need rain gear. So we bit the bullet and both got gear at Harley pricing minus 10% such a deal.

Sturgis is all about Harley Davidson, but Indian was really making their presence known with large displays and a dealer in town. John and I registered to win a new Scout like the one I am sitting on, may the odds be in our favor.





We decided to have an early dinner and hope the rain passed....it did not. By the time we finished dinner it was pouring and we rode back to camp in a down pour, the rain gear did its job but our poor bikes where a mess since there is about a mile of dirt road to get to camp. We hunkered down for the evening in the camper since the wind came up and it rained for a few hours. Overall it was another good day despite the rain.

Monday August 4th, Sturgis, Rushmore Ride and Dinner with Helen and Steve

 Today we got up rather early, had breakfast at camp with John and dropped our laundry at the Hog Heaven store, for $10 they do your laundry..this is Heaven after all. We then headed for Jenn and Joe's, we arrived only a few mins late of our 9ish plan. Jenn even got Jona out of bed so we could get a family picture.

From there we headed towards the loop that goes to Rushmore via Needles Highway. Lots of elevation, sharp turns, and switchbacks. It was a great ride, the weather could not have been any better. There were lots of bikes, but there is nothing like having the locals show you around. We passed through some very cool tunnels, one where you can see Rushmore out the other side. Pictures do not do any of it justice, the scenery was breathtaking. We even saw a buffalo standing in the brush on the side of the road, they are very large animals so we kept moving. Shortly after that we stopped for lunch and we were inspired so we all ordered Bison burgers....very tasty.

Helen and Steve invited June and I to dinner at their house in Rapid City. We had some trouble finding it since Mr. GPS took us to a road that does not exist, but after pulling out the old paper map we got it sorted out and arrived late (there is a pattern here). It was a great meal and we enjoyed catching up. Of course Steve has a Harley and might ride it into Sturgis on Wednesday.

We returned to camp about 10PM and closed the day at about 255 miles of riding. A pretty good day, considering a good part of it was on roads with switchbacks.

Sunday August 3rd, Travel and arrive Sturgis, South Dakota

We left Oshkosh about 7:15 PM after packing up after the air show and headed west....with 800ish mile s to cover we wanted to get some of it in on Saturday.

We drove until around midnight which got us to Rochester, MN where we pulled into a truck stop and slept until about 5AM, got back on the road and drove I90 across MN and SD, which is pretty boring until you hit the black hills on the west side of SD.

We arrived at Sturgis about 4PM (Mountain Time) and my friend John was here waiting for us. 

We are staying at the Hog Heaven Campground, the people are very nice and is is basically find a place to park and call it camp, much like the EAA campground except less organized (maybe even cleaner tho, the campground – not the airstrip).

We also called June's niece Jennifer and husband Joe, they live about 30 mins from Sturgis and they jumped on their Harley and came to meet us. We had driven all day but were itching to ride the ½ ton machine we just hauled 2000 miles, so we decided we would ride out to Deadwood, a rather famous town from the old days. It was a short enough ride and had some appeal including “The Midnight Star” a casino/restaurant bought by Kevin Costner in 1991, Saloon number 10 where Wild Bill Hickock was shot and some other neat bars. 

It was good to get out and see Jennifer and Joe.

 It was a good start to our Sturgis visit, tomorrow we expect to ride to Joe and Jenn's house and then take a ride south from there up towards Rushmore.

Saturday August 2nd, Oshkosh - Red White and Blue Skies

Today the weather was perfect! We plopped our chairs on the flight line early in the morning and went strolling again. We bought our obligatory T-shirts to support the cause and prove we came. Again we found areas we had not even touched..the hangers are full of vendors with way cool gadgets for aviation.

We also found more unique planes, this jet is a kit from Sonic you can build, it has a range of 500miles and anyone can get certified to fly it....it later flew a demo during the show..I want one.

Insert Lancer pic SatOK_2014_08_02_0179

Here is a pic of the most beautiful Lancier I have ever seen...what a paint job and attention to fit and finish this guy did....I flew one of these that belonged to Don Thompson, it is like flying a Porsche, very exciting plane.

We headed back early to camp to ensure we had time to get showered and packed up since we planned to leave after the afternoon show. Turns out we had plenty of time since I forgot that my clock was still on eastern time and when we got to our flight line chairs we realized it was only 1:30PM not 2:30. Oh well, it gave us time to go find some of the famous Wisconsin cheese curds we heard so much about. They were OK, I guess you need to be from Wisconsin to crave them. They clearly save the best shows for the weekend...wow...what a performance by all.

Even some of the planes we saw earlier in the week did a more complete show. I guess weather could have played a role since you could not ask for more perfect weather at show time, low 80's clear sky and slight breeze.

The theme for the show was war birds, for over an hour straight they flew over 30 WWII planes at once, the sky was just full of WWII planes in squadron formation, if that did not put a lump in your throat nothing will. Then they started the strafing and bombing runs, they have radio transmitters in the planes that detonate the charges on the ground, it is deafening and you can feel the heat. They even do a Napame simulation they call the wall of fire, it is quite spectacular.

Unfortunately I some how hit the program button on my camera and I took 40 pictures that were over exposed....just white. Too bad there were some neat demos by the coast guard, the Osprey, Patty Wagstaff and others that I have no pics of. At least I realized and corrected it before the Tbirds show.

The Thunderbirds were amazing, lots of formation low altitude flying, beautiful.

One of the things that really makes Oshkosh special is the Jumbo-tron and the sound system. During routines the pilots, including the Tbirds, come on the PA system and talk to the crowd. The pilots look like bobble heads on the Jumbo-tron as they do tumbles and rolls, they all must have sore necks after a show.

As we packed up, left Oshkosh and headed for Sturgis, we know we left plenty to see and do for another visit some day. It really is an experience worth doing. The EAA does a great job, the grounds are spectacular and clean, if there is a paper on the ground you will see a spectator pick it up and put it in the trash, pretty cool.

One thing I did not fully appreciate is the link between EAA and our military, they are very close. The EAA even set up honor flights to take veterans to DC this week, a commercial American Airlines 757 landed during the Thursday show and again on Friday night. There are tons of veterans here, it is a very patriotic event.