The DRZ Chronicles

 Left North Platte this morning and headed east and south. Met Paula for lunch at Hastings. Departed there and rode south to Salina, KS. Spend the night here and plan on leaving early in the morning for home. That will be a pretty long day, about 430 miles  but looking forward to sleeping in my bed! Pooped!

 Breakfast with the UP gang. Really good to see everybody. I think I have updated all my contacts  so will stay in touch. All my business is done here. Will be hading out in the morning, lunch in Hastings, then spend the night in Salina, KS before doing a final push to Mountain Home. On the right: Beech  Jason, Jeremy, Joel. On the far end  Kirk. On the left: Me, Nate, Dan, and Mark. Great guys to work with. Everyone is scattered now, but we were, pretty much, midnight light repair when I was working. Good to see you guys again. Will stay in touch and let you know when I am passing through again. Dan with his insane 460 Mustang. It does sound pretty bad-ass! Nate's Indian 111. Beautiful bike that he needs to do a cross-country on...😉 Under the hood. Pretty decent burn-out Dan!

 Got over to Beav's and changed oil in DR. Thanks Beav! His restored Cougar oversaw the operation and ensured the operation was completed satisfactorily.

 I dropped off a "Thank you/Goodbye" present for my doc today. She has gotten me through some tough times and I am in her debt. Clarified with attorney Glen van Velson what I needed to do to move my will to Arkansas. Finally, met Dan, Shane, Bill, Brian and Joe at Peg Leg Brewery. A great time seeing everyone but I was distracted enough that I did not get any pics. Changing oil at Jeremy's tomorrow, then meeting Joel  Jeremy, Dan and Mark for breakfast Wednesday. Hopefully, I will remember pics then. Time for some sleep, I think DR is already asleep...

 A long and windy ride, but no more rain. Here until Thursday. Then, heading home. Skipping St. Louis, I'm beat. Knowing you have a bed to go home to changes your whole perspective.

 The rain has ended. Now  a quick bite to eat and back to the cap to try and dry thing out  It seems the waterproofing on my tent has failed. The rain fly is leaking and the floor was letting water through like crazy. Things to be dealt with. Changed plans, out of here in the morning and heading to North Platte for a few days 

 After a bit of research, I realized that of the 48 states I have been to by motorcycle, 43 of those states were ridden on DR. Of course, there is redundancy, as I had ridden some states multiple times on different bikes. However, the fact remains that DR has travelled through more states than any of my other bikes, and through more states than many so-called "touring bikes" ever achieve. Based on these conclusions, I think it only fair and proper to designate DR as an intercontinental touring and dual-sport masterpiece.  

 Long ride today. About 289 miles, some rain but not a big deal. The wind was more of a problem. Wore me down and knocked my mileage down 10mpg to 46. But, out of the Dakotas and in Nebraska. Camping at a Corps of Engineers campground on the Missouri river, Nebraska Tailwaters campground. It is just a couple miles south of Yankton  SD. Here for three nights. Ten bucks a night for an electric campsite, I like it! Will have to do a chain adjustment here. Hard to believe, but I have ridden 3,000 miles since leaving Arkansas on 9-6-23, so 16 days. Due for an oil change. Google Map Nebraska Tailwater Campground

 Just when I thought I had this motorcycle travel figured out... I decided to head through Minnesota and into North Dakota for camping. Very serious error. My Garmin GPS coul not locate anything. Literally. Google maps got me completely lost, stopped working and kept locking up. And my offline map program would only tell me I needed an update, though it was updated two weeks ago. After riding through enough gravel and dirt to shake my kidneys to pieces, I was able to extract a town location from my gps. I have a hotel for the night. $190.00 per night for a room in a cornfield. But I am now close (supposedly) to I29. Tomorrow, I will make my escape. To where? I don't care.

 Lower 48 states are done! I have been blessed to have faithful motorcycles!

A 319 mile ride today, in near perfect conditions. Across Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Minnesota, near Duluth  at the Duluth KOA. I managed to get pics of  Michigan and Wisconsin welcome signs, but no Minnesota yet. Regardless  Minnesota was the final state I needed to have ridden in all of the lower 48, so mission accomplished! Kinda pumped about that.  It took quite a while to do.

 Chilly, little breezy, bright sun saturated fall colors  great roads and super clean air. Perfect day of riding. Michigan in the fall is spectacular. Very clear Lake Superior Great roads Fall colors not really showing up in pictures

 I made it to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Seeing a video shot from the deck of an ore boat in a storm brought back some bad memories. I have done some crazy things, but working on a Great Lakes tug was full-blown loonie. M2 and M123 are magnificent roads. Very remote. Trees are turning and its cold. I am glad I did not wait any longer to come up here. Stopped for coffee then another hour to Bay Furnace campground. My first view of Superior. Tampa Tugs would not put their boats on Superior.