Days 1 and 2 of the Trip to South Dakota.

Day 1. 9-4-18. It started with rain... I was all packed and ready to go by 0830. I was going to meet John 25 miles away at the Holiday gas station in Hayward at 0900. It was raining when I left home and it was still raining in Hayward... We left town and headed west on highway 77. An hour later it was still raining as we crossed into Minnesota.

We stopped in Cold Spring for some gas and a snack... still raining... The cashier at the Shell gas station suggested that we might be able to get out of the rain if we took highway 55 up to Glenwood, MN. That was not the original route we were thinking of, but we figured we'd try anything at this point.

In Glenwood, 250 miles from home, the rain quit... kind of.. We had managed to get out from under the long, slow moving storm system that was making things miserable. We had sporadic rains for the next several hours though. We still had to get south, as we were planing to ride west on highway 212. We dropped south and got into Millbank, SD about 3 hours later and gassed up again. We eventually made it to Faulkton and got a room at the Faulkton Inn. The little detour added a few miles for the day, making the day's total 505.

I will say that I'm very happy with the performance of my rain suit. It's a two piece set from Joe Rocket, style, RS-2. It's a heavy plastic material that doesn't pack super small, but it has worked much better for me than the light weight, coated nylon types. Those always seemed to leak. I just need to find a pair of rain gloves that I like...


Day 2. 9-5-18. Faulkton to Belle Fourche. In the morning we continued west on 212. We made a couple of stops along the way. We had breakfast in Gettysburg at the "212 Coffee Bean". It's a coffee shop, restaurant, and gift store all in one. We took another short break at the Missouri River crossing, and another at the wayside rest Ben Ash monument.

The Ben Ash monument, complete with graphitti..

It was too overcast for us to see the Black Hills from there.


When we got to Belle Fourche we had a quick lunch and John took off to visit some friends in the area, and I did some sight seeing. I knew that Belle Fourche is the "geographic center of the nation" and knew there was a marker in town, but I had never seen it. There's a small park along highway 85, south of 212. In that park there are some markers and displays about local history, a visitors center and museum, some war memorials, and a large stone compass rose to mark the center of the nation.

When I was done, I checked in at the campground. John had reserved a camping cabin at Wyatt's Hideaway. We've stayed there many times. I think it's one of the nicest campgrounds around. They have a very large and clean shower house and bathroom, and the atmosphere is laid back and very quiet, even during the rally.

Road Trip Time...

... and Fall is rapidly approaching!!!

My buddy John and I are going west again. We're headed to Sturgis, SD to watch the Supermoto races on the 7th and 8th. Our plan is the leave WI on Tuesday, my 58th birthday, and return home on Tuesday the 11th. We were out there for the races last year and that's when my radiator started leaking. I'm really hoping for a drama free trip this time!

I've put over 1800 miles on the bike since having the radiator repaired... so far, so good. No leaks! Everything should be all set. I've changed the oil, lubed the chain, and checked the air in the tires. All I need is a few minutes to pack, put on the rain gear, and I'll be good to go. The weather guessers have said that there's a 100% chance of rain all day Tuesday :(


Starting mileage...

I need this trip! Fall is here and the peak leaf color is only 25-29 days away! Where did the summer go?

The trees in my neighborhood have started to change and they seem to gain a lot more color every day.

The deer are losing their red summer color and their gray/brown winter coats are coming in.

This mama's coat change is a little behind the others, and her twin fawns still have spots!

The compost pile is doing better than the garden!

And one last thing... Last week, Nancy found videos for cats on Youtube... Big mistake showing them to our cat, Screamer! He's become a video addict. He sits in front of the TV and cries until "birds" is on. He may end up being a cat with his own TV... LOL

Just Checking in...

It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog so I thought I'd check in.

It's funny how things change in life... priorities change... interests change...

I still enjoy riding my motorcycles as much as I always have, but seem to have less time and desire to say much about it. I hope to ride out to South Dakota with my buddy John again this fall. We were out there last year to watch the SuperMoto races in down town Sturgis.

As you may remember, that was when the radiator on the Zx-14 sprung a leak. I ended up leaving it in S.D. and going back for it a couple of weeks later. It has since been repaired, test ridden, and is all set to go on another adventure..

John came over to help and we began to tear it apart. The radiator removal was pretty straight forward. It did involve the removal of a lot of plastic, but the actual radiator removal was easy. 3 bolts and 4 hoses. It took longer to remove the body panels than it did the radiator.

I weighed my options before deciding how to go about the repair... A NEW radiator was ridiculously expensive.. $966. I shopped Ebay for a used one. Most of them look like they came off of crashed bikes and most had a ton of bent fins and looked pretty crappy! The prices were all over the place. A nice one was $250 and I think the cheapest was around $65, but that one looked like hell. It was full of sand and mud, had bent fins and no guarantee that it didn't leak... I even stopped at a couple of local motor sports places. I know they're used to dealing with ATVs and UTVs but I figured that they're water cooled and they must occasionally have to repair a radiator. No luck! No one I talked to could give a solid recommendation for anyone local to weld up the thin aluminum radiator.

I found a place down in the twin cities area, Tom's Radiator Repair on Main street in Anoka, MN. I called Tom and he assured me that the repair would be easy enough for him to do and that he had repaired countless aluminum radiators. He quoted me $75 for the repair, paint, and pressure testing.

Nancy was going down to the cities so she dropped it off one day and picked it up the next!!

It turns out that the Cox Radiator Guard I had installed a few weeks after buying the cycle, had rubbed on the bottom corner and eventually, over the course of 55,000 miles, wore a pin hole in one tube. The radiator guard used several small foam sticky blocks to isolate it from the radiator. Over time, some of the blocks collapsed and then bad things started to happen I can't really fault the maker of the guard. Ultimately it's my responsibility to make sure everything is OK...

Anyways.. We're up and running! waiting for some place fun to ride to.... Hey John, how about a long day trip down to the alphabet roads???

Radiator just out of the bike...

Good foam block....

Bad foam block... One of several. There were even a few blocks that had fallen off. The radiator went back on the bike without the guard on it.

I wasn't thinking about taking pictures when I had the bike all apart! After I got the radiator back, John came over and we got it back in place with no problems.

Today Will be a Very Sad Day.....

Our oldest cat, 15 year old "Sticky", will be taking his last trip to the veterinarian this morning. His health has been in decline for some time. He's lost a lot of weight, has problems keeping food down, and has some other issues. We've had him checked out, but there isn't anything we can realistically do for him...

Our Sticky story started in the first months of 2005. Earlier that winter, Nancy and I moved from Minnesota to Prescott, WI. We noticed a cute little black and white tuxedo cat that would come around every evening. We started to feed him and he began hanging around all day. At first, he was reluctant to come in the house and would stay outside in the cold spring air. I'd sit on the floor by the sliding patio door and try to convince him to come in. One night, I became frustrated by his stubbornness, slid the door shut and said, "Fine, be a f-stick"... except I used the whole word. The name kind of stuck and from then on, when either Nancy or I would see him in the backyard, we'd say, "F-stick's here". Over the years, the name evolved and was shortened to Sticky.

Nancy and I talked about letting him come in to spend the night and see how things went. We were considering taking him in and keeping him as our cat. We knew he was friendly and well behaved, but we didn't know if he was box trained or not. So one night in April, I set up a litter box and a pet bed for him, and I made a bed on the couch for myself. I had closed the door to the upstairs and when he walked in through the patio door, I closed it and the trial began. I played with him for a while before I fell asleep on the couch. In the morning, he was curled up on the rug beside me and he had used the cat box. I think, maybe it was Sticky who was testing us that night. Even after being let back outside, he was never gone long. I guess he chose us... We were "his", or was he "ours"?

We tried to locate his owner, we took pictures of him and printed flyers and put them in the mail boxes in the neighborhood, but no one claimed him...

We took him to the vet and had him checked out. The vet's best guess at his age was, maybe 2? He had already been neutered, so he wasn't feral, but only had 4 teeth, so the Vet thought that maybe he had been neglected and had a poor diet as a kitten.

Our place in Prescott was perfect for cats. There was a large wooded area right behind our house and Sticky used to follow me on walks through them. While we lived there, our cat family grew steadily. First was Sticky, then Orangie, then a pregnant female showed up and had a litter of 6 in my closet.... We found homes for the kittens and mom, but we kept 2, Rudy and Screamer. Neighbors brought us 2 more cats in the following years and we gladly took them in, L.B.K. (Little Boy Kitty) and Vinnie (the thug)...

By the time we moved up to Cable, in December of 2011, we had 6 cats. Starting at the orange cat and going counter-clockwise... Orangie, Vinnie, Screamer, Sticky, L.B.K., and Rudy...

They all got along great. Sticky was the "mother" and alpha cat in the house. He was always grooming the others and watching out for them.

Playing with the two new kittens, Rudy and Screamer...

And when I say that Sticky was a "mother" to the others, I'm not kidding. Here he is with Rudy, who is trying to nurse...

When he wasn't tending to the other cats, his favorite activity was to climb on me and nap...

If he wasn't napping, he'd be right next to one of us "helping" us with whatever we were doing... Working on crafts, cleaning the fridge, or cleaning firearms... he always wanted to be part of things.

Sticky was a great hunter, he used to bring his kills to us as gifts... One afternoon, after a couple hours of hunting, he brought home a sparrow, a chipmunk, and mouse. He piled the gifts on the patio downstairs. Once in a while, he'd sneak a trophy into the house and play with it...

We'd do just about anything for him, and have been through a lot with him. Including, two bouts of a blocked ureter, a 12' fall from trying to jump onto a hanging light fixture in the foyer, and a pellet still lodged in his hind quarters. Courtesy of the 35 year old, still-living-at-home-with-mom-and-dad, single, neighbor "boy" that thought would be fun to shoot Sticky in the a$$ from his deck, while the cat was walking in our yard... Just before we had Rudy put down, our vet took an x-ray of his lungs and found a similar pellet. I'm hoping there's a special place in the after life for guys like that. Thanks Sean :(

It's sad to know that after tomorrow, we'll be down to one cat, Screamer. We've lost 4 already... Vinnie, in 2012 to a sudden heart attack. L.B.K., in 2013 to a liver disease. Orangie, in 2016 to feline diabetes, and almost exactly a year ago, Rudy, to FIP.

On Sticky's latest visit to the Vet, she told us that when his bad days are more frequent than his good days, it's time to start thinking about... Well, for the last month or so, his good days have been fewer in number. He's not the cat he once was.

We both feel terrible about the decision we had to make, but it really is the best for him. We don't want to see him suffer, and we can tell that he's not himself and he's not feeling well. His gait is slow and unsteady and his appetite is fading... It's time...

For the last couple of weeks we've been spoiling him and loving him up every chance we can. I know Nancy and I will miss our little buddy. He was truly the perfect cat. He was always sociable when people visited our home, and was always accepting of new cats.

He was always the alpha of the pack, but once in a while he'd have to tackle Rudy and pin him to the floor, just to remind him who's in charge...

Rest in Peace my little friend. We're both going to miss you so much!!

Mama and Papa.

What I've been up to...

No motorcycling news to report, but I've managed to stay busy. Winter made a brief appearance here then it kind of went away. We've had some pretty mild temps considering it's now the first week of December. Today it was a sunny 42° and tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm. I'm sure that winter will return later this week. I saw the forecast for this Friday, high of 13°, low of -4°...

I found an ad on Craigslist for some free firewood. The guy that posted the ad lives down by Hayward, about 30 miles away. He had two pictures in his ad...

He had put up a pole shed and these were cut down when he cleared the land. I think he kept the oak for himself and was giving away these poplars. They're not the greatest firewood, but hey, free is good and when the wood dries, it will burn just fine. So, I called the guy last Tuesday and went to see just what I was getting myself into. I had just left my buddy John's place so I was close by. The log owner and I discussed schedules and I agreed to come out on Friday and probably finish by Saturday.

After I looked at the pile, I called John and asked if he wanted to get some exercise this weekend. I told him about my find. So late Friday morning, I loaded up the truck with my saw, gas, extra chains, and assorted supplies and met him by the LCO casino. He followed me out where the logs were.

John and I spent the next couple of hours cutting, splitting, and loading wood. The owner set up his splitter for us so we didn't have to lift whole, heavy, wet, 18" diameter chunks into our pick ups.

John and I had loaded our trucks and were headed out by noon. There was still a lot of wood left to cut up...

John unloaded his truck then went bowling... I drove home unloaded mine and went back for more. By the end of the day I had this stack in my driveway...

Knowing that there wouldn't be enough daylight left for a third round, I cut and split until late in the afternoon. I left this pile for Saturday...

Today, I met John out at the wood pile at 9:00. We loaded up what I had already split. Then we cut and split the rest of it. He took a pick up load and I filled mine. There was still about a half a load left. I went home, unloaded, and went back for the rest.

When I was done, the log pile looked like this...

On the way home, I stopped off at the lumberyard and grabbed some free pallets.

Here's all the free wood I ended up with...

I had a quick lunch and a couple of ibuprofen. John came over about 2:30 and we fired up our log splitter and my tractor. We worked until sunset.
We filled an open spot in one of my wood piles with the stuff we split. The bright wood is the new stuff. It's a stack about 7½'L x 4'H, one row deep.

The fun will continue tomorrow.............