DAY 11
Today we traveled from Mitchell, SD to Dubuque, IA by way of Wisconsin, to be explained later. The morning started out at about 60 degrees and sunshine. We saw a high today of 95 degrees. We have seen a low of 31 degrees on our attempt to get to Crater Lake NP and the high of 95 degrees today. We have driven in rain, sleet, snow, and 40 mph winds.Today we saw corn, corn, corn, hay bales, corn, corn corn, windmill farm. That's what it will be for the next 3 days until we get to West Virginia. We did make a stop at Bak BMW in Sioux City, IA because Ross had a headlight that needed to be replaced and Greg's bluetooth headset was not working. We want to thank Dave Bak and Jason so much. We got the parts we needed for the bluetooth at no charge and Ross's headlight will be paid by Eaglerider. They have a cat named Beemer that lives at the BMW shop. See the pictures below to see a spoiled cat that loves to be petted and knows no strangers. How did we see Wisconsin? The GPS took us there instead of to the hotel. The hotel staff says that happens all the time. So now we have been to Montana and Wisconsin which were not in the plans. The BMWs continue to perform flawlessly. They cruise all day at 70 to 75 mph. We are having a great time and will be done on Saturday. Greg wil be sad to see it end as will Ross. Never have 2 brothers had so much fun, but Ross will be considerably more tired than Greg when we are done. But, Greg will not miss Ross's snoring!!!
This is Beemer on a sport bike...
on a BMW R1200RT touring bike, like ours...
on a dirt bike...
and on a cruiser. Beemer is a versatile motorcycle cat who will ride any kind of motorcyle, but as you can see he never wears a helmet; so it's a good thing he has 9 lives.
Thanks Jason for getting my Scala Rider G4 headset repaired!!
Thanks Dave, owner of Bak BMW, for getting Ross's bike fixed.
Bak BMW in Sioux City, IA
Be sure to stop in and see Beemer the cat. The most friendly cat you will find anywhere.
This is the scenery for the next couple of days. It's not the mountains with their twisty roads anymore!
Day 12
Today we traveled from Dubuque, IA to Greg's home in Carmel, IN. We stopped in Carmel for 3 reasons, 1) free room 2) on the way to Baltimore 3) Greg does not have to hear Ross snoring tonight. The day started with some light rain as we drove along the Mississippi river. We stopped in St Joseph, IL at our mom's home, actually the park. There were about 15 people there to greet us including a newspaper reporter and WCIA tv news. Greg was interviewed by WCIA and we are waiting to find it on the web and will then put the link on this site. Everyone in St Joe was so nice and it was great to see them including Barry Dickerson, one of my friends from high school and all of our Mom's Curves exercising friends. But on the first page of this site we tell you about Jim Underwood's BMW shop and how it influenced this ride. Jim's nephew, Richard Denhart, was at the park to meet us. He gave us both the greatest souvenir. It is an Underwood BMW emblem that is perfect for this ride. All in all a good day but the days are winding down and that is not good.
Mississippi River just south of Galena, IL
Ross with Richard Denhart, Jim Underwood's nephew
WCIA camerman filming our stop in St Joe
Ross, Marge, and Greg
Bikes parked in Greg's driveway
