Until next time

All but Frank and Bruce are back home. They are still in Sturgis but will be home Tuesday night.

Jerry, Rick and I left this morning at 5:30 am (yawn) and arrived home at 11:30 am. It was a pleasant ride and one we've made dozens of time through the four corners area of our part of the country.

We all had a good time and our bikes performed flawlessly. 

I left home on July 7th to attend the BMW MOA rally in Des Moines, Iowa and spend time with my folks in Cedar Falls, Iowa so I was personally gone for 30 days and traveled 6,205 miles. Too much ice cream weight now has to come off but it was worth it.

I want to thank all of you that followed along with us and hope you get a chance to have fun vacations too.

The last hurrah

Jerry, Rick and I are spending our last night at a KOA in Cortez. We started the day by eating breakfast in Carbondale, Colorado. Then rode Hwy133 over McClure pass to Paonia. Then Hwy 92 down through Crawford and on to the Blue Mesa Reservoir. From there to Montrose and Ouray stopping later in Silverton for, wait for the drum roll.......ice cream. We kept riding south to Durango through some light rain and then over to the KOA in Cortez.

We are planning on leaving at sunrise to try and beat some of the heat on our final leg home.

Breakfast

Ouray

Silverton

The split up

Jerry, Rick and I headed to Colorado this morning and arrived at our reserved KOA cabin by mid afternoon. Nice temperatures with a little wind thrown in for good measure. Frank and Bruce took off on their 3 hour cruise to Rapid City to meet their girls who flew in from Phoenix for several days of partying with 400,000 of their noisiest friends.  Steve planned on staying at a friends in Sioux Falls tonight. I just got a call from Kevin who said he and Nate are switching gears and will ride all the way home, 900 miles, so as to avoid rain predicted for tomorrow.

Great ride day and the last one that we're all together

Well it's been a great trip, as always. We are splitting up into several small groups headed in different directions. 

Today though was the highlight of the ride. We first had breakfast in Red Lodge, Montana then rode over Beartooth Pass which is my, and many others, best motorcycle road in America. Then we got on Chief Joseph Highway, the second best.

Here are the pictures. Sorry if they aren't very clear but the whole trip has been plagued with fire smoke .

Beartooth mountain

Rick, Steve, Nate, Kevin, Jerry, Frank, Jim, Bruce

Riding through Montana, well part of it anyway

Today was a 323 mile ride through the countryside of Montana ending up in Columbus. Here are pictures of us cruising down the highway.

Jim on a K1600 BMW

Steve on a K1600 BMW

Kevin on a ST1300 Honda

Nate on a ST1300 Honda

Frank on a Honda Goldwing

Jerry on a 2018 Ardent Red Honda Goldwing GL1800

Rick on a Harley Davidson Trike

Bruce on a Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Limited

Long lonesome highway

Some interesting scenery