Bob and Cheryl get an all expenses paid road trip to the Black Hills
It's true! No prize, just the perks of working for the man!
Little backstory - I sold off my business and took a job for a client as a project manager for medical equipment installation. I got sick of the whole 24/7 work week and the ups and downs of running a small business. I had been doing it for about 15 years and just decided a bi-weekly paycheck would be nice, not to mention bennies and some stability. Hah! Right! But that's another story. This story is about a ride to an account in Sturgis (yes, THAT Sturgis) SD. I needed to be there in June on both sides of a weekend. We have fairly flexible travel options - fly, rent, or drive our own vehicle. I hate flying. Hate it! A rental car would work, but I had other ideas. I talked to Cheryl and asked her if she would like to do a motorcycle work trip - she was all for it. I bounced the idea of riding my bike out there to the boss. The other boss - the one that signs the checks. I prefer full transparency, and the worst she could say was no. Instead she said it sounded "intriguing", and gave me her blessing. Not a huge surprise as the alternative of flying would have costed quite a bit more. So Cheryl and I put together a plan to ride out to Sturgis in June of 2016. The plan was to head out on a Tuesday, and return the following Tuesday - one week on the company. Plus I actually get paid mileage! Not bad.
So we headed out on a warm June day to Sturgis. Oh wait.....I forgot....part of the reason I got carte blanche to ride to Sturgis was I had another client to visit in Le Mars Iowa. i'm sure you've heard of Le Mars. It is, after all, the "Ice Cream Capital of the World". I honestly don't know WTF that means, but hey, it's better than the home of the "World's Largest Ball of Twine". (Also in Iowa) So we headed out on a warm June day to Le Mars Iowa. I've done the drive before and I'll tell you, it's not all that exciting. But as they say, a bad day riding is better than a good day of fishing....or something to that effect.
I have a lot of family from that area. I live in SD and we joke that when people in SD fail their driver test we give them blue and white plates for their car. IA and MN are blue and white by the way. Both neighboring states.
As one can see on the map above, it's about a 7 hour ride to Le Mars from our home. With fuel and food more like 9 hours, so we left at a reasonable 9AM. Being late June we had a lot of daylight to work with and the weather was very good. Mild temps and sunny. The weather forecast for our entire journey looked equally good, if not a little warm. Better than cold and wet though. But not all was going according to plan. Our camera was on the fritz (Milwaukee for broken). So no pics until South Dakota where we bought one. Sadly, you're not missing much. The ride, as mentioned, can get a bit dull.
So we took our usual route to the west, I-94 and 151 to Dubuque, just to make time. We've explored pretty much every side road between here and the River, so no need to dawdle. By the time we got to Dubuque, it was , indeed, getting warmer. Like in the 90s warmer. Once you get away from that big lake (Michigan) temps increase. We worked our way over to Hwy 20 and headed west. I've done that route many times for work, but it was new to Cheryl. She agreed that it was less than scenic. But, it's mostly 4 lane and one can make good time which we did.
We got into Le Mars sometime around dinner time and checked into the Holiday Inn Express. There was a restaurant across the parking lot, which was nice because we didn't feel like getting back on the bike. It was okay....nothing remarkable to report. After dinner we walked up the street to the WalMart to provision up - i.e. get some booze. WalMarts are pretty much the same everywhere I guess, but in small rural towns they seem to be a community gathering point. There was all sorts of activity going on. Kids hanging out talking and laughing, older folks chatting it up....it was actually kind of nice to see people socializing and having a good time instead of just walking in a store, doing your business, and leaving. This just felt more folksy.
After that, we walked back to the hotel, had a couple drinks (whiskey and 7-up as I recall), and turned in. Tomorrow was to be a long day. I had to inspect an installation at the hospital at 7AM, then gather Cheryl up and head out to Sturgis. I had picked a "scenic" route so it was going to be a long day on the road. With temps expected to be in the high 90s, we knew we would need to stop more often than usual to hydrate.
Summary - about 450 uneventful miles. Two Whiskey 7s, a couple beers, and unremarkable eats. Temps ranged from upper 70s to low 90s. Sunny.
12-28-2017, 08:10 PM
Bob and Cheryl get an all expenses paid road trip to the Black Hills
