Soaring

The three key ingredients of a great motorcycle ride are scenery, curves, and hills. Decelerate approaching the bend then shoot an arc (outside-inside-outside of the midline) while accelerating through it. Bike and rider pitch together against gravity and the centrifuge of the road. All this accompanied by Harley-Davidson's trademark sound of rolling thunder. The feeling can only be compared to flying.  Not the 737-passenger-flight-to-Newark type of flying.  More like F22-fighter-jet-in-the-Grand-Canyon.

And you never know what you will find around the next bend:

On this trip I have covered several of the great motorcycle rides in the U.S.:  The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park, the eastern shore of Flathead Lake in Montana, the Beartooth Highway and the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway outside the northeast entrance of Yellowstone, the Big Cottonwood Canyon and Guardsman Pass in Utah.

Today's mission is to ride the Spearfish Canyon, the Needle Formation, and the Badlands of South Dakota.  The forecast is crisp and brisk with gusty winds. I will stay overnight in Deadwood a second night, this gives me the opportunity to ride today without the T-bag of clothes, the duffel of camping gear, or the saddle bags. Not exactly light as a feather, but a lot less encumbered than usual.

Tomorrow I will push on across the South Dakota prairie toward home in Minnesota. I can hardly wait to get back to my peaceful town Chaska.