Page 1 -From the Beginning-    The Start of an Epic 2 Year Motorcycle Adventure
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          "No Return Ticket" - Just a Ride Report /w Pics
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                                   Where will we go? Where will I take her?

          There are many miles and many roads to travel. There are many lives to live.

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Background:
I always like to know a little about the people who do the ride reports I read, so here ya go. Tom and Heidi (CaveBiker & CaveGirl): On our first date Heidi told me that I wasn’t the man for her, she said she wanted someone that would take her to live on an island. I said “You hang with me a few years baby and I’ll sail you to an island” Six years later we sold everything, packed two backpacks and boarded a plane for the Dominican Republic. We spent two years living the life of beach bums; windsurfing, motorcycle adventuring and partying on the beach. (Report) That time on the island was filled with extreme highs, big lows, constant corruption and many challenges. The North coast of the Dominican Republic is a fantasy island scene with all the drama and action that can make a great adventure novel.

That was the mid to late nineties. Back from the Caribbean and back to our same jobs and another eight years later, we were feeling the need to do something again. We thought maybe the Dominican Republic “again” but after our motorcycle cruise to Belize in 02’(Report) we realized we had to check out some more of this big bad world. At the end of 04’ I managed a nine month leave of absence from my job, Heidi quit hers. We rigged up our old rusty 1990 jeep Wrangler and went adventure touring through Mexico (Report) . What a blast, but it just went so fast.

After Mexico Heidi and I found ourselves looking at each other a lot and saying “We have to Do It again, Soon!” ‘Again’ being whatever. It turned into a kind of a chant of ours. “We’re getting older” “We have to do it now while we’re both still healthy!” To build up our finances again we lived like college students. 2 years in a small apartment in Minneapolis using lawn chairs as our furniture. We were driven to get our act together and get going ASAP.

Preparations: Full preparation details for this ride are here on ADVrider.com. Check It! Preparing for a new life I first should have a graceful exit from the old. (Just in case I need to return some day) I started working at this company in 1982 (Wooh) and the place feels like home. I love the people I work with and the work I do but if I want to pursue this dream there is no getting around it, I need to say it “I Quit” (Ahhh....) Now everything can just happen.

Start Date: July 12, our anniversary date, 18 years (I hope it’s not our last) Ugh... (Inner voice: “I need to pilot this expedition right”) We waffled about the date for a long time. Heidi is always ready to go now (ya gotta love her). Financially we should have waited for October first but that’s too long a wait.

Enough buildup, on with the ride->
We are starting out lightly loaded while we tour Wisconsin to visit family and friends, after looping the state we will end up back at home base where we will do a final pack and take off.

Go:
The best worst day of our life:
I can’t believe it. I finally think I can make up for forgetting our wedding anniversary the last couple of years by making reservations at a beautiful little motel overlooking Lake Superior, Bayfield WI. This is where I proposed and Heidi finally said yes. This can’t go wrong; the reservations are on my credit card (I won’t forget), the area is filled with magic, we’re in love and this is the first day on the road of our adventure of a life time.

We tried to get on the road early so we could eat breakfast at Seeley, WI Sawmill Saloon. Too late for breakfast we decided to just continue on. It’s only a little over an hour to Bayfield.

Pulling into Bayfield early we proceed to get into the scene. We park the bike near the ferry dock and walk along shore to a favorite restaurant overlooking the lake. Everything is perfect. We can’t believe this is happening. We time it just right and get to the motel just at check in time, 3:00. We haven’t even pulled off the road and a guy is waving at us, I wave back. We park right in front of the room I reserved six months ago. Heidi is elated. The guy who waved at us greets us promptly. I tell him we have reservations for room 17 for tonight and tomorrow. He hustles me inside the office and I think said something like “Impossible”. The next thing I know he’s telling me he has no reservations for us and asks if we have the right place. I go back out to the bike and return with my address book which has an entire page devoted to this reservation. My address book has “Bayfield, SeaGull Bay Inn, July 11 and July 12. Room 18” I say “O! my mistake, I mean room 18” He says that’s impossible, Captain Ron has room 18 all month. (Me, eyebrows up) He asks if I received a reservation card. I say I remember receiving the card but I don’t have it. The clerk rambles back and forth that this can’t happen but if I had my reservation card with me he would get us a room at another motel in town and pay for it. I say “I see, Captain Ron has room 18 all month so we got bumped on our anniversary” I knew we were hosed without the reservation card and no matter what we couldn’t spend the night here. I come back out of the office and Heidi is gleaming “We have a screened in patio!” she exclaims. I explain the situation. Heidi cries. I say S! Back on the bike we can’t believe it. We pass a little motel in another town that has vacancy. Heidi says “It’s a dump, I’m not staying there on my anniversary!” We need to get somewhere ASAP, we’re loosing daylight and it’s starting to storm. (Great) The clouds are dark ahead so we find a nice little pull off in the woods and wait for the storm to pass. We have fun talking about our situation. We plan strategies for communication while on the bike together, 3 quick taps means Heidi sees something in the road. One solid tap means Heidi needs a gear change, like it’s going to rain now and we need to suit up. We had to wait for dark storm clouds several more times. Then I get one solid jab. Yes, time to pull over and put on rain gear. We’re riding along in hard rain. I get 3 short jabs, 3 more, 3 more. I pull over…..Nice rainbow.

It’s Wednesday evening and that’s potluck, $2 cheeseburger night at the VFW post in Springbrook, WI. We’re hoping maybe our friends Don and Colleen will be there. They weren’t but everyone there was super nice and friendly to us. We told our story and everyone had a big laugh. This was for sure the best worst day we ever had.
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Hold on! This is just the start. We have two years......
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Saturday:
This is the final pack. We feel like we are on some type of auto pilot. Our eyes meet, We start to yell "Ahhh!" I never even tried to pack the laptop until today. It seems to fit. I hope it will hold up to all the shock it's going to experience. Heidi seems to have her packing system down. I have the right pannier, Heidi the left. We share the backpack. It looks like everything will fit.

We have a little get together the day before we leave with some good friends. We thank them for all the support they have given us.

Sunday: Now we’re yelling a lot, “This is it, ahhhh!” Moments before finally locking the door for the last time I go to put on my boots, wrong feet, duh.... Guess I’m a little more frazzled than I thought.

We are finally off. This is Unreal… 2 years, it doesn’t seem possible.

We’re on the road before noon. The weather is perfect for riding. The bike feels super heavy. I’ve never ridden anything that feels this big. The county road we exit on is super bumpy and dippy and is a good example of what we should be able to handle. The bike is bottoming out and I had to take it real slow. I just say to myself “Slow is good. This is OK” (holy crap).

Our first thought was ride through Minneapolis and do the Joint bar scene where the slogan is “Where the ride begins and ends” It would have been cool but we’ve 'been there, done that'. Heidi wanted to do something new (liken' that) We shoot for North Dakota, neither of us have ever been there before. Our goal is to do VFF (Very Few Freeways) but that calls for a lot of map reading and looking at the sky, the type of travel I like and am use to but it kind of freaks Heidi out. Ya know, getting lost.

Heidi and I try to get into the motorcycle travel philosophy right away. We don’t want to push too hard the first day and not like it, so I constantly look for places to chill in a nice country scene. I prefer this to a gas station or restaurant.

I stiffen the rear shocks all the way at a gas stop. I thought I had them about midway but it was only slightly stiffer then the lightest setting. I didn’t mention it to Heidi but she noticed the riding difference right away. (I like that A Lot…..) The bike feels a lot better now. We still dip down low but we don’t bottom out. This is good to say the least.

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The first stop: A nice golden farm field with plenty of crickets.

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The second stop:
I do a good job finding this place. Heidi is into it, she knows just what to do:

We throw out our leathers on the grass in the shade. A bottle of water, 'This Is Good'.

We did not make it to Fargo the first day but did find a great state park (Carlos State Park) on a small lake just north of Alexandria, Minnesota. The place has a nice swimming beach right in front of our tent.

This is a popular spot and has campers all around. As always Heidi and I engage in some intense and slightly heated discussions. I say “Stop yelling at me” and bring up that other campers are probably hearing us and thinking we’re fighting. Heidi says “I’ll stop yelling at you when you stop doing stupid stuff!” We laugh. We are really hammering out our system (I hope).

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Monday:
It got a lot colder the first night then we anticipated. The new light weight sleeping bags were supposed to zip together but they don’t zip the way they should, or the way we think they should. It was a challenge staying warm, we weren’t ready for that being it’s the middle of August. Immediately our plans shift from riding through North Dakota to riding straight to the South Dakota Badlands where the temps should be at least 10 degrees warmer. Heidi and I like to make ‘On the fly’ changes, I hope this works with biking.

We got started late again today waiting for it to warm up, plus we didn’t have our camping act down ‘at all’ yet. The ride started out cold. It wasn’t too long we started getting hot, than we were hotter then heck. We are seeing temperatures in the high nineties. We drove long and hard, not wanting to stop because of the heat and no shaded spots to pull over to. We were toast. I was looking hard for any place to pull over and chill, then I get a firm single jab. We were at a ‘No horse’ town exit. Heidi says she doesn’t care if we have to lay under a cow for shade, we’re stopping here. We pull off at a nice unmarked wayside rest that didn’t even have a parking area. The park wasn’t maintained much but it had nice grass and shade to lay out our leathers and rest. Heidi got a lot of attention from locals while she was up at the bike alone. We love spots like this.

We rode late into the day trying to get to a camp spot in north central South Dakota that looked nice. The place was a little challenging to get to but was worth it. It had a lake with a nice beach and we were the only tent there. The thought of a long swim kept us going. Again a lot of map reading and turning around, Heidi is getting a little more freaked, she’s used to me having it all together. I assure her that this is all normal for back road traveling. ??

We park the bike at the camp spot. It was hot with a capital H. Heidi wanders off in a daze looking for shade while she takes off her gear. We get the tent set up then immediately head for the beach. We have the whole beach to ourselves and we are in the middle of nowhere. I asked a park ranger if there is any store in the area. I get a definite “No” but he did say there is a restaurant up the road. That’s all we need. The restaurant has tables with a view of the lake and a rustic little bar. We watched a boat pulling 4 waterskiers at the same time. Kids sure know how to have fun here. Cocktails and a fabulous meal. Heidi and I are talking about the temperature fluctuations we have experienced and how we should deal with it. We talk about camping protocol, techniques, what we should have ‘At the ready’ and what we should stow deep. I never dreamed I would ever meet such a compatible travel partner let alone be married to her. I am so lucky….

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Tuesday:
We are packed to the gills and it’s getting to both of us. I shift things around a little. Heidi hands me something else that’s needs to be packed. I say “There’s no room”. Heidi says “It was in there before!” The discussions are heated. We both keep assuring each other that we have so much stuff that we will use up or throw away. It’s tough, I constantly think I’m going to break a zipper, Heidi keeps thinking she’s getting short changed on space. Heidi suggests we need to have the straps loosened on the backpack while filling it, she was right.

We can’t believe it, its cold again this morning. After the 100 degree stuff yesterday we didn’t think being cold today was possible. We slowly get going. I’m having trouble getting our new international camp stove to do anything but scare Heidi. I miss my propane stove. We talk more about communication while on the road. 3 little pokes, Heidi sees something in the road like a hazard or something. A 2-handed chop, lets stop for a photo or a rest. One swift jab, we need to stop and pull off the road for equipment change or whatever as soon as it is safely possible.

Around 1:00 PM the heat started to rise again and the wind started picking up. The wind was strong but on our rear quarter. It was fatiguing fighting the wind. We pushed hard again today wanting to make it down to the badlands. I know a camp spot there that has a pool, cold beer and a tree. We are driven.

Cruising the back roads of South Dakota. ‘Double chops’ from Heidi. Good call.

The back roads of SD are beautiful. Heidi tells me that these round bales of hay are now illegal in Wisconsin. (Do you know why?) I love a girl with a sense of humor ?

Fabulous, the tent is up, a 6 pack of ice cold Coronas pool side. We are like'n life.

The sun came up red today. I thought that was weird. Later I hear on our radio that it’s because of the forest fires in Wyoming. One fire is in the Big Horn Mountains, just where we are planning on riding through. Interesting…..

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Wednesday:
We paid for 2 nights at the Badlands camping spot, Circle Ten. Today is devoted to exploring the badlands, a little hiking and just R&R, a perfect day in our world. Heidi is actually admitting she likes this type of camping. Am I imagining things?

Badlands:

Heidi and I theorize how this weird landscape got formed. We’re experiencing feelings of mystery and magic. The colors, shapes and vastness of the land is moving.

The colors of the landscape are like out of some sort of weird dream.

Prairie dog:

Interior SD:

A little bar in the heart of the Bad Lands.

Downtown Interior:

Wall Drug:
Heidi thought it was about the drug store. Ha!

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Thursday:
Today we’re shooting for the western Black Hills. We’re going right past Sturgis so we decided to stop and have breakfast there. Also Heidi needed a black tank top to replace the white shirt she has been wearing. We figure we could find a tank-top in Sturgis (Do ya think?).

We couldn’t believe how dead Sturgis was. It felt like a ghost town. It’s hard to believe that there was thousands of bikes right here less then a week ago.

We couldn’t even find a place to eat on main street. Heidi found a tank-top and I scored a big tool bag for thirty bucks.

We head up into the hills down Spearfish canyon and stop for lunch at Cheyenne Crossing. We like this area. Heidi lived in Colorado once and says this area has the same feel.

We score a great camp spot in the Black Hills. White Tail Court, camping, RV, motel, $12. The new owners are super friendly and the facilities are unbelievably clean. We ride across a foot bridge over a babbling brook to get to our campsite.

We have the place all to ourselves. We pitch our tent right on the babbling brook. This is super. There’s a hiking trail from here up into the hills and forest. We devote two nights here for some serious hiking and chill’n.

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A serious game of Gin:

I’m starting to feel the Dharma, I think we both are. Our minds are freeing. We are focused only on our reality and what is important to us now, at this point in time. We find ourselves looking intensely into each others eyes and we nearly burst with emotion. We are falling more in love. We are discovering ourselves and each other all over again as if for the first time. This trip has already been a journey in more ways then one.

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Friday:

The sun is red again this morning. We need to find exactly where those forest fires are.

Heidi had a dream that my head burst in flames while I was lighting the camp stove. I can see why. I re-read the stove instructions, that helped a lot.

We had big thunder storms moving through the area overnight. We purchased a small short-wave radio for this trip. It’s about the size of a cigarette pack but thinner. We tuned into a local station and received constant updates of two storm cells, one cell is reported being capable of producing ping-pong size and baseball sized hail. Then a tornado watch in the same cell. We were near the smaller cell and I kept assuring Heidi that it’s at a city close to us but moving the other way. I didn’t tell her that the city is only a few miles away. We stayed up during the storm listening to the radio, counting how long it took for the thunder to reach us. We calculated it coming toward us, being close to us, a second away at the closest, and moving away. This was great. I love this kind of stuff And it kept Heidi from running and hiding in the shower room.

Heidi is having some bad pains in her hip and was up crying in the tent last night in pain. She doesn’t think it’s from riding or camping or hiking, none of that bothers her. She noticed the pain first after a long ‘jump-roping’ session over a week ago. She’s worried it’s something serious. Doctor Tom jumps in and diagnoses it as some type of inflammation in the hip caused by a marathon jump-roping session. The prescription is for anti-inflammatory medication (Ibuprofen) and time. I need to take care of my riding partner and get her better. She’s part of my soul, my zest in life.

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Saturday: Wyoming

We get an early start. The temperatures are expected to be in the mid nineties today but were perfect all morning for riding.

Heading West from New Castle, WY. For over fifty mikes there was only one shade tree to park under. We hit it…

A bunny at Heidi’s feet.

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An antelope checking us out.

Tooling toward Casper, WY: Heidi sees some rain way ahead, she comes up with a new signal for rain. It looked like we were going to ride right into it. We pull over near some cool rock formations and evaluate the situation. We decide to wait and see if it will pass. We pick a high rock formation and observe the sky. We determine the rain is moving away so we decide to just wait. 15 minutes we are back on the bike and the rain was gone. We did hit wet roadway and about 10 sprinkles. We made a good move there. We’re developing and honing good skills.

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