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Scott Huff bought his GT at Bob's and this is what he did with it and is doing with it as we speak. Here are some photographs he emailed back to us. After 8 days on the road, I finally arrived at Rancho Bernardo on Sunday. I tried to squeeze as much into my trip as possible, but I needed 2 weeks to do everything I wanted. Day 1 & 2 were travel days to get to western Iowa. The next 4 days were spent sight-seeing in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The last 2 days were spent traveling to Rancho Bernardo. The weather was mostly perfect – some rain, some hail, some COLD temps and some HOT temps, but mostly mid-50s at night and mid-70’s during the day. Here’s a quick summary. I had to decrease the resolution, hence the quality, of the pix to keep the size of the email down. Day 1 – I rode the PA, OH and IN turnpikes to make time and get to Chesterton, IN, where I stayed with a friend of Ginger’s. I made good time, but spent over $20 in tolls. I split 2 REALLY bad storms w/lightning and high winds while in IN, but amazingly stayed dry! Day 2 – I rode across IN, IL and IA. I got majorly detoured around the flooding along I-80 in IA and had to go all the way to Dubuque before heading west, then south again. I made it to Sioux City, IA, that night and stayed in a Motel 6. It only cost me $38 for the night. I didn’t think you could get a motel that cheap anymore!

Day 3 – South Dakota! Going north out of Sioux City, the speed limit went up to 75 and I was able to set the cruise at a speed that really let me gobble up the miles. Fortunately, the speed limit for most of the rest of the trip was 75 and I was able to make some pretty good time between stops. :o) My first stop was The Badlands. Although mostly flat, the landscape here was like mini-mountains strewn across the plains, see http://www.nps.gov/badl/ for more info. Here are a couple of pictures

Next up was the Black Hills area. It was a gorgeous ride thru the mountains, or “Hills” as they’re called. I went south and checked out the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is still a work in progress, but this picture gives you an idea of just how big it will be. The flat part will be his arm and the white outline is his horse’s head. To see more about the memorial, click here http://www.crazyhorse.org/.	Of course, you can’t visit the Black Hills without stopping by Mount Rushmore. As I was on my way, I encountered my first rain, which turned to hail! I waited out the hail, but then rode on in the rain. I thought it only fitting that my head be included w/a few others! Check out http://www.nps.gov/moru for more info on Mount Rushmore.

My last stop in South Dakota was Sturgis. No, the big Harley rally wasn’t going on, which was good for me. I just wanted to see what the place was like and have a meal there. It didn’t take long to figure out that there’s not much in Sturgis. The rally is the only thing that puts it on the map.	Although there are a lot of “establishments” around Sturgis, I stopped at the biggest one I could find – One-Eyed Jack’s Saloon. This place is REALLY set up for big crowds, with bars both inside and outside! I can only imagine what it must be like here every night during the rally. I should’ve taken a picture of my BMW in front of the place. I’m sure you won’t see one here in August!

After eating, it was time to call it a day. I spent the night on an Army Reserve base in Rapid City for a mere $15!	Day 4 – Wyoming! While planning day 4, I called a guy named Jim, a fellow BMW motorcycle owner near Yellowstone, to get some real world info on touring the park. After talking a bit, he offered to let me stay at his place, then lead me around the park the next day. I didn’t know the guy, but considering the ~$200 / night cost of lodging in nearby Cody, I took him up on his offer. I knew it was going to be a fairly short ride to get to his house, so I took my time and took a detour to see Devil’s Tower, America’s First National Monument, http://www.nps.gov/deto. I don’t know what it was about Devil’s Tower, but it fascinated me from the first time I saw it from miles away. I got up to the entrance and was going to take a picture and leave, but it drew me in, so I paid the $5 to go up to the base. It was pretty cool and worth the price of admission and the hour + detour to check it out. By the way, national park admissions are typically cheaper and as much as half off if you’re on a motorcycle.

As I headed west to Jim’s house, I took 14a, a route he suggested I take from Burgess Junction, WY, to Powell. If you ride a motorcycle and find yourself in this area, you need to ride this road! It goes up to 9,500’ and has some awesome twisties and scenery, not to mention cooler weather and snow! Day 5 - Not only did Jim let me stay at his house, he bought me supper, paid to top off my gas tank and got me into Yellowstone for free!!! He let me lead most of the way and let me take as many pictures as I wanted. More info on Yellowstone - http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/index.html.

Sylvan Lake	Yellowstone Lake

Old Faithful	Common cause for traffic jams in Yellowstone!

Once we parted ways, I headed up to Beartooth Pass, www.byways.org/explore/byways/2281/, one of the highlights of my trip! I was tripping out a couple of days prior because it was closed down for snow and I didn’t think I’d get to ride it. Fortunately, it opened up the day before I got there, and boy was it worth doing! Another “must do” if you’re ever in the area on a motorcycle – or a car for that fact. It’s just cool, period!

After riding thru Yellowstone and Beartooth Pass, it was pretty late in the day, but I had reservations at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, so I pressed on. I was a bit concerned about the wildlife in Montana at night, so I stopped in a small town and asked the sheriff what I could expect. He said I shouldn’t have to worry about wildlife on the road I was taking. That made me feel better as I pressed on. As night was setting in, I saw some antelope and a couple of deer, but none threatened to cross my path. I arrived at Malmstrom at 10:30 p.m. Day 6 – Montana/Glacier National Park – I reserved the whole day for exploring Glacier National Park. Glacier has a popular road called the “Going to the Sun” road, http://www.nps.gov/archive/glac/montana.htm, that I really wanted to ride. Unfortunately, the center section was still closed off due to snow/avalanches. I decided to just stay on the east side of the park and explore what I could. I don’t know what the west side of the park looks like, but it was gorgeous on the east side! The following pictures are of the first 13 miles of the “Going to the Sun” road.

Since I couldn’t go any further, I turned around and decided to take a 2.5 mile round-trip hike thru the woods to see St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls. This was one occasion on the trip where leathers WERE NOT the right tool for the job. It was hot! Everyone looked shocked when they saw me – they had on shorts & flip-flops while I had riding boots and leathers! Oh, well, I ignored the stares and just enjoyed myself. This is St. Mary Falls.

Day 7 – I knew today would be a long one. I was on the road at 3:30 a.m. When I left Malmstrom, it was 58 degrees outside. As I traveled south thru the mountains, I spent over 2 hours in temps ranging from 35 degrees to 44 degrees before the sun rose and started warming things up. Thank goodness for electric jackets, heated grips and electric windshields!!! I knew I might see some wildlife early in the morning, so I kept my eyes open and stayed alert as I headed south. I’m glad I did! Shortly after the sun came up, I rounded a corner to find a buck (approx. 10 pts), still in velvet, in my lane! I was able to haul the bike down to a slow speed and switch to the opposite lane to avoid it. Unlike the deer on the east coast, this one was not jumpy or skittish, but merely looked startled and backed up as I went by. After my heart rate got back to normal, I rounded another corner and saw an elk near the median in the opposing lane. I slowed down once again, beeped my horn at it and scared it away. Ok, that’s 2 animals, I don’t need to see a third! As fate would have it, I rounded another corner later on to find a cow in the middle of the road! I quickly slowed down as I approached the cow, but it wouldn’t get out of the road. It was drooling, skittish and scared. I guess honking the horn didn’t help matters, but it finally made its way off the road so I could pass. Fortunately, the rest of the morning was pretty uneventful. I arrived in Salt Lake City just after noon. I had called ahead to BMW of Salt Lake to schedule the 6K service for my bike. They weren’t going to be able to fit me in because it’s normally first come, first served on Saturdays and it didn’t matter that I was on a cross country trip. Fortunately, they were able to free up one of their mechanics to work on my bike. I was very thankful because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if they couldn’t work on the bike. I was tired, so I went upstairs to their lounge and rested while they worked on the bike. I made a call to Nellis AFB, in Las Vegas, to see if they had a room for me. They did, so after my bike was done, I fueled up, bought a gallon of water, then spent the next 5+ hours in 96 – 104 degree heat! Yes, even at 10 p.m., it was 104 degrees as I descended into Las Vegas! I was hot, sweaty and tired and couldn’t wait to get into my room! I broke 1000 miles on the bike that day with just over 14 hours on the road.

Montana sunrise.	Day 8 – I got up early and headed west to my in-law’s house in Long Beach to attempt to avoid the desert heat. No such luck. By 9 a.m., it was already in the upper 90s. I saw temps up to 104 again. I got to Long Beach a little after 10. I spent some quality time w/my in-laws, rested and washed my bike before heading south to Rancho Bernardo. I had to do some planning on the way to San Diego from Long Beach, but as I rolled up to the front door of the hotel, my trip odometer rolled over to 5000 miles! What a great trip!