2016 Grand Tour General Discussion

[Lapchik]

Found a small mural

[propforward]

It's pretty cool. I wouldn't mind getting a couple made just for the hell of it.

[Willie]

Some recent stops

[DSquared]

A heads up to anyone trying to pickup tag WI8, the statue is mobile and they occasionally take it to events around town. I actually helped reinstall it while I was waiting for the picture.

[Flash9]

While on our vacation to Key West we knocked out a few Boni points, not quite the Fjr but fun none the less.
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[Flash9]

The next few photos are of our "something interesting bonus". I hope you find this as interesting as we did. Let me paint the picture, the kids are off doing whatever it is kids do these days with out adult supervision, while Me, my wife and our close friends have been inspecting the local bars of Key West for the proper temperatures of their beers. Me and my wife decide to turn in around midnight, while our friends diligently work their way through more bars, at roughly 2:30 in the morning my son wakes me to tell me there are 24 Cubans here. As you can imagine things were a little fuzzy, and I'm sure I didn't here him correctly. "No dad the Cubans are out side with a bunch of police", ok now he had my attention, I wake my wife and we head out to the third floor balcony of the condo. Sure enough several police and government agencies, a crippled looking boat and twenty some odd Cuban refugees stood across the street on Smathers Beach. The next three pictures are the best we could do, as the police wouldn't have let anyone near the scene. What we have learned is there is a Wet foot/ Dry foot policy, if the refugees step on land they able to stay and become US citizens, if they don't make it to land, they are deported back to Cuba.

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You can see the groove in the sand that the boat made as it was being dragged off the beach. (not sure if this will qualify for the bonus, but again it was the best we could do)

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If you look beyond all the refugees and officers you can see the boat half way up the beach by the trees being winched out.

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Believe it or not that vessel made it 90 miles with twenty three Cuban refugees.

[Sleddog]

FANTASTIC...............!

[LSGiant]

I am loving this sticker deal and this grand tour. It is a shame that I did not make the time to truly experience these stops. After taking this photo I then had a 15 minute conversation explaining what i am doing and why.

So many cool places and stories.

[Don Q]

We have officially started our GT.

[Lapchik]

Started the day with no wind and 45 degrees. By the time I got to Hudson, SD the wind was up, but the temperature wasn't.



In Sioux Falls, the temp was up to a balmy 48 degrees and the wind was around 25mph from the North. I highly recommend going to the USS South Dakota memorial. I was amazed at how many guns the thing had. There are several gun barrels on display there, the largest used a 525lb powder load to throw a 2,000lb projectile up to 15 miles [and pierce 16" of armor at that distance]. When it was in one of its battles, there was so much smoke and fire from the guns shooting off that the Japanese thought they sank it. There is also a section of wood decking you can stand on. It was chilling to imagine that going on while standing on that teak wood. I like my anchor picture, but it is hard to see the bike.





Went to Mitchell next, about 50 degrees and just as windy. Killed some time at Cabela's too.



Stopped by Thunder Valley next; my Seca ran a 11.9 second 112 mph quarter mile here once.



Then I stopped at Jack's house. Luckily Marlene had Jack clear out the tree branches yesterday so there were no "small branches" for me to clear this time. Wind was just as strong as ever and the temp was about 60 when I left.



It was getting late and my girls missed me, so I skipped the Missouri Weave mural in Vermillion and went home. Guess I'll have to go blast the sand bars in the river on the Honda sometime when I get time to go back to Vermillion.

[Lapchik]

Had nothing better to do [lie, too lazy to get up and do anything] so I made slideshows of all my old GT pictures. I don't know what music you like...open whatever program you use to organize music and play your own stuff.

[Sleddog]

I needed to check the progress of a washed out creek crossing & re-route the far west end along the TSDAT. As I was riding from Capa to Midland I remembered a sign telling about an old Indian Race Track.......

Score!

[Lapchik]

Sometime late summer/early fall I plan on leading a ride from Sioux City to Bellevue through the Iowa Loess Hills, then maybe back to Sioux City on the Nebraska side if I find a good route there. I took the Iowa side down there on this ride, and want to do it again and explore/sniff the flowers when I have more time.

I went to go pick up the in-laws truck at the airport so it didn't sit there for two months and had some fun on the way.

Mostly gravel, some B and C level dirt. About 35 miles of pavement; about 100 miles of gravel.

Got the Pisgah visitor center


Roads in Harrison county must be made of concrete mix...just add a little rain. Took a long time to powerwash today. Comes off in flaky chips.




Blasted down the interstate to the bomber. Hope this was the right plane. Took pictures of all planes in sight just in case I'm too dumb to GT.


Almost rode right past this. It's on the Chinese restaurant by the ball field on the way to the airport.

[Lapchik]

[Powershouse]

Deke Slayton gets around! When we arrived in Sparta he was just being returned from a school visit. The folks from the museum were interested in the grand tour and wanted to know about the other NASA combo locations.

[paper]

It's been fun so far!!
I've found racetracks that I never knew existed.. I'm not a big racing fan, but I pay attention and it's been nice to visit some of the spots that I've always heard about..

Was at Bristol a couple weekends ago.. I just got the dragway sign, as the gate was closed to go to the oval..



And the roadside america spots are a hoot!!

[Willie]

Couple of ride reports for the Americana Tour
Day 1
http://nomadwillie.blogspot.com/2016/05/...ivers.html

Day2

http://nomadwillie.blogspot.com/2016/05/...ashes.html

[Don Q]

The Woodcarving Museum Building is for sale and the sign is down in Harmony ,MN.

[Lapchik]

Did 220 miles of gravel and dirt through SD and NE. One location didn't turn out, but got the rest. Also found out that the road around the reservoir by Martinsburg, NE doesn't go all the way through. It does turn into 5' tall bumble bee infested weeds, though.

[LSGiant]

Just a couple for me this weekend





Would highly recommend this place