September 12, 2023
I take a ride into Minneapolis from the north via East Lake Road / Marshall Street. A quick ride around Nicollet Island and a portion of downtown
Not on camera I also rode down to and around Lake Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun). I did take a photo of Downtown from the lake vantage point.
Photos
September 12, 2023
I ride through Anoka, Minnesota and Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Anoka is my hometown, so this was really a ride down memory lane for myself. I take a quick ride (twice) through downtown Anoka on Main Street, have lunch at Riverside Park on the Rum River, ride past Fred Moore where I went to Junior High School (grades 7,8, and 9) and passed Lincoln Elementary where I went to grade school (grades K-6). I also briefly rode by the home I grew up in and quickly toured the neighborhood.
From there, I work my way to Coon Rapids Blvd and ride through Coon Rapids until I get to East River Road.
Day 12 starts with my departure from Diamond Lake Count Park near Kandiyohi Minnesota. I rolled south to US Highway 12 and headed east rolling through Atwater, Grove City, Litchfield, Dassel, Cokato, Howard Lake, Waverly and Montrose. From Montrose I roll north through Buffalo and then St Michael, Rogers, Dayton, and finally Champlin.
This portion total Miles was about 92 miles.
September 11th, 2023
Day 11 starts with my departure from Fisher Grove State Park Campground, near Frankfort, South Dakota. I resumed my eastward trek on US Highway 212 through Watertown, South Dakota. In Minnesota, I rolled through Appleton, Granite Falls, Willmar, and end the day at Diamond Lake Park near Kandiyohi, Minnesota where I camped for the night.
Total Miles for today was about 245 miles.
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September 10th, 2023
After raining heavily all night the weather broke in the early morning shortly after sunrise. With the rain stopped, I quickly took a few photos of Devils Tower shrouded in low clouds, packed up my soggy camp and loaded up Dexter (my 2005 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic) and rolled out of camp eastward to Fisher Grove State Park Campground in South Dakota.
With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, this morning’s ride was chilly and damp. In South Dakota, I had caught up to some of the rain systems that had earlier soaked my camp at Devils Tower.
Total miles for today = 353 Miles, predominantly riding on US Highway 212 most of the way.
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I depart camp from Douglas KOA in Douglas, Wyoming and roll north on Wyoming Highway 59, stopping in Wright, Wyoming for a quick gourmet lunch of Chef Boyardee canned spaghetti and meatballs with Tabasco Sauce and water, pretty fancy!
After lunch, I continued northbound on WY Highay 59 to Gillette, Wyoming and then head east on Wyoming Highway 51 to US Highway 14 East and finally northbound onto Wyoming Highway 24 to Devils Tower, Wyoming.
Total miles for today = 178 Miles, so a low mile’s day that allowed for some relaxed riding and plenty of time to set up camp and hike around Devils Tower.
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Day 8 covered roughly 206 miles, leaving plenty of time for railfanning (watching & recording trains).
I departed camp near Keystone, South Dakota (Grizzly Bear primitive campground) and proceeded west to Wyoming via SD Highway 244, U.S. Highway 385, and U.S. Highway 16.
In Wyoming, I rolled through the Thunder Basin Grassland, Powder River Basin and ended the day at Douglas KOA campground in Douglas, Wyoming.
I have created a new YouTube channel named, Wanderlust Trains, that is about, well you guessed it, trains!. The new YouTube channel is a spinoff from my Wanderlust Lyfe channel. I was going to post some of my train videos on the existing channel but decided I want to keep Wanderlust Lyfe dedicated to motorcycles. Sometime in the future, I will start another blog site as well that I can also neglect and post randomly on. 🙂 The new blog site will focus on my trains and likely mostly about my O scale model railroad layout and later HO scale model railroad layout. Both of which I hope to start building by the end of of 2028 or sooner (not to compete with my planned Alaska 2028 motorcycle trip).
In the Meantime…..
In the meantime, I will use this blog site as needed and post existing and new train related videos from time to time to the Wanderlust Train YouTube channel.
And One More Thing…..
In case anyone is confused or has not been a cult follower of mine :), Besides motorcycles I have long been a model railroader (though not as active as I would like) and train enthusiasts since 1978, when I was seven years old (yeah, I’m getting old, do the math lol).
The First Video for the Wanderlust Train YouTube Channel
This is a video with most content stolen from myself from my USA Midwest 2023 Day 8 video that I am working on and as of this post, have not uploaded yet. I think it is legal to steal from yourself lol. 🙂
Total Miles for day 7 was only about 42 miles, mostly consisting of a loop departing from Grizzly Bear Campground near Keystone, SD to Mount Rushmore and then through Custer State Park on South Dakota Highway 87, to Keystone (to get some supplies), and then back to camp.
The Badlands
September 6th, 2023
Total Miles for day 6 was 253 miles starting at the Badlands Hotel & Campground in Interior, South Dakota. The highlight of today’s ride was rolling through the Badlands National Park offering up some stunning and rugged scenery. The day concludes near Keystone, South Dakota where I camp for two nights in the Black Hills at the Grizzly Creek Primitive Campground.
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Wanderlust Lyfe 