USA Midwest 2023 Day 10 – Devils Tower to Fisher Grove State Park South Dakota

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Matthew

September 10th, 2023

Day 10 Overview

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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USA Midwest 2023 Day 9 – Douglas, Wyoming to Devils Tower, Wyoming

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Matthew

Day 9 Overview

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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USA Midwest 2023 Day 8 – Black Hills to Wyoming

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Matthew

Day 8 Overview

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.

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Introducing Wanderlust Trains

Posted on December 29, 2025 by Matthew

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. 🙂

USA Midwest 2023 – Day 7 – The Black Hills South Dakota

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Matthew

Day 7 Overview

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.

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USA Midwest 2023 Day 6 The Badlands South Dakota

Posted on November 22, 2025 by Matthew

The Badlands

September 6^th, 2023

Day 6 Overview

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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USA Midwest 2023 Day 5 – North Platte, Nebraska to Interior, South Dakota

Posted on November 20, 2025 by Matthew

North Platte, Nebraska to Interior, South Dakota
September 05, 2023
Today’s Miles = 286

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Tristan’s First Motorcycle Ride

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Matthew

November 16, 2025

Today was the day my son, Tristan, had long waited for, hist first “real” ride on a motorcycle. Tristan’s ride today was really a test ride, confined to our neighborhood with a maximum speed of 30mph but mostly around 20mph. We also tested mounting and dismounting Bruce with Tristan getting onboard first, then myself seemed to work the best.

So, it was a short ride today. We spent about 20 minutes riding back and forth within our neighborhood, he was thrilled.

Before I would allow Tristan to ride, I wanted a few getting familiar with Bruce rides myself, and I wanted to configure Bruce to be more passenger friendly by installing the top case with a passenger back rest and the side paniers which I finished installing yesterday, November 15^th, 2025.

Tristan’s full motorcycle ride is pending on all his motorcycle riding gear coming in, we are waiting on his riding pants and jacket to be delivered. We have his helmet, gloves, and boots.

Been a Long Time Coming

Ever since he was old enough to walk or even before he could talk in 2018, he was interested in getting on the motorcycle , Dexter a 2005 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic, and wanting to ride.

Here is Tristan one years old back in 2019 on Dexter, in our garage in Lake Elsinore, California.

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USA Midwest 2023 Day 4 – September 04, 2023

Posted on November 13, 2025 by Matthew

USA Midwest 2023 Day 4 starts in Onawa, Iowa as I roll through town and north to Whiting, Iowa. From Whiting, I cross the Missouri river and south on US Highway 75 to Omaha, Nebraska and then end the day in North Platte, Nebraska, 368 miles for the day.

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Veteran’s Day Bruce Break-In Ride 3

Posted on November 12, 2025 by Matthew

11/11/2025 Veteran’s Day Ride – 103 Miles today 213 miles to go for the 500 Mile Break-In.

Cold Ride today with starting temperature at 25°F a bit past 8am.

Today’s temperature never exceeded 47°F during the ride (most of day was in the 30’s. However, I was not cold but layered up like the Michelin man. I was unable to test my Rev’It Sand H20 pants as they were too long and I returned them to Cycle Gear in Hiram, GA (part of today’s ride).

Read more about the gear I wore and the 3^rd Break-In Ride overall.

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