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.
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.
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 15th, 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.
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.
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 3rd Break-In Ride overall.
Today, 11/08/2025, is my second mini ride of Bruce, 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special, since I brought him home from Atlanta Harley-Davidson on October 17th, 2025. Today was another low mileage day of 78 miles.
Today, November 7th, 2025 I installed my first accessories and upgrades on Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special motorcycle. Happy Days are here 😊.