Ride East from Yellowstone

Total Miles Round-Trip to Yellowstone from Alexandria VA and Back: 4,905 miles
Return Trip East from Yellowstone to Alexandria VA: 2,657 miles
States covered by Motorcycle on the Yellowstone Trip: 17 States

Traveling Companion for the Return Ride East: a sullen 14 year old daughter who was voted off the main family trip by her mom and two sisters for being a royal pain.
My ride east from Yellowstone to Alexandria Virginia was done over seven days with a two-night stay in Custer SD to visit Mt. Rushmore and the surrounding area with my family. The ride to Custer was out the northeast entrance of Yellowstone Park for lunch at Cooke City MT and then down the Chief Joseph Highway to Cody and Buffalo where we stopped for the first night. On the way to Custer, I met up with the family and Devil's Tower where we walked about 1.3 miles around the base of the tower and watched the brave souls climbing the rock face.

I then rode through Sturgis SD where bikers were already arriving a week early for Bike Week - saw the town, bought a t-shirt, saw a cool trike and some nice paint jobs. I rode through Deadwood SD and caught sight of my family walking down a sidewalk looking for a good place to eat. I joined them for a great dinner at Jake's, an upscale restaurant owned by the actor Kevin Costner. The bike was left at the hotel in Custer SD so we could visit Mount Rushmore as a family and drive through Custer State Park (word of warning if you are looking for bison - don't expect to see many animals in mid-day July heat at this park). Leaving Custer, I hit the interstate once again and rode all day to South Sioux City Nebraska with a short detour for the Badlands National Park and a wrong turn that resulted in me finding a decomissioned Air Force Minuteman ICBM missile silo. A National Park Service ranger / former USAF enlisted man talked about the the Cold War and the arms control treaties that led to this particular silo being turned into a museum piece.
Except for the Badlands and missile silo detour, I was on the super slab until I hit West Virginia, with routes through Elwood, Kansas, St. Joseph Missouri, Kansas City, and St. Louis. I detoured briefly down by a swollen Missouri River to view the Gateway Arch.

The South Sioux City Nebraska Econo Lodge was a bit dodgy the first night after leaving South Dakoka but the worst stop on the trip was East St. Louis, Illinois. I stayed with my daughter at a slightly smelly Econo lodge at exit 9 off I-64 and made the mistake of hopping on the bike looking for an alternative to the adjacent Cracker Barrel. We rode by shuttered houses and businesses, catching looks from street people and downtrodden residents and found ourselves passing between the Larry Flynt Hustlers Club and the XXX Girls Club before hopping back on I-64 at exit 6 and deciding that the Cracker Barrel was fine after all. I will add that obesity will remain at national problem as long as the standard dinner portion at places like the Cracker Barrel is a hunk of meat with gravy, three sides of vegatables and two biscuits. The very large woman at the table next to us gave a hearty "Yes" when she finished her food and was asked if she had saved room for desert.
After leaving East St. Louis, I decided to move up from the Econo Lodge and stay at a nice Comfort Inn at Cross Lanes, WV just west of Charleston. The hotel has upgraded to take advantage of its location closely to the nearby dog track and slots casino. Nice lounge where I was able to have a beer away from the teen daughter and listen into the bar chatter: one couple looking for directions to a local adult store and a guy who joked that a redneck's final words are "Hey y'all, watch me do this." Huge improvement over East St. Louis but still a world away from the beauty of Yellowstone. On the final day, I headed up I-79 and the left the interstate on Highways 33 and 220 to cut across the West Virginia mountains for a lunch stop at Seneca Rocks. The Front Porch Restaurant is popular with motorcyclists from the DC area who make Senaca Rocks a day-ride and for climbers who scale the rocks. Some say motorcycles are dangerous but I will note here that standing several hundred feet above the ground on a wind-blown rock is not my idea of a good day.
After a nice lunch, it was off on the twisting mountain roads. I like twisties but I can do without hair-pin curves at the bottom of steep mountain inclines. At least I was taking the turns at a more decent pace than the cruiser in front of me who slowed to 20 MPH for every 35 MPH curve - I was able to pass him on a straight piece of road and was a bit ticked off when he tried to accelerate as I was passing him. The V-Strom moved out ahead without a problem once I shifted down a gear. My daughter and I were both happy to see the Virginia state line and I hit I-81 and I-66 for the rest of the way back to Alexandria VA. As I approached home I noted that DC was the worst traffic of any area I have ever visited by car or motorcycle, and I include New York City in that list.
Route East from Yellowstone:

Bike Report:
The V-Strom DL650 was great on the trip. The only downside on the DL650 is that its relatively light weight makes it a bit buzzy at 80 to 85 mph on the interstates and I felt like I was fighting the prairie winds at times. Once off the interstates the V-Strom demonstrated its outstanding qualities on the twisties, secondary highways and occassional gravel roads. I didn't notice any difference in power, acceleration or handling with a passenger compared to the solo ride out to Yellowstone, but then my daughter probably weighs just over 100 lbs (she is old enough to say no man should ask a woman her true weight).
I averaged 40 mpg on the interstates and 50 mpg on the secondary roads, traveling generally 5 miles per hour above whatever the posted speed limit might be. I only had one hour of rain on the way west through Iowa where I needed by rain gear so I was happy about that. Chain lube each night was my only routine maintenance but I will do an overdue oil change tonight after 4900 miles on Mobil synthetic oil. My only mechanical problem was a loose left mirror which started to flop around on I-80 in South Dakota but that was tightened easily with a wrench once I pulled over at the closest stop.

Gear Report:
My Garmin Zumo 550 GPS did a great job generally helping me navigate over seventeen states and countless interstate exits but it was not without a few flubs along the way. I had loaded the 2009 map set before I left but on a few occasions I found myself being told to go down some back alley to find a hotel where either a dead end or a private home was located. I suspect that user error was at fault assuming that I entered the route incorrectly in Mapsource but the Zumo also failed a few times even when I typed in a specific address - it would get me close but not all the way to the desired location. I made good use of the Scala FM bluetooth helmet set to listen to music on the road and take a call occassionally from my wife. I often would turn the music off on the backroads but good tunes helped to pass the time when I was cruising down the interstates.
I have a love/hate feeling toward my Olympia Airglide 2 high viz neon yellow jacket. I really like the high visibility color and the general comfort of the jacket, especially the zip-in liner when riding in the mountains on a chilly morning. I hate the fact that Olympia doesn't make a Tall sizing for their gear so that I had to go with a 2X large size jacket. The result is that I had too much loose material flapping around my chest at 80 MPH just so that I could have a jacket with sleeves long enough. First Gear makes a decent XL Tall jacket that fits me (6'5" tall - 200 lbs) much better but the quality of the material and armor doesn't compare to the Olympia jacket. I also did a modification to my Olympia Airglide overpants to make them fit better - again a tall sizing would have made it all better. I wrote an email to Olympia noting the problem but I guess I will have to send the company's owners a snail mail formal letter since my email received no reply. I will note that I was very pleased with the quick-drying technical hiking Ex Officio clothes I was wearing and the Alaska sheepskin pad between me and the motorcycle seat.

Final Comments
Absolutely fantastic trip overall. For now I am back to commuting to work on the motorcycle and taking weekend rides. Not sure where I will head next for a longer tour but Americade next year or the Tail of the Dragon might be fun. Alaska someday perhaps but that trip may have to wait a bit. We'll see.