Escaping The Heat With Some Repeats

Our summer trip had us heading north, with the Canadian Rockies being the final destination. Rather than doing marathon days of driving (round trip is about 5800 miles), we broke the journey up revisiting a few favorite spots from our days traveling with Tin Can Lulu.

Benton, Illinois is known for George Harrison’s first jam session (1963) in the US before the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, was our first repeat stop. Why was George there? He was visiting his sister who lived in Benton. Rend Lake built by the Army Corp of Engineers was completed in 1973, is a peaceful place to ride and hike. We dug out our favorite Rend Lake ride and added a few more roads. Great low traffic and quiet country roads. We paid a visit to the Custard Stand in Sesser for their traditional orange and vanilla custard treat. They refer to this treat as the Dream Cone but we know it as a Creamsicle. The local Sesser Home Days was also taking place that weekend and we joined the townies and feasted on local corn on the cob and bbq sandwiches.

Repeat stop number two was Sedalia, Missouri and the Katy Trail. We did two rides on the Katy. There was a lot of twigs and debris on the trail due to recent storms and winds that we had to dodge around. It had been three years since we rode the Katy. It was great to redo some of this trail.

A new stop was Sioux City, Iowa. Why? We were able to ride in two states we have not ridden in during one ride…Iowa and Nebraska. Sioux City is in the northwestern edge of the state but borders Nebraska and South Dakota. Call us crazy but we made it a triple state visit during that ride. We are ticking off the states we have ridden in.. Earle has 42 and Laura has 41 . This includes Alaska and Hawaii — just a few in the east coast and we can say we have ridden in all 50 states. And when visiting Sioux City be sure to stop at the Milwaukee Wiener House. Local color at it’s best.

Next repeat stop was The Black Hills of South Dakota . This was our eighth visit to the Black Hills area. We enjoy this part of South Dakota with their amazing mountains and vistas. We stayed in the Lead /Deadwood area and were able to ride Spearfish Canyon and the northern part of the Michelson Trail. In Lead we visited the Sanford Lab/Homestake Visitor Center (physics-neutrino research and history of the famous Homestake Mine). Also in Lead we toured the Black Hills Mining Museum, well worth the time. Lead, SD has an official elevation of 5296 feet. Great place for us to acclimate for the Canadian Rockies coming up.