Mission: North Dakota

[emptysea]

"I have an idea -- Let's help The Ferret achieve his goal of riding in all 48 contiguous US states!!"

I don't know who originally spoke or typed those words. It could of been any us who love this forum and this man. I suppose, in a way, it was all of us.

As of May 1, 2022, he needed 5 states: Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and North Dakota. By June 1, with the help of InhouseBob, The Ferret had checked off 4 of the 5 (you can read about that adventure in "ECROW" posted elsewhere in Seat Time). By July 1, with the help of good weather, Offroadfx4, my lovely wife, and a few good friends, TheFerret will be able to mark off North Dakota and complete his 48. That trip begins on Friday, June 24 for TheFerret, Saturday June 25 for Offroad, and Sunday June 26 for me and Cheryl. We hope to cover 1300 motorcycling miles in 5 states over 6 days. When complete, I will leave it to others to figure out how we get him to Alaska and Hawaii for the last 2 states and maybe we can get Nemo to help him collect Puerto Rico (Guam and other US Territories may be problematic).

I will post my report and photos of this tour in this thread. Offroad and The Ferret should feel free to add or amend to my reports as they see fit.

_________________

[the Ferret]

Its incredible really that people from all over.... Indiana, Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin who met on a forum on the world wide web, dedicted to an individual model of Japanese motorcycle can get together and help someone's dream come true.
I am indeed blessed to know such people.

So looking forward to this trip.

[Cormanus]

Empty Sea, do you mean the Ferret's trip begins on June 24 etc?

No matter, I am looking forward to reports of this adventure.

[the Ferret]

Yes June 24 to July 1st are the dates for this trip.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Any internationals joining in the mission?

[the Ferret]

Up for a ride GO?

[GoldOxide_imp]

Up for a ride GO?

Definitely would like to be there. Thought about how nice it would be to witness the group journey.

Regretfully, work scheduling won't permit it. Need to be retired.

[emptysea]

Day 0 - The Amazing Challenge. Saturday, June 25, 2022.

Cheryl and I participated in our first "Amazing Challenge". It is a rally/scavenger hunt motorcycle event that a friend of mine has been running for the past several years. This year's meet up point was in Middleton, WI which is just outside the state capitol of Madison. We rode up on Friday for the pre-ride dinner and rider's meeting where we would be provided the points of interest scattered over 400 or so miles of southwest Wisconsin's "Driftless Area".

The rules state that riders must complete the challenge between 5:00am and 5:00pm on Saturday. Points are awarded for POI visited. There is no prize for finishing early. The forecast called for storms starting at about 8:00am so the competitive riders set out at 5:00 to get north of the trouble early. We took the "sleep in and see what happens later" technique knowing that this tactic would eliminate the possibility of covering the 300+ miles it would take to get to each check point before 5:00. We wound up covering 236 miles and acquiring 3 out of the 7 points of interests. BMWs to Harleys were represented and we enjoyed the opening and closing dinners with the 40 or so participants.


This is when we still thought we might have a chance at winning.


This is when we decided to have coffee while all the hardbutt riders were out getting soaked.


This is Cheryl in her rain gear crossing a bridge in search of some Challenge points.




These are examples of point-getting photos.


This is a screenshot of the route we took. We did not encounter very much rain; just a few sprinkles.





This was the awards ceremony and announcement that the 2023 Amazing Challenge will be in Spearfish, SD ... Cheryl loves riding out there so we may try our hand at this again.


This is my certificate of "completion". Note that we only visited 3 sites, but we also earned a few bonus points not shown on the certificate.


I've included this mini-report on the Amazing Challenge only because while Cheryl and I were avoiding raindrops, The Ferret and Offroadfx4 were driving right through them with their bikes in tow, heading for Baraboo, Wisconsin. The four of us were scheduled to rendezvous there on Sunday at our friends' house there. While we were at our banquet, they were having dinner with Glen and Laura, dear friends of ours who opened their home to all of us at each end of this journey.

[GoldOxide_imp]

That was a fun read MTC.

Some nice photogenic snaps too.

[peterbaron]

Mission accomplished