Spearfish Recreation Trail -- Spearfish, SD

This is Part 1 of an 8-part blog series chronicaling a 7-day road trip, during which we were able to achieve riding our bikes in 8 different states toward our goal of riding in all 50 states. 

Links to all posts:

Day 1: South Dakota

Day 2: Montana

Day 3: Idaho

Day 4: Washington and Oregon

Day 5: Utah

Day 6: Wyoming and Colorado

Day 7: No rides or posts, just finished driving the rest of the way home.

The Grand Adventure begins 

Day 1:

 On a road trip to move a kid to college on the west coast, we were able to knock out 8 states on our
"Ride in all 50 States" goal. 

This post chronicles day #1 of our 7-day trip.

The rental van was packed to the gills with college student "stuff",

but we made sure there was room for our two folding bikes in the back!

As we headed east out of town just after 7:00 am we saw 

this beautiful Kansas sunrise.

We traveled through Nebraska

took I-29 up through Iowa

and into South Dakota

at Sioux City

proclaiming itself

When the driver saw this just after we rolled north beyond Sioux City, 

you should have seen his eyes light up.

And then we got on I-90 and headed west, with the ultimate destination being "until we hit ocean",
but not today.

This part of South Dakota was a dead ringer for 

the landscape of our Kansas home

We had a great time as we rolled along, singing along to the sounds of our formative years on satellite radio "80s on 8" and "Hair Nation." 

Hands down the best song in the history of forever, right here, says her.

We entertained ourselves poking fun at:

"The World's Largest Bull Head."
What would possess one to need an up close picture? ~S

"The World's Only Corn Palace."
Been there! :D ~S

The bazillion Wall Drug Billboards

And the rest stop with a miniature church. (I'm sure there's a story there.)
There is a matching one in the Eastbound rest stop area as well.   ~S 

See how much fun we were having?  It's awesome when you can spend 11 hours in a vehicle with your spouse and have a great time doing it!

Er-ma-gard look!!!  Wall Drug!  FINALLY! (We didn't stop).  LOL 

We arrived in Spearfish, South Dakota, our destination for this day, at about 6:00 pm. Stayed at the Super 8 at this exit. All along I-90 in all the western mountain states that it crosses, there are these "closed when flashing, exit now" signs everywhere. Mother Nature still calls the shots.

We changed into our riding clothes and went to ride the Spearfish Recretional Trail. We just rode our bikes from the parking lot of the motel over to where the trail began at the 14A exit off of I-90 referenced in the picture above.  There are no parking facilities at that location. The trail immediately went down a hill and just kept going down a hill and we were concerned at what we had gotten ourselves into, but at that point we were already pretty much committed, so we just keep going.

The trail paralleled a busy street for probably a couple of miles.

beside a golf course

had a couple of sections that were built out of railroad tie timbers
That smelled awful! ~S

But we really wanted to get to the portion of the trail that paralleled the creek we had read about on the
Trail Link site.

Finally, we found it and had a hallelujah moment.

There's Spearfish creek

There's the bike path beside the creek.

The path traveled between the creek and an RV park, the Spearfish City Campground.

and came out at an Historic National Fish Hatchery.

Beyond the hatchery, the trail continued on thru a park where we discovered this pretty waterfall area.

Coming back up the long uphill at the end of the ride
The bike has many gears and we're gonna use 'em all!  :D ~S

Mr. Funny faked chest pain. I don't think he expected me to capture it so well on camera. :)
Who me? :D ~S

We had a great 7 mile ride and can mark South Dakota off the list now.  Check!!!

Total miles for the day:  

766 miles in the van. 

7.19 miles on the bike.

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Turkey Creek Trail Merriam, KS

For our second KC ride today, we checked out the Turkey Creek Trail in Merriam. 

We parked in Waterfall Park. 

The waterfall of Waterfall Park.

But, man, do they take all the fun out of it.

This is a trail that seems to have an identity crisis. 

Pretty much all signage that we found seemed to 

just call it some variation of "streamway."

This was the one and only sign we found that ever 

referenced it as "Turkey Creek Trail."

It really was the weirdest thing.

It was a pretty trail and Turkey Creek had attractive stonework banks. 

The Ikea Superstore looms large like a bright blue Scandinavian minimalist castle just beyond the ever-present roar of I-35.

If you need another example.......

But as a study in contrasts, there are the historical markers. 

I found this uniquely-shaped piece of playground equipment currently under construction to be interesting. 

One should always be very suspicious of bright orange signs hanging on light poles with vague identifications such as "Area 2". I wonder if we missed the mothership.

Also very interesting was the garage sale sign on the bike trail, which did in actuality point to a garage sale that was open. Shrewd marketing? 

We also scored one more item for our Bicycle Ride and Seek scavenger hunt.
A "fraction" at a Sonic alongside the trail.  1/2 price happy hour! 

And that wrapped up our ride on the Turkey Creek Trail, an 8 mile ride. 

For supper, we headed to Don Chilitos.

Who doesn't love a serve yourself all-you-can-eat chips and salsa and sopapilla buffet? Nom. 

We both had the enchilada platters. It was as much food as it looked like.  

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Tomahawk Creek Trail Overland Park, KS

Today we finished up the portion of the Tomahawk Trail in KC that we had not ridden yet.  

During our almost 13 mile ride we were able to find several scavenger hunt
items from the August 2015 Bicycle Ride and Seek Facebook page.

A "car part not on a car". It even appeared to be bolted to the ground outside the fence of this golf course.  We wondered if it served as a bumper of some sort for mowing purposes.

A "hole".  Kind of. Definitely a hazard. 

A sizeable tree had actually fallen into the creek and the roots took that much of the trail with it.

A "No dumping sign" 

and a "park bench"

We also found some cool things that were not on the list.

Several gnome homes, I guess they are called.
This was just one of about 5 or 6 we saw. 

It really seems to be a "thing" on this particular trail, as we encountered several 

on the other portion of this trail when we rode it last summer. 

And this very interesting tree.  Looks like something out of Winnie the Pooh. 

We also encountered some pretty steep hills that we really hadn't anticipated. The trail had to diverge from the creek due to yet another golf course (suburban KC -- lots of golf courses), so the trail was basically routed up the steep creek banks. We didn't much enjoy that part of this trail.  

We are not training for the Olympics or even a triathlon, we are just riding 

for recreation and health and fun, so challenges like that
are frankly unnecessary. 

There are several shots in the video of us pushing our bikes.
Let's save the knees. 

The trail ended about a half block east of the intersection of Plumm and 143rd,

although there are no parking facilities at this location.

There was this somewhat incongruous scene at this rather
busy surburban intersection, however.
Too bad a silo wasn't on the scavenger hunt list this month.  

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Landon Nature Trail to Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education Historic Site

Had a nice 10-mile evening ride along the Landon Nature Trail in Topeka 

 to the Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education national historic site.  

History happened here. 

 

We definitely should come back during operating hours and go through the exhibit. 

We loved the excellent smooth surface of the paved part of the trail, and the 4 miles out and back that we rode was 95% tree shaded and very comfortable even on a high-80-degree summer evening. 

On this portion where the trail crosses under the active railroad trestle, 

there was a roof to protect from anything that might be thrown from the train 

(hopefully no Mommas, though......)

And then there was this, but whatever.  There's always gotta be someone who does crap like this......

Sunset bike ride around Huffman Park -- Osage City, KS

 

Mahaffie Creek Trail / Gary L. Haller Trail - Metro KC

Beautiful day for a 25-mile July 4th weekend ride on the Mahaffie Creek Trail and Gary L. Haller Trail.

Don't let anyone lie to you that Kansas is completely flat.  It's not.

VIDEO of our ride!

Arkansas River Bike Path/Riverwalk -- Wichita, KS

While we were in town to watch a kid compete in the State Track Meet, we did a short ride on the Arkansas River Bike Path.

Fun fact:  In Kansas, it's pronounced "Are-Kansas" River, not "Are-kan-saw." True story. 

Keeper of the Plains statue.

In places the river is RIGHT THERE, so pay attention to where you're riding or walking! :)

Exploration Place science education center -- been there for kids' field trips!

Taking the family for a swim.

People are utter slobs. This was a trash can at the parking lot we parked in.
This was on Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend.
Can only imagine what it looked like come Tuesday morning.  :(