15 Sept. 2012  Sioux City Iowa to Watertown SD and visit with Jim Fortin

Lost my Nav Computer on the bike yesterday about an hour before arriving in Sioux City IA.  Of course, Garmin and Honda were closed for the weekend.  The local Honda dealer in Sioux City was unable to shed any light on the failure.  This morning I was able to get hold of Garmin.  After listening to what had failed and what I was seeing they said I needed a major reset (reboot) which takes two people.  They sent me the procedure to my email.  Luckily, there was a dealer in Rapid City and I went there and in thirty minutes we had the system back up.  But, I get ahead of myself.

As I crossed the state line from Iowa to South Dakota the first thing you notice is that the speed linit picks up to 75 on major highways and 65 on secondary roads and there are horrendous winds that blow constantly.  The traveling is good and sometimes you can go for 20 minutes and never see another car.

I got to Watertown around 1500.  I met Jim's wife Gloria and we had a couple of beers and covered everyone we knew in the F-4 Phantom community.  Jim is not doing real well.  In June one day he  had stopped his pickup and was going into an office to get support for the VFW.  He happened to turn around and saw his truck rolling backward so he ran to the passenger door to try to get it stopped.  aaaahe tripped and fell and the front tire rolled over his chest and grazed his head.  He ended up with six broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken collar bone along with numerous cuts and bruises.  He spent June, July and August in the hospital and a rehabilitation center and just came home a couple of weeks ago.  He has a real hard time getting around even using a walker.  His son Shane also a former Marine came over from Doland about 50 miles away to have dinner with us.  Gloria cooked a great meal including an outstanding corn pudding that makes vanilla ice cream taste bland.  We loaded Jim into the car because he wanted to show me the Watertown VFW park.  It's a really nice spot on the shore of a lake and Jim's son took me to one of the slabs of names to show me the sixteen Fortin boys, fathers, sons, brothers and uncles who have all served their country.  We made it an early night and in the morning I had breakfast with Gloria and said my thank you's and goodbyes.  Gloria said she was so happy I had come to visit.  It had really brought Jim alive even if just for a short time.  Right after dinner we called Rat Williams and He was just diagnosed with lung cancer and had just finished his first chemo treatment.

16 Sept.2012............Watertown to Pierre (Pier) SD

The trip to Pierre was a short one, 200 miles but the wind blew really hard all the way and made it an interesting ride.  I stopped one time and took some pictures of the land trying to show the vastness of it.  It didn't work.  You have to see it with the naked eye to really appreciate it.  I was happy to get to the motel early.  I picked up a six pack and sat back and watched some Sunday football.

17 Sept 2012...........Pierre to Rapid City SD

We had a blue sky morning but the big change was the temperature.  When I started out it was 45 and got up to 52 by 0930.  I stopped in a little town, Cottonwood population 48, to get gas.  There was a little coffee shop/bar so I had a cup of coffee and started talking to a couple of really nice locals.  They were talking about one of their friends who had just gotten bitten yesterday by a prarie rattler and he was pretty sick and in the hospital.  They didn't have anti venom serum and had to fly it in from somewhere.  He was also telling me about sightings of mountain lions in downtown Rapid City.  I don't plan on going out this evening.  As I drove through the countryside I saw two Antelope and one ring necked pheasant 

I contacted Garmen and told them what had happened to my onboard GPS nav system.  They said I had to do a major reset(reboot) and it takes two people to do it.  Luckily Rapid City has a Honda dealer so I went by there and a really nice young gent helped me out and it is now up to full operation. 

 Tomorrow is a big day with a ride to Sturgis and then Mount Rushmore and The Crazy Horse monument.  I hope I get some good pictures.