Countdown has begun!

Less than 48 hours to go.... We have to be in Decatur at 7 am on Saturday. Have been getting ready, have most of my clothes packed, I need to see what other bag I have to take. I'm pretty well at my capacity, but want a little more without overstuffing everything. I hope our trip is relatively dry, we have been having a lot of rain here in North Texas. Gainesville had over 8 inches and major flooding earlier this week. We did not get that brunt only about 1.5 inches. Rain or threat every day. As long as we get on the road dry I will be relatively happy!

Here is our high level plan.

Day 1(512 miles)
Decatur to Raton, New Mexico. Basically 287 over to Amarillo, then 385/87 to Raton.

Day 2 (317 miles) the scenery begins to improve!
I-25 North to Walsenburg
Hwy 69 through Westcliffe to Hwy 50 (The Sangre de Christo mountain range will be on our left as we ride this valley)
Hwy 50 west to Hwy 285
Hwy 285 north to Leadville (Highest in elevation incorporated town in the United States)
Hwy 91 from Leadville over Fremont Pass (11,313 feet)
Pickup I-70 at Wheeler Junction and head back east through the Eisenhower Tunnel
Pickup US40 at Empire and take it over Berthoud Pass (11,307 feet)
That will bring us into Winter Park where we spend the night.

Day 3: (459 miles)
Follow US40 to Granby and pickup Hwy 34.
Hwy 34 goes through Rocky Mountain National Park. It is also called Trail Ridge Road. We will go over several passes. The highest one being a little over 12,000 feet.

At Loveland we will pick up I-25 and head North
We will stay on I-25 all the way to Ammon where we pick up Hwy 18, Hwy 18 to Hwy 85, Hwy 85 to Deadwood

Day 4: (153 miles)
Mount Rushmore, the Iron Mountain Road (famous for its pig tail curves), Needles Highway, lunch in Hill City and Crazy Horse Monument in the afternoon.
We will be in Custer State Park. It is a state park of South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore is a National Monument vs. a National Park.

Day 5 (373 miles)
Spearfish Canyon, Devil’s Tower and run up to North Dakota for those that want to say they have ridden in that state. The plan is just to cross the border and come back down to Sturgis. Visit Sturgis HD on the way back to Deadwood

Day 6 (402 miles)
Depart Deadwood, stop at Rapid City HD, stop at Wall Drug Store, ride through Badlands National Park, then start heading south through Nebraska to North Platte.

Day 7 (381 miles)
North Platte to Woodward, OK

Day 8 (485 miles)
Woodward, OK to home via Turkey, TX for those that need the LSC point. This can be shorter if you don’t need the LSC point in Turkey