Day 19 & 20 (Rochester, MN to Wall, SD)

First of all, no pictures this time. As I hope, most of you probably read my last blog posting about me losing my wallet when I was getting gas in Rochester, MN, on my way out. I somehow forgot to put it back in my back pocket and left it on the dashboard of the bike. So you'll have to read the previous blog posting to get the details but I'll update you on what has happened since then.

So Lisa had to wire me some money to hold me over in Rochester, Minnesota for two days extra until my financial institution sent my new ATM/debit card with a Thursday (today) delivery day. After going through a lot of hassle, as you can imagine I thought things were back on track again and that I would have my new debit card and I would be on my way, right? So very wrong!

So I call USAA today to get a tracking number that they apparently could not provide yesterday. That seemed odd to me if you are overnighting a package of some sort. So, I speak with a completely different agent and discover that they don't have a tracking number for some unknown reason and the agent found that very off himself. I then ask to speak to an supervisor and after two lengthy on-hold sessions, I discovered that the original agent never processed my ATM debit card correctly and that it never got sent out to Rochester, MN as I was promised.

Well, for those that know me I was not at all happy but I had to keep my cool because other people were in the room. So now, I'm being promised by this supervisor that they will overnight it to Seattle for me to receive at a friends house. We'll see how this plays out but it is not going to be good when I get back to San Antonio. I personally find this unacceptable when they knew what my situation was from the beginning. I should say that I did file a report with the police department in Rochester which someone at the Brentwood Inn & Suites recommended. They were awesome and even let me hand wash my bike on site.

Again, Lisa wired me enough money to hold me over until Seattle. So I decided to leave Rochester and head west and it felt so good to get back on the bike. I was originally going to go through North Dakota but since all this put me behind, I decided to take I-90 through South Dakota, Wyoming (corner section), Montana, Idaho, and to Seattle, WA where I will tour Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on Monday morning. I am currently in a hotel after driving eleven and a half hours. I'm in Wall, South Dakota where the famous Wall Drugs is located. If you have ever been through South Dakota you know exactly what I'm talking about. In short...a tourist trap. It has definitely grown though since I went through here back in November 1990, when I first moved out to Washington State.

Apparently a major thunderstorm is coming through from the west according to another biker here at the hotel. He drives a touring Harley-Davidson and apparently they are thinking about heading back to Minnesota instead of going through it. I'm not surprised though. I'll be going through it no matter what. No, not arrogant...just confident of my Honda Goldwing's capabilities and it has already been tested a few times during this trip.

I will tell you that there was nothing eventful in my trip from Rochester, MN to Wall SD other than a rather funny thing that happened. I ran into this guy at a gas station in Minnesota and he was gassing up his BMW GS1150 (just another bike) and we chatted briefly before he left and I finished up and then went over to McDonald's (give me a break...there was no Starbucks nearby) and then I left. So quite a ways down the road, I decided to take some "personal time" at this rest stop. As I pulled in, guess who I saw? Yes, this guy named Dave from West Virginia. So no big deal right? Then much further down the road in South Dakota, I pulled into this tourist trap gas station with an old western town (1880 Town) in the back (houses were real but moved to this location from throughout the state) and after getting gas and having a Dove ice cream bar, I was talking to Lisa on the phone and guess who came around from the back of this place? Yep, Dave. He leaves after saying hi again and that was it.

Well as I stated, I came into Wall, SD and as I'm looking for a reasonable hotel (OK, cheap), guess who I saw pulling around to this hotel. OK, this is on the border of stalking now so I had to drive over and Dave and I just busted up. Well come to find out, the rooms were only $53.00 a night so of course, I'm sold. He is going back to drive through the Badlands of South Dakota tomorrow and working his way up to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska where a friend lives. That is adventurous now.

Well enough for tonight, it is 10:20pm (Mountain Time) which means 11:20 in Texas and that is too late for me.


Pete West
PO Box 380001
San Antonio, TX 78268
(210) 563-0509 (cell)
pwestjr@gmail.com

"Cruisin' For A Cure" U.S. Motorcycle Tour to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
http://cruisinforacure.blogspot.com ("Cruisin' For A Cure" travel blog site)
http://www.active.com/donate/cruisinforacure (donation website)