Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota. This line from a song from the movie 'Calamity Jane' has been ringing in our ears for the last few days. In 2009 we spent three months touring the USA on our Triumph Sprint ST motorcycle. One of the most memorable parts of that trip was a visit to the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally at Sturgis. We spent a week in the area around Rapid City. The roads on that visit were clogged with riders no matter where y...

To cross off the third state on our must-visit list we need to head further west to North Dakota and we will travel through Minnesota to get there. One of Greg's favourite movies is the 1996 cult movie 'Fargo' and was set in Minnesota in 1987. The movie won two Academy Awards: one for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Actress for Francis McDormand. Following on from the movie there have been three TV series of 'Fargo'. Greg has watched all three (many t...

To recap, our purpose in visiting the USA this year is to visit the four remaining mainland states we have yet to visit: West Virginia, Vermont, North Dakota and Iowa. So far we have ticked off the first two. To get to the third state on our must visit list, North Dakota, we decided to drive through Canada, the southern parts of Quebec and Ontario and cross back in to USA on the eastern side of Lake Superior. On leaving Burlington, Vermont we drove north along ...

Considering that Concord is the capital city of New Hampshire we decided we should pay a visit to the city centre before leaving the area. Navigation was easy just follow Main Street to the gold-domed State House that was clearly visible from a distance. The wide streets of the city make driving a joy and the pride in the city by the local citizenry is obvious from the flag draped light poles and spotlessly clean streets. We discovered that Concord is the restin...

There are three iconic motorcycle rally's in the USA - Laconia Bike Week Rally in New Hampshire, Daytona Beach Bike Week Rally in Florida, and the King Daddy of them All - The Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota probably better known as just 'Sturgis'. In 2009 we attended Sturgis so a visit to the other two Rallys has been on our bucket list since. When planning our current holiday itinerary to the USA we discovered the dates coincided with Laconia Bike ...