Featured Touring 15 Days, 11 States, & 3,660 Miles: Sturgis And A Wedding

Day #8: Windom, Minnesota to Comfrey, Minnesota --- 26 miles
• Trip total to date = 1,694 miles

Our ride today was the shortest of our entire trip. And our next day would be our longest! We rode from our hotel in Windom to our family farm just outside of my hometown of Comfrey, Minnesota. Comfrey is a v-e-r-y small town and is a midwest farm town through and through. Again, note the stick straight roads!And not only are they straight, they're flat as a pancake.



As we were gassing up the bikes in Windom, a truck with two bikes on a trailer puller up. I had to laugh because I have a bike with the same blue paint job (my "Fast Johnnie" Low Rider ST) and had a bike with the orange paint job (the Street Glide Special that I sold to my nephew).



When I was growing up, Comfrey's population was steady at 525 (yes, that's five hundred and twenty five!) and now the population is approximately 350. A lot of folks moved out of Comfrey in 1998 after a tornado ripped through the town destroying about a third of the homes and businesses, half of the buildings on our farm and the house in which I grew up, and nearly killing my dad. That's another whole story in itself.



We were eager to hang out on the farm for the day and Russell was particularly eager to see my hometown and a "real" working farm. When I was growing up, we had hogs and (sometimes) beef cattle and raised corn and soybeans, which is pretty much the grains that are farmed in that part of the United States. After the tornado, my dad and brother made the decision to strictly be grain farmers. They also started repping seed for Pioneer Seeds to have a stable income source along with farming grain which can be a bit fickle due to the weather. Nowadays, my "little" brother, Pete, has a huge operation as he farms nearly 2,000 acres and not only reps for Pioneer but a number of other agribusinesses.

Here's the house I grew up in--with some changes after the tornado. Those are our bikes in the driveway.



Today was post-wedding day and Jake and Carla were heading off on Jake's Street Glide for a little honeymoon in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, "just 850 miles away! Their plan was to take two days to get there, hang out for several days, then meet up with family back in the Black Hills for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. So we all gathered to give hugs and a big send-off to the newlyweds.





Then it was time for a bit of a tour of the farm and Pete's office and working areas.

My brother, Pete, with Russell in Pete's office



This building is what we always called "the machine shed". It has been expanded and houses much of the Pioneer and other farm products that Pete reps.



Pete always has products he can give to his customers so we always have to get a bit of swag when we visit. You can see some of the goodies on the shelves behind my brother. Now he even has Pioneer bourbon made from some of the corn he grows! That's my kind of swag.



A day on the farm--continued in my next post

 

Day #8 continued

Here are some of the storage units that hold various strains of seed corn and soybeans that Pete provides to his customers. These sit right next to the building in the previous photo.



Pete's grain bins for his own corn and beans. These bins are used to dry and store grain until it is loaded into semis and brought to a grainery or other sales location. That building is Pete's shop and has another very large building behind it that houses tractors and other farm machinery.



This is the inside of Pete's shop, the building in the picture above. This photo shows abut a third of the available space. Often he parks his pickup truck here or they may use it to store a motorcycle or two.



This is the space for farm machinery located behind Pete's shop.



Me on one of Pete's two HUGE John Deere tractors. The tractors of my childhood weren't nearly this big. And now they have air conditioning, a stereo, and even GPS!



Russell and Pete on Pete's combine. Pete can change out the head on the combine and use it to harvest both corn and soybeans. The combine makes even the tractors appear small.



Some time back, Pete decided to buy a semi to he could haul his own grain to market more efficiently and cost-effectively. That worked out so well that now he has not one but two semi tractor/trailer combos. And they're painted to match in "John Deere Green". Here's Steve in one of them.



The plan for tomorrow was for the whole gang (minus Jake & Carla) to hit the road in the morning and head to Rapid City, South Dakota and the Black Hills where the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held. Pete has a neighbor from whom he can borrow a trailer (a REALLY nice trailer that he's tried to buy but to no avail). Pete has a motorcycle that we all chipped in on and bought him for his birthday last year. He'd ridden it very little to date but was eager to get in some miles. That said, he also realized--wisely--that he wasn't up for the 500+ miles we'd be riding tomorrow! Eli would also be riding his bike--the 2020 Street Glide Special that I sold him and shipped to him last February. Eli also figured that that mileage might be beyond his current capability. So Pete, Steve, and Russell spent time in the afternoon getting two wheel chocks set up to accommodate two bikes. Russell used his bike to help figure out spacing.



As for Steve, Russell, and me, our plan was to simply ride the whole way to Rapid City! That turned out to be a bit more challenging than anticipated which you'll learn about in my next "episode".

After a day of touring and trailer altering, we all headed into town to eat at the one restaurant in Comfrey--the Comfrey Bar & Grill. "All" meant Pete and his wife, Tammi. Eli and his girlfriend, Margo. Steve and me. And Russell. This is the crew who'd be heading to South Dakota in the morning.





Up next, Day #9--Comfrey, Minnesota to Rapid City, South Dakota and "Sturgis"!

Hang in there in you're sharing our adventures because I'll be out of town for the next five days. Russell, Steve, and I are riding to Las Vegas tomorrow morning and will be home Monday. We're hitting the Mecum Antique and Vintage Motorcycle Show again like we did last year. But I'll be back to continue this thread!