Aug 6th - Day 5

This morning we had a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn.  They had MEAT and biscuits and gravy and stuff like that.  We put it to good use.

After we chowed down, we headed out to the Devil's Tower.  We had all seen it before, except for Mel. This was his first time.

Here is a closer shot of it.  There is a walking trail around the base.  It's 1.3 miles long.

I made Mel climb the hill above the Visitor's Center so I could get a shot of him up there.  The Park Rangers said the record for climbing that thing is 45 minutes (that's nuts).

Below is a picture of how it was made.   Several Indian Chiefs prayed for protection from a " Wolf Bear" (don't mess with those things) and the ground they were standing on raised up out of it's reach.  Sounds good to me.???!!   

One of the park rangers rode his bike to work.  Apparently he wants to give it a new paint job.

I think the sticker on the windshield sums it up.

There are a bunch of Prairie Dogs at the bottom of the monument.

See their houses?

After leaving the Devil's Tower, we came to South Dakota

We rolled into Sturgis and went through town.  There was NO place to stop so I didn't get a picture right then. But we are going back there this evening.  We pushed through to Rapid City - about 30 more miles and checked into the Ramada Inn.  Then we walked down the street to Arnold's Diner. Its just like "Happy Days" in there.

When was the last time you saw one of these?

Our room was not ready so we had to kill some time.

We went to Black Hills Harley to look around a bit.

That is only a portion of the bikes there.... and this is just the Harley Dealer. There were many many more in town.  I will get a picture of those later.

There were all sorts of bikes there. Someone put some work into this one.

Here is the sign that goes with the one above.

How would you like to ride this thing???

One could get a Tattoo if they wanted...

Or get one removed.

That is how our day has gone up to dinner time.  We will head back into Sturgis and see what we can find this evening. 

August 5th, Day 4

Today was pretty laid back.  I started the day by going to the Buffalo Bill Meseum in Cody.  I have been there before, but it's still a fun place to go.  There is some dynamite artwork in there and hundreds of guns divided up in groups by years.  Go there if you have not. 

After seeing the museum, Mel and I joined the others at the Harley Dealer in Cody.  This one is just a small place.  I got my poker chip (souvenir).  Jerry is below polishing his bike.  He does that all day long.

The scenery was vastly different from our previous days. Mostly flat.  We did go through some hills and things, but a good share of it looked like this today.

I got a shot of Mel today in my rear view mirror. 

We are staying the night at the Holiday Inn.  The temp was in the high 90's when we rolled into town (Gilette,WY).  Tomorrow we make it to Sturgis!

We went trough some road construction again today - dirt and gravel with lots of dust. One has to expect that in the summer. Its the only time they have to fix the roads here. Of course, before we can arrive in Sturgis we have to have clean bikes.  We gave'em the once over.  I used the waste basket from our hotel room for a bucket and a bit of free shampoo (hey, it worked!).

All nice and shiny for the road.  My seat cover makes my bike seat look white in this picture. I put the white cover on the seat when it sits in the sun. That way it doesn't get so hot.

We are dinner at Applebees (across the street).  Had a salad and a beer tonight.  I guess I am still full of prime rib from last night.

That it for tonight.  Time to hit the showers and relax a bit.

Day 3 Yellowstone to Cody WY

Last night we ate dinner at Buckaroo Bills. The guy that onwed it used to be a cop in LA and got involved in the rodney King thing. So he quit and started this place. The food was pretty good.

Here is a shot of the cabin we stayed in last night.  Slept like a log (cabin).

This was on the roof of one of the other cabins.

We left West Yellowstone and headed into the park.  There was frost on my bike this morning.  I put all my clothes on and a face mask.

I ran across this sign.  I thought it belonged in this blog.

We are just starting on the Grand Loop.  There was enough scenery to make you sick.

This is the parking area by the picture above.  We were still getting used to the cold morning at this point.

This was on the far end of the Grand Loop, just before we turned off to go up to Beartooth pass.  It was a good place to take a break.

This is the Mamoth Hot Springs from a bit of a distance.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

Having some coffee and getting warmed up (again) at the Hotel at Mamoth Hot Springs.

Here are some Bison.  We saw hundreds of them today.  Some just feet away.

We gassed up at Cookle City.  That is just outside of the park's North East gate.

We cut over and headed to Beartooth Pass.  This sign was along the way (apparently we went further than I realized).

There was a waterfall along the way to the top of the pass.  It looked WAAYYYYY better in person than on this picture (its hard to take your own picture).

This is one view from Beartooth Pass.  Its 10,947 feet.  Its above the tree line and its a bit hard to breathe up there.  This pass in on the Chief Joseph Scenic By-way and has a lot of switchbacks.  Its a fun ride!  This area is known for severe winds, thunderstorms and snow in the summer. But, we had none of that today.

We passed by lots of scenic mountains today.

Here is some more....

We ate lunch at the Red Box Car Diner.  They were busy and this is the slowest place on earth to get waited on.  I feared I would have a birthday before my next hamburger.

Finally, we made it to Cody and stayed in a NEW HOTEL.  Tomorrow we will go and see the Buffalo Bill Museum (its full of guns)

We ate dinner at Irma's.  The place used to be a hotel owned by Buffalo Bill.  It still is a hotel and restaurant.  They feature ALL YOU CAN EAT PRIME RIB.  How can you beat that?

Mel and I made quick work of the buffet.

This place is decorated just like you'd think it would be.

They even have nightly gun fights in the streets (except tonight).  I asked the clerk why not tonight?  He answered: "Because the fighters got drunk."   Yep, we're in the West.

Today was a nice easy day, but we didn't make many miles.  Tomorrow will be like this one, except that we will not be in the mountains.

Day 2 August 3rd

Today we started off at about 8AM after a crappy breakfast at the motel.  We went down the road about an hour before coming to Phillipsburg.  It’s a quaint little place.

There is a somewhat famous candy store there that Jerry knew about so we stopped in.

 

They have a real old candy wrapping machine that is fun to watch.  It puts pieces of taffy into a wrapper then spins the ends closed and dropped them into a bucket.

 

The store looks like an antique.  And it’s filled with them also.

We bumped into Darrel Hugues and Jim Jensen there along with a friend of theirs.  They are also on the way to Sturgis.   Small world. 

 

We went across the street to a coffee shop….

and met some ladies.  They didn’t have much to say. 

I saw this book on the book shelves there and it reminded me of Mile Rowbottom  (for some odd reason).

We headed up into the hills and took in the scenery.  Today was pretty easy, and is sprinkled on us a bit, but it was a hellofa lot of fun up there.  Here are a couple shots of scenery.

Of course, we have to have some road construction every day.

We stopped at Yellowstone Harley (required) and had lunch in a town called Bellegrade, Mt.  I got myself some bison jerky (just for the heck of it).

 

Smokey reminded us that fire danger is high today.  By the way, the "Teddy" bear was created after Theodore Roosevelt saved a bear cub in 1902. "Smokey" was a spin off, who apeared later in 1944. 

We got into West Yellowstone early and had some time to goof off or work on blogs (same thing).

We stayed at a place called the “Hibernation Station.”  It’s a bunch of small cabins.  This is inside the Park, so its not too fancy.  The government run internet connection is in one of the other buildings - off by itself - about 20 years behind the times (much like our health care is going to be).

So today was a nice sort of a ride.  Not a hurried pace, not much rain, only a few sons-a-bitches….  All in all, a pretty good day for me.

Tomorrow we ride through the park a couple of times, climb over Beartooth Pass, then back down into the park and into Cody Wyoming.  We may get wet up in the pass.  Its 10,947 ft high.