1st July 2007
Drag racing day! We left the hotel early expecting to meet a lot of traffic en-route to the strip but were pleasantly surprised and arrived at just after 08:00 when we were directed to the motorcycle only parking just by the main entrance. There was, as usual, plenty to see before the racing kicked off at 11:00 and we had a good walk around gasoline alley (the pit area) before taking our seats. The weather was kind to us with warm sunshine all day and it was a good days racing although none of our favoured drivers/riders made it to the finals. Unlike this type of venue in the UK, the car parks were very well marshalled by the local law enforcement agencies and we were on he road within 20/30 minutes of the racing finishing – can’t be bad.
2nd July 2007
We made our way North West this morning over to the Michigan State line (not really as easy as it sounds as most routes in Ohio seem to run directly North/South or East/West) and visited yet another tourist office to get our free map and information. We also gathered some further information, including a town to avoid “at all costs”, from a very enthusiastic lady who accosted us at a local coffee stop and tried to impart all her local knowledge within about 5 minutes flat! The information included details of some lakeside towns which might be worth a visit for the 4th July celebrations but as a good number of these were more than 3 hours away and it was already mid afternoon, we decided to stop early and take advantage of the guest laundry at our motel. It turned out the motel was within walking distance (although you had to negotiate some 5 lane highways) of a large outlet mall so we decided to go for a walk and ended up spending money we hadn’t intended spending. It also means we’re going to have to find a post office so that we can sent some more stuff home!
3rd July 2007
It’s been a funny sort of day with one or two definite successes and one or two failures! First the successes: We managed to get booked in to a small motel on the banks of lake Huron for two nights – this is in a small town which appears to have quite a range of celebrations arranged for independence day tomorrow and we also managed to find a nearby post office and send our extra bits home. Great so far but the post office was next door to a Honda dealers who actually stocked Goldwings and accessories for them. Naturally, we went in and it turned out that they had a top box rack bag which we’d been thinking about buying (to take some of the excess baggage) so we bought it whilst we had the chance – A total success you might think but not quite. Although we’ve not mentioned it before, we’ve been having a little bit of trouble with the trike i.e. when you try to use the front heated seat the right hand heated grip come on at full blast. As it’s generally been warm/hot up until now it’s not been a great problem but Graham decided to ask the mechanic if he had any ideas what the problem might be. He very kindly came out and took the front switch panel off to take a look. After a while he discovered that there was no resistance in one of the switches so, with his bosses permission, he took one off of their demo bike and fitted it – great, or was it?? Graham went off down the road for a test drive and all seem to be well so we put all of our gear back on, both climbed on board and within 100 yards or so both seats and the right handle bar grip were getting really hot !!?? We went back to the shop but there was nothing more they could do without dismantling the whole front end, which they didn’t have time to do (neither did we) so we did the only thing left to do and removed the necessary fuses. Hopefully, we’ll get it sorted properly when it goes in for it’s next service – wherever that might be. We left the dealers (having left them a healthy tip for an Independence Day drink) and made our way up to Alpena on the shores of lake Huron. The motel is one of the older style ones and quite basic but clean and comfortable. The town appears to be as dead as a doornail in the evenings and we ended up walking for almost an hour to get in to the old town and a restaurant that was open. Thankfully there was a local cab firm that could take us back.
4th July 2007 – Independence Day.
Following some overnight thunderstorms the day started very overcast and grey. After managing to get breakfast (of sorts) at a local burger bar, we took the seat off of the trike just to make sure there were no obviously damaged wires around/under the back seat. There weren’t – oh well it was worth a try! We then went back in to town for the 4th July parade which included floats/displays from what must have been every single local group – it was nice to see. Once the end of the parade had passed we followed on to the finishing post – well we had to really as it was at the local brewery who’s tap room was open for business. The weather improved dramatically, despite the forecast, so we’ve also been along to look at the entries for the sandcastle competition and will soon be making our way to the beach (at the end of the motel garden) to watch the firework display which just happens to be at the park that’s within a few hundred yards or so of the motel.
5th July 2007
Last nights fireworks were scheduled for dusk (whenever that is) so we left our room a 20:30 and joined the hoards on the beach and waited to watch the display – and waited – and waited and…. Yes, you guessed it. It was gone 23:00 by the time one of the ‘spectators’ came by and told us that he’d had a call on his cell-phone to say that, according to a local TV report, the fireworks had been cancelled due to “technical difficulties” – nice of them to tell the folks on the beach! Still one of the motels neighbours had put on a pretty good display so all was not lost. We left this morning and headed west across the state to the Lake Michigan shoreline. The roads across were really pretty, lined with a mix of forest, meadows and wetlands – for some reason this wasn’t quite what we’d expected and a pleasant surprise. The shoreline this side is also more visible (on Lake Huron much of the view is obscured by private properties) and extremely pretty with vivid blue water. As motels appear to be few and far between outside of the bigger towns we’ve booked in to an independently run establishment which is very good and $40 cheaper than the chain motel (Days Inn) next door. Weather warm & sunny all day.
6th July 2007
With beautiful blue skies and promises of sunshine all day we made a move further north up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP as everyone here seems to call it). En-route we took in the scenic road which takes you through Wilderness State Park – this was an absolutely cracking road (US119 just south west of Mackinaw City for anyone who’s over here). You pass through forest all the way on narrow winding roads (real ones just like in parts of Europe) you also get some stunning views of the lake. Before crossing the bridge to UP we went in to Mackinaw city to try to find something for lunch but actually found something much better i.e: a fellow traveller. What we caught sight of first was his British registered bike and the masses of stickers on it – e.g. from Thai International airlines, Quantas and some in a language I couldn’t read. We got talking to the owner – Richard Hammond (if anyone knows him), who’s from near Daventry and discovered that he’s in his 13th month of travelling and has been to all sorts of places including Pakistan (where he said everyone was really friendly and going out of their way to tell him that they’re not all fanatics who want to blow people up), Tibet, Australia and a whole host of other places. He’s now heading for Canada and a flight, for him and his bike, to Lisbon where he intends (after a short trip home to his daughter’s graduation) to start around Europe again. Once we left Richard we went across the bridge into some of the emptiest areas we’ve seen – lots and lots of trees but not much else, it’s really lovely. It took us quite a few miles before we found anything to eat (we forgot after our earlier meeting) when we stopped at a small Inn that had some Harleys parked outside. The locals turned out to be real friendly and offered us lots of information on places to see. We’re now ensconced in a motel in downtown Paradise – well they call it downtown but it appears to be the only street with anything in it!
7th July 2007
We spent yesterday evening in a very pleasant restaurant/saloon whose bar is covered with carved names and dates. We got chatting to the barman (whose grandparents own this establishment, the attached ice cream bar and the hotel next door) and he gave us some of the history of the place. Apparently, the restaurant building was the first to be erected in the 1920’s and the bar followed in the 1940’s – most interesting of all was that the second building had already existed quite a few miles further north and had been re-sited by sliding the whole thing on to the frozen lake and down the ice to it’s current position. Well it’s different! After breakfast we continued on through the UP wilderness – there really is such an expanse of forest it’s really great to see. We stopped off at both the upper and lower Tahquamenon waterfalls which were both very pretty but apparently quite low in water for this time of year. We decided to stop fairly early today, partly because it’s bloomin’ hot and partly because we had things to do which meant we needed to be sure we found wi-fi access. As we pulled in to our motel on the outskirts of Marquette (there’s not much to see in the town itself) we spotted a sign for a classic car show this afternoon – we’ve been across to it and there were some great cars on show. Next on the agenda will be to try out the motel lounge before happy hour finishes. Total mileage to date = 5075 !
8th July 2007
The motel lounge was pretty quiet last night but we were joined by a fellow motorcyclist, Jim, who’s been working in town for the past two weeks giving insurance estimates on cars damaged by the most recent hail storm –Hmmm ! It turned out we didn’t really need happy hour as, having bought one ourselves, the hotel manager who we’d been chatting to gave us a drink on the house and then Jim plied us with drinks all night as he was on expenses – it was the first hangover of the trip! We were woken this morning by a strong thunderstorm that went on for an hour and a half. There were threats of further storms for the rest of the day but as we were heading north and the weather was heading south, we decided to chance it. It was real hot and sticky when we left and stayed that way most of the day – that was until we rode right along side Lake Superior when the temperature plummeted by a full 25 degrees F but at least we stayed dry. We rode right the way up the Keweenaw peninsula through another wilderness park (once again extremely pretty) to Copper Harbour which is a very pretty little town but as it was only just lunchtime we decided it was far too early to stop so we went on further to the edge of the Porcupine Mountains which we intend taking a look at tomorrow on our way into Wisconsin.
9th July 2007
We left this morning and rode up to Cloud Lake in the ‘Porkies’ it wasn’t far and was well worth the detour as a short walk took us to a great overlook. We then rode across northern Wisconsin, (pretty but much less wooded and more agricultural) through Duluth (Yuk!) and into Minnesota where found a very nice and, considering its location, reasonably priced motel/resort and checked in. We spent the early part of this evening sitting on the beach around a bonfire where the ‘locals’ were making S’mores (a sweet biscuit on the bottom, a piece of Hershey’s chocolate on top, a marshmallow which had been toasted on the fire and gone all soggy, and another biscuit on top) we were offered a try but politely declined ! We then went in and checked out the motel lounge and had a good conversation with some other ‘locals’ before retiring for the night. The weather had been kind to us with warm sunshine all day; unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow isn’t as good.
10th July 2007
It would seem that the weather forecast was right as we woke to bucketing rain. By the time we’d had breakfast and checked out, the weather had cleared a little and we set off for the Gooseberry Falls which turned out to be pretty but perhaps not as spectacular as they would be in spring after the snow melt. When researching this trip I had found some information about the International Wolf Centre in the town of Ely so we made that our next destination – unfortunately this took us along a route that had been dug up Scandinavian style i.e with the entire top surface taken off to reveal loose gravel and sticky mud - lovely . The centre has four captive wolves which you can see via a glass wall, it supports Wolf research projects and runs education programmes in an attempt to encourage people in this region to co-exist with the now many wolves they have in the area – it proved to be interesting but, as by this time the weather had really deteriorated, it was also very busy with families. We decided, once we left the centre, to check in to a local motel as the weather really wasn’t conducive to going further, we also discovered that the live music that had been scheduled in town this evening had been cancelled because of the weather. Lets hope it improves for tomorrow !
11th July 2007
I think I can safely say that neither of us has enjoyed today. It was cold and breezy but dry when we left this morning and we took State highway 1 across from the East of Minnesota to the West. The first part of the journey wasn’t too bad as we headed through a State Forest past lakes and rivers (apart from one detour because of a closed bridge that took us out in to the back of beyond on a long, bumpy dirt road). This, however, gave way to grasslands and cultivated farmland which went on for mile after mile – also the wind had become progressively stronger as the day went on and there were times when we both thought we were going to end up in the water filled ditch at the side of the road – it was also belting with rain at the time. We had been heading for a town called Pembina, just inside North Dakota as the State website features a motorcycling section which suggests you really should take in the Pembina Gorge scenic byway. We knew things weren’t going to get much better when we called in at the local museum/come tourist office and, in response to our request for accommodation, were met with “You want to stay here?”. It turns out that, although the town is within minutes of the border crossing in to Canada, it has only one very small, fairly run down motel – guess where we are now – still it’s clean. Also, when we asked the girl at the motel where we could eat she suggested we could either ride back out to the Truckstop on the edge of town or we could visit the shop and buy something to heat in the in-room microwave – we’ve just had a really mediocre microwaved lasagne – Mmmm, lovely!! Just to top it all the information we picked up earlier informs us that we’ve come all this way for a scenic ride of all of 11 miles – Arghhhh!
12th July 2007
If anyone tells you that you really must go to the Pembina Gorge, ignore them ! Okay, it was quite pretty for the two or three minutes we were actually in the gorge but it really wasn’t worth the effort to get there particularly as most of the 11 miles of scenic backway was thick gravel. Once we’d been through the gorge and then stopped for brunch, we headed due west on some incredibly long, dead straight roads where all you could see in any direction was arable lands. It seemed to take us an age to get anywhere so imagine what it must have been like for the group of cyclists we past going in the other direction – as far as I’m concerned, they wanted their bumps feeling. We did pass through some more undulating land, especially around the Devil’s lake (not sure why it’s called that but it did rather smell of stagnant water in places) and it was not a bad ride other than the fact that it was still blowing a gale but at least it was dry and warm this time.
13th July 2007
Still windy this morning but pretty hot even at the start of the day. It’s now almost 20:00 mountain time (that was confusing; we gained an hour, lost it, and then gained it again all in the course of an afternoon) and it’s still over 80F. After checking out of the motel this morning we went due south to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive centre and Fort Mandan (for those who aren’t sure, Lewis & Clark are the two army officers responsible for exploring and mapping the western USA in the early 1800’s) The interpretive centre was very good and gave you a fairly potted, but informative, outline of their journey – the Fort is a replica of one which they occupied over the winter months whilst they were unable to move on – again, very interesting. From there we set off due west again to see if we could make it to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park by a sensible time. For the first umpteen miles the landscape was, once again, flat and boring and the roads dead straight but, after a good while, we started to see undulations in the land and then, all of a sudden we were in amongst the Killdeer mountains which were stunning, not huge but stunning. We did make it to the north unit of the TRNP in time to visit and went on the 14 miles each way scenic drive. The scenery was great and seeing the Buffalo and longhorn steers was a bonus. We decided that it really was too late to go to the southern end of the park as it was around 70 miles away and it was already 18:00 (or was it 17:00 mountain time – I don’t know anymore) so we rode down to a motel around 30 miles away so that we can go visit tomorrow.
14th July 2007
What a great day. It was 83F by 08:30 this morning, 95F by late afternoon and we had sunshine all the way. We went to the South unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park via the Painted Canyon Overlook – both really pretty. The Park has a 36-mile loop road which takes you through both mountains & grassland. As well as seeing the fabulous scenery, we passed a number of prairie dog towns (they make an awful lot of noise for a little creature) saw Buffalo, one of which was really quite close, and wild horses. After leaving the park we headed due south in to South Dakota on more seemingly never ending straight roads (see ‘photo’s) stopping for an ice cream at an outpost that really was just that, completely out on it’s own. We came across a visitors centre in a small town called Belle Fourche only to find that it shuts early on a Saturday (?) – we discovered this by speaking to the Canadian motorcyclist who had arrived there just before us. A car carrying two Australians arrived shortly so we had quite an international meeting for a short while. We are now in a motel in Spearfish ready to head into ‘them thar hills’ tomorrow.
15th July 2007
Another great day. After some rain overnight, it was clear blue skies by the time we left at 08:30, 90F by midday and 99F at 16:30. Once we’d found our way to it, we took the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway which, as it suggests, takes you through a real pretty Canyon then on to Deadwood (of stagecoach and ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok fame) and further on to Sturgis. Before we started this trip we had been thinking of taking in the Sturgis Rally but we’ve spoken to a number of people whilst we’ve been over here and, without exception, they’ve said don’t bother! We rode in to the town this morning and there is some evidence of the preparations but there really is very little here (although you can, if you want to, already by Bike Week T-shirts – we didn’t). It was interesting that even the barmaid at the Knuckle Saloon said we’d picked the best time to come! From there we went on to the Wounded Knee museum which tells the story of a (in)famous Massacre of Sioux Indians, then on again to the Badlands National Park – it was a bit out of our way but well worth the visit with some fabulous scenery (see photos). We’re now staying in a small town around 15 miles from Mount Rushmore so that’s where we’ll be headed first tomorrow.
16th July 2007
Well, they say that travelling is about new experiences and we can now count (at least) another two ‘firsts’. 1 – Being woken at 01:30 by the local energy company who’ve turned up outside our room with a cherry picker to fix the transformer that went off bang at around 22:00 yesterday evening. 2 – Riding in temperatures that reached 104F (the lowest we saw was 82F and that was at 08:00 this morning). We did, as planned, make our first stop Mount Rushmore although, having seen the queues to get in, we didn’t go to the visitors centre we, like many others, just viewed from a number of roadside sites. We then went a little back on ourselves to take the Peter Norbeck scenic byway and, boy, was it worth it. It’s a really, really good road with part that almost corkscrew back on themselves via wooden bridges. Not only was the road great but the scenery was too – the road takes you through one particular tunnel which beautifully frames Mount Rushmore in the distance. From there we went in to Custer State Park which has a Wildlife loop road which enabled us to see Pronghorn Antelope, and Buffalo – rather too many Buffalo at one point as they’d all decided that they wanted to cross the road but ever so slowly so we sat in amongst the traffic at 104F watching and waiting – eventually there was a big enough break in the group to get through safely (they’re too big and bossy to argue with). Next on the agenda was the Needles highway, named for the needle like rock formations. This too was a great road, which entails actually riding through the needles, and once again the scenery was cracking. We also rode past the Crazy Horse monument that is being carved into one of the mountains (and which has been under construction since about the 1930’s) again, we didn’t stop as the visitors centre was a complete tourist trap. Last stop for today was going to be the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, an on-going excavation of a Woolly Mammoth and a number of other long extinct creatures, but, by the time we arrived in town we decided we’d had enough and checked in to a motel with a laundry so that we could give our riding suits a much needed freshen up. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow.
17th July 2007
Well, we did go today (to the Mammoth site) and it was well worth it. They have a fairly large covered site where the dig is still on-going and, to date, they have found a phenomenal amount of fossils including some almost complete Mammoth skeletons. The theory is that the animals were drawn to the site because it was a sink hole filled with warm water which enabled grass to grow on it’s edges year round, the animals then fell in and drowned when they discovered that the sides were slippery. The site is very well presented and the guides very knowledgeable. Once we’d finished there we took off for Robinson State Park in northern Nebraska. We’d been warned by Wally, the Polish owner of last nights motel, that if we were going to head that way we really should make sure we had plenty of water with us, just in case of emergencies, as there was absolutely nothing along the road and he was right. We travelled one of the smaller roads for approximately 45 miles and only saw a handful of other vehicles and a one horse town which appeared to be deserted, as the temperatures reached 104F again (and stayed that way for over a hour when it finally dropped to just 102F) we would have been in real trouble if there’d been a problem. As it is, we are both coping much better with the extreme heat than we had feared, partly because we’re drinking plenty and, we believe, partly because we’re keeping covered/wearing our crash helmets. It seems that some of the locals, who are riding in sleeveless t-shirts and no hats of any sort, are suffering with a mix of sunburn and sunstroke. Whilst we were on the road we ran, for a short time, alongside a rail line coming from the coal mines – I counted two locos at either end and 130 huge carriages filled to the brim with coal. We also had some close(ish) encounters with wildlife in the shape of a Doe and her two fawns who meandered out in front of us and stopped to take a look at us before slowly moving on, thankfully, there was enough room for us to slow down. The fox that ran out in front of us a few hours later didn’t give us quite so much room – still we missed it! Over the past week or so where it’s been so hot we have discovered one definite disadvantage of riding a motorcycle i.e. you not only see the roadkill but you can smell it - Yuk, Yuk, YUK ! We finished our day in Sundance Wyoming (yes- The Sundance Kid really did take his name from here after a stay in their jail) and found an extremely friendly ‘biker’ bar – we called in during the afternoon and spent a very pleasant hour or two chatting with the locals before going out to eat. We then went back later for a few more and another great hour or two chatting to some different locals and the bar owner – all very convivial.
18th July 2007
First stop this morning was Devil’s Tower, the core of an extinct volcano that sits pretty much alone in the countryside and which is surrounded by Indian myths. We decided not to take the walk around the base as it was 1.25 miles and already pretty hot (although cooler than yesterday as it apparently rained overnight) so went for breakfast at a nearby café where we were joined by a fellow goldwing rider from Canada (who turned out to be rather odd but, it takes all sorts). We then carried on through some more fabulous scenery and roadsides with lots of Pronghorn Antelope before reaching a not so pretty area called Thunder Valley where there is a huge open cast coal mine followed, a short while later, by a small oil field that appeared to be growing electricity poles, it turned back to great scenery soon enough though. We are now checked in to a motel in Casper (a fairly large town) which is just across the road from the local Honda dealers who are going to do the 12000 mile service for us tomorrow. They’re also going to try to find the electrical problem for us so we’ve checked in for two nights just in case. Luckily, the motel is within walking distance and there appears to be a local bus service of sorts that will take us in to town. Total mileage to date = 7843 !
19th July 2007
We arrived at the Honda dealers just before 09:00 this morning and, after explaining the problem with the electrics (which, of course, wouldn’t show themselves at the time) and the extra bits that needed doing because of the trike conversion, we made our way to the nearest bus stop which was quite a walk away at the Wal-Mart. We made it just in time to catch a bus in to town and then to make a connection to the shopping mall. The mall turned out not to be very big so after having walked around there and the local Wal-mart (a different one) and the K-mart, we took a bus back in to town where we found a small outfitters that sold Eagle Creek stuff and we bought yet another different sized/shaped pack-it cube. Although it had been hot & sunny all day, it was beginning to look as though the threatened thunderstorms would materialise so the shop staff very kindly called us a cab to take us back to the dealers. Once we were in the cab we started to hear the severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for the town and the cab driver said we needed to head out of town quick as the centre of town is known to flood – just what we needed. By the time we reached the workshop it was positively bucketing down and we got pretty wet even getting from the door of the cab to the shop so even though the trike was almost ready, it was an hour or so before we left. Now, back to the trike – the 12000 mile service had been completed and the mechanic told us that, although he had spent quite a few hours on the electrics he had been unable to find the problem. However, he has narrowed it down and it looks like it’s probably something to do with the handlebars having been off to sort out the steering lock. We’ll have to get that looked at next time but for now, the fuses are out again. One very positive thing was that the Service Manager offered to cover the cost of the mechanics time to sort out the electrical problem, as they hadn’t identified what it was, so the bill was only $234 – far less than the cost of a service at home.
20th July 2007
We re-traced out wheel tracks slightly for the first part of today’s trip and then headed north to Buffalo where we turned west on to the Cloud Peak Skyway which is a fabulous scenic byway with two very distinct different types of terrain. We realised that we were climbing to a higher altitude but we were still taken by surprise when we came to the snow, there wasn’t very much of it but it was definitely snow and the temperature was reading 78F ! When planning our days route, we had thought that we might stay around 30 miles further on at Worland but, when we got there, there was very little to see so we went on to Thermopolis which is a town built up around the (supposedly) biggest thermal hot spring in the world. It was only as we came over the brow of a hill that we realised that we’d been there before, some years ago and it seems that little has changed – it still smells of sulphur and there’s little to do there but visit the springs so, on we went again. The next sizeable town on the map was Shosoni, that turned out to have even less in the way of amenities so we decided, as it was now in striking distance, we’d head for Lander a very pleasant little town (a real one with a high street) that we’d stayed in on our last visit to Wyoming. The road to Lander took us through the Wind River Canyon, yet another stunning road with equally stunning scenery. Once we arrived at Lander we discovered that the hotel we’d stayed in last time was full so we’re now in another one at the other end of town. When we booked in, the young lady who runs the place, told us that there is an Arapahoe POW-WOW around 12 miles up the road which is on tonight and tomorrow night so, once we’ve sorted ourselves out, we may go take a look.
21st July 2007
We didn’t go to the POW-WOW yesterday evening as, when we asked for some further information, we were advised (by some native Americans) that the best time to go would be Saturday evening so we decided to stay in town and go along tonight. We were also told, by a group of young lads in one of the towns bars, that there was a ‘real cool’ car show on at the college in Riverton on Saturday so that pretty much sorted the day out for us. We did, however, change motels as the one we were in last night was definitely down market and, excuse the expression, in the arse end of town. This time we managed to get in to the one we stayed in on our last visit. We went along to the aforementioned car show and the guys were right, there were some ‘real cool’ cars there – the weather was not so cool though at 95F. From there we went to Wal-marts as we’d also found some information which suggested you really should take a chair along to the POW-WOW as there was a definite etiquette about who can use the benches provided (reserved for those who are dancing) so we spent a whole $11 on two chairs. We then spent a somewhat frustrating two hours trying to get sensibly priced accommodation for our run in to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and it really doesn’t exist (sensibly priced that is) so we just had to swallow and book some rooms anyway. As it turned out, we are going back to a motel we stayed at last time we were here and they still had our details on file so were able to confirm when we were there i.e July 2000. Not knowing what to expect, we went along to the POW-WOW expecting to pay to get in and were surprised to find that it was totally free and all you needed to do was find a convenient place to put your chair, sit down and enjoy the entertainment. It seems that the meeting is really a weekend long party with a variety of competitions (some of which appear to be taken quite seriously) e.g. drumming, dancing and singing. They have different classes for different age groups including a Tiny Tots dance competition in which all were adjudged to be winners and all received $2 prize money – ahhh!! Some of the costumes being worn were fabulous (see ‘photos) and the sounds these people can make with just voice and drums were amazing. We declined to stay to the end as we were told that these events usually go on until 02:00 – we left at a more reasonable hour, rode back to the motel past what we believe was an involuntary display of fireworks (looked rather like a store had gone up in flames), parked up and went to the local brew pub. What a great day.
22nd July 2007
We left Lander this morning and headed south west to Rock Springs where we’re staying tonight but, rather than stopping, we went out on to the Flaming Gorge scenic byway which is a loop of approximately 160 miles and it was worth every one of them, once again there was stunning scenery almost all of the way. It is also worth mentioning that, when we first left the civilisation that is Lander (after filling the gas tank), we joined a road that went on for very nearly 70 miles before we saw any kind of community at all – it really is important to keep your tank filled and a supply of water on board if you’re travelling in this neck of the woods. Once we’d completed the loop we checked in at our motel (which we’d pre-booked), sorted ourselves out, and went next door to the sports bar and grill for something to eat and drink. This turned out to be a real bar full of locals but really noisy so we couldn’t even speak to each other properly and would have been unlikely to get in to conversation with the locals – that’s why I’m here now writing this!
23rd July 2007
The first half of today’s journey was rather less picturesque as we were back in to open grassland but we were fairly soon back on to a scenic byway with great views of the Gros Ventre Mountain Range. This took us in to Jackson, our ‘home’ for the evening. We were very lucky with the weather as it had been hot & sunny all morning but within half hour of our arrival (at a motel we’d stayed at 7 years ago on our last visit) it started to rain so we sat out on a bench under our canopy to watch the rain before getting ourselves cleaned up and walking in to town (by which time it had stopped raining again). Unfortunately, the town was even busier than on our previous visit so, after a short walk, we went back to the motel and one of the more important jobs of the day i.e. trying to repair the visor for my crash helmet as a small piece of plastic had broken off of the rise & fall mechanism. It took some time and ingenuity on Graham’s part (plus some superglue and an aerosol top) but, so far, it seems to have worked – time will tell. Once that was done we went next door the eat and then next door again for an after dinner drink during which we heard a rather good expression – one of the locals confided that many, though not all, of the tourists were known locally as ‘Tourons’ a cross between tourists and morons!
24th July 2007
This morning we rode north and into Grand Teton National Park which is just as beautiful as we remembered. It is not a particularly big park but it includes a fabulous, although relatively small, mountain range so, with ‘photo stops, it took us quite a while to make our way through. From there we continued north in to Yellowstone National Park which is a different kettle of fish altogether, not obviously as mountainous although at fairly high altitude, and much more forested. It is also a lot busier. The main roads through the park form a figure of eight and, as we were booked in to a motel in West Yellowstone we headed around the bottom of the lower loop towards the town taking in ‘Old faithful’ en-route. This, for those who may not be familiar, is a geyser which has been blowing very regularly for years (on average every 90 – 120 minutes) and which reaches around 120 feet each time – pretty impressive but, unfortunately, we arrived not long after it had ‘gone off’ so, in order to get a picture for the blog (yes, really) we sat outside the visitors centre for over an hour waiting for it to go again. As we came out of the park towards the town, we came across a nice lush field next to a river which had a herd of Elk feeding at the water side so the long camera lens came out for it’s first real test on this trip. We made it in to town by late afternoon and discovered, much to our disappointment (yeh, right), that our motel was right next door to the town’s brew pub. Unfortunately, they have some odd laws up here and the pub is obliged to shut a 20:00 so after a swift one in there, we went further in to town to eat, getting wet in the process as, after a warm sunny day, it had started to rain. Hopefully, the weather will improve for tomorrow as we hope to see all of the rest of the park and make it back in time to visit the Grizzly bear and wolf sanctuary that’s in town.
25th July 2007
Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side today. We woke to light rain and rode out to the park in very overcast conditions which is a shame as you just don’t get the same views but they still weren’t bad! We completed the loop around the park and, in doing so, saw some pretty good views and quite a bit of wildlife; Elk, Stags, Bald Eagle, Buffalo and we also had an interesting situation with some grizzlies. We came to a queue of traffic that was being directed by Park Rangers and, as we got towards the front of the queue we discovered that a mother grizzly had decided to feed her cubs along the side of the road (a fellow motorcyclist coming the other way shouted “don’t worry it’s only a grizzly just eaten two motorcyclists”). As they can be particularly touchy when they have young about, the Rangers were taking no chances and allowing traffic to pass only when they felt it safe. Just as we got to the front of the queue, the mother made a move towards the road stopping again when she was around six feet away from us. We were told very firmly that we were not to move and that we should stay “just there – don’t move”. We did as we were told and, although we only got to see the head of the mother, that was quite enough in the circumstances! Once she’d decided to stop again we were on our way. We were just a few miles outside of West Yellowstone when the heavens opened and I mean really opened. We, and a bunch of other motorcyclists took refuge in a gas station until it had eased before returning to the motel and some dry clothes. Once we’d dried ourselves off we went along to the Grizzly & Wolf discovery centre which was in walking distance and saw some of the animals that are in their care (most are there because they were orphaned as cubs/pups). Interestingly, they use the bears at the centre to test bear resistant trash cans etc.
26th July 2007
The weather was a little kinder this morning with a mix of cloud and blue sky but it was decidedly chilly. We left fairly early and headed through the Park again seeing buffalo, deer and a black bear en-route to the Beartooth Pass. We drove the Beartooth 7 years ago in a rental car and vowed that, if we were ever here on a bike, we’d do it again so that’s what we did. Unfortunately, although the weather was better than yesterday, it still wasn’t clear and we didn’t get to see a lot of the views we know are there; still, you can’t win them all. Now, on to a different subject altogether: Before we left home we agreed that there was one thing we really, really must not forget to pack i.e. the GWRRA Gold Book (a book produced by the Goldwing Road Riders Association giving details of Honda dealers across the US as well as contact details for members in each state) well, you guessed it, we forgot to bring it with us which wasn’t a problem until we tried to find a dealer to arrange a service. We’d been trying to think of a way to get hold of a copy of the book and decided that the best way was to ask them to send a copy to us at a pre-booked motel. Whilst we’ve been in the vicinity of Yellowstone we’ve been booking motels in advance and this seemed like a good opportunity so Graham rang the GWRRA and asked if they could send a copy to tonight’s accommodation. The very helpful young lady there suggested that, to make sure we got it in time, she would contact a local member and see if they could drop off their own copy for us and she would send them a new one. This is exactly what happened, Lee & Debbie from Red Lodge Montana very kindly dropped off their copy for us, and after a brief telephone conversation we agreed to meet for a quick drink this evening. A drink turned in to dinner and we spent a very pleasant evening in their company. Thanks again Lee & Debbie, it was great meeting you.
27th July 2007
As we’d missed most of the views yesterday, we decided to make the return journey across the Beartooth. When we left, a little after 08:00, it was overcast but the cloud appeared to be at a higher level, however, within 20 minutes of our departure it had started to rain and rain quite hard. We put on our wet weather gear and continued over the Pass and, despite the rain, some of the views were easier to see so all was not lost. Once we reached Cooke City just beyond the end of the scenic highway we stopped for breakfast and, by the time we’d eaten, the weather had started to brighten a little so we stayed with plan ‘A’ which was to take a look at the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. As we did so the weather continued to improve and we saw some great scenery. Once we’d reached the end of the highway we turned around and headed back on ourselves stopping for coffee back in Cooke City. From there we went back into Yellowstone, across from the North West entrance to the Northern entrance and we were lucky enough to, once again, see a black bear and also some Moose (A mother and baby plus a lone adult). From there we headed north to a small town called Livingston a whole 72 miles from where we started off this morning but with a further 270 miles on the clock. Total mileage to date 9208 !
28th July 2007
We’re back to hot, sunny weather again today with temperatures reaching 99F as we headed north towards Glacier National Park. Now, as I’ve said before, we don’t really like to book motels in advance but decided that, as we were heading for the Park on a weekend we really should and it was a good job we did as we discovered that there was a state ‘swim meet’ on which meant that accommodation was almost impossible to find. As a result, we changed our route slightly and have ended up around 60 miles from the park entrance. The route took us through a real mix of landscapes with lots of flat open farm land, through the Lewis & Clark National Forest and open prairie which proved to be hard work at times because of a strong cross wind and some real strong gusts. We’re told by the hotel staff that it’s always like that so, if you’re coming this way, you’ve been warned. Whilst heading across the open fields I discovered another real advantage of the mesh suits we bought when I had a lucky escape: I felt something fly up my right trouser leg, was able to catch it in the spare fabric around my knee and hang on long enough to stop, unzip the full length zip on the outer leg of the trousers and release what appeared to be a very large wasp before it stung me– phew!
29th July 2007
We spent yesterday evening at a nearby Steakhouse/Saloon/Casino and had what was probably the best Buffalo prime rib we’ve ever had – excellent. As we walked across from the motel there was a real strong smell of smoke in the air from one of the wildfires that was burning not too far away. By this morning the wind had dropped, there was a fine dusting of ash on the trike and the first 30 miles or so of this morning’s run to Glacier was also accompanied by a smoky haze that prevented any sight of the horizon – it was really quite eerie. Thankfully, the wind direction meant that the views cleared the nearer we got to the park. As we approached the park entrance it became obvious that there was rather more traffic here than we’d expected and, although the views were still great, the run through was a little disappointing as it was almost entirely spent in a queue of slow moving traffic. It also seems that there is far less water in the streams than we saw last time and it will be interesting to compare the photos with those taken 7 years ago as it looks like the glacier has receded dramatically. We’re spending this evening a small town we’ve visited before and have already visited the brew pub for our samples. Tomorrow we’ll be heading into Washington State.
30th July 2007
For the most part today was a really great day. As usual we left town by a rather circuitous route taking the road north rather than due west which is our general direction of travel. This took us through the Kootanai National Forest and down the side of lake Koocanusa, the roads were superb and the scenery stunning. Further on, the road took us through the top of Idaho along the side of the river, the scenery continued in the same stunning vein for mile after mile. We stopped for lunch at a roadside café where we met a really friendly group of Canadian motorcyclists, which meant that lunch took rather longer than normal (which was great) but it didn’t matter as we’d gained another hour so we’re now 8 hours ahead of you guys in the UK. After lunch we headed for the Washington state line and more superb scenery before the not so great bit of the day – it went like this: We were running along highway 20, minding our own business and enjoying the scenery, when a logging truck coming the other way had a rear tire (sorry, tyre) blow out. We both saw the explosion, Graham saw the huge piece of rubber coming through the air (I think I’d shut my eyes by then) before the rubber (see photos) hit the left hand side of the screen on the trike, cracking it and taking off the front vent before, thankfully, going straight over the top of the pair of us. It seems that another small piece of debris (probably the one which caught my right shin) also put three small chips in the right rear fender – still it could have been so much worse. Graham has had the super glue and duct tape out and affected a temporary repair on the windshield, we’ve also left a message on the Insurance companies ansaphone so we’ll have to see what happens from here. We’re now in a small, rather old (but perfectly serviceable) motel that has cost us a whole $42 for the night including tax so the day hasn’t finished too badly.
31st July 2007
Plan ‘A’ for today had been to head to a small old fashioned Western town called Winthrop where we had stayed some 15 years ago. We left and headed in that general direction through some fairly pretty countryside and, for a time, we found we were flinching just a little when the logging trucks passed us. We arrived at Winthrop at just about lunchtime, rather too early to stop, also the hotel rooms all turned out to be very expensive so we went on to plan ‘B’ which was to head across towards the west coast but stop at one of the chain motels close to the Interstate so that we could use a guest laundry. This route took us through two National Forests and the North Cascade Mountains all of which were really great, unfortunately, the same could not be said of the area where the motels were located, it turned out to be a particularly grotty area so we invented a plan ‘C’ and made for the coast. We are now in a very nice hotel in Anacosta (so we’ve completed our first coast to coast) and have booked in for a whale-watching trip tomorrow.