Days 47 and 48

I'm back home safe and sound. It was wonderful to see Jane and Wrangler again. Wrangler was just a little unsure at first as to whom this stranger was, but within two minutes had a toy in his mouth waiting for me to play with him.

The past two days were mostly riding on the “super slab” just to get home. Of course the last day I encountered 11 different rain cells as I made my way through southern Georgia and Florida. I stopped so many times to put on and take off my rain suit I finally took off my riding pants and just kept on the rain pants. It was too hot and humid to wear both at the same time. I have learned it is not the heat but the humidity that makes things uncomfortable. Riding in temperatures of 105degrees with low humidity is much more comfortable than riding in 92 degrees with very high humidity.

I returned to the office with a celebration of my friend and companion, Tigger. As you can see by the picture, my co workers felt it was appropriate to congratulate him for putting up with me for the past seven weeks.

I will attempt to compile some statistical information and post an epilog of my trip over the weekend.

Days 44, 45 and 46

On Saturday evening Tigger and I looked at the map, looked at the calendar and decided it was time to head home. We could get the necessary national parks passport cancellation stamps and still basically head straight home. I had promised Jane I would try to be home by the end of July and if we headed home Sunday morning we could make it. The ride Sunday was great. I felt like I could have ridden for ever and Tigger pretty much slept the whole day. After 680 miles we stopped in the middle of Nebraska for the night.

Monday was a different story. First, we lost a head light. Then, we ran into wind so bad we had to stop. This is the first time I have ever stopped for weather but the wind was gusting up to sixty mph and we were riding lateral to it so we were being blown all over the road. A constant wind, even a strong one, is tolerable because you can compensate for it. But strong gusts are like being hit in the side by an unpredictable force and can be quite scary.

Today we stopped at a BMW dealership in Kansas City and had the light repaired and the oil changed for the last time on the trip. We should be good for the duration. The temperatures were quite warm and the humidity is much higher here than out west.

Since I have been focusing on getting home I have taken few interesting pictures. I will try to post a couple tomorrow as I can barely keep my eyes open tonight.

Days 42 and 43

I am posting days 42 and 43 together because I anticipated covering Yellowstone and Teton National Parks in one day. Yellowstone is a park that has several diverse areas and we wanted to visit several of them. Mammoth Hot Springs, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Old Faithful were our primary objectives. It took us about two hours to reach the entrance the morning of day 42 and once we were in the park we ran into construction delays, heavy traffic and hoards of people. When I started checking on lodging for the night I struck out completely so we made the decision to ride over to Red Lodge, Montana and stay at the Pollard Hotel. It was a fairly long ride, but it was over the Beartooth Pass, a road Charles Kuralt referred to as the most beautiful in America. Unfortunately we ran into construction delays here also. Saturday morning we decided to ride down through Cody Wyoming and enter the park from the east side. In Cody we rode past the store that made the now indispensable motorcycle bags designed by Ted. This ride was quite pleasant, but again, after we entered the park the traffic was very heavy. We did visit the locations we wanted and we saw bears, wolves, bison, antelope, elk, deer, and fox while in the park. This is a park in recovery from fires that wreaked havoc four or five years ago. Amazingly, the burnt areas are recovering quite nicely. I had visited the park the summer after the fires and I was surprised at the rate of recovery.

As we were riding we came upon a curve and I caught a glimpse of a slow moving row of cars coming in our direction. To our great surprise the fourth “vehicle” in that procession was a bison. He was trapped because he could not exit on either side of the road and this was one of the few times during our entire visit to Yellowstone that we were not behind another vehicle. So there we were heading directly toward one another and I didn’t know if I should stop, keep going or ditch the bike and run. A bison is quite a large animal and very intimidating when coming your way and it appears he has his eyes focused directly on you. Before I had time to make a decision, he was right next to us and apparently had decided we were not part of his dilemma so he trotted on past and we “got the hell out of Dodge”. Tigger was too amazed to be frightened, but my pulse rate was up 40 or 50 beats.

I don’t think I will visit Yellowstone again in July or August. The scenery is quite pleasant and the chance to see the animals in their natural habitat is wonderful, but for me the negatives can best be dealt with by visiting the park during a different time of the

Day 41

The word Montana evokes a certain image of mountains, wide open spaces, blue skies and a laid back way of life. (Or 20,000 screaming pre teens) The ride today was a confirmation of that image. The high peaks were on the horizon but the ride was still a motorcyclists dream. The horses seemed to almost be running free, the cattle were well fed and content and the streams were full of fly fisherman enjoying what could only be described as a perfect Montana day.

We did not make it to Yellowstone but we are close. There was “no room at the inn” as the West Yellowstone hotels were full for the evening. We did find a room in Big Sky at the ski resort. Ski areas are always somewhat deserted in the summer so it is possible to get a decent room for a good price.

Ted, my good friend and fellow motorcycle rider, is one of those individuals who does not lack in self confidence. He is always looking at a situation or product and saying “What were they thinking? I could have done that so much better.” About six years ago we were riding through Cody, Wyoming when we stopped at a western store. On the wall were some unique duffle bags so Ted asked the lady where she got them. She told him she made them and could make just about any thing any one wanted. So I told Ted this was his chance to put up or shut up. In five minutes he designed a bag for motorcycling. The bag was expensive and when he asked me if I was going to order one I told him I really didn’t need that expensive of a bag. After giving me an extremely hard time about being a cheap accountant he ordered one for himself and one for me. As it turns out, that bag is the best motorcycle bag I have ever seen. When preparing for this trip I ordered a new bag designed by a big company for motorcycle touring. Turns out I shipped that bag home yesterday along with a whole box of other stuff I have not used and kept the bag Ted gave me. The bag I kept is much more functional and well designed. Ted, I thank you and apologize for ever doubting you.

Day 40

Today I was able to get on the bike but not for long. It seems my little “problem” has not moved all the way through my system yet and I found myself looking at the map to see how close the next town and the next bathroom were. After my third stop with less than 45 minutes between any of them I decided to quit for the day and hope my problem would work itself out (pardon the pun) by tomorrow.

On one of my stops at a roadside rest area I was greeted by a swarm of the biggest mosquitoes I had ever seen. Because of the wet winter, apparently they are quite bad this year and I thought I was going to have to fight them off with a baseball bat. Since the rest area had an open pit toilet that was basically four walls with a roof and a lot of ventilation they had invaded the entire space. I didn’t even take off my motorcycle helmet because it offered some protection. So, there I was, motorcycle helmet on, pants down to my ankles and my digestive system in overdrive trying to keep these monsters from biting any of the more vulnerable locations on my body. I am happy to report that my struggle was successful so I am not walking around scratching my … well you get the picture.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a calmer day as I hope to reach Yellowstone National Park.

Day 39

I spent the entire day in bed. Got some type of virus and felt like ..... I spared you any photos. Tigger was bored but was good company.

Day 38

Glacier National Park is probably my favorite. Two years ago I did a bicycle ride through Glacier and the Canadian Rockies. Some of the territory I rode on this trip, I rode on my bicycle trip. I entered the park from the east side and proceeded to ride the “Road Going to the Sun”. It has to be one of the two or three most spectacular rides in the country if not the world. Much of the road west of Logan Pass is cut out of the side of a very steep mountain. There is a significant construction going on because the roads were built many years ago and they cannot accommodate larger motor homes.

There appears to have been very significant snow fall this past winter since the snow melt and glacier melt is much greater than when I was here two years ago in July. The flow makes the mountain streams and waterfalls that much more scenic. The parking lot at Logan Pass was a zoo. I literally saw people nearly get into fights over spaces. The good thing about being on a motorcycle is that they have separate areas where we can park.