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Days 7 & 8 - Driggs Id to Vernal UT to Colorado Springs

OK, so I lied.  I did have the energy for a few more photos and a final blog.

Sunday morning in Driggs Idaho, we all got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the local LDS chapel for church at 9:00.  We took up a whole pew for the 8 of us.  I don't think we were the only visitors this morning because they hurriedly opened the cultural hall curtains and setup extra chairs for the stream of people coming in.

As we sat there waiting for the services to begin, I felt my nose running just a bit and felt a tiny tickle at the back of my throat.  I coughed a bit, then a minute later I felt it again but stronger.  Within a few minutes I was coughing and hacking so bad I had to run out to my bike for some tissues.  I blew my nose, drank some water and headed back in.

But as I walked in, I noticed the walls were covered with a rough burlap like covering.  I had developed an allergy to a building in Colorado Springs a few years ago and it had the same wall covering.  I stood out in the foyer coughing and blowing my nose every few minutes as the opening hymn was sung and the sacrament was passed.  Several people asked me if I was OK and said my eyes were puffing up and my nose was bright red.

I stuck it out till after the sacrament, then dashed outside.  I texted the others saying I was heading back to the hotel.  My doctor had given me some nasal antihistamine when we met in the other building, but I had none of it here.

I figured since I couldn't stay for church I might as well get on the road and do some meandering.  I made myself a sandwich from yesterday's lunch leftovers, filled my water cup and headed off.

As I rode, I stopped at every historical marker and scenic overlook on the road.  Not so say the other guys are a bit road happy, but they never would have stopped every 10 miles to read a sign, and I enjoy doing that sometimes.

I crossed the Teton pass back to Jackson Hole, then took the highway South towards Rock Springs.  Once I left the mountains there weren't many scenic views.  I stopped for gas just outside of Pinedale, then sat on a bench to eat my sandwich and chips.  It was a bit warm and I'd hoped to find a nice park to eat in, but this would have to do.

I gassed up again in Rock Springs, then headed south along the eastern side of Flaming Gorge.  There were some nice scenic overlooks again and I stopped at them all.

Off in the distance I began to see a puff of smoke, and as I drew nearer it turned from a puff to a full billowing cloud of smoke.  Someone had thrown a cigarette butt from a car and it had lit the grassland on fire.  When I passed, it was several acres in size.

I stopped at the Flaming Gorge damn visitor center to read a bit about it and enjoy some air conditioning.  The temperature was in the 90s, and this heat wimp was certainly hot.

I arrived in Vernal Utah at about 5:30, but because I'd piddled along so slow, the read arrived within an hour of me.  We all went to dinner together one last time (for us).  We tried picking out all of our favorite things.

Favorite day was riding around the black hills.

Favorite hotel was in Deadwood where we had a veranda and a picnic table we could sit around and chat.

Favorite meal was in New Castle Wyoming where they had tomato and bacon soup.

Favorite joke was when Drew miss-remembered a 20 year old trip that he swore he drove to the top of Devil's tower.  That turned into a running gag where we talked about driving to the top of Rushmore and every other thing you can imagine.  Poor Drew.

Favorite surprise was Little Bighorn Battleground.  It was much more impressive and powerful than we all thought it would be.

Favorite road was Iron Mountain road near Rushmore.

After the meal they helped me load my motorcycle up on my collapsible trailer.  Tomorrow I would drive both Nan and I home so she could rest and recuperate from our vacation.

We hugged and said our goodbyes, then Nan and I left.  We stayed the night with my cousin Holly and her family.  We stayed up way too late catching up on whose kids were doing what and looking at old pictures.  It was a fun evening.

The next morning   we ate breakfast with them, then got on the road just after 7:00.  I drove pretty slow on the way home so that I wouldn't over stress the highlander on those steep mountain passes on I-70.

As we approached Denver, we were reminiscing about the whole trip and all of the fun, then we got to talking about Buffalo Bill and remembered that he was buried not far from us.  We left the freeway and drove up Lookout Mountain to Buffalo Bill's grave site.  We paid to go in the museum, watched the movie, wandered around, then went up to the grave.

It was a little disappointing because the view is now dominated by a massive radio tower.  But at one point it must have been a majestic view.

Now we've gotten home, unloaded the bike and all our gear.  I'm about done with this blog and Nan is off washing the car and buying some groceries.

If I could do anything different, I'd probably stay 3 days in the Black Hills.  Do Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and some roads one day.  Badlands one day, Custer state park and re-ride my favorite roads the 3rd day.  Going to Yellowstone felt rushed and very tiring although we got to see Little Bighorn.  We just blasted through Yellowstone without stopping at a single scenic view.

The famous antler arch in Jackson Hole



I followed the Bing car around for a while, so I might be in street view pictures on Bing



Beautiful view in Utah



Flaming Gorge



Fire by Flaming Gorge



Here's where the fire started



The damn



The water side of the Damn



The Vernal Temple



My bike all loaded up to tow home

Yellowstone

Day 6 - Cody WY to Driggs ID

This is probably the last blog I'll write for this trip because once I start heading home, I don't carry the camera as much, and what's a trip report without pictures?

We wound up playing cards in the lobby of the hotel until nearly 11:00 last night.  It was allot of fun, but it left us all a bit tired this morning.  In fact, Nan decided not to ride with us, but to get an extra 90 minutes of sleep.

We all met up at 8:00 for the morning discussion and prayer, then we gassed the bikes and headed back the way we'd come into Code yesterday.  We rode over the same Chief Joseph Highway, but we didn't turn right and go over Beartooth pass.  We kept heading west to Cooke City Montana and the Silver Gate entrance to Yellowstone.

The ride was beautiful once again.  Big sweeping hairpin turns and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.  I got a 360 video on the way down which I hope will turn out good so I can post it with this blog.  It's processing in the background while I type this blog.

As we turned onto the Chief Joseph highway I told everyone that I was going to meander the road at my own pace so I could take pictures and work the  Ricoh Theta camera without having to make the group pull over all the time.  I stopped for a few shots at various signs, then as I was about to go over the top of the pass and start down the switchbacks I turned on the Theta and began riding with a purpose.  I didn't really ride fast, but I was trying to give a good show for the camera.

It felt so good to sweep along those turns and zip down the straightaways.  I glanced around at the views and tried to keep an eye on when the camera would stop so I could restart it.  As I got to the bottom, I found I had caught up with the rest of the group.  I don't think I outsped them, I think they stopped to put on their warm weather gear.  It was about 58 degrees and they were probably freezing.  I just turned on the grip heaters and felt just fine.

Once I had the video I stopped again and put the 360 camera away.  I think I'm done with it for this trip.  I caught back up with the group and enjoyed the rest of the ride to Cooke City where we gassed up.  The gas station didn't have a bathroom, they just had porta poties, and they kept them locked.  We had to ask for a key, then pass it from person to person.  I told my standard joke about the little sink barely having enough water to dampen my hands and face but the ladies didn't think it was very funny.

We headed on toward Yellowstone but stopped for pictures at the sign by the park entrance, then rode into the park.

Within a mile or two of entering the park we saw our first buffalo.  It was right beside the road and traffic was slowing down to take pictures.  I'm more cool than that, so I rode into the oncoming lane and got a picture of our group of bikes with the buffalo beside them.

We saw allot of buffalo in the open plains beside the road.  In a couple of spots we saw herds of upwards of 100 buffalo.  They weren't packed tightly together, but were spread over 5 or 6 acres and seemed to be gently cropping the grass.  It was inspiring to see the herds.

When we reached the grand loop road we turned south.  There were more buffalo and we began to see evidence of the 1988 fire.  In some spots there were 8 foot tall trees interspersed with the dead and burned 30 foot tall trees.  I'm not sure if they came in and planted trees, but there was allot of growth coming back in.

We rode down to the Upper Falls to meet up with Nannette.  It was nearly noon, and we had decided to do a picnic for lunch rather than buying expensive park food.  Nan slept in, then went to Walmart to buy fixings for sandwiches, then she came in the West entrance and turned North to meet us.

I started calling on the CB and the cell phone trying to reach her, and after 10 minutes we heard her on the CB.  We tried to call her back but she probably had the squelch too high and couldn't hear us.  We spent another 10 minutes calling on the CB before I heard her say she was nearly at Canyon Village.  With a destination in mind, I headed back up the road a couple of miles and found her at the gas station.  Then we looked around and realized we were missing 2 bikes.  John and Ron had turned down into the Yellowstone Falls parking lot and were stuck trying to get through the crush of cars.

Once we got back together we stared down the road looking for a picnic area.  I saw a turnoff and just as I entered, John came over the radio saying "That's the road we just went down", but it was too late.  Everyone followed me back into the crush of cars trying to park and hike down to the falls.  It took 10 minutes to get through and just as we were leaving, we spotted picnic tables.  It turned out to be a campground so we found an empty spot and setup our lunch.

Nan had brought rolls, lunch meat, drinks, chips, and even a table cloth.  We had a great lunch in the shade of the forest.  It was cool and pleasant.

After lunch Rob packed up all of his stuff and wished us all luck, then headed towards Salt Lake.  Now we are down to 8 people and 4 bikes.

We headed south down the grand loop toward the lake.  We had one traffic backup with about 50 cars backed up.  We were moving just over walking pace.  Eventually we could see the road ahead of us and realized that the no cars in our direction were going down the road.  But we were moving, so where were the cars ahead of us going?  It took a while but eventually we spotted the problem.  A buffalo was walking down our lane and the cars were following it.  We all kept following the buffalo for another 10 minutes until it finally wandered off the road.

By this time I was tired and had "beautiful view" overload so I put the camera away and just concentrated on staying awake and in my lane.  We made the long run from Yellowstone down to Jackson Hole with those beautiful Grand Teton mountains running beside us.  I tried to take a few pictures but the light was so bad they didn't turn out.

Nannette left us in Jackson Hole and drove on to Driggs Idaho to have dinner with a highschool friend.  The rest of us parked in Jackson and walked over to get pizza.  It was good pizza but we ordered way too much.  I had to leave half of my calzone and several wings which is very hard for me.  I hate wasting money and leaving uneaten food is like wasting money to me.  But I also need to loose weight, so if I order too much, it's good, but very hard to just leave that food rather than forcing it down.

After dinner we walked around town a bit and stumbled across a "shoot out" in the town square.  A group of shops sponsor a little melodrama in the street with allot of shooting and shouting.  I was too far back and couldn't hear, so I wandered the little park instead.  Once it was over, we mounted back up and headed towards Driggs Idaho where our hotel is.  The road climbed up over the mountain on a beautiful road that was completely unexpected.


Starting the Chief Joseph Highway



Shoshone National Forrest



Beautiful views on in the valley on Chief Joseph Highway



More views



How we try to appear to the world



How we really are



Our first buffalo



Wide open plains in the park



Yellowstone



Remains of the 1988 fire. The far mountain is bare of trees



Our picnic lunch



The road through the trees exiting the forrest



My 360 video riding down the Chief Joseph Highway. **NOTE** I intentionally shot it slightly off center because there's a flaw on the center of the lense. Just click and drag the video over a bit to see it more centered, or to look around.

Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway

Day 5 - Laurel MT to Cody Wy

We ate breakfast at the hotel, then gathered for our morning fireside.  Each day, we gather and talk about the things we're going to see that day.  Everyone was assigned one place to speak about throughout the trip, then on the day we'll see that place, we do a short presentation about it.

Nan and I had Sturgis and Nan did it so I got to skip it all.

This morning we're just headed to Cody Wyoming, so Drew did a presentation on the city and on Buffalo Bill himself.  They are always interesting and do add to the day.

Once we were all ready, we headed West toward Red Lodge where we would gas up.

Along the way we spotted a cool looking robot sculpture along side the road.  We flipped around to get a picture and found a whole series of artistic sculptures.  We all posed in front of our favorite sculptures for pictures.  My favorite was Mater from the Disney movie Cars.  They took an old tow truck and painted eyes on the windshield and a face on the grill.

We gassed up in Red Lodge, then drove into the touristy shops in town.  We walked around the shops and bought a few trinkets.  Its a typical collection of bakery, antiques, t-shirts, and other nick nacks.  There was even a T-shirt store that you picked your pattern, then picked a shirt and color and he actually silk screened it right then and there.  Nan got a shirt for her dad that's a John Wayne quote - "Live is hard and it's even harder when you're stupid".

After 45 minutes of meandering we got back on the bikes and headed up toward Bear Tooth Pass.  We climbed right up between some massive peaks and grand vistas.  It was a very cool ride, both in view, and in temperature.  The temperature dropped rapidly from 75 degrees down.

We started a betting pool on guessing the temperature at the top of the pass with guesses everywhere from 49 degrees to 63.  And whoever guessed the temp got their lunch paid for.

We stopped at a few scenic overlooks before eventually reaching the top at 10,947 feet and the temperature on the official bike was 52 degrees which no one had guessed.  Most of us had put on heavy coats and heated gear, except for Nan and I.  Nan cause she was in the car, and me because it just wasn't that cold.  I just turned on the heated grips.

Once we crossed the pass and started descending it actually got colder because the wind was blowing.  It felt like the low 40s, but because we were going down it got warm quickly, otherwise I might have regretted not putting on warm clothes.

On the ride up we didn't see that many wide vistas, but on the way down, we were looking across the valleys at more mountains, and the views were truly majestic.

When we reached the bottom of the road, we turned left onto the Chief Joseph Highway.  It's another spectacular road tha would lead us over to Cody Wyoming.

At first we meandered across the floor of the valley and up some wide canyons, then we began a series of wide hairpin turns.  I call them hairpin because they turned a full 180 degrees, but they were so big and wide that it just felt like a high speed sweeping turns, where most hairpins you have to slow way down for, these you didn't.

We stopped at a few more scenic overlooks for pictures but didn't linger long because we were going to ride the Chief Joseph again tomorrow when we head into Yellowstone.

The final few miles into Code didn't take very long.  It's a little disappointing to think that with all of those beautiful valleys, rivers, trees, and mountains around, they chose to build Cody out on a desolate looking plateau.  But there are probably good reasons for that, they just aren't scenic reasons.

We all checked into rooms, then met back outside to grab lunch at the BBQ place across the parking lot.  There was allot more teasing and joking around the table while we ate.  This has been a very fun group of people to travel with.

After lunch we returned to rooms with unspecified plans.  There had been mention of a Motocross race, the Code Museum, a County Fair, and naps.  Surprisingly the naps didn't win a unanimous victory. 7 of us headed for the Cody museum.

Admission to the museum was $19 each.   Nan and I paid, as did Ron and Karen.  But John and Angela left and went to tour the city instead.  Drew (whose wife was napping) was told to go on in for free because it was about to close anyway.

Nan and I walked through the section on the Plains Indians, then the section about Buffalo Bill, and finally the section about antique guns.  We were there over 2 hours and by the end, my feet were killing me.  It was pretty good, but I won't ever go again.

Back at the hotel again, we were all wondering what to do.  Eventually Drew and Penny texted that they wanted to go to town.  Even though John and Angela had just been there, the mention of Frozen Yogurt got their attention, and Nannettes.  As I write this, they're off shopping and possibly bringing some back for me.

Posing with the robot



Me and Mater



Mater



Parked in downton Red Lodge



Starting up Beartooth Pass



Views off of the East climb up Beartooth Pass



Drew and Penny near the top of the pass



John and Angela near the top



My Goldwing on top of Beartooth Pass



Crossing the pass



Turning onto Chief Joseph Highway



Crossing the valley



Looking down off the top of Chief Joseph



Ron and Karen on top of Chief Joseph Highway



Me at the top of Chief Joseph. Nan just kept going to Cody



Another view off of Chief Joseph



Nan and I by a statue outside the museum



The front of the museum and a statue of Buffalo Bill



360 View off of Beartooth Pass

Devil's Tower and Little Bighorn Battleground

Day 4 - Deadwood WY to Billings MT

Yesterday was a very long day.  We rode 7 great roads and visited 2 iconic landmarks.  It was a great day, but it left me exhausted.

Today we are visiting 2 National Monuments, but we will be riding nearly 400 miles across Montana and that will wear us out even more, especially if the temperatures climb very high.

Nan opted to skip breakfast and catch an extra 40 minutes of sleep.  I went to breakfast early so she could sleep peacefully, then I!!! could help pack while everyone else was eating.  But when I finished my breakfast, I found Nan relaxed in the room, showered, dressed, and the whole place packed up.  She must have gotten up as soon as I left.  She's amazing.

We loaded the highlander and bike about the same time everyone else came out from breakfast at 8:00.

We were loosing one couple today.  Brian and Ellen are heading back to Denver so Ellen can fly home to make some flower arrangements or something.  Then Brian will find his own way back to Phoenix over the following couple of days.  It's always sad to me when these trips end, and loosing someone in the middle like this reminds me that we're nearing the end.  I DON'T WANT THE FUN TO STOP!!!!

Spearfish Canyon

Our first target for the day was to ride Spearfish canyon.  Angela, one of the other wives, was going to ride with Nan today.  They didn't really want to do the canyon, so they headed straight to Spearfish.  We headed South (away from our eventual destination of the day) and rode down to the entrance to the canyon.  We got stuck behind a camper truck who also turned up Spearfish Canyon Road.  I was just groaning about how slow we'd have to ride with that truck leading us, when he pulled off to the side and waved us around.  There are some nice people out here.  I just hope we're some of them sometimes.

We started up the road and it became twisty very quick.  It followed the stream' path, so the road wound around and occasionally had to climb up the canyon wall a bit to avoid some obstacle.  In short, it was a great ride.

It was also a cold ride.  Despite being July, the cold air settles into these canyons, and the evaporative effect of the stream adds to it.  It was probably mid to low 60s, and with wind chill, it was probably in the 50s.  But it felt great to me.

We chatted on the CB like we always do.  Sometimes its like a day long joke and gab session.  And of course, we often talk at the same time making nothing understandable and we even laugh about that.

The sun slowly rose and began to cast light on the wall of the canyon and the tops of the trees.  Steam rose from the stream, and the colors just exploded with the combination of reds, greens, and blues.  Add to that the smell of damp pine needles and crisp cold air and you have an experience that's hard to forget.  It was a special ride.

Spearfish

But all roads and ride have to end some time.  We rode out the North end of the canyon into the town of Spearfish.  Behind us was the Black Hills, and we were leaving them for the last time of this trip.  Another very sad moment.

We gassed up and tried to find Angela and Nannette, but it turns out that Spearfish is allot bigger than any of us thought.  So when we told them to meet us at the Conoco gas station, they got frustrated after the 3rd one that we weren't at and we decided just to all head for Devil's tower and meet up there.

We had to get on I-90 for a about 10 miles, but it wasn't too bad.  We were back off pretty quick and out into more wide open country but still very scenic..

Devil's Tower

We drove the nice back road.s of Wyoming to Devil's tower.  We came up over a hill and **POOFF** there it was.  We turned off the highway toward the entrance and pulled over for pictures.  The sky was clear with just a few puffy clouds here and there.  Temps were still in the 70s, and we heard Nannette and Angela on the CB getting close.

The line to enter the park was pretty short, only 4 cars ahead of us.  We all waved our National Parks passes and rode in.  Then we followed the road around to the back to look for parking.  It was pretty crowded but we managed to find 3 spots.  We put the bikes in 2 of them, then kind of hogged the 3rd spot with the Can-Am spyder until Angela got there and could park in it.

We went to the visitor's center and the bathrooms before we climbed to the base of the tower.  It wasn't very far, and the sun was almost right on top of the tower so we couldn't get a good picture, but it was nice to sit up there in the shade and chat some more.

Nan and Karen walked much further up, but the rest of us just sat in the shade and enjoyed the cool breeze.  The temperature was very nice, but if the sun was beating on you it felt like 100 degrees to me, so shade was great.

After 10 minutes the mental timers on John and Drew dinged, and it was time to get back on the road.

We walked back to the bikes to load up.  Nannette asked me to program the GPS in the highlander for our next destination, but for the life of me, I couldn't get it to find Little Bighorn National Monument.  It'd put in little and it would stop allowing me to input and just show 3 places that started with little.  I couldn't put in the address because it didn't recognize the town, so eventually I zoomed the map out, clicked around till I found the rough location in Montana, then zoomed and scrolled till I found the place, set a marker and told it to take them there.  What a pain.  And by this time, the other bikes are loaded up and left.

I dash to the bike and rapidly put on jacket and helmet then rode off.  I forgot to hook up me music, didn't buckle my helmet, didn't zip my jacket, and didn't have my gloves on.  I had to do them all on the road as I tried to catch up with the others.  It took about 10 minutes of hard riding to catch them.

Montana

We could have ridden on the freeway from Devil's Tower to Little Bighorn, but we try to avoid the freeway if we can, so we rode back a ways until we could catch a highway to take us North.  That highway was under construction and we wound up riding on hard packed dirt and gravel for 5 miles behind a pace car.  It was hot and a bit dusty, but we all made it without incident.

After the construction it was 100 miles of straight, flat riding with the temperature continuing to increase.  By the time we reached a town we could gas up in, it was 89 degrees and we were all nearly out of gas.  We crowded around the few pumps at the gas station, then started searching our phones for somewhere to eat.

Lunch - No name town, Montana

A gas station attendant told us the only places to eat were the sub shop in the gas station, or the bowling alley.  After a scouting trip by the women we opted for the sub shop.

We parked the bikes under some big trees for shade, then stood around eating our subs, chips, and sodas with a cool breeze blowing around us.  It was much nicer and better food that I'd expected.  Some other bikes parked there with us to do the same thing and we all got to talking about our motorcycles and destinations.

A long hot ride

With our tanks and tummies full, we headed out toward Little Bighorn.  It was another 140 miles of straight flat riding, but this time with some pretty heavy crosswinds thrown in.

The ladies were far behind us, and from what we could tell, they were having a great time in the air conditioned car, telling stories about us men (the swear they weren't) and laughing....allot.

The 5 of us men on the bikes weren't nearly as talkative this afternoon.  We passed along road hazards, road conditions, helped with passing vehicles, and noted the occasional cloud that would fail to cast shade on us.  But the miles melted away.

A few times we climbed small hills and felt a cool breeze at the top, but we always had to descend the other side, and the relentless sun would beat us up again.

**NOTE** This is a story from my (Clay's) point of view.  I've lived in Colorado for 13 years now, and I feel overheated when the temperature reaches 90.  I don't think the other 4 men from Arizona even noticed the temperature.  But I find myself drenched in sweat through most of the ride.**End Rant**

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

After a gruelling ride, we turned off the highway into the Little Bighorn Battlefield.  I guess it used to be Custer Battlefield, but was renamed to acknowledge that 2 sides found on the battle, and Custer wasn't really the big hero that history would have you believe.

We began by sitting on some chars near the Visitor's Center and listening as Rob explained some of the circumstances around the battle, and pointed out the various positions that each group took.  It's too long to explain here, but it was very interesting.

Then we walked up to the marker at the top of the ridge where the battle took place.  All across the fields around the hill you can see white marble markers.  Each notes a place where one of Custer's men was later found.  They were spread out all over the place.  There were a few clusters of markers, and some were in scattered lines, but it was clearly a route with the men just fleeing as fast as they could and trying desperately to get away.

We read the various placards that described more about how those that followed, buried the bodies, then moved, then excavated even more.  It looked like there have been at least 5 different attempts to fully map the site, with the last being 2002 when a wild fire burned off all the ground cover and let the archaeologists dig without disturbing much.

We also walked over to an earthen circle where a monument to the fallen Sioux and Lacota were memorialized.  It was a very pretty memorial and talked about the Native American's search for peace throughout the early years of the country.

.  

We eventually gathered back by the bikes and decided to take a short ride down the road to see what else there was.  The women grudgingly put on their gear and hopped on the bikes.  We rode out and you could instantly see that there were far more bodies spread out than I'd originally thought.  They were spread over more than a mile.

As we were coming back, I stopped by a small sign to read it, and it talked about the brown marker stones, and how those brown stones marked the location of a fallen Indian.  I hadn't noticed any brown markers, so I looked around and suddenly I could see them all over the place.  The white stones were very obvious, but the brown ones sort of blended in.  I'm not sure if that was a metaphor for something, but it a bit disturbing to my soul that I hadn't noticed them before.

The final push to the hotel

Once we got back to the parking lot it was like someone yelled "ABANDON SHIP" as the women scrambled off the bikes, stowed their gear, and climbed back into the highlander.  It was a mad dash for leather seats and AC.

We men just sat there on the bikes and tried to figure out what happened.  Then we turned the bikes toward the nearby town and gas.  Our first gas station turned out to be closed, so we hopped on the freeway and hoped we would find gas nearby.  There was.  About 12 miles down the road we stopped to gas up.

I was flabbergasted when I finished gassing, and punched the numbers into my cell phone.  For this last 150 miles, I had gotten 28 miles per gallon.  That is the worst gas mileage I've ever had on the Goldwing.  Usually I get 38 in the city and 45 to 48 on the highway.  But 28???

So when we got back on the freeway, I set my cruise control for 75 and just relaxed.  The other bikes quickly left me well behind, but I just poked along and enjoyed the cooling air as the temperature finally began to drop.

It was only 50 miles to the hotel, and I arrived just a few minutes after the others.  We all checked in, then went to a local restaurant recommended by the desk clerk.  We shared more stories and enjoyed some really good food.

Spearfish Canyon



Spearfish Canyon as the Sun Highlights the walls



Spearfish



Out first view of Devil's Tower



The entrance to Devil's Tower



John and Rob discussing Devil's Tower



Nannette by the tower



Big Sky country, Montana roads



More long roads



Lunch under the tree



Yet more long roads



Discussing the battle



Nannette climbing the hill towards Custer's Last Stand



Nan and I by the monument



The last Stand. Custer's marker is in the middle of that



Skeletal mosaic at the Indian memorial