DAY
23, MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013
Stereo! My alarm
and C.E.’s alarm sounded together. We
got up, got dressed and packed. We took
a bag out to our Motors. Some of the
other guys were already at their Motors packing them, wiping them or talking to
the other travelers. I went to the
breakfast room first and ate. The others
followed. As I was eating, there were
several others there eating also. A Lady
Winger asked me, “Do you know what a Harley rider gets after he dies and goes
to heaven? A GOLD WING! You know, I’m sure that they do! The Harley boys were told that and they
laughed. While we were having breakfast,
Chuck told me that he had looked on the internet and found that the American
Motorcycle Association had a poll of many riders and made a list of the Top 15
rides in the U.S. On this year’s ride,
we have done the top 3! We did them in
descending order. We rode #3 first, Tale
of the Dragon, #2 was second, Blue Ridge Mountains and #1 was last and that is
Bear Tooth Pass. All three were awesome
to ride. We all finished breakfast and
we left at 8:06 AM and I was leading.
We headed south to Bear Tooth Pass. It was 57 degrees and clear. We passed a sign that read, “Bear Tooth Pass
is Open.” We rode on this awesome road
with curves, uphill’s, downhill’s, switchbacks and decreasing radius
turns. Bear Tooth Pass has an elevation of
10,947 feet. The traffic was light and
we almost had the road to ourselves. We
rode for 25 miles and at 8:33 AM, we stopped at Rock Creek Vista Point. We walked over to the guard rail and looked
down to the bottom of the mountain. It
sure was a long way down! There was a
minivan with a family of four playing and feeding the chipmunks. There was also a long walkway to the end was
a scenic view. Just before we started
walking to the scenic view, we heard that the dog inside of the minivan had
locked the doors and the family out of the van.
We didn’t understand why the father would leave the keys in the ignition
and leave the dog alone in the van. We
went to the scenic view area while C.E. stayed with his Trike. When we returned, there was double the amount
of Motorcycles parked in the parking lot than there was when we walked
away. The minivan was also gone. A couple of highway workers helped the father
get his minivan open. We saddled up and
left at 9:00 AM.
We continued up the steep mountain for another 8 miles
and stopped at 9:12 AM at the Bear Tooth Basin, which is the summer ski
run. There were several skiers there and
the ski lift was in operation. There was
one guy there with a snow mobile. We
took some pictures and then left at 9:23 AM.
We continued on through this beautiful countryside. There was a lot of snow in the area and by
the side of the road. We rode on and
crossed over into Wyoming and soon after, crossed back over into Montana. We rode on and soon came into Cooke, MT at
10:11 AM, where we stopped for a pit stop after riding 58 miles. Cooke was a neat little town. It was funny that when I was leading and
decided to pull over into the parking lot of an Exxon gas station, Jan parked
across the street. Ken was behind Jan
and followed the leader and parked next to me.
C.E. was next in line and followed Ken and parked with me. Bruce and Chuck parked across the
street. Hondas on one side of the street
and the Harleys were on the other. At
least we didn’t have to worry about riding over the oil! We made our pit stop and took a short
break. Ken and I went into the Trading
post and came out with a couple of purchases.
We soon left at 10:46 AM.
We rode on and soon entered Yellowstone National Park, or
is it Jellystone? Hey Boo Boo! We made it through the guard shack and entered
the Park. This was the first time for
all of us to go into Yellowstone through the north entrance. We rode through the beautiful Park and soon
we came upon some buffalo! First we saw
one or two. Later we saw several in a
small herd. We rode for 118 miles and at
11:32 AM, we stopped at the Tower-Roosevelt Junction. We stopped there because we were going to
turn left; however, there was a sign that read that the road was a dirt road
for at least 10 miles. We stopped to
check the map and maybe go a different direction. While we were stopped, Bruce got off of his
Motor and walked to the restroom for a pit stop. We found what we were looking for and then we
were off. We left at 11:43 AM.
We headed west and after a few miles, we had to stop
because of traffic and two, young female forest Rangers. The two females told us that we could
continue; however, there was a black bear a little ways off of the road and we
could stop for only a short time and take a picture. We rode about 100 yards and there was a male
forest Ranger standing by his marked, Police car. He was there to make sure that no one walked
up to the bear. I asked him where the
bear was, as we couldn’t see him. The
Ranger pointed up towards where the bear was and I saw him. The bear was lying on his back and it looked
like the bear was waving at us. By this
point, thanks to the Bear Tooth Pass, the battery to my camera was dead! I wasn’t able to take any pictures. Jan, Ken and I continued, as Chuck waited a
little while, got his camera and took a picture of the bear. We then continued. It was close to lunchtime and we didn’t know
what to expect in the way of someplace to stop and eat. We rode for 18 miles and at 12:14 PM, we
stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs. There
were a few elk lying in the grass of the businesses there with signs warning
people to leave the elk alone and not to approach them. They were does. We parked in front of a medical clinic. I walked in and asked them if I could plug in
my camera battery and recharge it. The
allowed me to do it. We went on to have
lunch and when we were done, I went back and picked it up. We had decided to gas up there and go. We left at 1:23 PM with Bruce in the lead.
We continued on enroute to Old Faithful geyser. We came upon another, smaller geyser and the
parking lot was full. A lot of people
were walking up to the geyser. Bruce
slowed to turn into the parking lot. Jan
was riding second. Jan told Bruce NOT to
turn in, but Bruce did. As Jan turned in
after Bruce, Jan’s Motor hit a pothole and broke the spring to the kickstand. Jan told Bruce to make a u-turn and get out
of the parking lot and go on to the next one. Jan immediately stopped, as did Ken and I. Jan got off of his Motor and asked Ken to
hold it up while he looked at the kickstand spring. He made a quick repair, for the
meantime. Jan got back on his Motor and
drove out of the parking lot, telling Chuck, who had parked across the street
with C.E., that he was going on. Ken and
I followed. Bruce also followed and
eventually we caught up with Jan. Jan
turned into the Old Faithful geyser parking lot. Bruce stayed at the turn off to wait for Chuck
and C.E. Jan, Ken and I went on and
parked by the building by the geyser at 2:42 PM after riding 55 miles. The others finally arrived. We discussed where we were going next to get
Jan’s Motor fixed. Two places came up. Jackson, WY. and Idaho Falls, ID, both, have Harley
Davidson Stores. It was decided that we
would go to Jackson. Jan suggested that
he ride down quickly, take care of the problem and then wait for the rest to
arrive. I told Jan that I would go with
him. We left at 3:09 PM.
Jan and I rode south towards the South Entrance. We were make pretty good time on the
road. We followed Yellowstone Lake and
eventually made it out of Yellowstone.
As we exited Yellowstone National Park, it started to rain. We stopped just long enough to put on our
rain jackets and we continued on. We
rode into Grand Teton National Park. We
also rode along Jackson Lake. It was a
big lake and when we got to the south end, we turned west. As we turned west, there were numerous cars
and trucks parked alongside of the road.
All of the people were out of their vehicles looking north. As we rode past the vehicles, I looked north
and saw a large grizzly bear. I told Jan
that there was a bear north of us. We
stopped and took out my camera and took pictures of the bear. Soon there was another bear running after the
first. I took pictures of both
bears. I even took a short video of the
bears running and playing. We soon
continued on. We rode for 101 miles and
at 5:37 PM we stopped at the Harley Davidson store in Jackson, WY. We went in and found that this store only
sold clothing. Jan got a phone message
from Chuck that they had changed their minds and were enroute to Idaho Falls,
ID. Jan and I left for Idaho Falls at
5:55 PM.
I led the way out of Jackson, WY and on to Idaho
Falls. We rode over Teton Pass. What a road!
Unfortunately, we had a few cars and a tour bus ahead of us and there
was no passing allowed on the Pass.
Bummer! We made it through Teton
Pass and stopped after riding 25 miles in Victor, ID at 6:30 PM for gas. We put our jackets on because it got down to
52 degrees! We didn’t stay very
long. We gassed up and left at 6:38 PM.
I led again. We
rode for 71 miles and rode into Idaho Falls at 7:50 PM at an Exxon Gas
station. Jan got on his phone and found
that he had a message from Chuck. Chuck
had left a message saying that the rest of the Group was at a Best Western in
Idaho Falls and gave the address. I put
the address on the Navigation System and away we went. We left at 7:58 PM.
We rode for 5 miles and stopped at the Best Western where
the Group was. We arrived at 8:03
PM. We checked in, and the guys were in
the lobby waiting for us. Chuck had
secured a room for us at their rate.
They were waiting for us to unload our Motors, take our bags to our room
and “tuck” our Motors in for the night so that we could walk across the street
for dinner. We did all that and went to
dinner.
Today, Jan and I rode for 380 miles. I don’t know how many miles the other guys
rode. We went on a great ride with Bear
Tooth Pass. We saw some critters in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.
We didn’t get Jan’s Motor fixed but we will do that tomorrow.
We plan to head south and end up somewhere in Utah. I’m not sure where. Tomorrow should be our last night outside of Arizona.
We should be home by Wednesday. We shall see. So, until tomorrow…
No comments:
Post a Comment