Catching Up

Friday 6/18 Continued - We concluded out visit to Mt. Rushmore and headed to Crazy Horse Mountain. If you have not heard of this, click HERE for more info. Jay said the carving on the mountain had not changed noticeably since he was there in 1991. If it is ever completed, it will be a collossus. We enjoyed the extensive native american collection of artifacts - the facilities and the museums are wonderful.

Levaing Crazy Horse Mt. we took another wonderful loop through the Black Hills and back to the Deadwood KOA.

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Saturday 6/19 - We pulled up stakes at Deadwood and headed back down to I-99 for an all-day trek across South Dakota. We had two waypoints in mind --- Badlands National Park and the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. As we charged across South Dakota under fair skies, the wind began to gust up. By the time we got to the Badlands, the wind gusts were stronger than anything Jay and I had encountered on motorcycles. We were buffeted pretty badly and it took all our strength and skill to keep the rigs in-lane and moving. The traffic was light as it had been the entire time we had been on I-90. It does not seem to be a major truck transportation route. Leaving the freeway to enter Badlands, the ranger at the Kiosk informed us that the road throught the park was under constuction and was gravel for the next 16 miles or so. She recommended that we visit via the West entrance, about 15 miles further down I-90. So back on the freeeway we went, once again fighting the zephyrs until we got to the appropriate exit, and entered the park. You may notice that there are no picures attahced here of the Badland visit. When we arrived at the first viewpoint overlook, the wind was so stong that I was afraid to leave the bike on the sidestand for fear it would blow over. I reeled the rig around until it the wind was blasting the "high" side clamboring off and over to the railing that bounded the viewpoint. I literally had to hold on to the railing to keep from being pushed back by the gusts that were funneled up the canyon. Jay may have gotten a photo or too. but I gave up and headed back to the bike, a gust pushing me off the curb. A short visit, as we did not attempt to continue into the park, but retreated back down the mountain to the freeway.

As we rolled west, the wind slowly subsided, and by the time we arrived at the Little Big Horn Battlefield Memorial it had moderated considerably. The Park Service had done a wonderful job with the memorial. There are several battlefields actually, the most notious being of course the site of General Custer's Last Stand. Standing at the top of "Last Stand Hill", you gaze down to view markers where all of the soldiers fell to their deaths. Very moving.

We continued toward Bozeman, Montana but decided to spend the night in Hardin, about 185 miles short of Bozeman. The Battlefield took longer thqan expected, and we were pretty beat up from comabatting the wind most of the day.

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Sunday 6/20 - During the ride, Jay was informed by his mother that he has a distant cousin in Bozeman Montana, and she encouraged Jay to stop and meet him if we found ourselves in the area. Jay gave Bob Hawks a call and left a message that we would be in the town this afternoon and it would be great if we could get together for lunch. We lit out from Hardin and headed for Bozeman, planning to arrive there about noon. During a break Jay checked his messages and retrieved one from Bob confirming his availability and providing directions to the house.

Shortly after arriving and getting acquainted with (Senator) Bob and his lovely wife Jane, they treated us to lunch at a popular local eatery. The weather was great and we enjoyed outside seating. After lunch, Jay drove one of Bob's two Mini-Coopers over to the Museum of the Rockies and we spent several hours walking the exhibits, particularly the dinosaur fossil collection, which was very well done and exceedingly well interpreted.

After a light dinner and good conversation, Bob and Jane put us up for the night at their house (while it poured outside for hours), then fed us breakfast and wished us well with the rest of the adventure. Really great people.

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Monday 6/21 - Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons! I won't crowd the page with a plethora of superlatives. You have all heard about or experienced these places... yes, the jaw does drop. At one point we stopped and photographed a mother Grizzley with two cubs down on a hillside. We could/should have spent several days exploring the parks, but we have been on the road for well over a month now and that will have to wait for a return trip. Great weather too. We camped at the KOA about 10 miles south of Jackson.

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Tuesday 6/22 - We had a plan to get up early and backtrack about thirty miles to photograph the Tetons in morning light. It was a good plan, but weather moved in overnight and we thought better of lingering. The peaks were pretty much obscured, so we rolled out of the mountains with the rain on our tails, headed for Twin Falls Idaho. We blew on by Twin Falls and settled into a KOA in Mountain Home.

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