Lost in America ...: 01/08/2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

Three Close Encounters

It's award time. And I'm a lucky b#stard!

For travelling the furthest to this year's BearSTOC Meeting I am ceremoniously handed a brand new AirHawk cushion by Mike Turley, the BearSTOC organiser, which is something that I've been gagging to acquire since my old one broke down on me just over a week ago.

What a stroke of luck .. :o) - Of all prizes that I could have received, this particular item is, of course, just what I needed.

And to think too that the new AirHawk that I ordered on-line - through eBay.com - last week and arranged to be forwarded onto this motel .. well, just didn't show-up!

It's all a hellofa coincidence. But at the end of the day - or at the beginning of the day on this particular special occasion - I know, that I really am .. a lucky, lucky b#stard .. aren't I?

Wednesday, August-29

I took the day off yesterday, mainly because it started with wet, misty weather. Not much good for taking pictures.

While I'm in this region of America, there are three monuments that I would like to visit close-up. The first and the nearest of these from Deadwood is Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota which is around 50 miles [80 km] to the south. I arrive there, on a glorious morning by 09:30am.

The 60-foot [18-m] carvings of [L~>R] George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are about what I expected.

What I didn't expect to see is the parking structure at $8 [£4] for less than an hour's stop, the museum/theatre complex, the Visitor Orientation Center, gift shop, bookstore, dining facilities, and the Presidential Trail. There's quite a set-up here for the tourist trade.

Apparently the evening lighting ceremony in the amphitheatre - at 9:00pm - is worth a look. But I'll be hundreds of miles away by that time tonight .. :o(

22 miles [34½ km] to the west is The Crazy Horse Memorial at Thunder Mountain, which will be a monument depicting the Indian warrior, of the same name, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.

The monument's construction has been in progress for over fifty years and is still far from complete. When [and 'if'] finished it will be the world's largest sculpture.

Inside the main building I watched a brief video show about the history of and the future ambitions for the site, and wandered through the Indian Museum to the nearby restaurant.

Well I can tell y'all, it's official! Injuns or 'Native Americans' just can't make a nice cuppa tea .. :o(

My close encounter of the third kind with monuments today occurs at Devils Tower in north-eastern Wyoming. Visiting this monolith seems important to me as it featured prominently in Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi movie that really impressed me at the time I saw it first at the cinema. . Now I'm here at the very spot ...

.. Who'd of thought it thirty year ago, eh? In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

(If you're a Monty Python fan this might mean something to you. [From the 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch] .. :o) .. if you're not then it won't .. so read on)

I also encounter, by pure chance/luck fellow BearSTOC attendee, John the Minnesota-based LEO (law enforcement officer / policeman), on his Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom. John used to ride, up until very recently, a Honda ST1100. We spend the rest of the day travelling together.

By early evening, and some fast Interstate riding westwards across I-90, we turn off southwest towards our next stopover destination of Burgess Junction. Some of the views during the last 30 miles are quite breathtaking.

Dodging deer a plenty .. and the odd herd of cattle! we arrive at the Bear Lodge Resort, Burgess Junction; the last two riders in for the day after a 400-mile ride. Too much, mainly free, beer follows!

Thursday, August-30

[eh-hem] Slightly hung-over from 'the night before' I am the last person to climb into the saddle this morning. Despite this I join a restarting group, who are returning from an earlier ride and we collectively head-off down US-14 towards the tiny township of 'Shell'.

The canyon we ride down ...

.. and down ...

.. and finally through and out at the bottom is a delight.

This is Bighorn Basin .. 'the West' as I had always imagined [... we're back in Wyoming BTW]

Around mid-morning we stop at Dirty Annie's Country Store for some breakfast. I get to meet my first gun-toting cowboy, who puts on his best Sam Elliot-type mean look for my camera.

Further along the Bighorn Basin, I breakaway from the group and go on ahead towards the city of Cody on my own; the landscape soon reverts to near desert and the temperature rises rapidly.

On through Cody and then northwest along SR-120, I'm soon turning left onto the Chief Joseph Highway towards Beartooth Pass and Montana beyond.

More spectacular scenery ...

I don't think I could ever grow tired of this stuff

But within an hour I'm back climbing up Beartooth Pass; covering the same ground as last Sunday afternoon, August-26. By mid-afternoon I'm settled into my motel room in Red Lodge, Montana.
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Two excellent days. But tomorrow - Friday, August-31, I shall need to start my BIG day rides northwards towards and eventually back into Canada; the country upon which I landed in North America and last set foot on more than seven and a half weeks ago. I'm looking forward to the return.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

They Died With Their Boots On

Monday, August-27

Yesterday evening - Sun-Aug-26 - in Billings, Montana, I finally met-up with Calgary-based fellow STer Tim Graham and his lovely wife Diana. Tim has been of enormous assistance to me over the last couple of weeks. Indeed, this section of the journey would most certainly not be quite so rewarding without Tim's altruistic help and well thought-through guidance.

I shared my Billings-based motel room last night (and the associated costs .. :o) with Tim's co-Calgary-based ST rider-mate, Dave [Berzins] who, as from this morning Mon-Aug-27, turns-out to be my ST good rider-mate as well .. :o)
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Tim & Diana, and a couple of other signed-up contingency members, want to ride to the starting rendezvous of the BearSTOC Meeting - in Deadwood, South Dakota - via the Beartooth Pass. As I had already been there (Beartooth), just yesterday .. AND because I don't fancy a 500+ mile ride without a functioning AirHawk cushion, I opted to take the more direct route to Deadwood mainly by way of interstate [motorway] I-90.

Dave [Berzins] likes my idea - he's acquired a bidda 'bum-burn' too since leaving Calgary - so the pair of us push-off eastwards, towards Deadwood, SD, on our own.

Within just 10 minutes we spot a road sign indicating the direction and whereabouts of the June 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn - Custer's Last Stand. It's just 55 miles [89 km] down the road and in our general direction in any case. So, after a few seconds' roadside consultation, Dave and I beeline it straight to this historic Battleground’s location. Within an hour we've arrived ...

.. and almost straightaway sign-up for the hour-long guided minibus tour of the site. Our guide is a direct descendant of one of the Indian tribes - Cheyenne, Lakota or Arapaho - that battled Custer's 7th Calvary during the course of those two hot June days in 1876.

On the horizon is another of those trains + carriages. It's gotta be over a mile long, surely?

On June 28, 1876, the bodies of Custer, and the hundreds under his command ...

.. are buried in shallow graves at or near where they fell.

These 249 headstone markers were placed four years later in 1890 by the Army to show the precise spot where Custer and his men had individually fallen.

There are ponies wandering freely throughout the Battlefields ...

.. each looks healthy and content.

They can of course, if they wish, gallop as fast and as far as the eye can see across these vast prairie lands. I can't help thinking that this is the way they're meant to live.

After a fascinating - if not disjointed tour - we are couriered back to the Visitor's Centre and Museum.

After the drop-off we then walk up to 'Last Stand Hill'; a knoll where Custer and approximately 40 of his surviving soldiers make a hopeless stand against overwhelming odds.

In 1881 the remains of Custer's command were exhumed and re-buried in a mass grave around the base of this memorial that sits on top of Last Stand Hill.

Looking backwards from the direction we came from -
See the painted stone marker in the middle? Well that's where Custer himself fell.

A National Cemetery co-exists within Little Bighorn Battlefield. Here rest the remains of deceased veterans and their relatives from many wars throughout history, right up to late 20th Century campaigns.
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It really has been an engrossing visit. Glad we came.

Anyway, it's time to head further east, towards tonight's destination of Deadwood in in the adjoining state of South Dakota.

265 miles [426 km] later and we cross over into South Dakota. It's around 5:30pm, but I can't help but notice the long shadows now being cast at this time of day by the west horizon-bound sun behind us.

I'm thinking .. 'Summer is starting to draw to a close, that's for sure'

Ho-hum!

After another 30 minutes and 28 miles [45 km] later we pull into the grounds of our next motel in Deadwood.

365 - often very fast Interstate - miles [587 km] for the day. It's been a good one, again .. :o)

Monday, August 27, 2007

Wind in the Bear

Sunday, August-26

Not a bad stopover at West Yellowstone; but this morning - Sun-Aug-26 - I need to get going and return to and get across Yellowstone NP (Wyoming) and back into Montana in order to meet-up with my soon-to-be new STer friends in the township of Billings, which is located around 212 miles [341 km] away towards the northeast.

Almost immediately upon entering the Park I spot an elk grazing along the roadside bank.

Around halfway across the Park I stumble upon the Falls of the Gibbon River between Norris Junction and Madison Junction – aka: 'The Gibbon Falls' (not unreasonably named, I reckon! .. ;o)

As I make my way to the Park's northeast exit/entrance I am confronted by a full-grown bison [/ buffalo] that's just ambling by, apparently without a care about my presence at all. I must admit to feeling a little threatened at the time. Sitting on a motorcycle, out in the open, does not offer any sort of protection from a disgruntled beast that can weigh anything up to 2,000 lbs/pounds (900 Kg)

This one really was a big bugger, and passed me within no more than 10 feet (3 m) - glad to think though, that he's a dedicated herbivore! ... An absolutely incredible encounter