Black Hills Scenery

Spearfish Canyon

Deadwood

Aztec Rally People

Jamey T., Melanie, (organizers from Lead), Scorpion~ (Washington), Reverse & REM (Kansas)

David (Oklahoma), El Nomad (Colorado), VSP (California), Slammer (North Carolina)
Near side of table - Goofywizard and Jill (Colorado)

Bob from Enumclaw (Washington), VSP, Reverse, REM

Riverton Wyoming to Lead South Dakota

It was clear as we woke up in one of the more expensive downscale Super 8’s I have ever stayed in. In addition to the price and the small rooms, the mattresses were past their best-before date and we could hear every footstep in a twenty-room radius. Here, Sherm is making his morning phone call to his wife, Pat, back in Coos Bay, Oregon.

We decided that, since we were running through to Lead (pronounced LEED), South Dakota today, we would pick up the pace to the speed limit. It was my turn to lead but we synchronized GPS’s just in case we got separated. We departed on US 26 to Shoshoni, where we fueled, and then headed east on US 20.

In a rest area on 20, we met people traveling in a bus from Riverton to Casper. They all made this run regularly for cancer treatments on the bus provided free of charge by Hospice. They seemed quite upbeat and we wish them luck. Also, just before we pulled out, one of the more anti-social groups of Harley Davidson riders pulled in. Other then one person, they totally ignored us. Oh well, they more own motorcycles but the don’t know much about the brotherhood of the road.

All along flat lands bordering US 20, we saw scores of antelope. This was one herd grazing a ways off the highway. The moment they stopped to take a picture, they became concerned and started moving the young ones (there must have been 20) further away from the road. Antelope must be smarter than deer because you seldom see any antelope road kill even though Wyoming has about two-thirds of the world’s population of them. We took the ramp onto I-25 South and road due east for a ways before getting of on US 18. From there, we continued on to Lusk without stopping, although VSP raced ahead to make a smoke stop at one point. Coal is certainly king here. We repeatedly saw the longest coal unit trains I have ever encountered anywhere.

In Lusk, the GPS guided us to the Outpost Café. This proved to be a major find, since the service was great and the food was excellent. I’d recommend it to anyone in the area.

From Lusk, we rode north on US 85. North of Newcastle, the terrain started rolling and we could feel we were approaching the Black Hills. The red rock was also visible in some places. By the time we crossed the South Dakota state line, the road was winding up, down and around the distinctive hills.

Sherm and I had programmed to same address into our identical Zumo’s and they were giving us different directions to Recreational Springs Resort, the rally headquarters. It turns out both were wrong and we rode past the entrance before we realized where it was. So after following us for four days, VSP got here first.

The resort is rustic but bike friendly and also does a large snowmobile business in the winter, including rentals. We got checked in and unloaded our gear in the room as Jamey T., ½ of the organizing team, showed up. Shortly after, Dave from Oklahoma and Randy from Kansas returned from their local ride. Then it was Flying Willy from the PNW, who had Ironbutted in with Scorpion (now in Rapid City getting a speedo gear in his HD changed) and Ham (who had already headed back). Then B from E (Bob from Enumclaw) wandered in, with Scorp arriving back too.

I fired up the WiFi and found the router was set to 802.11G. This leaves my older 802.11B card out in the cold although everyone else connected. In the immortal words of Eric Von Zipper, “Why me? Why me all the time?” Poppa Joe, the owner, isn’t tech savvy and isn’t comfortable letting me tinker with his hardware, so I am going to have to get creative. I’ll do my Blogging in MS Word on my box and then transfer them to Sherm’s to upload.

When I get to Mal’s in Vancouver, I would like to get a PCMCIA G card and install the required drivers, no small trick since I don’t have any drives on this machine.
We watched George Carlin specials on TV and were in bed shortly after 9:00 PM.

Scenery - Idaho Falls to Riverton

Snake River Country, Idaho

Grand Teton Range, Wyoming

Togwotee Pass, Wyoming

Wind River Country, Wyoming

Idaho Falls Idaho to Riverton Wyoming

There was a strange thing happening in the Super 8 breakfast room this morning. Like many places, they had those do it yourself waffle machines. The different thing here was that a guy named Scott, aka the Night Auditor, aka The Waffle Guy, was making them for the guests. He did a fine job even though none of us had waffles.

We set out east from Idaho Falls on US 26 along the Snake River Canyon. The mix of steep bluffs and agricultural land was quite scenic. In the crossroads of Swan Valley, we turned onto SR 31, an official Scenic Byway. We stopped for a break at the summit of Pine Creek Pass at 6,764 feet. Then we wound our way down to the village of Victor, which sits in an obviously alpine meadow. Don needed a pit stop, so we all took a refreshing pause. Sherm got a picture of a ‘real’ cowboy.

Proceeding west from Victor on SR 33, we crossed the state line into Wyoming where the route changed to 22. The road swept us up and down and back and forth through the Teton Pass, the first time we have ever been on this road. We went through the pretty town of Wilson and down to US 189/191 into Jackson. OK, this was a zoo. People everywhere, no parking, rising temperatures. Sherm wanted to get a group photo by the arches of antlers downtown, but I needed to get out of there. Niagara Falls on a bad day had nothing on Jackson.

A few miles outside town heading north on US 189/191, we shed the congestion and frustration of humanity and entered another world. An elk preserve, a huge valley and the most spectacular mountains I have ever witnessed in person. The Grand Teton Range. We stopped at a turnout for photos and awe. A young couple, newlyweds, offered to take a group picture for us and we, in turn, took their picture. I gave the young man this blog address so, if you find this, it was nice meeting you and we wish you both a long and happy marriage.

Further up the road, we stopped at another turnout and looked at the glaciers. We also talked to a couple from Las Vegas on a Harley. Nice people. Moving on, we watched for wildlife since the terrain was perfect for it but, other than one antelope, there was nothing.


Most of the traffic continued north to Yellowstone at Moran Junction, but we wanted to avoid the crowds and turned due east on US 26. After a while, we started to subtly climb. Up and up we went. At 8,000 feet, snow started appearing on the roadside. By the time we reached the summit of Togwotee Pass at over 9,600 feet, there were solid fields of snow on both sides of us. We stopped on the way up for some construction blasting, and the nice lady shown here kept us amused. She lives in Dubois (pronounced Do Boys just like Michael Jackson, according to her), down in the next valley.


As we descended into the valley, the terrain suddenly turned red just like Utah. This was spectacular and there were multi-coloured badland like hills on our left. We stopped in the quaint town of Dubois for lunch at the Cowboy Café. Sherm thought he was having a salad but he didn’t. I’ll let him tell that story.

Togwotee Pass is the Continental Divide and Snake River was no longer flowing against us. No, the famous Wind River was now winding along the same way we were going. And boy did it wind. There are no more pictures here because Sandy used up all the battery in the camera. We need a spare.

We left the valley/canyon as we entered the Wind River Indian Reservation. The land was flat with the Wind River Range on our right and a rough looking storm brewing over the crest. Ahead and to the left was another, smaller system with what appeared to be verga. Utemike taught me about verga, rain that never reaches the ground. Beyond that was yet another storm. We hustled on between them, with a few drops falling from the small system bordering the road.

Our arrival in Riverton just ahead of the bigger storm gave us a start. Motel after motel had NO VACANCY signs out. It was 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. This was new. After running the length of town, I used the GPS and phone to find that the Super 8 had two regular rooms left. They were $112.50 each with our AAA/AARP discount. Checking with another booked hotel on what their rates were, I discovered this was par for the course. So, by all means, travel this road but avoid overnight stays in Riverton.

The Super 8 was very small and very old. Our room was, how should I say, cozy? We had to step outside to change our mind. But the severe weather warning for nearby Lander suggested we had done the right thing. Weather.com radar showed that the big storm south of us grazed Riverton, then combined with the bad one to the north and cut the highway to Casper (where we would have headed if we hadn’t stopped here) twice. Winds gusting to 70 MPH and large hail were part of the cell. Lander warnings were continuing on TV long after the system had gone.

Two BMW’s, carrying a couple from Vancouver, rolled in shortly after we did. They are homeward bound and the guy is the same height as VSP. We drove over to the Trailhead Restaurant in Slammer’s CRV for supper. The food was OK and inexpensive. Then we came back and I blogged while the others went next door to a Dollar Tree to see what they could find. My WiFi 802.11B antenna isn’t reaching the WAP here either. I really need to get a G card so I can keep up. It will be faster, too. Now, I need to go down to the lobby to post and receive my mail.

We have decided, since VROCers started arriving yesterday, that we will ride right through to Lead tomorrow. Slammer and I called and they have room at the resort for us to arrive a day early. So we’ll be communicating tomorrow from the Aztec Rally.

Scenery – Elko to Idaho Falls

The Great Basin Road

Shoshone Falls, Idaho

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Elko Nevada to Idaho Falls Idaho

It was a fine but slightly cool morning when we stuck our noses outside the motel room door. Last night I let air out of the tires because they were too high, something I ascribed to altitude. It seems that, although I let them cool for four hours, it was still due to temperature. Out came the trusty Airman compressor. You think I’d understand this better after all these years.

There is significance to the Thunderbird Motel that I just remembered. Sandy and I stayed here in 2004 on our way to HSVROC, riding the ’00 Nomad and towing a cargo trailer. We had just run across the Salt Flats into a strong headwind at 105 degrees and the first thoughts that I needed more power and a Wing would do occurred to me in this very establishment.

We gassed up on the way out of town and then challenged I-80 East at a blistering 60 MPH until we reached the town of Wells. We had breakfast in a Burger King (the new McDonalds wasn’t open yet). The young lady behind the counter asked Sherm if he wanted the two pennies in his change. He said he’d rather have them than anybody else. I wonder how much she makes doing this?

From Wells, we rode north on US 93 through the Great Basin with Sherm taking the point. Most of the ride was up through a great valley that had some farmland, much desert and nice rock formations. We stopped at a nice rest area at the mouth of a small canyon where we met two California Beemer riders returning from John Day, Oregon. Shortly after that, we crossed into Idaho at the town of Jackpot. Approaching Twin Falls, the land became greener and farming was evident everywhere along with irrigation equipment.

In Twin Falls, Sherm asked for directions to the falls. Instead of sending him to Twin Falls, we were steered to Shoshone Falls. The gatemen let us go down for nothing to see if it was worth the $3.00 per vehicle entrance fee. Sherm, Slammer and VSP were free anyway since they had Golden Age cards. Here, Sherm is getting photos of the falls, resplendent in the ubiquitous tie-dyed shirt. On the way out, I gave him a five-dollar bill and he gave me a Washington and a Loonie. I guess he had been waiting for a Canuck.

From Twin Falls, I led as we took US 93 north to Shoshone where we caught US 26/93 northeast to Carey. From there, we went east on US 20/26/93. This is the first time I have run three US highways concurrently. Out in the middle of nowhere, we arrived at The Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is in the centre of massive black lava beds that have oozed out of the Earth’s surface over the years. I stamped my Passport in the Visitor Center and then we had sandwiches made from the contents of Slammer’s cooler. Then Sherm, Slammer, Sandy and I took a tour of the loop road through the monument. Don rested back at the VC.

Leaving Craters of the Moon, we proceeded to Arco where we found someone had parked a submarine in a local park. Sherm is admiring the conning tower. I don’t know why that number was used. Arco and Atomic City are where the first nuclear reactor was built and tested. The military facility is huge and the buildings are very far apart. We had to pick up the pace into Idaho Falls because the shift had let out at Atomic City and was in a hurry to get home along this two-lane road.

We found the Super 8 in Idaho Falls and got two rooms on the third floor. WiFi was fine before we went to dinner at Smitty’s Pancake and Steak Family Restaurant. Then we stopped at Wal-Mart for essential items and went back to the motel where the Wireless Access Point on the south end of the building was kaput. We managed to snag some marginal signal from the North WAP, but it was a pain. The front desk was unable to fix it despite repeated calls. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual occurrence.

We didn't do a lot of miles today, but with the heat and the sightseeing, everybody was pretty well beat. I skipped the blogging and the photo sorting took a while because Sandy had taken 132 shots. Everybody turned in early.