Milestones

[BikerGeek99]

Continuing to Casper, Wyoming...

And we made it to Casper!

No, really – we made it there. See?

Oil drilling stuff.

Water-crossing, Harley style.

We made it to our hotel for the evening, and did our Evening Ritual of unloading the bike, unpacking our crap, and finding a six-pack of suds.

For dinner, there really wasn't anything within walking distance from our hotel, and I was ready to be off the bike and outta the heat.

So, we perused the restaurant information provided by the hotel, and decided to just order some Chinese and have it delivered. We did, it was, and it was pretty damn tasty!

FOOD PORN!! Szechuan chicken with fried rice and fried pot stickers for me.

And lemon chicken for Sooze. Or, as she just said, “And it was GOOD lemon chicken, too!”

And a pic of yours truly, working on this ride report.

Miles ridden this day: 440 warm and scenic miles including a jaunt through some fun-filled, freshly-laid tar and chip.

 

[BikerGeek99]

July 27, 2010.

The next couple of days are gonna be lower miles, but we're gonna have some good times.

Knowing we had a light day ahead of us mile-wise, we took a relaxed approach to the day and casually went through our Morning Routine and got on the road.

Our destination for the day is Sundance, Wyoming, with a trip to that mashed potato monument on the way. Why Sundance, you ask? Patience, young cricket. Patience...

Once again, the morning broke clear and dry with perhaps a few clouds.

How friggin cool is thing? Pretty cool, if'n ya ask me.

And what the hell do you know... More of Wyoming's damn resurfacing using tar and chip.... Great...

More erl drilling stuff.

And yet more of it...

A field of sheep, AKA: A Field Of Dreams for a certain “someone.”

We were in Wyoming, out on the plains, and dammit it was windy again. Maybe the wind in Montana a couple of weeks ago had gotten me either desensitized to it or more experienced to the point where it wasn't as big of a deal, but it was still taxing to be on the road on a motorcycle in this wind. I pulled us off at a little rest area for a break. Notice the flags fully extended and the flag pole flexing a bit due to the wind.

See how the water coming out of the fountain is being blown? Yeah – it was pretty windy.

Artsy-fartsy picture attempt.

Yours truly. Ever since I read a ride report written by Komet (PM me if you've never heard of him – the man wrote some awesome RR's!), I recall him not shaving when he was on A Ride, and calling 'em his road whiskers. Ever since Komet passed away, I've been doing the same in his honor. It's been years since I've gone this long without being clean-shaved. Here I am, a coupla weeks+ into this Ride with my road whiskers.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Seeing cows along the road like this reminds of an old Far Side comic. 3 frames, first frame the cows are all standing around on their hind legs talking and smoking cigarettes and one of them yells “CAR!”, second frame they're on all fours with one saying, “MOO!” as the car goes by, third frame they're back walking on their hind legs talking and smoking. Pure genius, right up there with the School For The Gifted.

Mining operation, I believe.

This is important. This MEANS something.

That ain't it.

See the blue truck? I have no idea what they were doing, but they had been up the hill there and were heading back onto the highway. I guess they do things different in Wyoming than they do in Ohio.

The road heading to that mashed potato national monument.

Hmmm... Me thinks me sees something on the horizon...

WOO-HOO!! I'd been wanting to visit this place for years! (Devils Tower, not Best Western.)

Uhh... OK. Interesting is all I can say.

We were something like 20 miles out and it's this visible.

Remember the show Airwolf? That 80's show with the super-duper helicopter that came outta Devils Tower? Considering all the touristy crap around Devils Tower, I'd REALLY like to know how they thought they could pull that off, silly TV writers.

I don't see any dang super-duper helicopters around here.

This was kinda cool, though.

 

[BikerGeek99]

I'm guessing they should replace “Trading” with “Trash 'N Trinkets,” but that's just me.

Getting closer...

We paid our entrance fee and made it to the visitor's center and got a decent parking spot. The place was packed so we decided that we weren't gonna stay that long.

GAAHHH!! DEVILS TOWER IS TRYING TO EAT MY HEAD!!!

OK – who's the jerk who stuck a flag pole in my head? Huh? C'mon, now – own up to it...

A kind passer-by offered to take a picture for us and did a nice job.

After visiting the visitor's center, we headed out towards Sundance.

In the visitor's center, there were signs – including a blurb on the bag of our purchased trash 'N trinkets, warnings telling us to not feed the prairie dogs. No wonder for the warnings – the damn things are right by the road!

I think this little twerp was mooning us, prairie dog-style.

Heading back out.

WOO-HOO SUNDANCE!

 

[BikerGeek99]

Once in Sundance, we made our way to our lodging for the next 2 nights.

If you've never been to Sundance, there isn't a whole lot there, but the Bear Lodge Motel is a nice little motel at a reasonable price. I was here back in 1995 and stayed here a couple of nights. The folks that run it are as nice as can be. In fact, the same couple owns it now as back in '95, but now their kids are running it.

Checked in to the motel, the unloading and unpacking routine complete, Sooze and I went for a stroll about town.

When I was here in '95, I remembered going to a cafe across the street from the motel which was owned by a fella from Cleveland, Ohio, and he'd named it after a Cleveland-based department store but damn if I could remember the name of the place. The name of the cafe is Higbees, and it's still there.

Cincinnati has their pigs.

Chicago has their cows.

Bennington has (had?) their moose.

Sundance has their cowboy boots!

I totally rock the white shoes and black socks look as only a true geek can.

There aren't any stoplights in Sundance. Really, there aren't. Just a main drag and a few side streets. We walked down the main drag a ways, crossed the street and headed back the other direction. While checking in, the gal at the motel told me about a museum the town has in the basement of the town hall. Sooze loves museums, so we went down the steps and checked it out.

GAAAAHHH! RUN FOR THE HILLS!! IT'S A … oh, uh, nevermind. It's stuffed. Damn jackelopes.

If you're in the area, and have a little while, stop in! There's some cool stuff in here. Besides the damn jackelope. Just remember – if you're going to take pictures, turn your flash off. Turns out flashes can damage the artifacts in the museum. I did not know that, so I can say I learned something that day.

The sign in the case says, “Bison stakes, used for staking down bison hides to the earth after skinning the animal so the hide could be cleaned and scraped.” I sure hope that, sometime in the future, there's never anything called geek stakes in a museum somewhere. That'd suck.

OK, I admit it. I would LOVE to have been able to sneak this out, put on my redneck engineering hat, and try to figure out a way to mount this on the fairing of the bike. That'd be sweet!

Kinda makes you appreciate the modern conveniences we take for granted, ya know?

As much as I could generally care less about museums, THIS was cool. The mannequin on the left is a judge, and the one on the right is the Sundance Kid, the suit the Kid is wearing is the actual suit the Kid wore when he was sentenced by the judge in Sundance, giving him the name the Sundance Kid. There are some other authentic pieces in this display that are from that day. C'mon, now – how cool is that!

See? Told ya!

Sooze and I, both being musicians (we met in an orchestra that our employer has that we're both members of; told ya we're geeks), found this of particular interest, especially since Sooze's dad used to play French horn (that's the thing in the upper-left corner, for you heathens out there).

 

[BikerGeek99]

This flag was really cool, too.

Guns!

I geeked out at this one – it's a slide projector!

On our way out the gal and younger fella working in there told us about the statue outside. We found it.

Which, of course, begs for a photo op.

You: white shoes and black socks? Nah – dork.

Me: white shoes and black socks? Rockin it geek-style!

The Bear Lodge Motel from across the street.

What I guess counts as the town center of Sundance: an espresso shop, a mercantile / trash 'n trinket shop, and a bar.

Since there was a bar RIGHT there, walking distance from the motel, and we had no plans to ride any more today, we went in, of course.

There was an 'interesting' fella in there. He was in all his leather biker stuff (turned out he was riding a Valkyrie; go figure) talking with the bartender and other patrons. He had one of those tracheotomy button things so he could talk in that raspy way. Nice enough guy, definitely a talker, though (believe it or not). Hell, he damn near talked our ears off about all kinds of nothing. It got a little old after a while.

'Interesting' décor on the ceiling.

After a while, my phone rang and it was my dad. Remember wayyyy back when we were in Portland, Oregon, and met up with him at the Harley dealer getting our bikes serviced, and I mentioned that we'd be seeing him again? This was to be the when.

I got a good laugh. I told dad where we were and he easily found us. After he sat down and grabbed a beer, he said, “You know, something happened to me today that hasn't happened to me in a long, long time.”

I almost shot some otherwise tasty adult soda outta my nose.

Contrary to MY first thoughts, turns out the old man got himself a speeding ticket! Yessiree-bob, he got himself a bona-fide performance award!

Moral of the story:

Well, 2 morals, actually:

1. Let the old man finish his thought before you jump to conclusions.

2. If you're riding through the various small towns in the west, the ones with 30 MpH speed limits? FOLLOW THEM!!

Dad, me and Sooze, now in Sundance, Wyoming.

 

[MEM]

Seeing cows along the road like this reminds of an old Far Side comic. 3 frames, first frame the cows are all standing around on their hind legs talking and smoking cigarettes and one of them yells “CAR!”, second frame they're on all fours with one saying, “MOO!” as the car goes by, third frame they're back walking on their hind legs talking and smoking. Pure genius, right up there with the School For The Gifted.

:lol: Midvale. A classic

 

[BikerGeek99]

The bar where I almost shot beer outta my nose was none other than the Dime Horseshoe Bar, home of the Wednesday burnout contest during Sturgis. 2 weeks from now, there are gonna upward of 10,000 people here. Thankfully, while we were there, there weren't 10,000 people there.

Now, you may still be wondering: why meet dad in Sundance? Well, my uncle, my dad's brother, has a cabin on 320 acres, and Sundance is the nearest town. ('Near' is a relative term.) My uncle came in town and we all had dinner together. Sorry – only one pic from dinner, and no food porn 'cause we were too busy chit-chatting and catching up on each others lives.

Miles ridden today: 253.

 

[Patriot]

[SIZE=24pt]I CRY FOUL...he looks nothin' like Robert Redford... [/SIZE] :clapping:

:yahoo:

 

[BikerGeek99]

July 28, 2010

Today is gonna be a day where we do a little bit of riding, relax a bit, and hang out with my uncle for a while. I think the last time I saw my uncle (before last night, of course) was when my grandfather died in 2000, so it'd been a while.

Our morning greeted us with, once again, clear skies and pleasant temperatures.

Rather than our usual Morning Routine of repacking all our crap, loading the bike and hitting the road, today we strolled over to Higbees for breakfast and looked for a new Harley dealer my uncle said was just opened in Sundance. We found it!

It's around the corner from the main drag and, on a Wednesday morning, the streets were a tad bit deserted.

Across the street from the new dealership is a very nicely done war memorial.

Like I said – 2 weeks from this day, this place is gonna be an absolute zoo. Seeing as how I am not a fan of large crowds of people, I am once again glad we're here now rather than then. For those of you who are in to that scene, more power to ya.

Read it.

Learn it.

Live it.

So, after our lil' morning walkabout, we geared up, hopped on the bike, and headed east a little ways.

Which led us to state number 15 for the trip! WOO-HOO!!

Yep, this is where we're headed.

If you've never been there, Sturgis is NOT a big town. Well, 51 weeks of the year it isn't.

This place opened at 8:30 and we were there just a few minutes after they opened.

After wandering around aimlessly for a bit and picking shirts for us and some stuff for some friends, we headed out. Requisite reflection picture of ourselves.

 

[BikerGeek99]

When I was out here in 1995, the Rally was going on and I spent some time walking around town. This time, we're here 2 weeks before things get rolling, and the town was considerable more subdued, however crews were already working getting tents setup.

I guess temporary insanity is more betterer than permanent insanity.

'Official' souvenir tents were up. Seemed like they were ALL 'official.'

I was telling Sooze as we made a lap of Main Street: “In a couple of weeks, both sides of the road will be lined with bikes, and there will be bikes parked nose-to-nose all the way down the middle of the street as well.”

Modern, uh, art. I guess.

Alllllrighty then!

I wonder where I'd need to go to get some UN-officially licensed stuff, or some officially UN-licensed stuff...

 

[BikerGeek99]

After farting around in Sturgis for a bit, it was time to head out into the Black Hills.

This was a pretty cool hack.

Again, I was here back in '95, but that was before the show “Deadwood,” which Sooze and I both loved. And, yes, I'm still pissed at HBO for not finishing the show. Idiots. But, since we were in the area, we just had to come out and see it.

15 years ago, the place was a gambling tourist trap area.

Every. Damn. Place out here is a casino.

This was kinda cool looking – an old-west-looking store-front.

Made me think of (for you Deadwood fans), “Swidjen, San Francisco. _________ “

Gotta wonder what year that “Champion” was painted on that building, ya know?

 

[BikerGeek99]

In Deadwood's public parking areas, they do have motorcycle-specific parking spots, which is nice, but also means your bike is gonna be quite close to other bikes. No real big deal, but just something to be aware of, and at least you're next to another bike rather than an inconsiderate minivan driver with a gaggle of kids who can't keep their hands to themselves.

We parked and walked around the town a little bit.

We just wandered around a bit, checking out the trash 'n trinket shops and taking pictures.

Remember the clear skies that greeted us earlier in the morning? Well, some clouds were definitely rolling in.

Good-old Charlie Utter.

Can't speak for that Martin clown, but I imagine that Mason was a stand-up guy.

After loading up with our touristy crap, we moseyed out of town, heading back to Sundance.

The clouds opened up on us a little bit. Nothing bad, really. Just enough rain to piss you off and make the roads wet and a little slick, and just enough for the cagers to forget how to drive. Ugh.

We got a kick out of this – a group of bikers doing the photo op in front of the Wyoming state line sign.

Back in Sundance, we decided to head over to Higbees for some lunch before hooking up with my uncle to go out to his property. Mmm... Food porn...

 

[BikerGeek99]

After we finished up our tasty lunch, we walked back towards the motel and my uncle was just pulling up. The four of us piled into his SUV and we headed to his place.

You may be asking yourself, SELF! Why didn't they just ride there?

Excellent question!

The reason why we took a cage is simple: to get to my uncle's place, you first of all have to go several miles on a dirt road that isn't exactly Harley-bagger-friendly, especially a Harley bagger that's 2-up. There's some pretty serious washboarding on that road that, even in a cage, will damn near rattle your fillings out in spots.

But it is a very scenic ride getting there.

A year or so ago, the area got hit by a tornado. This is down the road from my uncles property. Note the trees that are snapped off and now dead.

More signs of what the tornado did – trees snapped off and laying on the ground.

A closer-up shot of the snapped-off trees. It takes some serious wind to do that, ya know?

Right where his drive meets the road was a forest rat just lounging around in the brush.

The second reason why we took the cage was because of his drive – it's also not exactly Harley-bagger-friendly. It's really loose gravel that's fairly deep and there is a bit of a slope to it. Doable? Yes, if we had to. But we didn't have to and chose not to. This is looking back down towards the road.

Looking around from the corner of the deck, pointing towards the back of the property, do you see that ridge poking up through the trees? That's the property line. It's a ways off.

The tornado touched down on the ridge across the street a ways. See the areas of barren earth? Before the tornado, that was a heavily forested area. The tornado took all those trees and wiped them out.

The area in the background used to be as heavily forested as the trees are in the foreground.

Me and dad on the porch.

My uncle is a unique guy. A good guy for sure, but he's unique. Among other things, he is an avid outdoorsman. He hunts, fishes, all that kind of stuff. And he has stuff laying around that'll convince you. These are on the logs for the cabin.

And, let's face it – how many of you out there have an uncle who has a cannon?

 

[BikerGeek99]

Yes, my uncle has a cannon. And it's FRIGGIN AWESOME!! It shoots 10-gauge shotgun shells (blanks) and makes one helluva BOOM when it goes off. Even though I knew it was coming, the first time he shot it off I jumped and didn't get a decent picture of it. The second time I got a decent one.

All three of us giggled like little girls watching “21 Jump Street.”

It was cool.

Looking towards the back of the property.

The digs.

The property.

Dunno why the hell he has stuff like this laying around. His castle, his rules is my motto.

Out in the back 40.

Remember how I said my uncle is an avid outdoorsman? Well, Sooze had never had the pleasure of shooting a firearm, and I knew my uncle is an experienced hunter, so I asked him if we could maybe do some shooting. His question: “Do ya wanna shoot a big gun or a little gun?” Ah, man... “Well, this is more for Sooze than for me, so how 'bout we stick with the little guns.”

I shoulda said, “BOTH!” Damn hindsight really IS 20-20, ya know? Oh, well...

Being an avid hunter, and owning hunnerds of acres of property in Wyoming, he, of course, has a shooting range out back. So we loaded up and hopped on the 4-wheeler and moseyed to the shooting range.

The first thing, of course, was safety. My uncle gave Sooze the safety shooting basics first.

And talk-through of how to hold it and how to line up a shot.

And she took her first shot.

I think she liked it...

 

[Patriot]

I think she liked it...

I just dunno the wisdom of that...

 

[BikerGeek99]

We took a break and my uncle went back to the cabin for a minute, so we hung out and snapped a few pictures.

I took a few shots.

Then we broke out the revolver.

Dad took a few shots.

And so did I.

My uncle, me and my dad at my uncle's place in Wyoming.

It was time for us to earn our keep, so we packed up and set off about the property.

 

[BikerGeek99]

We stopped by his garage / workshop and poked around. I saw a car I haven't seen in years – my grandmother's old '67 (IIRC) Fury III. My uncle has had it “gone over” so it looks great and starts right up.

My uncle is a … well … he's a “unique” man. In the corner were a bunch of skins from various animals he'd hunted.

I saw these lying around and had to ask what they were. They're the legs from an antelope he shot. But he wasn't sure what he was gonna do with them.

Uh, OK. Didn't know you could “do” something with antelope legs.

Which led him to show us these – he got a permit to hunt a moose, which, based on his description of the process, is kind of the Holy Grail amongst hunters. Yes, these are moose legs.

He said he's going to make a lamp out of them.

A lamp out of moose legs.

I was dumbfounded. I'm still torn between a moose leg lamp being uber-cool (in a geeky way) or just way weird. I'm still not sure.

But the reason why we stopped in at the workshop was to help my uncle with these. 3 of those big-ass roundels of hay. These things weigh about 1200 pounds each!

Who and / or what would 3600 pounds of hay be for, you may be asking?

Well, my uncle decided at some point that he wanted “a critter.” To some, that would mean a dog, maybe a cat, perhaps a hamster. Well, for my uncle, that meant a...

Well, let me just say, meet Bucky the mule.

Bucky is living the life of a coddled mule.

He has his own private acreage to roam on as he pleases, his own private barn for when he wants to get out of the elements, and doesn't even have to work for a living. Heck – he can even pee off the back porch and the neighbors will never even know!

Our objective: wrestle the hay (which is Bucky's winter feed) off the trailer and into the barn in such a manner that: (1) none of us strain ourselves to the point of having to turn our heads and cough; (2) arrange them in a manner so my uncle can get to 'em all.

I think Bucky knew we were there for him. He – very subtly, I must say – sauntered up and grabbed a mouthful of hay to sample.

A man and his mule are not easily separated.

Let me just say this: Bucky was sure one durn nice mule.

 

[BikerGeek99]

After ensuring Bucky has his winter feed, we headed back to the cabin. Along the way this critter was not intimidated by us at all.

We had a couple of beers, sat around and shot the breeze for a bit. I'm sure glad that deer head didn't fall on me. Pretty sure that woulda hurt.

We fired up the grill and I cooked us up some steaks and taters. (I decided that may work out a little better for us, rather than relying on a 70-year-old bachelor with plans for concocting moose-leg lamps cook for us. No offense to my uncle, of course.) No food porn – my camera decided that it will, from that point on, not take pictures inside. Crap. Time for a new camera.

In his professional life, my uncle was a pilot. Specifically, he flew corporate jets for an oil company based at the time out of Kentucky. Now enjoying his retirement, he does have his own aircraft – a Beechcraft Baron, of which he has a model.

A little bit later, we piled back in the SUV for the evening ride back to our hotel in Sundance.

Miles ridden today: about 120 or so. I didn't really keep track.

 

[BikerGeek99]

July 29, 2010.

And so it begins...

Today has some weight for us. We have been on road for damn near 3 weeks, visited 15 states, developed A Routine for the morning and the evening, but now It Begins.

The official push home.

When we awoke, the skies were fittingly gray, the roads suitably damp from overnight / early-morning rain showers.

We went to Higbees for one last breakfast before the push home. No food porn – we were both quiet, in the blankets of our thoughts and memories of this trip. Dad was with us, but he was quiet as well – pretty sure he was missing my step-mom at that point.

We'd decided that we would be staying at the same hotel for the night in Sioux Falls, SD. But Sooze and I had a touristy stop to make on the way, and dad was going to head on down the road.

Me and dad, with the bikes packed, getting ready to roll.

As we got on the road, the skies cleared for us, which lifted my spirits a bit.

For those of you who have taken long road trips, you know the feeling of an epic trip winding down. For me, my thoughts were around how long I'd been wanting to take this trip... When I'm on trips, I tend to get mired in the day-in, day-out muck and sometimes miss the appreciation for the experience of the trip itself – have I been so deep in the daily muck that I've lost appreciation for this trip? Am I gonna look back at this and kick my own ass for being an idiot? Will the trip ever really sink in? I mean, come on – we rode across the country, and my first time seeing the pacific ocean was on a motorcycle!

Ah, the crap that rolls through your gray matter when your gray matter is encased in a helmet while on two wheels.

Dad rolled out a few minutes ahead of us, but we caught up with him on the slab.

Back into South Dakota – state number 15.

Heading towards a well-known national monument cum tourist-trap, we were treated to sights like this.

How much ya wanna bet this is a tourist-trap?

Note the bear statue thingy.

OK, gang, come on now... You know where we've been, you know where we're ultimately heading...

Any guesses as to where we're going?

Anyone?

Here's a hint.

I think tunnels are cool. So are arch thingamabobs with the road going under it.

When I was in this part of the country back in 1995, we went to this area, but I do not remember this town that looked to me to be an even bigger tourist-trap than Deadwood was.

Ack. I'm not sure I could hang out around here for long, if at all.

I guess there are people out there who are attracted to this type of thing like moths to a flame, I guess. Otherwise these places probably wouldn't stay afloat.

Any guesses where we're heading??