Home Again, Home Again Jiggedey Jig!

Always nice to get home after a trip. We expected to be gone two months, but seen all we wanted in 32 days. Good thing we came back early, our lawn service by the golf course didn't work, what a mess. This is our final map, only a couple of times I forgot to turn SPOT on. Time to clean up the vehicles and start planning another Trip!

Heading East

We left Ennis, Montana and headed back through Yellowstone to allow us to drive the Bear Tooth Pass scenic Highway. Lamar Valley had most of the 3,500 Buffalo grazing there as we passed through.

We tested Betty's recovery from Mountain (Altitude) Sickness via the transit over 10,947 foot Bear Tooth Pass and she passed. We spent the night in Powell, Wyoming before heading to Cody.

Cody has the impressive Buffalo Bill Heritage Museum which was well worth the time to visit. Camping again in a KOA campground, we had dinner in the Irma Hotel, built by Cody and named after his daughter.

A visit to Cody was not complete without a visit to the Cody Rodeo. Most of the professional cowboys were at a big rodeo in Oklahoma I believe, but the kids events were great, and the hundreds of kids chasing three calves with ribbons on their tails was worth the price of admission.

We headed east on highway 14 through Big Horn Canyon, which my friend Ernie said was spectacular, and rightfully so. Beautiful red canyons, switchbacks and waterfalls made this one of the prettiest parts of our 7,000 mile journey.

We spent the night camped at the base of the Devils Tower. We hiked the trail around the base while half a dozen crazies rappelled down the face.

My friend Ernie warned of the scarcity of Hotel rooms available in the west and in reality rooms were available, but in some places the rates were outrageous. $250 for a Super 8 room in Kali spell. The reason for the shortage was partially from the flooding in of the Missouri River, and mostly because of the heavy snow fall and late spring, shortened the visitors season.

We found the cabin above in Keystone as we wanted to stay out of Sturgis. This was ideal, the front of the cabin looked through a hole in the trees at Washington on Mt Rushmore.

We met up with two hashers in Stugris, Rick from Rhode Island, a friend of many years and Chris an Orange County California Hasher, our mother Hash.

We rode the Iron Mountain Road (SD 16A) which is my favorite piece of highway to ride anywhere. 17 miles, 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, three pig tails, three tunnels, four presidents (Mt Rushmore view) and two splits. This road was so neat, Betty had me ride it twice, the second time in the rain. We had moved from our chalet to a hotel in Keystone that had a separate room with a large Jacuzzi which warmed us up after the ride in the rain.

We rode up to Sturgis and made the rounds, bought tees and patches and headed back to Keystone after a long day.

We met our friends in Deadwood for breakfast (and Rick had his bike washed) then headed for the Badlands and the 1800 mile trek home!

The trip was every thing we had hoped and well worth the time and expense.

Continuing on!

Ennis Montana Hospital

Our last morning in Yellowstone found Betty unable to function and sick to her stomach. I carried her to the truck, packed up and headed south to Jackson Hole via the Grand Tetons. Pretty drive with Betty sleeping the entire way. I stopped in Jackson and she tried to eat some soft ice cream, but could not keep it down. We headed to Driggs, Idaho where she rested for two more days in a hotel. We then headed North to Ennis Montana where I had planned a float trip on the Yellowstone river for our anniversary. She was still barley able to function so I took her to the hospital. I spent two days in a nice cabin, Betty spent two days in the hospital undergoing numerous tests. Apparently she had acute altitude sickness, which filled her lungs with fluid, preventing her from taking in enough oxygen. We left the hospital with an oxygen machine, five oxygen bottles and drugs to clear the fluid.

Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Driggs, ID, Ennis Mt

Left Yellowstone with a bride that was ill. Will likely head for home when Betty is better.

Yellowstone

Betty and I had a nice drive up the great plains to Yellowstone. We camped at Bridge Bay in a tent site after signing the mandatory Grizzly bear area warning. Our camp site was at 7800 feet, which meant hard breathing and cold nights! Betty limited her picture taking as the camera can not do justice to the scenery. This shot was the Yellowstone River just off Yellowstone Lake at the 5:30 am start of a tour to teach us outdoors photography.

Our tour was delayed a bit and we skipped most of the wild flower shots because we came across this Grizzly and watched her for more than an hour. We followed her slowly in our 1938 tour bus and watched her eat grasses, dig up roots and meander along. As we watched, 100 yards down the side of the road in the direction she was traveling, came a doe with two fawns. they were distracted by us and got pretty close before they spotted each other. After a short chase, the bear gave up as the doe and fawns high tailed it.

A mangy coyote in the road.

This is my favorite shot of Old Faithful, sitting on the second story patio of the Old Faithful Lodge, sipping a Moose Drool Pale Ale!

We spent several hours getting stone and dirt removed from Betty's hand and knee and x-rays from a fall after a late night Rangers program. The fall was bad enough, but it was stopped by hitting her head and shoulder on the concrete wall of the rest room. This and the long hikes probably brought on the Mountain (altitude) Sickness.

Another natural bridge! I actually climbed up into the waterfalls, but mosquito's attacking my camera person made her miss it.

Lot's of waterfalls.

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This guy came within about three feet of us on our motorcycle, Betty was not thrilled!

She was also more than a little excited with the 1200 foot drop from our motorcycle with rocks as the guard rail.

Wet North Dakota and The Montana High Plains and Great Falls

Our Plans changed slightly in North Dakota Due to the flooding and wet ground. We drifted south to Jamestown, ND then headed on back roads to Grand Falls Montana. The picture below is Betty standing on the biggest Buffalo jump, where Indians drove buffalo before the days of horses. This ledge dropped off several hundred feet and was over a mile long.

Below is Betty standing near the Great Falls that slowed down Lewis and Clark in their exploration.

This was our fancy campground in Great Falls. We have just finished six days in a tent.

The road to Great Falls

This is the Missouri River

Still Wandering

Spent a couple of days in Hobart Indiana mooching from my brother in-law Al and his wife Janice.Visited with our nieces Jenni (who was so excited to see me she broke her ankle in a couple of places!) Michelle and their daughters Katie and Megan. We then headed to Minneapolis for a visit with our neice Lisa. A nice dinner, a death march down town in the incredible heat and humidity, then a tour of the Walker exhibit. Betty and I hopped on the Harley and rode 40 or 50 miles to find the dealer closed for the weekend.

Monday am we headed north through the kazillion lakes up to US route 2 and on to devils Lake. Big suprise, the flooding is still going on causing a detour south on 25 miles of mud where there was a highway to Jamestown, ND aka Buffalo city. This am we broke out the bike for some touring, then loaded up and headed for Bismarck to set up our tent, We toured the river Missiouri River area and found more flooding. On to Miles City Mt tomorrow.

Wandering west

Betty and I have putted along on back roads from Hampstead, NC to Boone NC for a short visit and to spend the night. Next day we continued on US 421 retracing my trip with my buddies to Shady Valley and the infamous "Snake". The snake is one of my favorite ride I have made, even in my truck! We continued on secondary roads through Tennessee and Kentucky with a stop and a hike up to the Natural bridge. We spent a night in Frankfort, Kentucky, then on to mooch off our great brother and sister in laws Jan and Al in Hobart Indiana. We broke out the bike for a nice afternoon ride and visited with our nieces Jeni, Michelle, Megan and Kati.

Heading out on US 30 W we tried to bypass the horrible traffic and construction around Chicago with only partial success. We had a nice dinner in Minneapolis with our niece Lisa who has just opened her own Law firm. Today we will hike in the am then ride the bike this afternoon.