Another wonderful day on the road. We left Newcastle, South Dakota, a little late this morning as we stopped for a big breakfast at the same place we had dinner the night before. Ed, Tom, and Carey had “regular” morning orders, while Mark dined on a piece of cherry pie (ala mode). A very large pancake was part of Carey’s breakfast, and he was surprised and very happy when the waitress answered “yes” to his question of “Do you have any peanut butter?” Hey, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.
The road got interesting pretty early as we saw several deer on the side of the road not too long after getting started. Just to give us something to talk (and blog) about, one large doe decided to cross the road about 80 yards in front of one of us. (Yes, contrary to popular belief, Carey is livin’ right. (Actually, all of us are living pretty well these days.)) Later in the day while coming down off one of the mountains, we saw several cows in and close to the road. As you can see from one of the pictures, two cows strolling down the road were causing quite the traffic jam.
We met and had an opportunity to visit with a few more folks today. Ed’s windshield is something of a conversation starter, as you might imagine. People continue to ask, “Are you really going to Alaska?!?” with that “holy crap” look on their face. We met a guy (another trucker and Harley rider) from Billings at a service station just south of the Wyoming/Montana border who we think actually contemplated going home to get his bike and joining us. Was that guy crazy, or what?
Going through the Bighorn National Park, we hit some pretty high elevations. Our GPS navigators, and the sign at one lookout, indicated we were up well over 9400 feet – just a tad higher than Mt. Magazine. Well, maybe a tad more than a tad…
After spending the evening and night with a friend in Rapid City, Raymond rejoined us in Moorcroft, South Dakota, early this morning. Tomorrow will be his last day with us as he is veering off to go visit his brother in Moses Lake, Washington, for a few days and will then return to Arkansas. (At some point, we will get (from Mark’s perspective) a “Brief History of Time” – no, sorry, that’s the wrong perspective. It will be more of a “how this party got started” to share how the four of us going to Alaska came to such a plan, and how Raymond ended up joining us for the first leg (actually, just the first foot) of the journey.
Ed and Carey enjoyed their first complete day of “free” riding today. For those of you that enjoy a little wind blowing through your hair when you’re out and about, you know what we’re talking about. We traveled about 380 miles today, ending up in Red Lodge, Montana. We enjoyed fine dining at the Carbon County Steakhouse this evening. As coincidence would have it, about halfway through our meal, a couple from Wichita, Kansas, was seated at the next table. From their jackets, Tom and Mark recognized them as fellow BMW riders and struck up a conversation. They were on a 10-day trip that also included Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands. In addition to riding a BMW, the guy worked for Cessna and formerly owned a plane. For a moment there, you could see Mark was back in the Cessna 172’s pilot seat.
Tomorrow, we’re headed to Yellowstone and we’re going to watch a little water spray out of the ground. How boring will that be… Yeah, right!