Day 5, Sunday, July 13, 2008 – 231 miles
20 Days on a GoldWing
This morning the Kabin was fairly cool when we woke up. Glad
we shut the windows.
We ate the breakfast at the KOA as suggested by our ice-cream friend from last
night.
It tasted pretty good and it warmed us up. The thermometer on the building said
43°.
I guess that explains the little bit of frost on the bike cover this morning.
We got started at about 8:30 by the time we bought gas and
headed back to Yellowstone.
If you picture YNP as a figure eight, yesterday we had done the lower left of
the circle part
and headed out (West) from the midway point. Today we were coming back in at
the
midway part and doing the upper circle to about the 1:00 position and then
heading out
of the park’s Northeast entrance (or exit in this case) leading to Beartooth
Highway.
This morning the crazy tourists were out early. They stop in
the middle of the road
and go up to the animals even though they are warned not to. We just try to
avoid
the big crowds and accident potential. The first traffic jam was by the nesting
bald
eagles even though all the signs say don’t stop. We pulled over outside of the
posted area
and took this picture while sitting on the bike.
A little farther up the road, there were a bunch of moose
near the road and people were
trying to walk up to them. We bypassed the traffic jam as soon as we could and
headed
away from the crowds. No pictures, we didn’t want to be part of the problem.
We pulled in to see some bubbling springs of hot water. Yes, the water is just below boiling.
Since I want to make this journal educational as well, I
thought I should give you a sample
of one of the placards. (These also help me remember what I am photographing.)
Notice this spring was affected by the 1959 earthquake. My story is tying together!
See, I had Cathy with me and she is still smiling even
though this is day 5 of our
togetherness. I can’t get her to actually apply sun block though…
Our next major stop was at the Norris Geyser Basin and Museum.
The above hot spring
pool was 27 feet deep and put out a horrible sulfur smell.
Another nearby geyser was “Steamboat” which makes the world’s largest eruptions
with the last large one (300 - 400 ft) on May 23, 2005.
Fortunately, it frequently makes small ones pretty
regularly. You can see how large
the basin is in the next shot.
We stopped for gas about halfway through the loop so we
could be sure to make
Billings and found we got 50mpg on that tank. It pays to slow down! Anyhow,
Beartooth Highway was open and that was our route. We didn’t stop much or take
too many pictures. However, I liked this view.
We were going through a large flat and saw herds of buffalo
in the valley. As we got farther
along, of course there were more stupid tourists trying to get close to a
couple of cows and
stopping in the no-stopping zones. We kept moving along and got our chance to
be stupid
tourists ourselves. Have you ever seen the “Whaddayado?” show on TV? They take
dangerous
situations and ask the question, Whaddayado? . We were going along and a bull
came up from
the meadow and occupied the left lane about 30 feet ahead of us. Whaddayado? I
stopped the
bike and asked myself that question. I thought proceeding might just be
considered an
aggressive move and if you remember, the bike is RED, the trailer is RED, the
helmets are
RED, bullfighters capes are RED. Get the picture? Fortunately, a truck came up
behind us and
offered to shield us from the buffalo so we moved on past and then he paid us
no mind.
(My co-worker Dennis will insert some sort of crack here I’m sure.)
The road through Beartooth Pass takes you up over 10,000
feet and has so many 20mph turns
and switchbacks it’s almost hard to believe. The wind was blowing fairly cold
up there and we
didn’t really stop until we got down the other side. There were 6’ snow banks
within 3’ of the
road so you can see why it is closed much of the year. I took a shot of some of
the remaining
snow when we got on a flat spot.
Notice that the road in the picture is still closed due to snow!
We got to our hotel (Holiday Inn) in Billings, MT and got
checked in and then went
to dinner with a few hundred of our GoldWing Touring Association friends. We
picked the right people to sit with as a lady at our table was asked to bless
the food
and as a reward, our table got to eat first! We were done before the line quit.
Again, it’s 12:30 and I’m going to upload my updates and go
to bed. They shut the
waterfall off in the atrium about 9:00. We have a nice room on the 2nd
floor.
See you tomorrow!