Day 8, Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – 87 miles
Today we took our time getting around and didn’t actually leave the gas station until about 9:00.
Some random thoughts to tie up:
We were in three states last Saturday: Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Yesterday the bike turned all ones and we missed it. (That’s 111,111 miles.) We
had planned to take a picture.
Today’s tour took us back up to Rimrock (the bluff that the light parade went
up on) so that we could see it in the day time.
What a great view of the Billings valley! We then followed the Black Otter
Trail through the park which was pretty rough and
torn up. A dirt bike or four wheel drive would have been better. We finally
found what we were looking for:
The sign’s letters are cut through steel like a stencil so
it’s a little hard to read in this picture. Most of the graves have the
small crosses but there are some large markers as well, including a kind of
master diagram naming the current residents.
We took old US-312 out to Pompey’s Pillar which is 25 miles or so out of Billings.
Lewis Clark was an explorer and an early pioneer in vandalism. He carved his name in the rock on July 25, 1806.
This is a reproduction of the signature. (I have a photo from
the original but the glass covering it made it harder to see.) The
monument is protected from further defacement by 24 hour electronic
surveillance and vicious, trained attack marmots.
We headed back on I-94 (Yes, Alan, it DOES run this way.)
and stopped for a bite to eat at the Flying J’s restaurant. Back at
the Holiday Inn, we visited the vendors and some of our GWTA members as well as
contacting family in Kansas City. Cathy
is checking that they made the bed right and I am updating this log. We were heading
to the local Harley dealer but right now
it is raining. What to do? I’ll uplink this and decide. Oh wait! Our tour pack
and helmets are getting wet. I brought those in to
dry. We’ll wait it out and see what happens.
You can see Linda Keenon rushing to get out of the rain as a
cover is blowing off one of the bikes. After about 45 minutes, the
sun came out and our little friend landed in the tree outside our window to dry
his feathers.
Ever see som many GoldWings parked at a Harley-Davidson dealer? The rain dropped the temperature. How nice!
They have a bear out front and more GoldWings out back! We
got a free hotdog feed and some more conversation as well as
some musical entertainment from the stage. Side note: Cowboy and Susan won 2nd
place on their campsite decoration.
They had some gun slinging Western re-enactors telling
stories and shooting each other too. They tried to keep them behind
the rope so no bystanders would get hurt but some of them must have escaped
since our hotel was full of cowboys when we
got back. They were rich cowboys because after the eating and singing they
started an auction. Right after I heard a $600
winning bid, someone else bid $85 for a 32” belt. Must be some belt! Anyhow, it
quieted down by about 7:45 so I guess they
had to get up early and poke some cows or something.
That’s probably it for our day. We put the bike covers on and may just go to the Quick Shop for a snack later. (We walk.)
One recurring theme of this Web Blog has been an ending
picture of our lodging. You’ve seen enough from the Holiday Inn
since we’ve been here for four days now. Here are a couple shots from outside
the hotel. I took them this morning but it was
bedtime for these night owls…
There were two owls in this tree. How would you guess they were even there? Perhaps by looking at what you park next to…
Goodnight! See you tomorrow!