Thanks Bert

As the trip begins to wind down, I realize how much Bert has played a significant part of the ride. We are now at 10,150 miles and he has never let me down. All he asks for is food, good shoes, and an occassional bath. We have been through bad rain storms, 12,000 foot accents,  65 miles of bad gravel roads, a flat tire, three lay downs, weeks of 90 plus degree rides, and five near misses.  What a loyal friend.  I may not take Bert to Alaska next year, but he will be in my garage forever.

• Bert has few complaints as long as the octane is the right grade and the oil level is correct
• Bert is designed to Tour. He doesn't need to go to the beauty parlor every evening. In fact, he likes to be dirty and bug covered because he knows he has put in an honest ride and it's the ride /experience that is more important than what others may think

What I began to notice, at about 5000 miles, was that people seemed to immediately notice Bert amongst the other pretty-boy bikes and they came over and wanted to talk. Kind of like the Red Sox with their disgusting, dirty, bashed up batting helmets. This bike is cool, you can tell he is here to ride, whatever the situation, and somehow he will purservere. 

A few more days of Picts and stories and then the ride will be done for awhile until the Alaska journey.

Déjà vu - duplicate keys and similar steaks

Dr. Crosby said "And I feel. Like I've been here before". Well if you have been sitting on a motorcycle for 10,000 miles, things start to blend together. Two stories illustrate this.

A number of the chain hotels have evidently negotiated a deal with Dominos to have the local pizza franchise featured on the hotel room key. I check into some hotel, get my key, drop off my stuff, and go to dinner. I come back and my key won't work. I'm tired, grumpy and my butt hurts. I go to the lobby and start complaining. The desk clerk says "that is the wrong key". I say "no, it is the key you gave me". He says " you are mistaken sir, you are in room 142 and the key / key cover is for room 320". I say " this is the key you gave me". He says "sir, this is Sheridan, WY, and the key/key cover you have is from Cody, WY, look at the phone number". F-me, he is correct and I subsequently go to my room and purge the 29 Dominos keys which I have been jamming into my riding pants.

I go into a steak joint, go to the bar (which if you are a single diner is the most efficient way to get a meal, plus I have garnered so many travel tips from people I have met at the bar). Hardly glance at the menu, order and my wine arrives. Funny, I think. How many places in the middle of nowhere have this Merlot from Chateau st. Michelle? Then the salad comes, things are really getting creepy. Steak arrives and now I'm in the twilight zone. Finally figure out that I'm in a local steak joint chain and just ordered the same meal, in a different city, three days ago. Time to start heading home.

Jackson to Moran Jct., to Riverton to Sheridan, WY via Big Horn park and pass

This is what bad golfers call a round where you "grip it and rip it". In my situation, a perfect day. Bert and I needed to just ride in good surroundings, no tourists, no tricky curves, just good open road. The route I picked was perfect, though much longer than anticipated (on a map, the routes are only 2-3 inches, but F-me, this is out west). Open it up to 85mph, but ended up being a plodder compared to the locals whom blew by me at 95+ MPH.

As with every day on the trip, beautiful and stunning and humbling. What a fricking country we are in. Again, how did people walk across our country before there were McDonald's or Starbucks??

Bert and I just rode, looked at the scenery and grinned.

We were going to stop in Thermopolis for a hot bath, but Bert forgot his swim suit. Took a pict on the way past the spa

Second part of Jackson to Jackson loop

Sitting in a hotel lobby listening to some woman jabber into her cell phone. Or should I say yelling into her phone so that everyone within a 50 mile radius can hear everything about her red couch, terrible boyfriend, the bills she owes, etc. I'm hoping they finally allow cell phone conversations on flights, I will never fly again.

The last time I was in Jackson (many years ago), we took the boat across Jenny Lake towards the mountains. We ran in to a neighbor from A2 who was a professor at UM. He was there with his family and proceeded to brag about how he was getting the U to pay for his vacation. Every time my annual alumni solicitation arrives in the mail (ironically about the same time my summer taxes arrive) I smile as I calmly deposit the solicitation in the recycle bin . 

Beautiful scenery on the ride, but arriving in Idaho a stark reminder of water issues in the west. The level of the Palisades Reservoir, on the Idaho side of the Tetons, has to be down 30-50ft. You can see where the water line was. Unbelievable. Alpine, the town at the end of Reservoir, is probably 100-200feet from the shoreline.  Beautiful houses, on the side of the mountains look over barren sand instead of water. So sad.

A couple of Picts before the next installment. 

Boy Scout Antlers. The Jackson to Jenny Lake to Wilson to Victor to Alpine to Jackson loop

The Boy Scouts of Jackson, WY have a great deal going on. The Scouts control rights to collect and sell elk antlers that are shed in the National Elk Refuge, which is HUGE. Last year, the Scouts gathered 6,514 pounds of antlers and sold them for $61,761. Rumor is that they have  collected millions via antler sales over the years.

I read that on a hockey card, so I cannot verify the data.

The route today was north from Jackson towards Yellowstone, wait 30 minutes for "road construction"  (5 guys doing nothing on side of the road), then take side road back towards Jenny Lake.  Stop and take pictures, rest and then continue the loop. Take twisty road  to Wilson, turn right towards Idaho and either put on snow chains or knobbies. Keep climbing hills until you can't breathe or your pants are soiled from decent into awesome gorges. Then head for Victor, ID, Alpine, back over the mountains to Jackson.

A few Picts and then the story continues.

Oh, no not a good time to ride.

867-5309, Jenny (lake)

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Always hard to post from Nowhere - Cody, WY to Jackson via lots of roads and tourists and Elk antlers and greased pigs - part 2

When the family did the "out west trip", we went to a Dude Ranch located right outside the entrance   to Yellowstone. One of the side trips from the ranch was a trip into Cody to see a rodeo. Once we got to the rodeo, there was an opportunity to sign up for the greased pig contest. Patrick decided to participate. A bunch of small kids got out into the middle of the stadium and try to tackle a greased pig - so funny. I do not remember taking a camera, but certainly remember the kids chasing the pig.

I bypassed the usual tourist stuff and headed towards Jackson. The Tetons are amazing.  I decided to mimic the Harley guys and ride sans helmet (you go so slow in the park with all the traffic). I now understand two things; it is awesome (but still stupid) to ride without a helmet and I know now why they wear bandanas. Actually I learned it the following day when my dome was on fire from the sunburn.

I took about 200 Picts of the Tetons,  including these:

Elk horn story tomorrow

Always hard to post from Nowhere - Cody, WY to Jackson via lots of roads and tourists and Elk antlers and greased pigs - part 1

Neil said "everyone knows this is nowhere". And when its nowhere, there is no internet and stuff.

This is a proven fact. So I will now try and catch up.

The ride from Cody, via Yellowstone, to Jackson (Hole) is as unique as the ride across Beartooth. Totally different scenery, I forgot how much of a contrast there is. The Cody route is mostly barren (of vegetation) until you reach the park. But the scenery is still spectacular. When I got through the park, I wanted to find a hotel and watch Westerns for 24 hours straight. In spite of the traffic and tourists, the ride from Cody was impressive:

Notice the Big Boy , where did he come from???