Wednesday 31st
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We woke up with a desire to leave Spearfish and South Dakota. We got breakfast first anyway and the shot off. It was still pissing down rain so we bypassed Devils Point. Dave really wanted to go and see it but we all decided to press on. The clouds were so low we probably wouldn't have seen it. Of course, now looking back, I think we should have gone and seen it. It's not like I'll be dropping by to see it anytime soon.
So we hit Wyoming in a big way. It was all plains and we've seen them before. Unfortunately there weren't towns or petrol stations so Harry ran out pf petrol 30 miles out from the town we were heading to. And because muggings here had the best mileage I had to go into town and get some petrol. I wasn't overly chuffed. I had just ridden 150 miles and this meant it would be another 90 before I could take a break and eat. I opened up the throttle and thought nice thoughts.
Worse was to come. We hit the Rockies in bad weather. We climbed up from the plains, just up and up and more up. So far up we hit the clouds. So, not only was the road soaking wet, you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. I was following Dave's tail light hoping he knew where he was going. I knew that there were steep cliffs at the edge of the road, I just couldn't see them. I just thought “Shit, what am I doing here? Why can't I be back home in a pub somewhere in Edinburgh?”. Then, like a miracle, the weather front passed over us as we were descending down the mountain. All of a sudden we hit clear sunny skies in front of us and the scenery was amazing. My spirit soared so much I was riding on air. From about 10mph we shot up to 70mph taking those wonderful mountain roads that twist beautifully around and around, up and down mountains revealing huge forests and huge bare peaks that just rose into the sky.
We kept going until we hit Greybull. We saw a bar with a bike symbol outside so we stopped and we were there till 2 in the morning. The locals were so friendly we ended up talking to most of them. The beer was a dollar and a half for a pitcher and pool was a quarter. The juke box had mostly 80's CDs so we had a ball that night. The people here have been the friendliest by far. We really felt at home, so much so we were even thinking about staying another night. We left at 2, drunk, but still rode back to the campsite, pitched the tents and collapsed.
Thursday 1st September
Got up feeling fine which was a huge surprise. After breakfast we all went over to the cowboy outfitters to see about getting some cowboy hats. I was a bit hesitant at first, I mean I don't wear hats at all and they also cost about 40 dollars. But, under peer pressure, I bought one. This will probably be my one and only souvenir from the US so I'm happy with it. I don't think I'll be wearing it in the streets of Edinburgh though.
And who would turn up in Greybull but John on his Beemer. Harry was almost ecstatic to see him (Yeah right!) especially since the first thing John said to Harry was a slagging. But anyway, we never teamed up since we were leaving for Cody and he wanted to stop. Real shame.
Cody was a real wild west town. It's quite commercial but there's a real west feeling to the town since the people there genuinely wear cowboy hats, shoot guns and like Country and Western music. Looking back of course that sounds kind of dumb but at the time, being fresh of the boat and all, it really did feel like the wild west, just maybe not as wild as it used to be.
In the bar we stopped at I got talking to a guy and he bought the beers and Dave got talking to two women who said they were going dancing so would we like to come along. No thought required, we said yes. Harry was missing this since he decided to stay at the tent. It was a live band and they were mostly playing Country and Western so all the guys in the hats were up. We were only up dancing with Terre and Suzie once but there were a couple of guys after them so they were up dancing with them more often. But after each time they were up the guys went back to their seats leaving me and Dave sitting next to and talking to the women. The guys looked the part, cowboy hats etc but apparently they were from New York. They were just posing. Terre and Suzie asked us along to a late night diner afterwards but they also asked these two guys. The women left in their car and we rushed back to the campsite next door so by the time the two guys turned up at the diner we were already settled in to a small booth with the women. They didn't look to happy too see us. I'm not sure if they knew we were going to be there. But they were happier when they found out we were leaving in the morning. I definitely got the feeling we were being used but whatever, we had fun talking to Terre and Suzie and even more fun winding up the two guys.
Friday 2nd
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We left Cody heading to Yellowstone National Park. Dave was a bit apprehensive about it because of the fire in 1988. He was thinking that it might not have recovered and he was right. Admittedly we did drive right through it but what we saw wasn't that great. The parts that were destroyed looked really bleak and dead. Not much fun. Because the park is protected the government won't do anything to help the park regrow. They've left it to nature so it'll take decades to recover. In fact when the fire started they didn't do anything either on the basis of letting nature take its course. Someone must have forgotten that it wasn't nature that started the fire but some idiot in Idaho who let his campfire get out of control. The upshot was the authorities let the fire burn and it got really out of control, burnt a lot of the park and when they did decide to put the fire out about 30 to 40 firemen died because it was so big. We were glad to leave.
We crossed into Montana for all of 10 miles before crossing into Idaho. It was cold, sometimes so wet that we were suffering from post Wyoming blues. We went through a few small towns before being told we could camp on some public ground that was used for events. I didn't stay up long. I needed some sleep and I needed to see another day.