July 14 with Jaz, and July15, I'm now resting in Thermopolis,WY

It was a great day of riding when it was all finished. When we got up this morning, it was muggy, but had a little cloud cover, and a haze.


As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a red cardinal sitting on the wire. The cameras weren't ready. We'd had them in the room and when we brought them out and tried to use them they were all fogged up. Mine was still fogged up when we crossed the Missouri River, after having to pay a $1 per bike toll, into Nebraska and I wanted to take a photo of the Nebraska sign, Home of Arbor Day, for my boss, who is a Nebraskan and a Husker fan. So I'm going to show that photo anyway.

Home of Arbor Day.  We had to pay to get into Nebraska.

I saw a hen turkey along side the road. It's the only game I saw today.

This was at the Frontier HD in Lincoln, Nebraska.

We had lunch and I had a patty melt. That might have been the Western Tour food, but I just can't seem to get into anything. I keep wanting to go back to BLTs, but know I'd be so disappointed.

It started heating up. It was 82 at 7:46 a.m. when we got on the road and 88 degrees at 9 a.m. By 11:30 it was 92 … and just kept getting hotter. The warmest I saw during the day was 97 degrees at 1:40 p.m. I can tell you that my deodorant was not working today, and I lost another two water bottles. I also lost another bandage on my leg. Jaz says they can track us just from the trail of bottles and bandages I'm leaving behind. I cannot believe I'm losing all these water bottles. That is not the norm. And some of them have been brand new ones, the seal not even broken.

There's a lot of road construction going on in Nebraska, so we had to make a few detours. Zumo got us on a road that ended up closed due to construction. We finally got to another destination as we were too far out of the way to get to the original one. Worked out since it didn't really matter which place we were going to as we were looking to have breakfast.

Ended up with some wind but by the time we hit the Nebraska National Forest and gaining a little altitude, everything was perfect. It ride was absolutely excellent. We also had cloud cover off and on for most of the day and it really helped to keep some of the sun at bay.

There's been a lot of flooding in many of the states we've been riding through.

There was a lot of evidence of flooding in Nebraska, too. There were several corn fields that were just still standing, yellowed by too much water, and then dried out. It's sad to see crops that have been destroyed. I took a couple of photos of corn but am not sure how it was destroyed. The whole stock is not there, so don't know if they harvest only a part of them, or what. I kind of don't think so, but this was just really strange. I also saw a fence line that just wandered into the water, and cattle that are laying and standing in ponds and mud.

We saw a number of fields that had been destroyed.

I also learned that a milled surface is like our grooved pavement, except not as wiggley-wobbley. I learned, too, that Loup City is the Polish Capital of Nebraska. The sign said so.

We also have finalized our synchronized red light running. We had perfect synchronization when we ran a light that did not change for us … we did wait a while before we took off. Proper synchronization takes time and we had to wait for the proper count of 1 … 2 … 3.

Nice looking elk.

We stopped for gas near Thedford, at a Sinclair, Highway 2. Inside there were two elk mounts and several deer ones. The elk came from Wyoming and the deer from around there. I always take photos for Biker Bill cuz he likes to see them.

I like to see the elk, too.

Okay, last dead heads for the day, promise.

We saw lots of trains today, many more than any other day. They are mostly carrying coal, which I understand is in Wyoming. The best part is that we got most of them to give us a blast of the horn. YAY!!! Where we stayed tonight is right across from a train yard, so Jaz and I walked across and took train pictures.

Is there anything finer than a train?  Jaz and I got many of them to honk at us today.

Was very convenient to have these right across the street from our motel.

We saw hundreds of cars loaded with coal being transported by rail.

In fact, speaking of the trains, because there are so many railroad crews around and other construction, we had a hard time finding a room.

I talked to my friend, Jan in Montana, tonight. I plan to be at her place in Bozeman on Friday, so we'll have Friday and Saturday to visit. The Great White Hunter will list me to fly on Sunday, Bozeman, Minneapolis and Anchorage, so I may be home a day early. I'll leave Miss Scarlet at Jan's friend's house and while I'm gone she may be serviced so she's ready and waiting for me when I return a couple weeks later. I've promised Jan more time when I come back … she thinks we'll need lots more time to talk. We've not seen each other in a couple of years, and then it was only for an hour. It will be great fun, and we can totally catch up. She's got grandbabies, and I need to find out all about them. Plus everything else.

Tomorrow will be sad. Jaz and I have been traveling together for nearly three weeks, and together pretty much 24/7. As I sit here typing, she's in the other bed working on her story, too. That's what we do. It's been a great run and I'm sad that it's over. But we'll live to ride another day.

The post isn't going online tonight as the internet service is only in the laundry room and the pool area and I'm too lazy to go up there tonight, so I'll have to try to post tomorrow. It's 9 p.m., I'm tired and with that, we're all in.


July 15

Yellow flowers are my favorite.

Nobody died, no one was cranky and Zumo, the GPS, survived. It's a wonder as Zumo and I had some real issues over the past few weeks, but mostly during the past couple of days. I read signs, Zumo does her own thing. It was a great trip, but Jaz and I had to part ways this morning; she left at about 6:30 a.m. heading for California, and I left about 7 a.m. heading the other direction toward Montana.

I was wearing a sweatshirt and gloves this morning as it was a bit cooler. Of course, I immediately turned the wrong way out of the parking lot and had to turn around. I hate that. I went down and hit Highway 87 because I wanted to go see Carhenge, which is Nebraska's answer to Stonehenge. It's a replica of England's ancient alignment of stones that chart the phases of the sun and the moon. It was very interesting to see all of these vintage cars on end, buried in the ground. They are primarily from the 1950s and 60s, and the cars are about 7 feet wide, the same size as the standing stones of Stonehenge. I was the only one there so it was very cool.

The whole exhibit from a distance ... Carhenge.

This whole exhibit is amazing.

This was also at Carhenge.  I thought it a very neat piece.

So, what animals did I see today? I had a jackrabbit go in front of me, and what I think might have been a hen pheasant, although it looked like a roadrunner, so am not sure. I also saw more than a hundred antelope, a few herds of about twenty or so, and singles and four or five together. The most interesting thing I saw not too far off the road was a single antelope that was apparently being stalked by a coyote. I did not stop.

This is a loveable face.

Another antelope shot.

Some thoughts on things I saw today … a white-faced black cow lying down next to a fence looking straight at me with her yellow tags in her ears, a truck hauling hay going very slowly because it had a very flat tire, more construction in Nebraska than I think we have at home (also lots in Wyoming), heavy crosswind going one way, then the other once I changed direction (because there's nothing to stop it?). When I stopped to take photos I thought the bike would blow over …

How can you not like this little face?  When horns are small or non-existent, they don't seem nearly as mean lookingl.

What a ham this guy was.  It was like he wanted his photo taken.

Wyoming, trucks, guys with cowboy hats and lots of motorcycles. Ain't it great. I passed the Dave Johnston power plant at Glenrock. And the highest elevation sign I saw today was nearly 6,000 feet. No wonder most of my day was pretty pleasant riding. Mostly the speed limit was 75 mph, but I was running mostly 60-65. After all, I am still on holiday, and looking for photo support.

The Dave Johnston Power Plant.  It's actually in a very pretty setting.

Somewhere along the way I crossed the Big Horn River, which I think deserves a mention.

I stopped at the Casper shop, and as I was leaving, two women rode in on Sportsters. They had identical bikes, each pulling an identical trailer. They are teachers from Alberta taking a month to go to Texas and back … on a Sportster. I surely commend them.

Wind River, a beautiful ride along the river and in the canyon.

The Wind River Canyon is a beautiful ride, and I took it again. Years ago Biker Bill, his friend Bob and I raced a storm through the canyon trying to get to a motel so we wouldn't get soaked. This time was much more pleasant. There are three tunnels that you ride through, and lots of places to stop and take photos and look at the river and the rock formations.

One of the three tunnels.  You can see the other side from this end.

In the Wind River Canyon.  My bike looks really small.

So I'm here in Thermopolis, but not staying in the same place we stayed years ago, that was at the hot springs. I'm in a little motel called the Paintbrush Motel. It's very nice, and I'm in a new building with three rooms. The one I'm in is a handicapped room, so plenty of space, a huge shower, and even embroidered towels. My bike even gets to park under an overhang. Wow, got lucky again. I even let Vern out of the tour pack today to come in the room. He had not been very nice on previous days, saying things to Jaz, like “how ya doing baby?” So he pretty much was in time out most of the trip.

This is a very nice room.

Vern  was checking out where we'd been today in comfort.

Covered parking is always a plus.  You never know when it will rain.

Embroidered towels just add a touch of class.

Walked about a mile down the street to have some barbecue, and back. I should not have walked so far as I got overheated. Oh well. The air conditioner is a great one and I can set the thermostat to whatever I want. Had it set on 66 and had to turn it up warmer, if you can believe that.

Welcome to my good friend, Tom, the Zookeeper. Many miles we've traveled together, too.

So I'm fed, I'm in a nice room, and I'm all in.