Cows, a long and lonely road, and a castle

On Monday, July 20, we got ready to get on the road.  It was cloudy, a 5-layer kind of day, but no heated gear for me.  We were heading into some high elevation with about 9,000-foot in elevation passes. 

But first, we had a mission.  Rock Springs had cows.  The cows were like those three-dimensional cutouts, and decorated by a variety of businesses.  Once we saw them, we discovered them all over, in pairs, a single one, a whole herd of them. 

This cow was sporting a hard hat, reminding me of when I worked, on occasion, I had to wear one.  But mine was red and had my name on it.  It now resides at my house.

Everybody loves a cash cow.  Many of them had cow bells ... pretty cool.

My favorite was the Wendy's hamburger joint cow.  I loved the red pig tails and tail, and the bloomers were the best.

We were told they were made in honor of the high school rodeo.  Cool.  We took photos.  Who knows, there might not be anything else for blog fodder for the day.  Some days are rather limited.
 

But there was wildlife in town ... rabbits.  They seem to be all over the places we've traveled.  Little cotton ball tails.  They're so cute although I'm sure the people who have them around their homes are not as thrilled with them.

We ran across on I-80 for a while toward Green River, Wyoming, as we were going to come down the west side of Flaming Gorge.  We'd been told this side is not as pretty as the east side except for Red Canyon.  We thought it all quite pretty, although I had to agree that Red Canyon was spectacular.

The view to my left had a wood fence and the gorgeous red tones.  The reds cannot quite be captured.

The view to my right had more red hill side and part of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.  This area, 1,875 acres, was originally purchased in 1958 as critical elk habitat.  As many as 650 elk may winter here to escape heavier snow at other locations.

During the day, we had some sprinkles but avoided the big rain.  I was in denial.  If I didn’t have to put on rain gear or some type of gear, it wasn’t raining. 

Another hazard out here is tumbleweeds.  This one came at me from the side and I didn't see it until it was there.  It whacked me in the knee, leaving a welt and a black and blue mark, and ended up tangled in my engine guard.  We stopped so I could remove it as I wasn't interested in it catching fire and bursting into flames.  I didn't want to go out in a blaze of glory!!!

We saw some interesting things, but some maybe not so good.  We saw a hay truck’s load tumbled and jumbled all off to the side and down into the ditch of the road.  We didn’t see the truck but it came off some truck.  There were vehicles and trucks stopped to help pick it up.

Our wildlife viewing for the day consisted of deer, two big girls, and a black bear sow with two cubs.  The cubs were black but the sow was a golden color, although she had black around her eyes and ears.  It was a beautiful sight to see.  The wildlife makes for a super ride.  As long as it stays off the road.

She was a beautiful girl.

It's not clear but you can see she's brown and her two cubs are black as black.

We had some great riding, ending up in Delta, Utah.  Nice twisty and curvy roads that make a motorcyclist’s heart sing.  Biker Bill had asked why we were staying in Delta, Utah.  Cuz we only wanted to ride that far, and there was a hotel, a Budget that I might ordinarily avoid, but it was actually okay.  And so we walked again and even found a few things to photograph, including a closed coffee shop, and what I believe are the widest streets in a small American town.  You could land a jet on them they’re so wide. 

We found a beautiful park with tons of flowers everywhere.

There was even a little waterfall.  We wandered in the park, walking in grass so thick you left footprints.

This little coffee house is now closed, but it's one we would have frequented for our morning coffee if it had been open.

On Tuesday, July 21, we were still riding geared up as it was cool riding in the morning.  We’re running Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America.  We have traveled this road before, when we hit it in Kansas and rode it all the way to California.  It is indeed quite lonely, but also quite lovely in a barren way.  Some places are green, and mountainous, and we even saw a doe with two fawns. 

The other fawn had already moved off, but they both still had spots.  They were also quite curious.

Still other parts of this road are flat and appear to be never ending.  You travel along seeing the mountains in the distance, yet you don’t seem to get any closer with miles.  So, I guess you’re on a treadmill to nowhere, until you end up somewhere. 

A long, grey treadmill.

We didn’t see much in the line of wildlife on this section, a few birds.  There were some cows, but not many.  We also didn’t see much road kill.  I liked that part.  So there really isn’t much out there and the road lives up to its name of lonely.  The towns are also quite sparse, so it wouldn’t be a place to be broken down.

We stopped in Eureka, Nevada, for lunch.  There are some beautiful old buildings here.

We mostly avoided the bad weather although we had a few showers and some heavy- wind.  At one point there was a gust of wind that nearly took me off the bike.  Whoa!!!

We ended up in Austin, Nevada, staying at a little B&B that had once been a boarding house.  It was a very nice place, and we enjoyed the stay.  We did our usual walk, going up and down some very steep hills. 

There were interesting things in Austin.

Old trucks are always kind of cool to see and photograph.

Old mine shafts are also of interest.  Jaz likes rusty things.

We saw this jack rabbit.  Look at those ears.  It's huge and totally different from the little cotton tails we'd seen.

The area reminded me in a way of Bisby, Arizona, because of the hills, but it isn’t contained in as small an area as Bisby.  As we walked in town I turned to my right and startled a deer that I could have almost reached out and touched.  We were both startled and she got away before I got a good photo.

Deer butt.

There’s also another place we walked, about a mile away, called Stokes Castle.  It’s a three-story, 50- square-feet around, stone tower built by Anson Phelps Stokes, a mine developer, railroad magnate and banker.  It was completed in 1897 and was to be a summer home for his sons.  However, the Stokes family never spent much time at the tower -- a month in 1897, a few more days later in the year, and some time in the summer of 1898.

We'd been hoping for a good sunset shot but decided we didn't want to be a mile away from home in the dark.

The tower is patterned after a family painting of Italy.  It’s built of hand-hewn native granite and the huge slabs were raised into place by a hand-operated windlass.  The first floor had a kitchen and dining room, the second floor was the living room and the third floor had two bedrooms.  Each room on the first floor had a fireplace, and the upper floors had wooden balconies.

The place still stands, but is pretty beat up.  You can still see the railroad ties that were used to hold the balconies in place years ago as the ties and stone are pretty indestructible.

There was also some other old stuff there that people have not yet destroyed.

Sadly the tower now has a chain link fence around it to help prevent theft and vandalism.  That, of course, does not allow for great photos, but it was still fun to go there and see it.  We walked back down the road and got back to the B&B just before sunset, perfect timing on our part.

The Devil's in the house

Saturday, July 18 was the run to Devils Tower.  Jaz hadn’t been there before, and it’s one of my favorite places to go when in the Sturgis area.

Aladdin General Store.  I had to buy something, an embellished denim vest.

Out behind the store was a pile of antlers/horns.  There were lots inside the store for sale.

This guy was at the store.  He and his Indian were all decked out.  It was spotless.  Did he ride from Arizona?

This is a new style of haystack I've not seen before.  I like haystacks ... little bales, big bales, round ones, rectangular ones, bread-shaped.  They're too cool.

We rolled up to the entrance, and Jaz showed her park pass.  I again purchased a senior pass, for the third time, as I keep forgetting to bring it with me.  However, unlike Jaz, I have a pool wrap.  She told the ranger, but the ranger still made me pay.  Good thing I like the parks and don’t mind supporting them. 

Before you arrive at the Devils Tower parking lot, you ride by a prairie dog town.

They're cute little varmints.

The tower was out, with brilliant sunshine showing the markings running vertically up to the top.  There were lots of climbers, in red shirts, blue shirts.  That’s not for me and I wonder how they can get up there in those cracks in the tower.  We took the 1.3-mile walk around the base and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Except for the bull snake someone saw in the pile of rocks next to the path.  I’d have never seen it on my own. 

The first look at the tower.

Devils Tower was named the first national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. It rises 1,267 feet above the terrain, but 5,114 above sea level, was used in the sci-fi classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and is considered a sacred worship site by many Native Americans, who have left many colorful prayer cloths tied to trees. 

We would never disturb. 

Native Americans offer prayer ties and bundles to the Great Spirit in exchange for blessings.

There are multiple legends about the tower, depending on the Indian tribe.  One of the most common legends has some girls playing when they were spotted by a bear.  In trying to escape they climbed a rock and fell to their knees, praying to the Great Spirit to save them.  The Great Spirit heard them and made the rock rise from the ground towards the heavens so that the bear could not reach them.  The bear, in an effort to climb the rock, left deep claw marks in the sides, which had become too steep for it to climb.  Those are the marks you see today on the sides of the tower.  The girls reached the sky and were turned into the star constellation, Pleiades. 

Even in black and white the tower is spectacular.

Another legend is that there were eight children playing, seven sisters and their brother.  The boy was struck dumb, and ended up as a bear who chased his sisters, trying to kill them.  The sisters came to the stump of a tree.  The tree spoke to them and told them to climb upon it, and as they did it began to rise into the air.  The bear couldn’t reach them and kept rearing against the tree, scoring the bark with his claws.  The sisters were borne into the sky and they became the stars of the Pleiades.

Sometimes you just see cool things on rocks.  These two Harley folks were enjoying the view.  Maybe they were even discussing one of the many legends.

While the legends differ, they are also much alike, and I like the legend.



Setting a fashion statement at Devils Tower.

We finished our visit, continuing to marvel at the tower, the surrounding area, the robin’s egg blue sky, the gorgeous cloud formations.  Then it was back to the bikes and on down the road.

One last photo of Devils Tower.  There are no bad shots which is why I have so many in this blog.  It's a favorite place for me as it has a special feeling, a uniqueness to it. 

We ended up in Buffalo, Wyoming.  A nice little town where they were holding the Fourth Annual Longmire Days.  Of course, we walked around.  This is the biggest event of Buffalo’s summer season, named after a local author, Craig Johnson, who wrote books about life in Buffalo and the surrounding area, bringing popularity to the small town after the hit TV show, “Longmire.”

I posted about being in Buffalo, and wouldn’t you know it, I received a post from a former co-worker and friend Gene who was also there helping his friend, Robert, drive to Colorado from Alaska.  They, too, had been walking around, and it was hard to believe we’d not run into each other.  We made plans to have breakfast the next morning before we all got on the road.  Better yet, Robert is the significant person of someone else I knew at my workplace, Chugach Electric, Dawn.  It’s a very small world, and way smaller due to Facebook.



Wandering around town and there was a new use for a cart.  I liked it.

Sunday morning, July 19, we were up and ready to go, heading to the restaurant to meet Gene and Robert.  We breakfasted, caught up on our lives, and then everyone got on the road, heading to their destinations. 

Robert, Jaz, me and Gene.  Happy breakfast.

Our destination was Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We were continuing to head west, but still in a leisurely fashion.  Mostly we’ve run about 300-mile days, nothing hard, with the intent of leaving us time to walk around town to stretch our legs and see a little of the local area.  Besides, how would we find blog fodder if we didn’t do that? 

Some of our blog fodder for the day was riding through the Wind River Canyon to Thermopolis, where there are the world’s largest mineral hot springs.  Thermopolis is from the Greek and means “hot city.”  There are numerous natural hot springs with mineral-laden waters. We just wandered around a bit because mostly we were just going there for the ride through the canyon along the river.

Thermopolis is a scenic town, and water continues to flow making this mineral rock even bigger over time.

I believe this area is called Rainbow Terraces because of the colorful mineral-laden water deposits. 

We saw antelope, an owl, birds, a prairie dog, deer and what appeared to be cranes sitting in a field.  But the ride was just that, a ride. 

A beautiful and colorful way to end a blog for the day.  Happy trails.

 





Steadily moving west now

We’re at a point where we need to keep moving west to get to California.  That has not stopped us from seeing oddities.  On the road today  Frida, July 17, near Miller, South Dakota, we saw a big painted target, with an arrow that was stuck into the ground, totally missing the target.  Strange things, kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

I’ve seen a bit more game today, too, which is always exciting … a beautiful pheasant in a field and four deer, one a doe with a fawn.

And we played the train game, and won.  No, that doesn’t mean race the train to the crossing.  Our game is as we approach we start pumping our arms up and down, trying to get the train to blow its whistle at us.  If it does, we win.  Yay!!!!!

Several times we’ve seen cows in ponds, cooling off.  It’s been a very amusing sight.  We finally stopped to take a photo. 

They were really funny to watch, but it sure makes you understand the herd instinct.

The whole group wasn’t in the pond when we stopped, but as we watched them, the others slowly started moving to the pond.  Finally there was only one rebel left, and he just kept eating.  Then he, too, moved into the pond.  We did not stay to photograph him enjoying the cool water on his legs and tummy.

Finally, only the bad boy was still out on his own, not following anyone.

We stopped in a little town not even on the map, Harrold, South Dakota, as we needed to pick up mailing boxes.  There’s a bar next door.  Not of interest to us, of course.  But we also stopped at the gas station.  And there some guy said, so you’re the two bikes that were at the bar?  Was us, but not at the bar.  Word sure travels fast in these one-horse towns.  Two girls on bikes whooping it up in their bar.  Must have been us.  Haha!!!

We hit some construction with pilot cars.  We were glad the weather wasn’t so hot as we had to wait 10-15 minutes each time.  We struck up a conversation with the flagger.  She works 12-16-hours a day, and there’s no outhouse.  She has to go down into the ditch.  And she’s wearing the brightest, most visible gear she can be.  Wow.  That is hopefully a well-paid job.  She and her husband have an old shovel head.  We laughed about them.  Work on it all week to ride on Sunday.

The wind started coming on strong from the north after Pierre.  We were riding somewhat sideways, but it wasn’t as bad as some I’ve had to contend with on other road trips where you have to put something over your nose as it’s so strong it takes your breath away. 

We've seen a lot of these silos.

We also saw what apparently the wind can do to them.  It was like taking a piece of aluminum foil and just crumpling it up.  A tornado had been through here a week or two before we came through.

Once again, an oddity, in my mind, near Pierre.  It was a sign for the Varmit Hunters Association.  I wondered if it was for two- or four-legged varmits.  Sometimes when there’s not much to see, you have to look harder.

There are lots of crops, corn, and lots of soy beans.  Soy beans is also a huge crop in South America.  It appears to be coming bigger everywhere.

We think they were harvesting wheat.  We weren't sure.  I just like the big machines.

There is a certain contentment riding along with no traffic, no cows, nothing but the wind.  You’re all alone on the road, and then you go around a corner and there’s a lull in the wind … and you hear birds chirping.  You really aren’t all alone after all.

We stayed at a little motel in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, getting ourselves lined up to go to Devil’s Tower in the morning  Another cop bike showed up.  White, and of the 1980s vintage.  It looks a lot like mine except he still has a siren on his.  I wish, I wish.  Nah.  I’d only get in trouble.

This guy was from Indiana.

Our evening walkabout got a few photos … a grain elevator because they’re just cool. 

These are beautiful buildings.

And John Deere equipment rolling through town on big trucks.  That’s just even cooler.  I love John Deere.  It’s the color scheme, I believe, although I sure do love those big old machines.

Three or four big trucks went by with the same type of machinery on them.  We think they were some type of harvesting machine.

This cat was down near an overpass.  He watched to be sure we didn't invade his space.

Our final look for the night was at the geographic center of the United States, right there in Belle Fourche, South Dakota.  We had to take a photo before heading back to the hotel for the night.

This explains it all so I don't have to.

The monument.

Friendship.

And we were all in, tired out, tuckered out.  But we'd be ready for Devil's Tower on the morrow.