Our five days in Sturgis at the Black Hills Rally passed all too quickly and when we crawled out of our tents this morning, Laura, Mike, and Jamie were doing the same thing. All of us got busy taking down our tents and packing up our gear and Garry and I gave our chairs and cooler to our next tent neighbours from Iowa, packed up our garbage, loaded our bikes and were ready to roll shortly after 8:00 a.m.
Robert at the campsite on Saturday morning
Big Red, ready to roll, almost.
Jamie's bike & Laura's car
We said our goodbyes to the crew from Iowa, the two guys, Phil and Ron from Vermont, and the 'Bad Boys' from Vacaville, CA, Robert, Don and Kevin and headed out. Phil and Ron were planning on staying one more night and the boys from Vacaville still had to do the Full Throttle Saloon. apparently they have been making the rounds of all of the best watering holes in Sturgis, and this was the last one to be checked off their list. Ah, to have the stamina of thirty years ago!
The ride in to Sturgis was busy but not quite as slow as it had been earlier in the week. I suspect that many people had already left or they were packing and getting a later start. Whatever the reason, we were on I-90 quickly enough and headed west at a comfortable 75 mph.
We made a short stop at Sundance, WY, to visit the Harley dealer there but it was a short visit, more to get us out of the saddle than anything else. After getting some strange directions from my GPS we made our way back to I-90 and resumed our trek to the west.
Deluxe H-D in Sundance, WY
Old bank building in Sundance, WY
Further on we stopped at the Wyoming Visitor Information centre where we got a state map and other information on the Beartooth Pass ride. Wyoming is a large coal producing state and in one of the mines near Gillette, WY, miners uncovered several petrified cypress trees. Those trees grew during the times of dinosaurs and one of pieces on display had an estimated age of 1500 years before it fell.
At the Wyoming Visitor Centre
Seventy million year-old petrified tree
Seventy million year-old petrified cypress tree
Information on Petrified Trees
View of eastern Wyoming from the Visitor Centre
I-90 from the Visitor Centre
Me at the Wyoming Visitor Centre
We made a brief stop at Deluxe H-D in Gillette mainly to use their bathroom because neither of us bought anything. Further on at Sheridan, we pulled in to town to refuel and to have a coffee at Starbucks. On the way in to town we stopped and I took some photos of a Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 4-8-4 Mohawk locomotive. It was somewhat sad to see it in its deteriorated condition as it sat there cold and dead, but when it was a living, steaming creature it must have been really impressive. It would have been great to see it in its heyday.
CB&Q locomotive in Sheridan, WY
4-8-4 Mohawk locomotive, Sheridan, WY
Explanatory plaque
BNSF coal train in Sheridan, WY.
At Starbucks, because I didn't want to wait while they made me an individual coffee I skipped it, but Garry had a foufou drink. While he drank it he was accosted by a very strange guy who was also riding. He was complaining that he didn't get a 75th anniversary Sturgis pin because they were all gone when he got there. We were glad to move on and headed north toward Ranchester where Highway 14 over the Bighorn Pass begins. In 2012 we rode it from west to east and the year previously I rode it in the opposite direction so we didn't feel the need to do it again.
As we approached Ranchester there were signs advising that there was a forest fire west of Dayton, a small town on the way to the Bighorn Pass, and as we rode on I could see the smoke rising from a ridge a few miles away. I thought of Ian and the firefighting he does when I saw that and hoped that the guys fighting the fire were safe.
Today was simply a 'put in the miles' sort of day so there was no sightseeing and I-90 isn't the kind of place to stop on anyway. Because we didn't have time, we didn't stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield but we did pull in at a small place called Garryowen where there is a small store and museum that has a variety of items about the battle and its participants. It would have ben great to have had the time to to spend at the battlefield but it wasn't to be.
We arrived at Billings, MT, at about 5:00 p.m. and went looking for a hotel. We pulled in at the Sleep Inn where we were informed that we were lucky to be able to get a room because most of the other motels were full because the Montana Fair was in town for the weekend, in addition to all of the riders from Sturgis who were heading home and needed rooms as well. That apparently justified the price of USD199 for what would ordinarily been an eighty dollar room. Strange, but the Friday before in Great Falls, MT, we were charged USD145 for a room that ordinarily would go for sixty or sixty-five dollars, this time because the Montana Fair was in town for the weekend and people going TO Sturgis were trying to get rooms.
In any case, we had a room for the night and for that we were grateful. I guess the motel owners have to make as much money as they can in periods of high demand so that is what they do to make up for the slow times. Only thing is, if I was going back to Billings and it was a regular time, I wouldn't even consider going to the Sleep Inn because they screwed my so badly when we were there a previous time.
Sunday our plan was to ride to Red Lodge, MT, and ride the Beartooth Pass then go through the north end of Yellowstone Park finishing at Bozeman where again we would be screwed on the price for a motel room. At least that was the plan. Still, we covered more than six hundred kilometres and were in a good position for the ride over the Beartooth Pass.
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