Thursday, June 16, 2011

After the Rally, Now What to do.

I woke up this morning not knowing what I should do. Should I continue west on my own? Or do I just go home to Nancy and the cats? To be honest, I really wasn't feeling like a long solo ride, so I told myself that I would ride west for half a day, and if I still wasn't sure what to do, I'd turn around and go home. 
I gassed up in Custer and took off for Newcastle, WY. I stopped at the SD-WY state line for a picture. While I was there, a young couple in black car drove past me, stopped, turned around, drove back past me, turned around again and as I was leaving, they stopped at the Wyoming sign.

I stopped in Newcastle at an auto parts store. I needed to buy a new 12 volt power outlet.
The one I had been using developed a short in the cord. The new one, on the left, eliminates the cord. Now I can use both the Xm radio and the GPS again

I took WY-450 past the Thunder Basin Coal Company's Black Thunder Mine.

In Wright, WY there's a mining museum. I didn't go in, but I did snap a few pictures of the large dump truck parked outside.

I left Wright on 387, then took 259 towards Casper, WY. I gassed up outside of Casper and while taking a break, I met a couple from Kentucky. They were riding a Kawasaki Vulcan. They had traveled from KY to visit a relative in UT, then up to Cody, WY.  They were on their way back home. They were going to be heading into heavy rain when they left the gas station, but they told me the weather was fine behind them. That was the direction I was going.
I took 26/20 west, and made a quick stop at Hell's Half Acre.
As I was getting off the bike and getting out my camera, the black car from back the state line went past, stopped, turned around and pulled into the parking lot. They were from Tennessee and had just been married. They were on their way to Yellowstone N.P. We talked for a bit and I wished them well and continued on my way. 10 miles down the road I made a quick stop at a WY wayside rest area. As I was waiting for traffic to pass by so I could continue west, they went by, honked and waved. I followed behind for a bit, but he was moving pretty fast. I ended up following about a mile behind them for quite a long time... We made good time. I turned off at WY-789 and took that down to Lander, WY.
I stopped for the night at the Holiday Lodge, where I got a very nice room with a 40+ inch flat screen, for a nice price.



After a little clean up, I walked next door for a dinner of steak fingers, baked potato and a trip to the salad bar. mmmmmmm

I don't know where I'll be tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. I rode from Gillette to Wright and then a little further south took 450 east to Newcastle, there's not much out there. I was on the way back from my cross country trip, after Newcastle went on to Keystone. Here's my entry from last year:
    http://goo.gl/C0S0f
    That's a big truck :-) Nice pictures, brings back memories.

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