Day 13. Trains, Plains, and Rockets

We were off to our normal early start, about 0915. We had a pretty sad "continental" breakfast, if you could call it that, provided by the hotel. Maybe we need to get up earlier! Anyway, we made our first stop of the day the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory, UT. We watched the 2 replica steam locomotives being driven out on to the rails. The National Parks Service does a great job explaining the history of the transcontinental railroad.





Inside the Parks building, John found another penny masher.



When we left, we were on Hwy. 83. We saw a sign that said rocket display. We stopped in the parking lot of ATK, a premier aerospace and defense company, supplier of aerospace and defense products, munitions, smart weapons, propulsion and composite structures.(taken from google search) They had a large display of rockets and rocket motors. Each rocket had a plaque telling how ATK was involved. I found it interesting that each of the 2 solid fuel booster rockets for the space shuttle, burn almost 1,100,000 lbs of propellant in 122 seconds. That's 9016 pounds of fuel burnt every second!! in each booster!!
The ATK complex is in the middle of nowhere and is huge.



In the picture, the large horizontal rocket is the space shuttle booster. The skinny upright missile is a Minuteman. The fatter, stubby upright is a submarine launched Polaris.

We next stopped in Snowville, UT for lunch. We found a neat place, Mollie's.



After lunch, we took hwy 30 south to the Nevada border.
Here we are again in the middle of nowhere... There's a lot of this out here.



Yup, help is 93 miles behind us...






We stopped for the night in Ely, Nevada. Tomorrow, we are going to take Hwy. 50 across the state to Reno.

Day 12. Three States.

After a late start and breakfast at Taco Johns, we were on the road by 1000. We left Riverton on Hwy. 789 to Lander, then out Hwy. 28. We passed the Wind River Mountains.




We crossed over the continental divide.



On Hwy. 28 was the Parting of the Ways marker. The trail west split and one track went north to Oregon, the other to California. There was Sagebrush everywhere.






We made our way down 28 to 372 to 189 into Kemmerer. In Kemmerer is the first J.C.Penny store.



After Kemmerer, we headed up Hwy. 30 through Cokeville and up to the Idaho border.




We continued on 30 through Montpelier, then south on 89, and along the west side of Bear Lake. Bear Lake was a beautiful shade of aqua blue. The photographs don't show the true colors.




We crossed into Utah.



We stayed on Hwy. 89 and got a few more pictures of Bear Lake.





89 runs through Logan Canyon. It was nice to ride on a road that had some turns in it. Logan Canyon reminds me of a longer Spearfish Canyon.



We ended the night at the Econo Lodge in Logan, UT.
After watching tonights news, we may have to make a plan change and go somewhere other than southern Utah. The forecast for the area is for over 100 degrees for the week. Maybe back to Idaho and run the Lolo Pass...?????

Day 11. Out of Sturgis

Today we packed up, said our good bye's, and moved out.



We went out Hwy. 34 towards Wyoming.




We stoppd in Sundance to gas up. The last time I was at this station, regular gas was $3.75 a gallon. Today it was $2.78



We took 116 out of Sundance. We started to see interesting rock formations.



Later, we saw the west side of Black Hills from a long way away.




More middle of nowhere.



We rode west on Hwy. 450. Past the Black Thunder coal mine. We went past a huge dragline.




On US 20-26 we saw Hells Half Acre. It looked like a tiny Badlands or Bryce Canyon.






We stopped for the night in Riverton, Wyoming. After unpacking, we went to Pizza Hut for diner then back to the hotel to do laundry.

Day 10. Devils Tower

Lyle and Garth went to the Buffalo Chip last night to see the Guess Who and CCR with Lee and Gabi. They rolled into camp around 0100 this a.m. I was up by 0600 ready and showered. Everyone else rolled out of bed around 0700 or so. John rolled in around 0745. I'm not sure what LL&G have planned for today. John and I went to the Belle Inn for breakfast.  After eating, we took off for Devils Tower. We stopped along the road to take a few pictures.





We went in to the Devils Tower Trading Post where John found another penny masher.



We left there and went down through Sundance and took old Hwy. 14 east. It's the frontage road on the north side of I-90. We came across the Vore Buffalo Jump. They now charge admission to the hole in the ground. They wanted $5.00 just to walk up next to a hole and look in. Kent said that the place charges admission only during rally week. Anything for a buck. We decided to skip paying and will look in the hole some other time.



We went back to camp and let the bikes cool before adding a little pre-mixed coolent to them. We were going to go back to Stugis one more time but neither of us felt up to it.

Day 9. Eeewww, Nice arms John!

Today, John is living in self imposed exile with friends south of Belle Fourche. I am missing him today. I got up at 0600 and took a nice long shower. Everyone else slept in until 0700. By 0930 they finally got around to thinking it was time to eat. We got to the Belle Inn just a few minutes later. We looked at the parking lot, it was full. I made the comment that the Hardee's across the street was empty. It fell on deaf ears. We got our food a little over an hour later. It was good, but we could have been out of there and on the road an hour sooner if we had stopped across the street. Oh well. I was thinking we would come back to camp after breakfast so I didn't leave prepared. I would have brought my camera had I known we were not coming back.
After eating we went down Spearfish Canyon. It was loaded with slow movers. We stopped at Cheyenne Crossing for a pop. Lyle, Larrie and Garth were going to go to Rochford. I told Garth that when they turned, I was going to break off and head to camp. I stopped back at camp, spoke to Kent, paid for a few more days, grabbed my camera and went to the Stonehouse Bar on Hwy. 34 to meet John.



They have markers all over the inside so you can leave you mark. I wrote a note...



So did John...



After a pop and a brat, I followed John to where he's staying. Rich and Linda invited me to stay for dinner. Pork chops on the grill with stuffing and peas, mmmm.
I got back to camp to find a huge group of 20 somethings had set up across the road from us. Oh well, I'm almost out of here. Next year I'll try to get here on Friday, the last day of the rally. It will be cheaper and quieter.

Day 8. The Spearfish E.R.

Today was the day of the breakfast at the VFW/Legion in Sturgis. Everyone was there except Lee and Gabi. Paul's group had 7, we had 5. and Tom and Carla. After breakfast I went with John to the Emergency Room at the Spearfish Hospital. The rash that was on his arms 3 days ago was spreading. The Dr. thought it might be Scabies. He could have picked up the parasite in any of the motels we stayed in on the way out. He gave John a prescription for cream and told him how to deal with it. We stopped at Wal-mart for a few supplies and to pick up his prescription, and then went back to camp. John decided to leave all his crap in his tent for a few days and stay with some friends. Without a host to feed on the Scabies won't live more than 2 or 3 days.
I stayed at the campgrounds and went to dinner with the others. After dinner I stopped at the laundromat and washed my clothes.
We had another storm front blow through just after bed time. The winds were really straining my tent, but there was no damage. We've been here in years past when storms have destroyed a few tents.

Day 7. Shopping & Vanocker Canyon.

Today, John, Garth and I got up and had breakfast at Hardee's. The Belle Inn was too full by 0730 to even find a place to park. After breakfast we took off for down town Sturgis. We did a little shopping for t-shirts and stuff. John and I split a pre-paid box from the Post Office and sent things home so we don't have to carry them.
We rode Vanocker Canyon to Nemo Road. Then 385 to Lead, down 85 to 14A, and up Spearfish Canyon. We did a little more shopping at Wal-mart and had lunch at Arby's.
I stopped for gas and at the station found fruit. Oh, I was craving something other than restaurant food, so I got the grapes and melon cup. MMMMMMM.
We got back to camp around 1800 and watched the clouds roll in.




5 minutes after taking the pictures the front came through and temp dropped and winds blew, then it rained. It rained for 20 minutes then blue skies. I think Lyle and Larrie will drive right through that on their way here.
I think we're here for the night. Tomorrow, is the day we all meet up for breakfast at the VFW/Legion in Sturgis.