Texas...or not. July 3 - 7, 2010

I had planned to ride to Texas to visit Will, leaving on July 10 riding for two weeks. But..in the few days before the trip when I checked the long range weather forecast, it called for rain every day at every locale I had planned to be. I don't mind a little rain, but this was over the top. I bagged the trip.

So, there I was all prepped to travel and no place to go...then we received a phone call from Beverly's family in Idaho Falls, Idaho. They were trying to figure out how to get her dad's truck down here to West Valley. Hmmm....We offered to get it, but how would we pick up the pickup? You can see where this is going right? Yep, I offered to take Beverly up on the bike and she could drive the truck home, meanwhile, I would keep going for a few days and get in a ride after all! A call to one of my riding buddies, John, and the plan was set. We would meet John the next morning and head north.

We did leave after meeting John, and took off. If we had been in a cage our drive would have been 220 miles on I-15 to Idaho Falls. But, since we were on the bikes, we took the bikers shortcut and ended up taking 360 miles to get there. We headed for hwy 39 or Monte Cristo as everyone here knows it by. That road passes Huntsville which is home to the Trappist Monastary. It is commonly believed that Trappists Monks take a vow of silence, when in fact they do not, however they do believe in talking only when it is necessary. Idle chatter is strongly discouraged. It's very quiet at the monastary!

At the Monestary they raise beef, keep bees, and grow several types of grain. We stopped in to get some of their famous honey and jam. They used to sell fresh baked bread, until the Monk in charge of that area died.

Then we went north on hwy 89 into Idaho, followed it into Wyoming, then followed it back into Idaho where we rode past Palasides Dam and on to Idaho Falls.

The sunset over the hay field next to our hotel




The next day, (Sunday) I would drop Beverly off at her dads then John and I would leave on our ride. I told John I wanted to visit with my father-in-law for a few minutes before we left, but a "few minutes" ended up being three hours. I could have stayed all day, my father-in-law is a great guy! But we finally had to leave and off we went to see Mesa Falls near Rigby Idaho.

Beverly at her dad's house

On our way to Mesa Falls, we saw this stream. If you look close you can see the fish, but what you can't see in the pic is the sign just to our right just out of the picture;"NO FISHING"...wouldn't you know it?

We ride through Paris Idaho. Paris is a great little town, but it is A LITTLE town. We get there right after the Independance day parade and hit a traffic jam....in Paris Idaho!

Taking a break, after Paris.

We see some strange animals on the way...

To get to Mesa Falls take SR 47 from Ashton Id. The falls are about 15 miles after the town.

This is Mesa Falls. There is a lower and an upper falls, this is the lower.

And this is the upper falls. Note the lush vegetation on the left of the pic. The Falls are about 300 feet wide.

Ok, enough of the falls, lets go to Yellowstone Park!

Inside Yellowstone

Road construction...surprise!

We passed an auto accident while in the construction area. When I pointed the camera at this pretty EMT she smiled so cute I almost lost my balance! I kind of wish I'd have fallen over!!

We stopped to see the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" The canyon is about 900 feet deep and about 1/2 mile across. The falls were beautiful!

If you look close you can see a bison on the side of the small hill. At this point we were running late, it looked like we would not get to Cody until after dark. Neither one of us wanted to ride on those roads in the dark so no more stopping...

As you leave the park on hwy 14/16 the road is almost all downhill to Cody Wy. I put my bike in overdrive as much as I could and got this mileage! It evened out the next day on the uphills!

Those uphills were on the Chief Joseph Highway. (296 out of Cody) What a spectacular road! I've never been on this one before, but I will definitly be doing it again!

Dead Indian Summit 8060'

Some cool statues at the summit

Another cool statue

Another group of bikers.

This is the rest of the Chief Joseph Highway, which we will ride down from the summit, and then trun right onto Bear Tooth Pass.

Turning right to go over Bear Tooth.

On the Bear Tooth

The rest stop on Bear Tooth

Bear Tooth takes you to Red Lodge Montana, where we stopped for lunch

After lunch we walk out and see this Hudson...what a beauty!

We stay overnight in Bozeman Montana, then take SR 84 to Norris Montana

From Norris, we jump on I-90 for a quick sprint to Missoula (a "sprint" on a cruiser is akin to a fat boy racing on a bicycle). We lunch at Bonner and then go over Lolo Pass. Lolo Pass is famous for this sign, what a super road!

Lolo leads us to Kooskia (Koosky) to stay overnight.

Our motel had the strangest re-creation of a bull elk that I've ever seen.

The abandened building next to us (according to some locals) used to be a brothel. It closed down in the mid 70s. We were told if you watch a certain window you will see the ghost of one of the former employees....

I didn't see a thing! :)

The next day John heads for Oregon, and I head for home. On the way I decide to ride up Hell's canyon off hwy 95 near McCall Idaho.

This is Hells Canyon road from another viewpoint.

I end up doing a little over 650 miles the last day on the way home. The trip ended up being about 2000 miles. I want to take this exact ride again! The roads were spectacular. The only thing I would do different is not stay overnight in Cody. They were by FAR the most expensive place on the trip. Other than that it was a very good time.