August 2008 - Posts

Thursday, August 28, 2008 7:56 AM

Parade Day Perfection!

Normally, I don't love a parade.  Shocking, but somewhat true.  Parades have always been work for me.  In school, I was always up early on fall Saturdays, dressed in a hot uniform, and marching with the band... cursing my lack of height which always put me on the end of the saxophone row, where short legs had to make impossibly long strides while rounding street corners in formation.  Band kids always envied the kids who got to sleep in and kick back on parade days.  This year, parade day was different.

The weather for this year's Chase Co. Fair was PERFECT for a parade.  It was sunny, cool, and a little breezy.... a glimpse of fall.  Last year, we sweated it out as we waited for the parade to begin.  This year, we were prepared with full water bottles and dollar bills to buy more from the 4-H kids pulling little-red-wagonloads of bottled water through the parade staging area.  The cooler temperatures and low humidity allowed us to enjoy our staging time, admire fellow bikers' rides, and visit with other participants.

For the last two years, Imperial's main street has been under-going major renovations, and the parade route had to be moved to avoid the construction.  This year, we were back on the main drag!  Things went a lot smoother.  The wide streets had plenty of sidewalk room for the crowds.  Bikers could relax a little and not worry as much about kids darting too close to the bikes to grab a piece of candy.  This year's parade didn't have so much slow-and-go riding, and we were able to enjoy ourselves.  No bikes overheated.  We were behind a performance drill team, so occasionally we put the bikes in neutral and relaxed our hands on the clutch -- but not too many times.  No dodging of animal deposits or major potholes, just a few puddles -- altogether a pretty smooth event.

The Chase County Fair Parade is one of Chapter W's most "visible" group events for the year.  We make an effort to have a good turnout, show off our chapter colors with our vests and/or shirts, and hand out GWTA membership forms.  Some parades allow bikers to forgo their helmets during parade events, but I'm glad Chapter W chose to wear theirs.

This year, a bystander's medical condition resulted in an ambulance having to break into the parade to get to their patient in the crowd.  With all the usual honks, whistles, and sirens from the parade vehicles, it was hard to distinguish an actual siren alert from the festivities.  Chapter W's sweeper tracked the event in his rear-view mirror and communicated via his CB the need for a smooth shift to the right for our group of bikers.  The ambulance pulled over before reaching our group, but I think our ability to safely respond to the situation promptly and uniformly amidst some confusion impressed the crowd.  Way to go guys!  I love my headset!

After the parade, we lined up our bikes at the fairground entrance for the bike show.  This event gave people a chance to browse through the bikes, ask questions as we polished them up, and get to know who we are.  Hammy was especially taken with a little motorcycle on training wheels.  You could see other wheels turning in her brain.  (No, Hammy!  Absolutely not!)  We never really expect to win anything in the show, but we like showing off our rides, talking with people, and getting a prime parking spot for our bikes (and somebody to watch over them) while we enjoy our day at the fair. 

This year's fair got an A+ for their carnival.  It was a new vendor and their rides had something for everybody.  Hammy had finally reached a height which allowed her to ride almost everything.  Her first ride?  Mega Drop!  Brave girl!  I couldn't believe she ran straight to this one!  She liked it, but her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets on the ride down.  Once was enough this year.  Her favorite ride?  Zero Gravity -- you stand against the edge of a huge circle and the ride pins you against the side wall as it spins.  I'll stick with the ferris wheel and the giant slide.  Hammy's Runner up favorite?  Cliff Hanger.  I could handle this one -- strictly forward motion with a little vertical stuff.

We spent the whole day, touring vendor booths, letting Hammy loose with a friend and cousin at the carnival (She's graduated!!!), and enjoying our favorite fair foods with friends.  No fair is a fair unless you have at least a taste of a snow cone, funnel cake, and/or cotton candy.  Next year, we may have to add a fried dill pickle to that list -- they say it's good. 

Hammy would add one more "must-do" to her fair list.  Every year, she has her face painted like a cat then her hair sprayed blue and dusted with glitter.  Try picturing that face in a silver helmet with black leather chaps and jacket, on the back of a bike just after sunset.  Even better, imagine that face approaching you from the line of communicants during Saturday night services.  (Sorry, Father!)  Note to self:  Always bring a helmet liner for Hammy to put over her hair before donning her helmet after the fair.  Like I said, Chapter W's 2008 parade day was practically purrrrrrfection!
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Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:36 PM

A Mystery Ride: Warriors, Wagon Trails, and 109 Degrees!

This year, our chapter directors made a slightly insane decision and assigned “Three Wheels West” to Chapter W's Ride Schedule Committee.  Members were requesting more scheduled Saturday rides and weekend campouts to accommodate their work weeks.  The committee was game to add extra weekend events.  Any excuse to get together and ride with the herd was fine with us… then came the Mystery Ride.

Each year, one of our Saturday rides is designated the Mystery Ride.  In a Mystery Ride, only the planners know the destination.  Everyone else relaxes, enjoys the ride, the sight-seeing, and a meal or two among friends.  In mid-May, RR, Hammy, and I planned and tested a mystery ride route.  We designated fuel stops according to our member-bikes’ “miles-until-empty” statistics, and tried to select locations along the way for stretches and meals according to our member-stomachs’ “miles-to-cranky” stats.  All aspects of the ride easily fell into place during our dry run.  The total mileage was perfect – around 325 miles total.  Even the weather was beautiful, and the spring rains had made the views from the bike nothing short of a glimpse of paradise.  To top things off, nobody was able to pry the secret destination of our ride from Hammy.  She never spoiled the surprise for the other members !!!

August 2nd, the day of the Mystery Ride, was forecasted to be a scorcher.  All week long, we’d battled the heat.  Even so, eight bikes and 11 riders showed up at Mac’s Superfoods in Wallace prepared to ride.  After a pre-ride meeting, the group headed North for Hershey and North River Road.  This stretch has become a favorite route to North Platte for us, but not all members had ridden it.  We enjoyed the scenery along the North Platte River and were entertained by some sharp turns and a collection of old bath tubs sitting alongside the river.  This area is an especially beautiful ride when the cranes are on the move and when the leaves are turning in the fall.

Our first stop was at North Platte’s Court Square, where we stopped and admired the restored Sioux Warrior that had been rescued from Sioux Lookout.  In November/December 2007, Nebraska Life magazine published an article on the history of Sioux Lookout and the statue.  We’d all passed this statue time and time again while shopping in North Platte, but never paused and really admired it or read the historical marker posted there.  It’s sad to think that the remarkable and talented sculptor Ervin Goeller died without means to finance his own burial.  Much of the money he earned from his works was said to have been sent home to help his family still in Europe.

(Click here to see all the mystery ride photos.)

Our second stop was at the recently dedicated Twentieth Century Veterans Memorial on the south end of North Platte.  This was another one of those “I’ll stop there someday” moments.  This time we stopped… and remembered.  It was interesting to see the sculptures and tributes paid to the defenders of our country and to the North Platte Canteen workers by the talent of local artists such as the late Ted Long, whose last memorial statue was finished by his son.  Their stories had been featured in the North Platte Telegraph during the dedication of the memorial earlier this year.

After lunch and a root-beer float at the local A&W, we rode south to retrace a portion of the original Lincoln Highway from North Platte to Gothenburg -- via a stretch known as the Gothenburg Stairsteps.  This route travels south of the Platte River unlike a lot of the LH due to the existing roads at the time of the highway’s formation.  Along this portion of the river, most of the existing roads were trails created by farmers taking their harvest to market.  Since the land north of the river was sandier, there weren’t many farmers or trail roads along this stretch; therefore, the original Lincoln Highway ran south of the river until it reached North Platte.  One look at a map tells you how this stretch got its name:  the Highway formed a series of right angles as it coursed along existing property lines like a flight of stairs.

Shortly after leaving North Platte, we passed the Sioux warrior's original home – Sioux Lookout.  You could still see the eroded path used by locals to climb to the top, the highest point in Lincoln County.  Years ago, Indians used this sight to track buffalo herds and wagon trains as they followed the Platte River Valley.  Nebraska Life tells of a “businessman” who hired scouts to report on approaching wagon trains.  These wagons were attacked and robbed; the stolen goods were re-sold to the pioneers of future wagon trains as they restocked supplies for the next leg of their journey west.

Stop Number 3 was Fort McPherson National Cemetery.  Fort McPherson was originally established nearby to assist travelers along the Oregon Trail and ensure peace on the frontier.  The route used by the Pony Express along the Oregon Trail passes through this cemetery.  The cemetery was established in 1873 to hold the relocated remains of soldiers as well as those of settlers.  Four recipients of the Medal of Honor (our nation’s highest award for valor in military combat) are buried here (3 from the Indian Campaigns and one from the Vietnam War) and a group known as the Buffalo Soldiers.  It is a beautiful and peaceful place of rest to remember those who died fighting for our country.   An impressive white marble monument marks the group burial of the 28 soldiers who were killed in the Grattan Massacre.  We spent time locating names on the headstones while enjoying the cool shade as the heat really started to climb. 

Our mystery ride included one short gravel-road detour to avoid a bridge replacement near the end of the stairsteps.  This job was supposed to have been finished by July 1; it wasn’t.  Near Gothenburg, our group turned south and then east for a scenic ride to Elwood and then Arapahoe.  Here’s where the ride got interesting.  We knew the temperature was supposed to reach the 3- digit mark, but when we turned south at Elwood, it was like hitting a solid wall of furnace-blasts.  Never have I ridden in temperatures where you actually got hotter as the wind blew stronger.   The only way I know to describe it is a blast of heated wind similar to what a storm jumper must feel when the forest fire he’s battling creates its own weather.  The blast of heat on the plateau was not something we’ve encountered on the bikes before in this area.  The thermometers on our bikes showed 110 degrees at one point.  The Coolies around our neck had long since dried up, and the water bottles were near empty. 

When we entered Arapahoe, we bypassed the fuel station and headed straight for the air conditioning of Goodrich Diary.  I thought I was fine until I climbed off the bike and took about 10 steps…. Whoa, just a little dizzy.   We took our time eating ice cream, lowering our body temperatures, and rehydrating before riding on. 

By the time we reached McCook in the early evening, the mercury was still reading 109.  One exception: the Stone Monument Company’s reading was 115 degrees.  Those of us able to find humor in the heat, joked that the company's thermometer wasn't wrong, merely a forecast of a few customers' final destination.  At this point, we surrendered and headed for Taste of Texas BBQ for the evening meal and plenty of iced tea and water. 

During the final leg home (somewhere around 8 – 9 pm) the temperature finally dropped to 90, and we were able to enjoy the beauty of the clouds above the setting sun during the final leg to Imperial and then home.  Chapter W’s 2008 Mystery Ride was one for the record books.  Good friends, good food, and good …. Well, we’ll certainly remember what a difference an extra 25 degrees can make while riding a high plains plateau. 
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Friday, August 15, 2008 5:24 PM

Gold Rush XXI: Day 4

Thursday morning opened with HighPoint #3 of my time at Gold Rush:  The Little Bighorn Battlefield.  My dad’s a history buff, and I knew that if I rode by the sight of Custer’s Last Stand and didn’t stop, I’d be in BIG trouble when I got home.  The ride to Little Bighorn took about an hour and we could easily have spent a better part of the day there.  I’m glad we'd watched a Discovery Channel documentary on the battle (even if it's findings are now considered controversial) before coming here.  The film followed archeologists as they used metal detectors after the recent wild fires to locate the spent shell casings of battle participants and to track the participants' movements during the battle according to the unique tracings left on each casing as it exited the weapon.  

Park ranger Michael Donahue (a Texas college professor who has worked every summer of the last 17 years at the battlefield) helped us understand the event by recounting the lives of 4 men who took part in the battle – a doctor, two young warriors, and a candy-maker.  Hammy was wearing her Yellowstone coonskin hat that day… she didn’t move an inch or lose focus one second during the ranger’s presentation.  He must make history jump right out of the textbook for his students... if only he taught history!  His specialty?... art!  He interprets drawings and pictorial maps (such as native battle accounts) in their historical context.  I also found a picture of him as a young boy in a coonskin cap; he was enthralled with Davey Crockett and the Alamo.  No wonder he commented on Hammy’s choice of hats!

The Battle of the Greasy Grass River (or Little Bighorn) was short and fierce.  As you climb Last Stand Hill, you get an eerie sense of what happened that hot day.  This is considered the most pristine battlefield in America.  White markers identify where a Blue-coat fell, Red markers – the location of a native warrior’s fall.  (Most of the warriors' bodies were removed from the location at the end of the battle.)  We located the names of Dr. George Edwin Lord, assistant surgeon, and Baltimore candy-maker Corp. George C. Brown of Company E on the white stone memorial at the top of the hill.  We visited the native Memorial and found the names of Wooden Leg's and Black Elk's companions.  If we’d had more time, I would have ridden the bike around to Benteen’s battlefield or walked the paved cement trail down by the canyon where the candy-maker’s body and those of his men were never found or recovered.  (One warrior had commented that if all the soldiers had fought as the white horse Company E soldiers in the canyon had fought, the day’s outcome might have been different.)  I would have liked to pause amid the markers overlooking the river and the site of the Indian village and near the hill where Wooden Leg and his friends had been watching over the horses when the first shots rang out.  Someday,  I’d like to visit again and take my dad.
 
We arrived back at Gold Rush in time for the Battle of the Regions.  Region C didn’t win, but we sure had a good time and we sure looked silly!  Next?  The Closing Ceremonies.  Hammy won the award for being the Youngest Rider at Gold Rush XXI.  She was also asked to draw the winning GWTA raffle ticket for a new bike or $10,000 cash. 

After we made our good-byes (which were rather tearful for Hammy and her new friend Teresa Larson), we quickly made off for Sheridan, Wyoming, due to the weather forecast and dark clouds.  U2 was the only one to rain-suit up before departure,  and yes, it did actually rain and storm so that the rest of the group had to pull over and pull on their rain suits.  (It's nice to be right every once in a while!  More importantly, I hate putting on my rain suit in the wind, so I tend to err on the side of caution.)  This leg of the trip home was our only bad weather on the whole trip. 

The next morning was sunny and a little too warm as we made our iron-butt run through eastern Wyoming and back to western Nebraska.  Every leg of the trip seemed to take longer and longer until our group finally crossed I-80 and shared a final ice-cream stop in Ogallala.  (There's another story there, but it will have to wait.)  Gold Rush XXI was the trip of a lifetime.  I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.  If you ever get the chance to visit that part of our great country, grab it with both hands.  It’s worth the ride.

Mileage Total - Roundtrip:  1816
Miles To Billings (Through Yellowstone):  956
Miles While There:  195
Miles To Home:  665
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Friday, August 15, 2008 4:51 PM

Gold Rush XXI: Day 3

On Wednesday morning, Lyn and U2 participated in the SRC (Skilled Rider’s Course) two-wheel and three-wheel seminars and received GWTA Rider Education Program Level 2 rockers.  I really enjoyed the chance to practice the drills on a closed course without risking damage or injury.  In my three-wheel group, we had riders at all  levels of experience.  This is not a pass/fail type of course.  The drills meet you at your current level and provide you an opportunity to develop, fine-tune, and brush-up your riding skills outside of “real traffic” road situations.  The course instructors are there to encourage riders with tips and suggestions and keep you safe.

My favorite trike exercise was the circle drill.  All trike riders know how important it is to maintain awareness of the width of your rear fenders. (This drill is really beneficial to riders who’ve made the switch to three wheels after many years of riding on two wheels.)  Each rider entered into a 40-foot circle of orange cones and continued riding inside the cones in a circular pattern.  The drill instructor walked nearby and noted your outer rear tire’s distance from the cones as you passed each cone.  The object was to get as close to the cones as possible without knocking them down, while maintaining a smooth speed and looking ahead to the next cone – not down at the cone next to your fender.  This is one of those drills that you can’t really practice on the road, and it was great to have someone telling you exactly how close your fender was to each stationary object.   As I repeatedly circled inside the cones without looking down, the instructor would advise me to hold my distance or move closer to the cones until I was able to gauge my distance while focusing on the cones ahead and maintaining a smooth ride.  Each rider practiced this drill in both directions – clockwise and then counter-clockwise until he/she had a real sense of the trike’s width.  

Other drills practiced stopping distances, dodging road hazards, and emergency situations.  Have you ever tried driving directly toward a man in a bright orange shirt, accelerating and shifting up to a steady speed, and then waiting for him to wave his arm at the last minute so you can swerve left or right of him without hitting him?  Kind of like playing chicken, but I'm the one squawking... and I'm not the one in the orange shirt.

I would encourage all GWTA members to periodically take advantage of these SRC events and brush up your riding skills in a pressure-free, closed course environment.   Our group had a lot of fun.  Remember to bring your gear:  over-the-ankle boots, full-fingered gloves, a helmet, eye protection, and a long-sleeved shirt or jacket.  Safety first!!!  And remember, the guys who run this course gave up a good part of their day at Gold Rush to prepare and supervise this activity.  They deserve a pat on the back.  Way to go guys!  (Thanks Ronnie and Kathe!)

During the SRC, other members of our group participated in the Family Games.  These events are always lots of fun.  We always walk away from this event with good ideas for party games at home!  The most challenging game this year was the Rice Game.  Competitors were blind-folded and told to sift their fingers through a bowl of rice grains in search of the tiny safety pins.  The competitor who found the most safety pins won.  Youth was a definite advantage in this competition! All those age-related health conditions and calluses played a big part in your fingers’ ability to detect the tiny pins among all those grains of rice.  RoadRunner ended up getting second place in the adult category… and he only found two pins!  Hammy won the kid’s bean toss game.

Teresa became Chapter W’s hero for a day when she filled in for the absentee host of Wednesday’s Craft Seminar.  On the spur of the moment and with the help of a generous jewelry vendor (Thank you, Christine!), she put together a bracelet making activity.  Jacquie, Hammy, U2, and about 10 other women spent a few hours out of the heat and learned that making fashion jewelry was a fun and relaxing way to spend time with friends and add some more bling to our lives.

Wednesday ended with a tail gate party and a filled parking lot at Beartooth Harley-Davidson.  Ralliers enjoyed grilled hot dogs, chips, and Cold Stone ice cream while being entertained by a live stage band and a few gunfights performed by actors in Old West costumes.

Afterwards, we headed to the Billings ballpark but found the game sold out.  Gold Rush wouldn’t be complete without RoadRunner’s tour of the dicier side of town.  I don’t know how he does it, but RR always manages to find an interesting character during the week who wants to get up close and personal with the trike while RR's fueling or sitting at a red light.

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Friday, August 15, 2008 4:36 PM

Gold Rush XXI: Day 2

On Tuesday morning at a much-too-early hour, Doug, Bob, and I delivered our bikes to Real Ralph's booth for some custom hand-painted pinstriping.  It was time to dress up the trikes!  We’d watched this guy in action the previous day, looked at photo albums of his work, and browsed through bikes in the convention center parking lot. Ralph’s a seasoned pro.  He knows pinstriping, he knows color, he knows what works and what won’t work.  As customers, we had two choices:  A) give Ralph the specifics of what we wanted and where on the bike we wanted it and that’s what we would get -- OR -- B) recognize Ralph’s expertise and talent, communicate the price range and the look we have in mind, then stand back and let the artist work his magic!

Once again, we decided to go with U2’s gut feeling and chose Option B.  We listened to Ralph’s ideas, bounced back a few and found we were on the same page, then gave him the nod on his color suggestions (although he nearly gave U2 a heart attack with his first color selection – it was a joke).  After that, we walked away and did our darnedest to stay away until Ralph had micro-signed his name on the first trike.

While our bikes were tied up in the booth, we browsed the other vendors and caught up on our sleep.  Lyn and Teresa attended the co-rider seminar.   Teresa shared a technique she learned for taking control of the bike from the co-rider’s seat in the event of the rider having a heart attack or losing consciousness. 

Hannah played Dirty Bingo again and teamed up with Teresa Larson (of GWTA’s family of the year) to go swimming.  Those in our group with bikes headed downtown for the evening’s street fair and dance while the rest of us grabbed a pizza and checked on our bikes.  Unbelievable!  Ralph did an awesome job!  The pin-striping really popped in the sunlight.  The glimpse of color that caught your eye from a distance drew you in for a closer look at the detail, but it didn’t overpower the bike’s classic lines.   Mission accomplished!  We left our bikes indoors for the night to give the paint a chance to dry dust-free and safe from the threat of storms.

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Friday, August 15, 2008 4:08 PM

Gold Rush XXI: Day 1

After all our sight-seeing on the way to Montana, we needed every mph we could get to make it to Billings in time for the Gold Rush Welcome Banquet.  We did it with a few minutes to spare!  While the guys checked into the hotel, the gals grabbed our dinner tickets and tried to tame our helmet hair. We’d logged 956 miles between home and Billings.  One member of our group summed up the final two hours of the trip nicely when she said, “I no longer feel the need for speed”.  The evening was filled with western barbeque, brownies, hugs, and hellos as we met up with GWTA friends old and new from all parts of North America.

On Monday morning, we grabbed our registration packets and attended the Opening Ceremonies. Nebraska ralliers were easy to spot with our red bandanas and red shoe laces.  The Larson’s of Michigan were honored as GWTA Family of the Year, and the site of Gold Rush XXII in July 2009 was announced – Lexington, Kentucky!  As expected, the crowd immediately headed to the vendor area to pre-register for GR XXII, reserve a Lexington hotel room for next year, and get a look at all the bike stuff in the vendor booths.  Unfortunately, my plans for getting a new windshield and some chrome were not to be.  Most of the rallies were back east this year, and high fuel prices had made a big hole in some vendors’pockets.  Hence, the vendor turnout was disappointing, especially for those of us in remote locations who’d saved our pennies all year in hopes of finding new toys for our bikes.   That’s not to say we didn’t find some enhancements to liven up our rides.  

After lunch, some of our group headed off for a Mountain Riding Seminar.   While the rest of us spent the day visiting, signing up for the week’s activities, and preparing the bikes for the big night ahead, Hammy made a bee-line for the Dirty Bingo game-room.  Dirty Bingo always draws a crowd as people listen for their numbers, cross the circle of chairs, shake hands and introduce themselves to other players, and then proceed to steal their colorfully wrapped Bingo prizes.

Monday night was High-Point #1 of the rally – the light parade.  Long-time GWTA members said this year's parade was one of the best light parades they’d ever ridden in.  Over 270 bikes made a solid line of lights from a Billings neighborhood church parking lot all the way up to the top of the bluff over-looking the town -- five miles away.  As the lead bike hit the top of the bluff and turned around for the trip back to town, he could see the lights from bikes still exiting the church parking lot.  Awesome.  The police did a great job leading the parade and blocking off intersections.  What really made the parade was the number of local people out on the curb in their lawn chairs and standing along the parade route to yell and cheer as we passed by.  Billings loves bikes!!!  

The light parade ended at Cold Stone Creamery and we all lined up for the Ice Cream Eating Contest.  Employees worked late into the night serving and tallying up the ice cream orders according to each customer’s GWTA region.  Region C won 2nd place in this year’s contest, and we made it back to our hotels and camp sites by around 1:45 AM.

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:21 PM

Gold Rush XXI: It Was All About the Ride!

Wow!  What a trip!  I’d have to say that Chapter W’s trip to Gold Rush XXI was the ride of a lifetime.  From Grant, Nebraska, to Billings, Montana, and back, we logged 1,816 miles.  Two bikes, two trikes, three trailers, and 7 Frenchman Valley Riders left on a Friday morning to cross Wyoming and spend some time in the Tetons and Yellowstone National Park before actually arriving in Billings.  On the way, we passed Hell’s Half Acre (an area so remote that we concluded even the devil couldn’t make a go of it since the only building for miles was a deserted, boarded-up bar).  Day 1 ended in Riverton, Wyoming with some of us tenting it at Owl Creek Kampgrounds, and the rest settling for the local Holiday Inn.  It was a long ride with plenty of wide open scenery and beautiful mesas, but not a journey I’d care to make alone when a winter storm’s threatening or without a full tank of gas.

Day Two began with more beautiful scenery as we traveled north passing the Tetons and entering Yellowstone.  The Tetons are a totally different mountain range from the Rockies, and their jutting, raw peaks are awesome to behold.  The most impressive thing about our entrance to Yellowstone was the fire damage in the southern portion of the park.  Mile after mile of snags -- how does one fight a fire in this steep terrain?  The lack of wildlife in this part of the park was disappointing but certainly understandable.  The spread of green understory reassured us that the forests would survive.  About mid-afternoon, we arrived in central Yellowstone’s Grant Village and checked into the lodge and campground.  No air conditioning needed... just screens to protect us from the monster mosquitoes.  Putting on a helmet required new strategies in motion as the hungry critters swarmed anything standing still.  Day Two ended with a nice winding ride over the continental divide (more than once) to view Old Faithful’s eruption and enjoy some ice cream at the Old Faithful Inn.

Day Three started with a layer of frost on our bike covers.  We rode north and east and finally encountered more wildlife… herds of buffalo, elk, pronghorns, and rumors of a treed mother bear and her cub that created a dangerous traffic situation.  (The approaching road around the curve was completely blocked with more than 30 people out of their cars peering between the trees to try to get a distant glimpse of the supposed bears.)  Thank goodness for the slow speed limits in the park!  Our group summed up the situation as “not worth the risk” and rode on.

Down the road, we stumbled upon a roadside overlook labeled The Heart of the Caldera.  For me, this was HighPoint #1 for the day.  We’d recently seen the television documentary about Yellowstone’s super volcano and the changes that were taking place in the park.  Even my dad warned me before our departure, “you know that things supposed to blow again”.  After watching the documentary, I responded, “yeah, but if it’s gonna blow, I’d just as soon be on the bike at Ground Zero (What a Ride!) than be in Nebraska waiting for a doomsday ash cloud to hit six hours later! "  We had even teased the campers in our group about the lakeside tent sites and how the magma bulge was supposedly shifting the lake’s water into the campground’s trees and flooding the forest. 

Seriously… The view from the caldera’s rim was breath-taking.  You have to see this yourself to appreciate its immense size.  The camera can’t possibly do it justice.  When you look at the beautiful view and read “you are standing over a pool of magma”, your mind struggles to comprehend the world-changing event that took place here.  The ancient geological history of this spot leaves its mark as you continue riding through the park and observe the surrounding landscape in the context of its formation.  As we neared the northeast entrance of Yellowstone, we saw more buffalo herds and more recent fire damage where the regrowth hadn’t had as much time to green up the hillsides.

HighPoint #2 of the day came after we exited the park:  Beartooth Pass.  If you own a motorcycle, you owe it to yourself to ride the Beartooth Highway at least once in your life.  No excuses – it’s as simple as that.  Riding the Beartooth on three wheels or two is as close as I’ll ever come to getting just a taste of what it must feel like to scale the highest mountain peak and be able to look down on the world around me in all directions.  This, my friends, is sensory overload!  Charles Kuralt was right – this is simply THE most beautiful highway in America, and riding it was one of my goals when we planned the trip to Gold Rush XXI.  Someday, I plan to ride it again. 

The best way to ride the Beartooth is to do it twice... ride it in one direction and enjoy the view... make time to stop at a few road-side pullovers and soak in the scenery and the hand of God.  When you reach the end, turn around and ride it again.  This time, don't stop... experience the ride, the lean (even on three wheels you get a little), the curves, the shifting gears, the grades, the tight turns of the switchbacks, and the endless blue sky.  Life doesn't get any better than this. 

Final Note:  I'm glad we had ridden Colorado's Trail Ridge Road the month before this trip.  The GL1800's handled the extra altitude without any problems, and the mountain riding we'd done at Estes Park left us fully prepared to enjoy the Beartooth.

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