Well Back to Work

Well, reality is setting back in, I'm doing laundry and getting things ready for going back to work tomorrow. I've done alot of things in my life,but his trip was the most fun I've ever had. We met a Canadian on a road trip on his way home, we talked to two elderly men who told us stories of when they rode Harleys, one while in the service in Japan and he bought a Harley from a local to help him do the guard duty between to points that were blocks apart, and another who used to ride in the early 40's. Along the way we met many special people from all parts of the United States. We have friends in Cody Wyoming who I can't wait to go back and see and spend time with. The stories that they tell could keep me entertained and laughing for hours on end.
What I'm going to miss most about the trip is spending time with Tim. With him working those crazy hours on nights, and our schedules always clashing, this trip was really made special just spending time together. We laughed so much, sang along to hundreds of songs on the radio, and just plain had a great time together. So thanks Tim, for the great time. Thank you to all our friends who gave freely of themselves during our trip. Leaving you behind was a real hard thing to do. I'm going to think of this time as just a long road trip before we make our way back to Wyoming where all our great friends are...... Until next year!.... Ride safe, and may the wind be at your back....We love and will miss you all.

Home Sweet Home

This is a video of Sturgis as we were leaving Friday Night. I just thought you might like to see what is was like. We left early Saturday morning after a pitiful continental breakfast at the hotel we stayed at. It consisted of bread,a few thawed out mini muffins, and coffee and orange juice. I must say it was the weekest continental breakfast I had ever seen. Bike was packed and we were off, in weather that quickly turned to the 90's again. We didn't stop to eat until after 3 which made for a long, long trip. It started to rain about a half hour after leaving Souix Falls and we parked under an overpass with about 15 other bikers. After about 15 minutes Tim decided it was time to go. The rain stopped after a few miles and with it came cooler temperatures. We rode on until about 9pm. Which made me a little more than irratable, ok I was downright crabby and tired. It took about 4 tries to find a hotel but we did find one. It was pretty nice, but the best part was the all you can eat breakfast for 6.50. Boy did we eat! Then on to Tim sister Sandy's house, well it's more of a ranch. With lots of land and horses. It was really nice since Tim hasn't seen her for a few years. Sandy, it was was nice to meet you finally! You're everything that Tim said you were. (Tims only said great things about you). We stopped in LaCrosse for dinner at an all you can eat steak place and we ate well again! Breakfast at 9, dinner at 6. Pretty much we only had two meals a day for the whole trip. We were on the road so much there was never much time to eat. We arrived home around 9:30 pm. We were both exhausted from the long ride home. The best part of coming home? Our bed. After so many hotel beds our soft bed felt to good we both fell asleep almost instantly...then.....Tommy our cat...decided we shouldn't sleep and kept scratching at the door and meowing all night long! Even after much yelling, and pushing out of the way by me...he kept up his little antic all night long... Back to work tomorrow so hopefully Tommy will let me sleep tonight.Looking back..alot of this blog was about food... I guess after so many miles traveled and only two meals a day..it was something to look forward too. :)

Sturgis

We've been on the road since early Friday Morning. The day started off nice and cool, we took Sheridan Pass through the mountains, it was so cold there was still snow on the ground we're we were. After that it went up the middle 90's, which was very brutal. Well at least for me it was it didn't seem to affect Tim quite as bad as me. We stayed in Rapid City again took a dip in the pool then off to Sturgis for the night. It was sure packed full of bikers. I must say it wasn't as wild as I had expected. The crowd was very well behaved, I didn't even see anyone who had drank too much. We only stayed a few hours then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. Sorry no pictures at this time the camera is in the bike and I'm too lazy to get it out right now. Well, time to shower and get dressed and go back on the road. We are going to drive to at least Sioux Falls tonight in South Dakota. The day looks beautiful out there and we want to get a early start. See Ya!

Destination Thermopolis

Yesterday was spent just relaxing around town, watching a gun fight outside Irma's Resturant and bar, which was built by Wild Bill Cody, and was named after his daughter. We did get the bike and trailer ready for the long ride home. The trailer now has working lights! That will make the trip back a little safer. We leave tomorrow (Friday) morning to start the journey back. Stopping maybe in Rapid City again to take in the sites at Sturgis while it's in full bloom. Well time to hit the showers and get ready to hit the road again! The picture of the water is an alkali lake near where we're staying. Fish can't live in it due to the high salt and alkali content of the water, the water gives off an stinky smell of sulfur, but it's really beautiful to see.

The Vastness of the Grand Tentons

Yesterday was the Grand Tentons. They were huge, and still had snow cover. We had to go through the fires of Yellowstone to get there yesterday,but the fires were on the back side of the montain in Yellowstone. There hasn't been any rain here this part of Wyoming since the middle of June, so the area is very dry, not helping the fire fighters fight the fires. On Monday a fire fighter was attacked by a bear while fighting the fire,but he's going to be ok. The fires are forcing all the wildlife further down the mountains, into the more populated areas. It's amazing that these fires never see national news! Due to most areas being less populated but very damaging. Every day brings a new look, it just depends upon the time of day. Unlike wisconsin weather every day begins with the sun shining (no rain mind you...:-) also minus all that great humidity that wisconsin holds. There's so much too see and so little time to absorb it in...Today back at the ranch and I mean that literally...We reside at our temporary home of steve and sherry and dillion bullock...As I'm sipping my morning coffee peering through the kitchen window over looking steves mom and dads beautiful ranch with three trout ponds that lead to each others with a small cabin perched over the biggest...these ponds are just loaded with fresh trout! Then there's the horse barn the houses the many mules and horses that are roaming freely day to day out and about the the ponds or corals. Soon the horses and mules will get their chance to do what they were raised to do here at this ranch in which they will be trailored to the base of the mountains and prepped for the 5 1/2 week mule deer and elk season to begin...Each team; horse and mule, has a captain that if anything should happen in the many trips up the mountains these animals will follow their leader all the way back to this ranch even though they were trailored miles from here steve has assured us they'll come home! That's amazing! So we have to give steve and his parents alot of credit to do this all while tending to their hotels that they own on each end of cody wyoming...Soo by now I'm guessing that your wondering who the heck is writing this blog it just never stops!!! It's not margaret my love of 2 years in which we just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on aug. 4th... It's Tim!...:-P. I used to love to write letters like this to my grandma of the past while I was in the service. Words cannot descride how truly beautiful it is here...Soo on this day we give thanks to steve and sherry and dillon for all the great accomodations they have given us here they are in my mind the greatest people we could have become friends with...We salute them! We still have a couple of days left here and sorrow is starting to set in...I did want to thank another friend from grannys restuarant my friend timmy he has offered us a place to stay at his place ,a car if we need it and today if all goes well a most awesome steak dinner with all the amenities, I just know it's going to be good because his parents own granny's in town, in which tim works most every day for his parents...Stand in line folks the food is always good and verry quick! I'll close with that being said we love it here! So todays going to be a relaxing day. After an average of 10 hours a day on the bike the last few days, we want to relax a little before the long ride home. This has been the best vacation of our life. We've made some great friends while here, I'm already looking forward to next year!

Yellowstone National Park

What a day it was, So many roadblocks along the way in Yellowstone, fires,firemen,and alas Buffalo, We had a terrific day, we got to see real forest fires, real firemen fighting the fire not more than 5 feet away, and we saw Old Faithful. It was a long day, it took 10 1/2 hours but it was sure worth it!

That Clean *cough cough* Mountain Air

Sorry about no blog updates in the last few days. We've been spending our days riding in the mountains, and the nights seem to come too fast. With the numerous forest fires in Wyoming and in Montana, there's been a very visible haze where ever we go. Yesterday, Sunday was the clearest it's been since we've arrived. The fires to make for beautiful sunsets, and can make the middle of the day as dark as sunset too. Today it's destination Yellow Stone Park to see Old Faithfull and the hot springs.

We're having a blast the weather is behaving also. not too hot during the day and lots of cool nights. What looks like clouds in these pictures is actually all smoke from the different fires in the mountains. The first picture was taken from the back yard of the friends we are staying with.

Destination Reached!

Well we made it to Cody on Thursday, we arrived later in the day and it was too late to update the blog. The heat made the trip seem longer. We made lots of stops along the way to drink water and rest in the shade. Today we took a short ride up in the mountains. There was lots of smoke which made it fairly hard to breathe for a bit, and the smoke made the skies so dark it looked liked close to sunset at 4pm. Well we had a great day,lots of beautiful things to see as you can see by these great photos.

Napping in Rapid City

Today was another hot hot day. We went to the local Harley dealers big Sturgis bash this morning bought a few things then headed back to the hotel to take a nap through the hottest part of the day. After a little nap we headed back to the dealership and bought the hardware we needed to wire up the trailer lights to the bike. Yahoo!
After that we headed to Sturgis for a few drinks and a good quick dinner. We went to the famous bar One Eyed Jacks, all in all we've been eatting healthy believe it or not. We're making an early night of it tonight, we want to be on the road early in the morning. We're shooting to be on the road by 6am, and get some miles in before it gets too hot.
Things are going well, we're having a great time together. Lots of laughter and just plain having a good time.
Next destination.... Cody Wyoming!

And...

Jen we forgot to add in the last blog. We found some equiptment for you to use in the Parlor, it's used but I think we can get a good price for it for you... and by the way..Tim said that was a non alcoholic jello shot!

Hot Springs and Cascade Falls

We decided to stay in Rapid City for a few days. It's close to alot of the things we wanted to see here. Sorry about no blog last night but it was a late one. We spent the day riding to sites nearby. We went to Hot Springs looking for the hot springs and found out, the springs are warm and it costs to swim in them. We did see a warm creek, that was part of the springs.
Then on to Cascade Falls,not a big water fall like I thought, but a small water fall were the water was clear and cold. We should have brought our suits, the temps were in the 90's again. We ended our day in a movie theater to watch The Dark Knight. It was a great day.*note to myself, do NOT drink alcohol when your hot and it's hot outside* Not pleasant. Hey.. did I mention, WE'RE ON VACATION!!!!

The Really Bad,Badlands

We started the day after a good nights sleep. The day heated up quickly, which started a string of set backs due to the Harley over heating. So much for the new bike being reliable. When the temps reached the high 90's the bike decided it was too hot. We had to take a few breaks for the bike to cool off some. That set us back a few hours of travel time. We decided to go though the Badlands. It was really beautiful, and hot. Real hot, so hot in fact that Tim tried to steal poor lil Sprouts' beer right out of his hand. Gee Whiz Tim! The real challenge was finding a hotel room in Rapid City....we almost gave up hope when we found a smaller family run motel,small but clean. Well folks it's time to relax, have a beer and get some sleep. Love you all

Day One Sioux Falls S

Sorry no picture with this post.It's late and we're both very tired. We started the trip five hours late. We were up late working on the trailer hitch. Morning came too soon and we were finially on the road by 10:30. We decided to stop in Johnsons Creek for breakfast and discovered the dust cover came off a wheel on the trailer,axel grease all over the place. Thank god there was a Farm and Fleet a few miles away. 15 dollars later and a little elbow grease(no pun intended) we were on our way.

We were off on our trip later than we planned but all went well from there. We saw beautiful skies with clouds so low it looked like you could reach out and touch them, a breath taking sunset and a chicken on the side of the highway looking like it was trying to cross it. We just missed storms only getting the wet pavement left behind. We found one Eyota, and a Canadian along the way along with finding the road to Knowledge(pictures to follow) . That's it for tonight we are enjoying a gourmet late dinner from Cafe Subway.

Love to all our friends and family, I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, sorry the cords to upload the pictures are in the tourback on the bike and I'm too tired to go back out and get them.

Tell I write again,,

Tim and Margaret

Countdown

Only a few days away. So much to do and not so much time. We're both looking forward to the sites, the friends and the memories. Cody watch out. Here we come ready or not!

I know we're not on our vacation yet but I thought I 'd stick in a picture from the Tomahawk Rally last year. It was such a cold ride up there and back home. I decided I will never complain about being too hot on the bike after riding for 5 hours in middle 30's temps. Chills me just to remember. See that smile on my face? It's saying I'm freezing my butt off, and trying to look like I'm having a good time. Riding through sleet,rain, and freezing winds to get up there. Can't beat that for fun!

Wanna Watch?

I'm going to be updating this site hopefully daily on our trip. I wanted my family to know what we are up to along the way since Tim and I have no plan on our trip other than to get to Cody Wyoming sometime along the way. I hope to post pictures on a daily basis, with a short note everyday how things are going along the way.