Day 19 - Columbia, MO to Greenwood, IN

My decision to use US route 36 today was a good one.  Far fewer trucks and a much more pleasant ride.  Greenwood, IN is just south of Indianapolis, and just a short 100 mile ride to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens tomorrow morning.

I didn't really have anything planned for today, but I did make a short stop in Hannibal, MO this morning to find some coffee.  I had been there a few years ago with dad and Ellen and it's a cute little town, all Mark Twain-themed and right on the Mississippi River.  I did not look around like we did last time, but here's a view of what the main street looks like.

From there, I followed US 36 and I-72 to Springfield, IL, one of the places that lays claim to Abraham Lincoln.  (Indiana does too, but he was actually born in Kentucky, moved to Indiana, and then to Illinois.)  Springfield is the home of Lincoln's presidential library and one of his homes, and it's where he was ultimately laid to rest.  I chose to visit his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, where there is an impressive monument to honor the 16th president.  The monument is a 116 foot tall obelisk surrounded on the 4 corners by bronze sculptures representing the 4 branches of military service in the Civil War.  Inside the base of the monument are the actual tombs of Lincoln, his wife, and three of their four sons.  The fourth is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  Throughout the vault are replicas of sculptures of Lincoln and plaques of his Gettysburg Address and parts of his inaugural speeches.  Also on display is a piece of Lincoln's original sarcophagus, which was inscribed with the phrase "With malice towards none, with charity for all" from his second inaugural address.  Funny how those words are still so fitting today.

From Springfield, I went on through Decatur and then a bunch of small towns, including Montezuma, IN (?) before hitting the Indianapolis beltway.  Even though I was on the beltway between 5 and 6pm, it wasn't bad at all, traffic-wise.  Nothing compared to 695 around Baltimore or 495 around DC!  Today should have been my first day back at school, and I have to say, I'm a little sorry I wasn't there.  I am definitely ready to be home.  Just 2 more days of riding left...

Day 18 - Russell, KS to Columbia, MO

The first time I rode out to Colorado, I got into the very southeast corner of Kansas on the way home, just to be able to say that I'd been there on my bike.  The second time out, I rode with dad and Ellen through the northern part of the state on Route 36.  This time, since I wanted to stop in Topeka, I opted for Interstate 70.  That was ok yesterday getting into Russell, but I was not thrilled with it today - too many big rigs going 70mph.  The wind from those things knocks me all over the place, especially with my travel bag on the back of the bike - it kind of acts like a sail catching the wind.  Tomorrow I was supposed to go through St. Louis to Louisville but instead I'm going to head north to route 36 and go through Hannibal and on to just south of Indianapolis just so I can avoid some of that truck traffic.

My stop in Topeka was enlightening and interesting.  My main reason for stopping here was to visit Planting Peace's Equality House.  That's the rainbow-painted house right across the street from the notoriously anti-gay (anti-everything, really) Westboro Baptist Church.  They're the ones who proudly proclaim "God Hates Fags" and picket the funerals of dead soldiers and all kinds of other stuff.  In my opinion, they are just plain despicable.  That's what makes Equality House so great!  The fact that those hate-mongers have to see a symbol of love and acceptance for everyone every time they step out their door is just plain awesome!  The house has a little free library in the yard and a community garden, where they tell you to feel free to take what you want or pull some weeds, if you prefer.  On one side of the house they have stenciled words like "LOVE" and "EQUALITY" and "ALWAYS" and visitors have added their own personal messages.  This is in stark contrast to WBC across the street, which looks more like a prison compound with a wall and iron gates and closed circuit cameras.  On one side of the street, all are welcome, and on the other side, no one is welcome.  WBC also flies the American flag and the Kansas state flag upside down.  If you're looking for photos of them here, don't bother.  I wasn't going to waste the memory on my phone.

My second stop in Topeka was not planned, but I saw a sign for the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic site and I wanted to see what it was like.  It's located at the Monroe Elementary School grounds and signs there map out a 3 mile walking tour so you can visit other important sites like the courthouse where Thurgood Marshall helped argue for the end of segregated schools.  I didn't do the walking tour because of time constraints (although my butt would have thanked me if I did!) but at least I got to see a little bit of history there.  (As it happened, when I got back on the interstate, I was behind a car with a bumper sticker that read "That's ok, I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway".

After Topeka, I rode through Kansas City - in Kansas on the west side of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and in Missouri on the east side.  I passed the Kansas City Royals stadium, the 2015 MLB champs, and on that note, as I was passing the exits for Lawrence, Kansas I was pleasantly surprised to see that on the signs for Kansas University, they don't just advertise their success in men's basketball but also advertise that their debate team is 5-times national champs as well!  My final stop for the night is in Columbia, Missouri, home of the University of Missouri.  I did toy with the idea of checking out their campus since I got in fairly early, but I decided I was too tired to go exploring. 

Days 16 and 17 - Buffalo to Casper to Loveland, Loveland to Russell, Kansas

Monday was both awesome and a nightmare.  We had batted around several plans for viewing the total solar eclipse in or near Casper and had settled on the fairgrounds, which seemed to be a good choice.  They had indoor bathrooms, food vendors, and plenty of space - it wasn't crowded at all.  The University of Wyoming was there handing out t-shirts and NASA eclipse folders, as well as giving away eclipse glasses for those who didn't already have them.  We tried to get a t-shirt, but they were letting people take multiple shirts so they ran out right before we got to the front of the line.  The eclipse itself was a marvel to behold.  Watching the moon seemingly take a larger and larger bite out of the sun was amazing!  Even more amazing was the fact that you'd barely even notice anything was going on unless you were looking at the sun through the glasses.  The temperature gradually dropped about 18 degrees by the time we neared totality, and we could see that it was getting darker.  Even in totality, we weren't in complete darkness - it was more like twilight or a really bright full moon.  To look at the sun directly during our 2 minutes of totality was really cool - we could see the sun's corona and solar prominences very clearly with binoculars.  All of the articles I read were right - it was mostly a waste of time to try and take photos without the right equipment.  Cell phones and ordinary digital cameras just don't do it justice, even if you have a sheet of solar filter to use. 

After totality ended, we hung around for a little while longer but then got on the road again.  This was where the nightmare part came in.  The plan was to ride out of Casper to the small town of Medicine Bow and then on to Laramie and then to Loveland to my dad's house, a total of about 200 miles.  We left the Casper fairgrounds around 12:15 or so and at first it seemed like it would be smooth sailing.  Then we hit our first backup, but that didn't last too long and seemed to be due to the road dropping down to one lane - you know how those merges can be...  But soon we were backed up again...and again...and again.  The ride to Medicine Bow, about 70 miles, took 4 1/2 hours and I needed gas to get to Laramie.  The only gas station in Medicine Bow was out of gas and waiting on the tanker truck to arrive, so it looked like we had time warped back to the 70's gas crunch, with cars and motorcycles lined up waiting.  The tanker was supposed to have been there between 4:00 and 4:30 but was running late and didn't arrive until 6:00...because he was coming from Casper and got stuck in the same traffic as the rest of us!  By 6:45 I had a full tank again and we were hopeful that the next 130 miles would go by quicker.  We again started out OK but soon were backed up and bumper to bumper, stop and go all the way to Laramie and it was getting dark and cold.  We had to pull over once to put on extra layers and then a second time because I couldn't wait until Laramie to go to the bathroom!  After gassing up again in Laramie, we still had 75 miles to go and it was now 9:40pm.  Neither my dad nor I are fans of riding at night - too many deer and other creatures can dart out in front of you and you can't see the texture and surface of the road very well - but we had no choice.  There was no way we were going to find a motel room at the last minute, so we pushed on, into another backup.  Finally, by the time we crossed into Colorado, the traffic eased and the road opened up.  We pulled in the driveway at about 11:45pm, 11 1/2 hours after we had left Casper.  Minus the 2 hour wait for gas, we averaged 21 miles per hour for those 200 miles.  The best part about it was seeing all the headlights lined up behind us, but only because it reminded me of the scene from the movie Field of Dreams!  That and we got to see a nice sunset.

Today was completely unremarkable, travel-wise.  I got a late start because 1) we got home so late, and 2) Margo's flight home was cancelled just as I finished packing the bike so I stayed until she was re-booked for a later flight.  This day of the trip, and of any of my previous 2 motorcycle trips out west, is my least favorite.  Eastern Colorado has nothing on the foothills or the mountains - it's all farm fields and feed lots.  And Kansas is the same, just tons of fields and pastures.  Not that those things aren't important, it's just that there's not much to look at, and I didn't have any places planned to stop and see.  Hopefully tomorrow there will be something to report.  I didn't even take any pictures today, especially since I didn't have my wonderful photographer riding with me!

Day 15 - Greybull, WY to Buffalo, WY via Thermopolis and Wind River Canyon

Today was a pretty relaxed day.  We left Greybull, headed for Thermopolis and the "world's largest mineral hot spring" at Hot Springs State Park.  There are several places you can enjoy the hot springs here, but we had planned to use the state bath house because it was free, but upon arrival we saw that they didn't open until noon.  Not wanting to waste 2 hours, we paid to use the hot springs at the Star Plunge instead.  They had a water slide, an indoor and an outdoor pool, a steam cave, and several hot tubs.  I think we tried them all!  It was nice to relax in the hot water for a while and it wasn't very crowded, which was also nice.

After we finished soaking, we rode south towards Shoshoni to pass through Wind River Canyon.  This is part of the Wind River Indian Reservation that we were in earlier when we stayed in Riverton.  The Wind River empties into Boysen Reservoir, northeast of Riverton, but when it leaves the reservoir it changes its name to the Bighorn River.  We rode along the Bighorn to see the many layers of rock exposed by millennia of erosion - truly amazing to see.  They even have signs along the way naming the rock formations and the geologic time period in which they were deposited.  We saw, throughout the day, rock formations from the Pre-cambrian era (3 billion years ago), the cambrian (500-600 million years ago), the Pennsylvanian, Jurassic, Triassic, and Cretaceous.  No wonder there's a dinosaur center nearby! This whole area is a geologist's and paleontologist's dream.

After turning around in the canyon and heading back to Thermopolis, we turned east towards Ten Sleep, a road that my dad had never tried before.  It turned out to be a great ride, with plenty of climbs, curves, and descents.  Very picturesque! 

We ended up in Buffalo, WY for the night.  Tomorrow we will be on the road early to get to the Casper area in time to secure a spot for the eclipse!

Day 14 - Gardiner, MT to Greybull, WY via Yellowstone and Bear Tooth Highway

Even just passing through Yellowstone on our way out was thrilling today!  We were hoping to see more bison in Lamar Valley this morning and we were not disappointed.  We entered the park at the north entrance, rode to Tower Junction, and then turned for the northeast entrance, passing through the Lamar River valley on the way.  Before we even got to the valley, we rounded a bend in the road and surprised a male bison munching on some grass for breakfast.  Dad and Ellen got around him and ahead of him right away but we were stuck behind him for several minutes as he weaved back and forth across both lanes.  He finally made his way off the road and up a beaten path and we continued on our way. 

 

Once we got past him, we descended into the valley and saw several herds of bison on either side of the road, including some young calves!  It wasn't long before we came upon more bison, this time on the roadway.  We were behind a whole row of cars slowly following the herd as they slowly made their way down the road.  There's a reason they call bison the "monarchs of the plains" - they're so huge, you don't dare do anything to provoke them. 

Once we made it through the bison-jam we stopped in Cooke City for breakfast and then continued on to Bear Tooth Highway, which is a winding, curvy road that runs from Cooke City, WY to Red Lodge, MT, reaching a summit of 9,190 feet elevation, before winding and curving back down again.  The scenery from the mountain curves was spectacular! 

In Red Lodge, we walked a little and got something to drink, and then it was on to Cody, WY for a brief rest stop before ending with an hour's ride to Greybull, WY for the night.  Cody is named for Buffalo Bill, as this was his hometown.  We stopped at the visitor's center but did not visit the museum across the street - my dad and stepmom said you could spend a whole day there if you wanted!

Day 13 - Yellowstone, day 2

Our second day in Yellowstone was just as good as the first!  This time we took on the east side of the park's figure 8 roadways, starting at Mammoth Hot Springs.  This whole area has been constructed through the buildup of calcium carbonate as it bubbles out of the ground in water heated by geothermal activity.  There are different levels of terraces that have been formed by different springs over time, but they don't know exactly what has caused the geothermal activity because this area is outside of the boundary of Yellowstone's supervolcano caldera. 

From Mammoth we made our way to Tower Junction, stopping briefly to see the petrified tree.  Near Tower Junction you can stop to see Tower Falls, named for the huge towers of rock rising above the falls.

From there we rode south, over Mount Washburn, to Canyon Village and Yellowstone Falls.  Canyon Village is situated just north of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, carved over time by the flow of the Yellowstone River.  We didn't spend too much time here, but we did get a look at the lower falls and of the canyon itself, which are both simply stunning.

Our final stop for the day was to go back to the Grand Prismatic Spring.  When we were there yesterday we could see a viewing platform on the hill behind the spring and we really wanted to see the spring from there but we couldn't see how to get there.  A little computer research and we knew we needed to go to the Fairy Falls trail head in order to be able to get to the platform.  It was well worth the extra time because the view was amazing! 

On the way back to Gardiner for the night we ran into a bit of an elk-jam and had to stop and take a few pictures.  We only saw one deer and several solitary bison today so we're hoping to see more tomorrow morning on the way out the northeast side of the park.

Day 12 - Victor, ID to Gardiner, MT via Yellowstone

WOW! Just wow.  The mountains in Grand Tetons were astounding but I am completely in awe of Yellowstone and so, so happy to have a second day to explore there.  We left from Victor a little after 8am but needed to stop up the road in Driggs, ID to get some hardware to mount my temporary cardboard license plate, since I lost mine somewhere over Teton Pass.  Then it was on to West Yellowstone, Montana - if you ever have the opportunity to go into Yellowstone through the west entrance, I highly recommend stopping at Ernie's Bakery in West Yellowstone for box lunches to take into the park.  For $10.95 we got huge sandwiches, chips, an apple, a drink, and a piece of candy, and after the big breakfast we had in Victor, I was not even hungry for dinner even at 9pm.

From the west entrance, we followed the Madison River to Madison Junction and turned south to explore the southwest corner of the figure 8 loop of park roads.  Our first stop was at the Fountain Paint Pot in the Lower Geyser Basin.  You can see steam rising all across the plain from the geologically active vents and hot springs.  It amazes me how thermophilic microorganisms can survive and flourish in what would be such harsh conditions for other living things, but they provide a lot of the color in such hot springs by forming thick mats of orange around the springs. 

Our next stop was at the Whiskey Flats picnic area for lunch.  What a beautiful grove of pine trees next to a golden meadow!  After lunch we backtracked north to Firehole Lake Drive to see the Great Fountain Geyser and Firehole Lake, then we rode south again to the Midway Geyser Basin.  There we had a little bit of a hike to cross the river and gaze upon the Excelsior Geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The Excelsior Geyser used to erupt regularly until 1880 when it blew so spectacularly that it may have ruptured its underground chamber, ending the eruptions for over 70 years.  No one knows when it will go off again, but it discharges 4000 gallons of boiling water into the Firehole River every hour!  Further back from the road, behind Excelsior, is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone and the most brilliantly colored.  The water appears to be azure blue with circles of yellow and orange surrounding it.  Thanks to Peggy Bosch for recommending that we make time to see it!

Our last planned stop for today was Old Faithful.  We could not have asked for more perfect timing!  Old Faithful isn't the biggest or highest geyser but it is the most regular, going off every 50-120 minutes or so.  When we got to the general store there at 4:17, the sign there predicted that the next eruption would be at 4:26, +/- 15 minutes so we hustled over to see if we could catch it.  It did not disappoint, starting to sputter a little almost right at 4:26 and then going into a full 4 minute display shortly afterwards.

We took a few minutes to explore the rustic inn at Old Faithful - man, I would love to stay in that lodge some day!  The woodwork and timbers are fantastic!

The shadows were starting to grow across the roads so it was time to leave for Gardiner, MT, our stop for the next 2 nights.  But this seemed to be the best time to see some wildlife, as we saw a female moose in the woods off the road, some female elk and calves crossing the road, and a herd of bighorn sheep up on the cliffs near the north entrance.  We had also seen a few solitary bison earlier in the day - we hope to see more on Saturday morning when we pass the Lamar Valley on our way out of Yellowstone.  That's where I've read many of them gather for the late summer mating season.  Too bad we weren't able to get any good photos of the animals - tough to do on a moving motorcycle!