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YELLOWSTONE MOTORCYCLE TRIP

 Thursday, September 12, 2002

 The beginning of this, our second motorcycle trip, seemed almost as ominous as our first trip last year.  We were supposed to get an early morning flight out of Milwaukee and arrive in Salt Lake City at around 1:00 PM. Due to what we perceived was a fairly serious illness with our dog Klaus the previous night, we rescheduled our flight to depart at 1:05 PM. We were on the verge of canceling the trip altogether until our vet returned our call at midnight the night before.  However, we were still leery of leaving an old, sick dog with my parents.  In any event, with reassurance from the vet we dropped Klaus at my parents that morning and headed for the airport.

 The preparation for this trip would be vastly different than last year's trip to the Alps. There would be no one to carry our luggage from one stop to the next.  In anticipation of this, we purchased a number of large Ziploc plastic bags that you could squeeze all the air out of.  It still seemed we were leaving the house with too much luggage. Harley-Davidson's were definitely not our first choice of motorcycles to rent.  I had some conversations with Destinations USA who rent Hondas.  They were not able to accommodate us with anything but Gold Wings for the trip.  Neither of wanted to be riding such a large motorcycle such as this.  After exhausting all other options, I called Eagle Rider in Woods Cross, Utah. The people there were very friendly and helpful.  I felt comfortable doing business with them.  Therefore as ironic as this seems, we decided to rent Harleys for our trip to Yellowstone. And, it had nothing to do with their comment that, "You can't go to Yellowstone on anything but a Harley."  We are definitely not lock-step, robotic Harley freaks like so many others are.  They offered us a Road King and a Dyna Wide Glide.  These bikes would have to do.  Klaus' sickness and subsequent rescheduled flight forced us to make a decision on whether to try to get to Pocatello, Idaho yet that day, or stay in Salt Lake City and drive the entire 375 miles up to Yellowstone the following day.  We opted to try to drive up to Pocatello that night – a distance of 175 miles from Salt Lake City. At the time, I wasn't sure this would be possible.  More on that later.

 Well, back to our trip to the airport.  As we were checking our luggage, the ticket agent informed us that our flight to Chicago was canceled.  Canceled? Geez.  So, we were put on a bus bound for Chicago.  Here we go again we thought.  I am of the belief that United does this on purpose, because it's cheaper to bus people to Chicago than fly them there.  Did we get any credit for this inconvenience?????  Hell no.  So, I was chapped already and we were nowhere near Salt lake City.   It was a hot bus ride to Chicago, but we got there over an hour before our flight was supposed to leave for SaltLake. This gave us some time to eat lunch at the airport.  We got a slice of pizza and relaxed for about 20 minutes before going to the gate.  Amazingly, the flight was actually on time.  We took off from Chicago and headed west.  Of course, there was some fat guy in the row next to us who fell asleep about 3 minutes after we were in the air and was snoring so loud I couldn't even read.  But that was the only nuisance on the flight.  Once on the ground in Salt Lake City, we got our luggage in a timely manner.  I called Eagle Rider, and they picked us up about 10 minutes later.  It was now about 5:30 PM.  We still had a 175 mile ride waiting in an unfamiliar state, on motorcycles we'd never ridden before and it would be dark in two hours.  Oh well, Anne and I don't have too many restful vacations. 

 We got to the dealership at about 5:45 PM. They stayed open late just for us, which was very nice of them to do.  Our Harleys were parked right inside the garage door.  We immediately took notice of the relatively small saddlebags on the Dyna Wide Glide.  This appeared to be a potential problem.  Anyway, after signing all the paperwork we began to pack up the bikes.  The saddle bags on the Road King were fairly spacious and I was able to pack a lot of stuff in them.  We also brought along a rear seat bag and a backpack.  The dealer also gave us a T-bag which I strapped to the back of the Road King.  Luckily, I brought along about 10 bungee cords and I used them all.  At 6:30 PM, we were ready to roll.  We should've been leaving there 5 hours earlier, if not for Klaus.  We drove down to the closest gas station and filled up the Dyna.  I noticed one of my mirrors was loose, so we quickly went back the down the street and had them tighten it up.  We then embarked again, got on I-15 and headed north.  It was still fairly light out and about 65 degrees.  Salt Lake City was bordered by mountains to the east and the Great Salt Lake was directly to the west.  We never got a decent view of the SaltLake, but we were told it was nasty and not worth seeing by the people from the Harley dealer.  About 5 miles down the road, Anne signaled me to pull over.  I exited and pulled into a parking lot.  Seems she only needed to zip up her jacket.  OK – back onto I-15 right?  Nope – the on ramp was closed.  We proceeded to dink around for the next 15 minutes trying to get back onto I-15. Man, what a clusterf**k.  Finally back on the interstate!  As we put Salt Lake City in our rear view mirrors, the speed limit went up to 75 MPH.  Unfortunately, we were still getting accustomed to the Harleys and didn't feel comfortable with those kinds of speeds.  However, after several more miles went by, we found ourselves cruising along at 75-80 MPH.  The Road King was somewhat uncomfortable for me to ride.  It rode smoothly on the highway, but the handlebar placement was hard on my shoulders.  Anne did not care for the Dyna Wide Glide either.  It was a very loud, rattling cycle.  I did not care to be riding behind her and having to listen to all that noise.  The Road King was a much quieter sounding motorcycle.  The Dyna only had highway pegs which took Anne a while to get used to. The one feature I really liked about the Road King was the heel shifter.

 Once we passed Ogden,Utah, we put most of civilization behind us.  The terrain was flat to the west as far as you could see.  To the east, there still remained a nice view of the WasatchMountain range.  It was about 7:30 PM and the sun began falling in the sky to the west.  Tremonton, Utah was the last city in far northern Utah. After Tremonton, the next town of any significance was MaladCity. I didn't know it at the time, but that was in Idaho. We crossed the Idaho state line around 7:45 PM and I don't remember seeing a state line sign.  It was here that we began seeing mileage signs to Pocatello. The first one reminded us that we were still 124  miles from our destination for the night.  That wouldn't have been so bad, but about every 5 miles there was another mileage sign for Pocatello. Talk about tormenting!  I didn't need to be reminded every 5 minutes that we still had a long way to go yet.  As we got further into Idaho, a mountain range appeared to our west as we entered the CaribouNational Forest. This made for a nice scenic ride as the sun went down over the mountains.  The sun fell below the mountains and the sky turned orange, red then purple as it faded away to darkness in about 15 minutes.  During the sundown, Anne chose to speed past me and take the lead for a while.  It was then when I was subjected to the obnoxious exhaust noise from the Dyna Wide Glide.  I fell back about a quarter mile behind her, so I wouldn't have to listen to that racket.  Noisy exhaust systems do nothing but aggravate me.  Only a pretty shallow person would find that appealing.

 When darkness fell, so did the temperature. We were still about 65 miles from Pocatello and I would estimate the temperature fell down to the low 50's. The final hour would be an uncomfortable one in the cold dark of the night.  I didn't realize it, but we were at about 4500 feet and it gets cold in a hurry at that elevation.  After about 25 miles went by, I noticed that the backpack was coming off Anne's cycle. I pulled over and we strapped it down again.  Anne indicated that she was getting low on gas, so we pulled off at the next exit which was Arimo, Idaho. As we reentered I-15, the next sign said we were still 25 miles from Pocatello. Not bad – we should be there in 20 minutes.  As we approached Pocatello, I realized I wasn't sure where the hotel was.  There were three Pocatello exits.  The first two didn't have any hotels in sight.  I could only hope the last exit would be the one.  As we approached, I quickly realized that this was the definite tourist exit – several hotels and restaurants.  We drove into the parking lot relieved that we had made it.  It was about 9:30 by now.  We quickly checked in and unpacked the cycles.  The odometer showed we had traveled 168 miles. For supper, we walked over to Applebee's.  Finally back to the hotel and to bed at about11:15 PM.   We were now back on track, since our original plan was to be to Pocatello by 5:00 PM.  

Friday, September 13, 2002 

I got up around 7:30 AM and started getting ready to leave.  Since today was Friday the 13^th, I began to wonder was calamity may be in store for us.  A huge story was unfolding on MSNBC about two cars that were supposedly on their way to Miami to commit a terrorist attack.  This kept me glued to the TV for about an hour, but once Anne was ready we went down to the hotel lobby.  There we had the prototypical continental breakfast before checking out at 9:30 AM. The cycles were all packed up and ready to go.  It was sunny, but cool – about 50 degrees.  We decided not to fill up our gas tanks in Pocatello, but rather travel north on I-15 toIdaho Falls instead.  Heading north I realized we were truly out west.  The terrain was flat with the exception of a mountain range far off to the east.  A lot of sagebrush lined both sides of the highway.  The speed limit was 75 MPH and we settled into a cruising speed of 75-80 MPH.  Soon after we left Pocatello, we were riding through the Fort Hall Indian Reservation which ended in Blackfoot, Idaho. I was momentarily reminded of my favorite Blackfoot song, "Teenage Idol" which was played briefly on WQFM in 1983. I-15 swung in a northeasterly direction and 30 miles later we reached Idaho Falls. Idaho Falls is one of the largest cities in Idaho. The highway skirted the west edge of the city.  We were looking for US Highway 20 which would take us to West Yellowstone.  At the junction of I-15 and Hwy 20, we stopped at an Exxon Station for gas. Here I took the first photos of us on the Harleys.  We quickly departed and headed northeast on Hwy 20.  As I looked to the east, the Grand Tetons came into view through the haze of the morning.  We drove past a series of small southwestern Idaho towns, one after the other.  The speed limit was only 65 MPH on Hwy 20, so we had to slow it down a bit.  It was still fairly nice riding on this four lane highway.  Shortly after we passed St. Anthony, Idaho, the road turned into a two lane highway.  Driving toward the Montana state line, we entered the TargheeNational Forest. In addition, I also felt we were ascending.  There were no more towns to pass through now, but the West Yellowstone signs assured us we were on the right track. When we neared the Montana state line, we went over the Targhee pass – 7072 feet elevation.  We turned east and crossed the Montana state line at 12:30 PM and 10 minutes later we were in West Yellowstone. We saw a sign for our hotel, the Stagecoach Inn.  It was a large, rustic looking dwelling in the center of town.  We parked and inquired as to whether we could check in early. The hotel staff complied and we unloaded our cycles and checked in.  The room was small, but functional.  This place also had underground parking which was nice.  While Anne was fixing her hair, I got on the Dyna Wide Glide and drove around town.  West Yellowstone was an extremely touristy town.  It is really only about one square mile with everything in a four square block area.  We were only a quarter mile from the YellowstonePark entrance which made things very convenient.  I came back to the room 15 minutes later and we walked across the street to a café called "The Gusher".  We ate a light lunch there and studied the park maps we had.  Our plan was to ride the northern loop of the park and see TowerFalls and Mammoth Hot Springs that afternoon.  Seemed like a sensible plan, right?  This was quickly thwarted at the Park entrance when we were told there was road construction on the road to the northern loop, and there was no access to it until after 5:00 PM. Well, rats cocks I thought.  Now what?  We pulled over about 50 yards into the park to reassess the situation.  It seemed that our only other option was to take the southern loop, which we had intended to ride tomorrow.  I should add here that we paid $15.00 per person to enter the park because we were on motorcycles.  Thanks to the Clinton administration for jacking up park fees in the 1993 budget.  With no other choice, we started riding to the southern loop. In a matter of seconds we were stuck behind a large RV traveling at 40 MPH.  With the obnoxious passing routine of our European tour still fairly fresh on my mind, we passed the RV in short order and kicked it up to 55 MPH.  About 5 miles into the park we rounded a turn and were faced with stopped traffic.  This would become a familiar sight.  Cars had stopped to watch bison graze on the other side of the road.  A little ways further down the road, we were once again stopped.  This time there were several bison in the middle of the road.  We got off the Harleys there and took some photos.  We then continued on our way.

I was surprised at the amount of dead trees in the park.  Obviously there had been a widespread fire there some years ago and it must've ravaged much of the beauty of the park.  Thousands of charred, dead trees were visible as far as the eye could see. I'm certainly no tree hugger, and I despise people like Al Gore, but this was kind of a sad sight.  We passed Mt.Haines on our way to the southern loop road.  Once we reached the junction of the two loops, we turned south and headed toward Old Faithful. I must admit it became a tormenting ride getting stuck behind cars plodding along at 35 MPH.  I have no tolerance for mini-vans going below the speed limit.  Like I've said before, if you purchase a mini-van, your life is over!  Passing was difficult in the park due to the curved roads and unpredictable wildlife.  Riding toward Old Faithful, we saw several other geysers and hot springs along the way.  We didn't stop at any of them, because I figured we would be going that same way again tomorrow.  A half hour later, we entered Old FaithfulPark and parked the Harleys for a while.  We wandered around for a bit, before taking a seat in front of the geyser. Old Faithful is known for its predictability, as it goes off every 53-60 minutes.  It was now 3:30 PM and we weren't sure how long it would be before it would shoot off again. Off to the west another geyser was shooting water high in the air.  Another tourist checked at the gift shop and she was told Old Faithful was supposed to go off between 3:48 and 3:58. Well, sure enough at 3:50 it began shooting in the air.  We had never seen anything quite like this before.  We shot some photos and kept watching this rather unusual marvel of nature. About 90 seconds later it was all over and we walked back to the gift shop where Anne bought a stuffed howling wolf, and we then took a walk through Old Faithful Lodge.  The lodge was quite an impressive sight, and I don't imagine it was cheap to stay there.  We strolled back through the gift shop and back to the Harleys.  Back out to the southern loop.  Our plan was to make an effort to get to TowerFalls, but we were hell and gone from there.  Not to mention it was already 4:30. 

Anyway, as we continued in an easterly direction toward West Thumb, we began climbing into the hills.  We peaked at the Continental Divide – elevation 8241 feet.  As we descended, YellowstoneLake came into view to the east.  YellowstoneLake is the highest elevation lake in the U.S. At West Thumb, we turned to the north and began meandering in a northern direction.  We were now on the backside of the southern loop.  We passed by several hot springs on the west side of the road and stopped at a few of them briefly.  About 5 miles further north, we hit the west bank of YellowstoneLake. This was quite an impressive sight, as the lake was at the bottom of the mountains to the east and south.  We stopped and took some photos of the Harleys alongside the lake.  It was now past 5:00 and the prospects of getting to TowerFalls were fading.  It was difficult to make any good time on this road as invariably we got stuck behind mini-vans or RV's.  Passing was difficult with the twisty road and much oncoming traffic.  However, when the situation presented itself, we did pass. I missed the horsepower of the Honda Varadero, which I rode last year inEurope. The Road King was a real sled in that regard.  We hugged the west bank of YellowstoneLake for about 15 miles and eventually it was past us.  We turned our sights on UpperFalls which was near the junction of the two loops to the east.  Being in a hurry, I overshot it and we had to turn back. We parked and hiked down a trail about 200 yards to the Falls.  It was worth the stop.  We took some photos and swiftly got back on the Harleys.  As we neared the loop junction, we saw numerous cars and people congregating at the bottom of a hill to the west.  Turns out they were all converging on a moose that was wading in a marshy area next to the road.  Poor moose – there were probably 30-40 people walking toward it taking photos.  We crept slowly by on the cycles and pulled over a few hundred yards ahead to decide what to do.

 It was now 6:00 PM. TowerFalls was 22 miles up the east side of the northern loop.  We calculated that it would take 40 minutes to get there.  With that in mind, it would certainly be dark for the 55 mile ride back to West Yellowstone. Adding to that potential misery was a 9 mile stretch of road construction where there was no pavement. With the European disasters still fresh in our minds, and being generally conservative, we made the decision to head straight back to West Yellowstone. It didn't take long to realize that we undoubtedly made the right decision.  Heading west, we hit the construction area 15 minutes after we left. Riding on gravel on a motorcycle is a precarious undertaking.  Speeds of 25-30 MPH were all that we could safely go.  Certain areas were thick with mud.  Riding through this in the dark would've been quite a boondoggle.  Once past the construction, it was dusk.  We began to see elk along side the road. The thought of colliding with an elk didn't sit well with me.  We kept the speed low through this stretch.  Before long, we were back at the northern/southern loop junction.  It was now a relatively easy 14 mile ride back to West Yellowstone. We passed through the gate shortly thereafter and we were back in West Yellowstone. Darkness began to fall as we stopped at the Sinclair station for a fill up.  Minutes later, we were back at the Stagecoach Inn.   

 We changed, started some laundry and walked a few blocks to a nice restaurant.  The name escapes me at the moment, but it had a railroad theme with a retired rail car next to the restaurant.  This was probably the best meal we had on the whole trip.  There were very few people in the place which made for pleasant dining. Our waitress asked us if we wanted some juice or a soda.  Geez, do I still look underage when I'm 39 years old!  My response was to order a Captain & Coke.  When we finished we walked back to the hotel room.  It was pretty cold out by now with temperatures in the mid-40's at best.  So far it was pretty good trip with no problems and decent weather.

 Saturday, September 14

 Up again at about 7:30 AM.  We packed up and went down to the lobby for the Continental breakfast.  It was the usual cereal, toast and waffles.  Since it was 9:00 already, much of the food had already been sitting there for a while. There were very few tables, so we had no choice but to sit between two couples with small children.  Of course, this annoyed us to no end.  It's amazing what lack of discipline and control parents have over their kids nowadays.  I don't remember being 5 years old and running around a restaurant with a piece of toast in my hand and jelly all over my face.  I don't think my parents would've allowed such behavior.  But anyway, we only spent about 15 minutes there and packed up the Harleys.  Our destination today was Jackson, WY and ending the day in Montpelier, ID. A relatively stress free 275 mile day it seemed on the surface.  We left West Yellowstone and rode back through the park entrance and headed in the same direction toward the south loop entrance.  With a little more time on our hands, we decided to stop at some of the hot springs we bypassed yesterday.  Once the springs came into view, we pulled over and took some photos.  It was a picturesque scene with about 20 hot springs billowing into the morning air from about a mile away.  This made for an intriguing panoramic photo.  As we approached this set of springs, we pulled into the entryway and disembarked the Harleys.  We were at Fountain Paint Pot, an extension of the MidwayGeyserBasin. Numerous springs and cauldrons were bubbling and emitting steam into the air.  On the back side, there was a large geyser spewing hot water into the air. Very much like Old Faithful yesterday.  This was indeed a strange sight, since neither of us had seen anything like this before.  We took some more photos and headed out.  The weather was relatively pleasant, roughly 50 degrees, but warming as the morning progressed. 

 We zigzagged our way through the southern loop again as we had yesterday.  We passed Old Faithful and continued our way south.  We again passed the Continental Divide where we stopped briefly before continuing on. On the way down the Divide, YellowstoneLake came into view.  A very scenic sight in the morning sun.  At West Thumb, we turned south.  Soon we put Yellowstone in our rear view mirror and started looking toward TetonNational Park. In between parks, we stopped at LeonFalls. This was a small waterfall, about 25 feet.  But still, something you don't see in the Midwest. We spent about 15 minutes here and continued on.  By now, the animal life had diminished down to nothing.  We had descended somewhat and the temperature was getting higher.  Entering TetonNational Park was non-eventful.  We did not have to stop at the gate, just slow down upon entering.  The riding was still fairly scenic as we rode high atop a ridge with a river far below to the left.  Winding along this stretch was enjoyable.  A short time later, the Tetons came into view.  The Tetons are three peaks right next to each other.  A small amount of snow cover was atop the peaks. Nearing JacksonLake, we pulled over for a short rest and some photo taking.    It was now pastnoon and I was getting hungry.  The map showed a small spot up the road with a restaurant, so we headed there.  Once there, we weren't impressed with the place.  It looked like a cafeteria that you would find at the zoo or the museum. Instead, we went into the general store and got a candy bar and decided to head for Jackson for lunch.  Here we also filled up with gas.  An old time gas station with analog gas pumps.  No pay at the pump here!  We got back on the road again and started making our way for Jackson. How ironic, so far from home and still trying to go to Jackson! Great views of the Tetons were directly to the west for about a half hour.  We stopped for more photos when we were directly in the middle of them. Perfect photos with a crystal blue sky. To this day, I remain astonished by the great weather we had.  As the Tetons were behind us, we came upon Jackson (also called Jackson Hole). Jackson is a winter resort town with a large ski hill on the south side of town.  The terrain slopes directly upward on both the north and south ends of this town.  Hence, the name Jackson Hole. We were definitely out of the elevation now as the temperature was 85 degrees.  The center of town was jammed with people going through all the shops. Driving past this commotion, we cruised to the other end of town.  I spotted a sports bar where I suggested we stop for lunch.  Since it was past 2:00 now, I was extremely hungry.  We turned around and parked the bikes at the sports bar and went inside.  Lucky for me, there were several college football games on throughout the place.  Curious at to the Badger score, I kept scanning the scrolls until I saw to my horror they had barely beaten lowly Northern Illinois 24-21.  That was a pretty good indication to me that they were seriously overrated at the time. Anyway, we ate a light lunch there. Once finished, I asked the waitress how far it was to Montpelier, ID, our destination for the day.  At first she said she never heard of it.  I showed her the map and she told me it was a five hour drive.  Obviously, she didn't have a clue so I dismissed this information as useless.  We drove back into Jackson, parked and walked around for about 90 minutes.  It's a very touristy place, comparable to Wisconsin Dells.  Most of the shops were low on stock because summer was over.  I bought a Jackson Hole sweatshirt.  OK – back on the Harleys and start heading south again.

We took Hwy 89 south out of Jackson. The first 20 miles or so was probably the best riding on the whole trip.  Cruising along at highway speeds in 80 degree weather, sun high in the sky and hugging the Snake River. This was top notch cycle riding. Too bad we weren't on Hondas, but you can't have everything.   Well, turns out this was too good to be true. Once past Hoback Junction, WY, I saw a construction worker standing in the road with one of those stop/slow signs. As we approached, I could see the sign was stop, not slow.  We stopped there with no clue as to why.  There was no road construction for as far as the eye could see. I asked the guy what the story was, and he replied there was road work ahead and it would be a 15-20 minute wait. Since we were well past Hwy 189 (our only other option for getting to Montpelier, but about an additional 50 miles), we parked and began the waiting game. Other cars lined up behind us. What a waste of beautiful riding weather I thought.  After about a 10-15 minute wait, we got the signal to move out.  To our disappointment, we came upon a long stretch of road construction which went on for about 15 miles.  There was no pavement and the road became gravel for the entire distance.  We were reduced to riding about 30-35 MPH for this entire stretch.  At times, we had to pull over to let traffic go around us. Now, we were the ones who were driving like mini-vans!  However, there was no sense in taking a chance of dumping one of these bikes.  We were relieved to finally get back on regular pavement a half hour later – only to hit several more gravel stretches. This continued off and on for about 60 miles until we passed Afton, WY.  Had I known this was going to continue this long, I certainly would've taken Hwy 34 out of Freedom, WY and cut into Idaho over to Soda Springs.  It was now getting late in the afternoon and we were still dinking around trying to get to Montpelier. Aside from the aggravation of the road, we were passing more very scenic areas.  We had the Salt River mountain range to the east and the CaribouNational Forest to the west.  In addition, the weather was perfect. 

 Since it was now past 6:00 PM, we briefly considered eating at the Taco Time in Grover, WY.  Taco Time is an awesome fast food taco restaurant that only has locations in the west.  But anxious to get to the hotel, we continued south.  The terrain was now more rolling with large foothills to the east and flat, open prairies to the west.  Once again, very pleasant driving.  However, some more aggravation was awaiting.  Close to the Idaho border, more road construction was waiting for us.  Hwy 89 was now closed and we would have to detour to the southeast. Unfortunately, Montpelier was only about 20 from the detour spot.  We were so close to being there.  This detour had me pissed off, because there was no forewarnings or signs back up the road.  Suddenly, there it was.  The detour was coincidently enough also Hwy 89, but this was a state highway.  I cranked the Road King up to about 80 MPH and let her rip.  After riding 15 miles with no crossroads, we finally came upon a junction where the detour took us back toward the west.  This was US Hwy 30.  After all that, we were now 22 miles from Montpelier – even further away than when the detour began.  But, what can you do?  We got on Hwy 30 and were riding directly into the sun.  Visibility was difficult.  Hwy 30 went up a small pass and descended toward Montpelier. So, in about 25 minutes we finally made it to Montpelier. We filled up at the Chevron station and finally pulled into the Best Western Hotel lot at about 7:00 PM. A long day of riding was over. More foolishness was about to erupt this evening.

 We checked in and got our room key.  Entering our room, it was obvious that this was a smoking room.  Anne did an about face and went back to the hotel desk to get a non-smoking room. Perhaps, since we were wearing leather, riding Harleys and from Wisconsin, the clerk thought we were smokers, I don't know.  In any event, we got a different room and unpacked.  The phone book and guest book was revealing how sad-ass of a town Montpelier was.  The Best Western Hotel was the nicest building along this stretch.  Clearly, there would be no nice place to eat dinner in this shitfest town.  After changing, we went back to the lobby and asked where we could go eat dinner.  She suggested two places:  the diner across the street or a truck stop 2 miles up Hwy 30. Since we really didn't want to eat at a truck stop, nor ride the bikes anymore, we opted for the diner.  We entered the diner and walked over to the hostess counter.  The clientele of this place left much to be desired.  I thought I saw Cletus the slack-jawed yokel from The Simpsons, and Sea Bass from the movie Dumb and Dumber in there.  There were people gobbling their food like a bunch of boorish pigs.  We ended up walking out and wandering around trying to decide what to do.  While looking down the street, I saw a billboard for the truck stop the clerk told us about.  The sign said "Free steak with 100 gallon fill up".  Are you kidding me?  Who's hungry?  Yeah, m-m-m-m, free steak.  Unfortunately, the Harleys only held 10 gallons between them.  There would be no free steak for the Geldreich's tonight.  There were no other restaurants as far as we could see (and we could see from one end of town to the other).  Completely flabbergasted at this ludicrous turn of events, we went back to the hotel room.   It was now 8:30, dark already and we hadn't eaten since lunch.  After another 10 minutes of deliberation, we went back to the gas station, which had a Subway in it.  Taking the safe way out, we ate there.  Nothing like spending a Saturday night while on vacation eating dinner at the Subway inside the gas station.  So I treated Anne to a tasty Subway combo.  We were the only customers in there.  Little did we know a few hours earlier that the Taco Time in Grover, WY would be our best option for dinner.  One last thing to end the day – we stopped back in the lobby to tell the clerk how the diner was a terrible suggestion for dinner for their guests. I had to get it off my chest.  If nothing else, we learned a lesson not to book a hotel in a very small town in the west.  After having a laugh about the events of the evening, we went to sleep.

 Sunday September 15, 2002

 Up and at them (as Rainier Wolfcastle would say) at about 7:30 AM. I decided to walk over to the Montpelier grocery store to get something for breakfast.  I bought some cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk and walked back to the hotel.  The temperature was a crisp 42 degrees.  On my walk back, I saw the free steak billboard again.  Anyway, keeping in line with the wretchedness of this town, the cinnamon rolls tasted like they were baked several days before.  Pretty disgusting.  I ate only some of the cinnamon roll before tossing it into the wastebasket in Ray Allen fashion.  NFL Gameday was on while Anne was getting ready.  I had already resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to watch the Packer game today.  Probably a good thing because they lost to New Orleans as I would find out later in the day.  As of this writing in mid-November, that is the only game they've lost this season. We packed up the Harleys, checked out and headed southwest out of Montpelier hoping to never be there again for the rest of our lives.

 We decided to drive down the west side of BearLake and back into Utah. It was rather nippy for the first hour or so, with temperatures slowly climbing into the 50's.  We passed through some sorry, small SE Idaho towns before reaching BearLake. BearLake was about 12 miles in length.  To our west was the CacheNational Forest with sage and scrub brush at ground level.  It was a very pleasant ride.  As we passed around the bottom of the lake, we crossed back into Utah.  Heading in a southeasterly direction back toward Wyoming, I was looking for Highway 16.  Thinking I had misread the map or missed it, we pulled over for a short rest.  We were truly in the middle of freaking nowhere. Nothing but sagebrush as far as the eye could see in all directions.  We planned on taking Highway 16 to Highway 39.  Hwy. 39 rose up into the mountains and was closed in the winter according to the map.  I estimated we had to be real close to Hwy 16, so we took off again and found it about 5 miles further up the road.  Our new destination was now Woodruff, UT which was 26 miles to the south.  This was a rather nondescript stretch of road. We passed by several dirt farms and I had to wonder how someone could live in areas like these – so far from civilization.  Anyway, at Woodruff we turned west on Hwy 39.  Again, an eventless stretch of riding, but interesting nonetheless. Soon we began ascending into the Wasatch Mountain Range.   About 20 miles out of Woodruff, there were large open gates in the road.  Obviously, this is where the road gets closed down for the winter.  So up we went toward the McKinnonPass. This was one of the best stretches of the whole trip.  There were no other vehicles on the road and we were all alone.  Great, stress free riding.  Roughly another 20 miles passed by before we reached the top of the McKinnonPass. We spent some time looking for good places to get some photos. 

 I estimated we were about 20 miles from Ogden, UT, so we decided to go to Ogden and find a Taco Time for lunch.  The mountain descent was a typical twisty road.  I'll say again, this type of riding is not suited for a Road King.  We finally reached the bottom and the town ofHuntsville, UT.  Nothing much to speak of here, so we continued on to Ogden.  Shortly before arriving in Ogden, we rode through some very scenic valleys.  I spotted a waterfall, so we stopped for a few photos.  Another Harley stopped behind us and waved.  Little did they know we were really Honda riders masquerading as Harley riders.  We finally rode into Ogden at about 12:30 PM and began looking for a Taco Time restaurant.  Not finding one, we jumped onto I-15 and headed south toward Salt Lake City. A few exits to the south, we saw a Taco Time sign.  So we exited and pulled into the parking lot.  To our disappointment, the restaurant was closed.  We soon found out most restaurants are closed on Sundays in the SaltLake area.  Must be a Mormon deal or something.  Needless to say, this really pissed me off.  Feeling shafted by the state of Utah, we got back onto I-15 and started riding toward our hotel. 

 The hotel was right by the airport, so you'd think there would be tons of restaurants nearby right?  Nope.  We checked in and decided to rethink what we wanted to do.  I immediately turned on the TV and soon found out the Packers lost to New Orleans. In talking to the front desk clerk, we chose to find a Mexican restaurant.  Unfortunately, it was about 5 miles from the hotel.  So, we jumped back on the Harleys and headed east into Salt Lake City. I had some problems finding the place, partly because the sign for it was blocked by a tree.  But anyway, we finally got to eat something at about 4:30 PM. The food was pretty good.  I mistakenly ordered a Corona. I don't drink and ride a motorcycle. 

With the time being only 5:00 PM, we decided to ride some more.  East of Salt Lake, there was another mountain pass through EmigrationCanyon. After some difficulty getting to the east end of Salt Lake City, I finally found the turnoff.  Salt Lake City has way too many stoplights.  We passed UtahUniversity (no Rick Majerus sightings however) on our way out of town.  The ride up EmigrationCanyon was a pleasant one.  At the top, there was a very scenic view of a lake below, but I had left my camera at the hotel.  Another twisty trip down to Hwy 65.  We took Hwy 65 south to I-80.  I didn't realize we had traveled about 20 miles to the east of Salt Lake City. The I-65 ride was somewhat aggravating. There was a lot of traffic and I wasn't quite sure whether to take the I-215 exit the I-15 exit, or just stay on I-80. With no time to stop, I gambled on continuing west until we eventually reached I-15.  I-15 and I-80 came together at this point, so we were in good shape.  From there, we just followed the airport signs until we reached the hotel.  It was now 7:00 PM and our trip was at an end. Total mileage – 955 miles.   We basically relaxed the rest of the evening while watching TV and doing some reading.   

Monday, September 16, 2002 

We checked out of the hotel at about 8:30 and drove to Denny's for breakfast.  From there, we took some city streets north to Woods Cross, UT where the rental dealer was.  Everything went well at check in since neither of us had any damage to our bikes. They gave us a ride back to the airport and we bid farewell.  On the way there, we asked if anyone had gotten injured on one of their rentals. The woman then told us one of their renters had been killed in an accident a few weeks prior.  She still seemed shook up about it. 

At the airport, we were greeted with some aggravation as our flight was delayed due to weather.  The funny thing was that there were other planes taking off and landing. Those liars from United!  Lucky for us, the delay only lasted about an hour and we still had a chance at making our connecting flight in Chicago. Once in Chicago, we had another frantic run through O'Hare just like last year.  But this time we made it!  Back in Milwaukee on time, but our luggage didn't make it.  Just one last thing to get pissed off about.  Anne talked some guy at the lost luggage department to drop it off on his way home.  He happened to live near Jackson. What are the chances of that?  So around 10:00 PM, the guy called us and I met him at Dairy Queen and picked up our luggage.  No trip for the Geldreich's would be complete without some type of airport or luggage maladies. 

Final thoughts:   

Flights - Again we didn't learn our lesson about leaving from Chicago and not Milwaukee. Our outgoing flight out of Milwaukee was canceled.  We didn't get our luggage on the trip back.  United's customer service sucks.  That bus ride to Chicago definitely got the trip off to a bad start.

 Motorcycles – I can honestly say I didn't like riding the Road King.  It was a very heavy, underpowered motorcycle.  However, we were able to carry a lot of luggage on it.  I thought it was a smooth ride on the interstate, but unsuitable for mountain riding.  It was also an uncomfortable bike to ride and my shoulders were very sore at the end of each day.  I wasn't able to use my map bag on it because the fuel tank has a gage in the middle.  It had cruise control which I briefly used on I-15 north of Pocatello. I liked the heel shifter and I got used to the footboards.  Anne's Dyna Wide glide was a very shaky, rattling cycle.  It only had highway pegs, no regular foot pegs.  She did not like the way it drove or handled.  There was very little storage space on it.  But these cycles were our only option and they served us well.  They were dependable and gave us no problems.