After leaving Seattle we faithfully followed the GPS directions through miles and miles of wheat fields to Spokane to meet up with some friends from the ADVRider website. The monotony of riding for hours through this kind of landscape is made easier by the occassional conversation with Sue on the intercom about how flat it looks, Oh and of course my 'helmet singing', a technique known only to tone deaf bikers!
"Right Sue, nice bit of straight road, let's see what this baby can do"!!!!
"Shut up, Stop being stupid and stick to the speed limit"
We stopped for lunch in Leavenworth, a quaint place straight out of the Black Forest. We're not just talking the odd building. the whole town had been Bavarianised! Why?
BOB felt very much at home here.
The ride to Jeff and Wendy's was made all the more adventurous by a quirky GPS, as the address it took us to was about 10 miles from where we wanted to be, but it did eventually show us the way once I had typed in the co-ordinates instead of the address.
Like us, Jeff and Wendy are intending to make the trip to South America. Jeff is ready to go tomorrow but I think the jury is still out for Wendy! Jeff donated some South American maps for the GPS and helped sort out some software issues and Sue got Wendy up to date with what we had done on our trip so far. We spent a lovely evening with them (thank you so much), hopefully we'll see them on the road heading South. We then started to make our way east again to resume the original route.
The parrot on Jeff's shoulder is the family pet, beautiful plumage!
We headed for the Glacier National Park in Montana. It was very hot all day and by the time we found some accommodation in Whitefish we were just about melting. We spent Sunday riding the ‘Going to the Sun Road’ it's another of those 'must do' routes and it lived up to expectations.
Lake McDonald
The road up the mountain.
"Back a bit more"
The road had only just reopened after melting snows had caused an avalanche. We spoke to a rider in Alaska who had told us the road was blocked when he came through and there was still evidence of snow bridges, where the damaged trees and debris prevent the snow underneath from melting.
The damage caused by snow is quite impressive.
"Go on Graham stand on it", it'll make a really good shot!
The view of the damage from further up the mountain
Isn't she pretty, What a guy!
More Stunning Scenery
You can only get shots like this with a good telephoto lens.......or if the mountain goat couldn't give a stuff about tourists!
Slightly out of focus foreground, for effect of course.
Why the suprised look? you've seen tourists before.
The top of the pass
On the way down we met some BMW riders who had completed the journey down to Ushuaia (our destination in Argentina) last year and were still buzzing from the experience.
We left the Park and headed South, looking for somewhere to stop the night. We probably had a couple of hours riding left but with the rain starting and storm clouds in the distance we opted for the first available motel in Browning, which was just as well...
BOB gets a wash.
We met a group of Harley riders who made us very welcome and shared their beer and the free entertainment of an electrical storm. Boy were we glad we stopped early.
Toughened bikers will ride in any weather, unless there's beer....Cheers!
The next day we rode to Helena over miles and miles of undulating grass lands (or plains). Seriously all you can see for miles around is the same landscape. It was hot and very windy. We managed to find accommodation where we stayed for a couple of nights and the wi fi really worked here so we were able to catch up on the last blog entry and make some phone calls home using Skype. It’s really good have contact with friends and family back home.
21 miles in a straight line.
The view over the Grand Tetons.
Evening on Jackson lake.
We decided to enter Yellowstone from the south to enable us to ride through the park and exit at the north west (Silver Gate) ready for the next part of the journey east. So on leaving Helena we headed towards Butte had lunch at Spencer (the opal capital of America), passed through the ‘city’ of Teton (pop 570) and via the ski resort of Jackson Hole drove towards the Grand Teton National Park. It was getting late by this time and riding was difficult due to the sun being so low in the sky. There were loads of vehicles coming towards us but we seemed to be the only ones going north. I couldn’t help but think they knew something we didn’t. Once at the park we managed to phone ahead to get a cabin and booked into reception at 20:45, courtesy of a number of delays for road works. We thought it best to eat immediately as the restaurant stopped serving at 21:00 and then collapsed into bed.
Sunrise overlooking the Grand Teton range.
Morning mists.
Yellowstone is everything you would expect, Impressive, Beautiful, Stunning, the weather was boiling hot but we did manage to ride through a hailstorm in the afternoon.
That water is super heated... and that fence looks dodgy.
Old Faithful performs every 92 minutes (give or take 10), so we dutifully waited...............
Along with this lot.
Old Faithful in the background, not so old faithful in the foreground!
Thar she blows!
Hydrothermal pools
You get two of these in a sandwich.
Trees that grow too close to the springs end up being bleached white.
Instruction on how to boil a small child!
Some old geysers smoking.
The RV's over here are huge, just like buses and they are usually towing a car or 4X4 but this one made us smile. The middle section looked like living accommodation and we swear the back part was a horse box!
How do you park it, turn it, wash it?
Firehole canyon falls
I spent hours stalking this elk waiting to get the right shot.......
Along with this lot!
Stunning!
Tower Creek
Mean looking buffalo, or is it a bison?
Everything stops when these boys cross the road.
This is the home, where the buffalo roam....
Leaving Yellowstone on the way to Cooke City
Overnight accommodation in Silver Gate
Good Night!
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