Well, the best laid plans….Our originally plan was to venture to the Arctic Circle. Thanks to the pandemic, that was cancelled. So, we backed up, punted. And now just doing a tour of the United States, without venturing to the Arctic Circle. Just leaves something on the bucket list for later.
Day 1…Left NC at 0610. Picked up Skipper (Cameron Waggner) 2.5 hours later up by Maggie Valley. Almost 800 miles later, we made it to Brinkley, AR. It was HOT, and the rain was at time torrential!
Day 2…Left Brinkley and jumped back on I-40. Almost 700 miles later, we rolled into Elk City, OK. Again, dang hot, and torrential rain! The highlight of the day was an unbelievably good Italian restaurant. Roma’s. If every in Elk City, OK. It’s a must stop!!
Day 3….Left Elk City heading to San Isabel, CO. Had cabins rented there. The good news…NO RAIN that day. The bad news…109 degrees in Amarillo, TX!! More bad news…our cabins we had rented in San Isabel were dumps! And I am being kind. Their website, does not match up with the reality of what they offer. Just the road up to the cabins needed a four wheel drive. Much less trying to reach them on motorcycles. And the restaurant was closed on a Friday night, which they just so happened forgot to mention. And since the closest thing was 25 miles away….we just ate the reservation, and pressed on and found another place up in Canon, CO. It actually turned out to be a godsend Found a very cool road for the next day. Skyline Drive. I have a video we made on it.
Day 4….Left Canon, CO headed for my buddy Bob Sugg’s place in Everngreen, CO. First stop was having breakfast with an old buddy from the Air Force. Don Dobyns. Was great catching up. Wanted to tour the museum there, but unfortunately ended up spending four hours at the Colorado Springs HD for a tire problem, that never got fixed. More on that later. Finally made it to Bob & Kathy Sugg. Great time. Great food. Great company.
Day 5….Left Evergreen and headed to Rawlings, WY. FYI….the wind in WY SUCKS!! The first part of the ride in CO was gorgeous. Once we got to WY…button down the hatches for the winds!! Roads 119 and 72, are must ride roads when in the area.
Day 6..Left Rawlings for Red Lodge. Again, WY winds SUCK!! Once we got to the northern part of WY close to Cody, things got better. We picked up the Chief Joseph Hwy north of Cody up to the middle of Beartooth HWY. Then we rode Beartooth into Red Lodge. The weather on Beartooth that day was miserable. The visibility was down to less than 1/8th of a mile. No fun. Plus it was 43 degrees and raining. Go figure!! Got to Red Lodge to stay in one of my most favorite places in the US. The Red Lodge Motel. Owned by Americans. They are a young couple from West Virginia. Very nice place. Walkable to everything downtown.
Day 7…Left Red Lodge early. We basically had the Beartooth Hwy all to ourselves for the first 2.5 hours. The weather was gorgeous. A little chilly, in the 30’s. But, we were dressed for it. I have ridden the Beartooth at least 10 times. This was without the nicest weather ever!! Then we got to Yellowstone. The best part of the park was closed. We had to detour. Traffic sucked. Got to West Yellowstone. And that is where we got to meet one of Yellowstone’s finest!! I will stop for there for now and pick up later.