Today have our sights set on home! We had good weather to ride in - not too hot or humid! AND we got home before the big rain. It was so good to see home! We have said many times that we enjoy seeing other parts of the country, but there is no place like home.
Now all we have to do is unpack, wash clothes, clean up the bike and trailer, and get groceries. However, the only thing we are going to do tonight is start washing clothes...the rest will just have to wait.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Days 26 and 27 (Wednesday and Thursday wk 4)
Day 26. . We were able to visit Chaney's Dairy Farm in Bowling Green today. We had not had lunch, so we decided to eat a very small meal and then we could have ice cream! We are glad we did only eat a small meal because the ice cream was worth it. I had peanut butter fudge and Pam had woo hoo brown cow! Mmmmmmmm good!
We still have been pretty lucky with the weather, considering all that we have missed by being just behind the bad weather. I would rather be behind it than trying to outrun it! LOL Every evening we have stopped because the weather was looking rather bad. It would storm all evening and all night and then be nice the next morning.
That being said, when we got back on the the road again after leaving Chaney's Dairy Barn in Bowling Green, we realized we would have been only a few miles from Nashville and could have gone on home that way, but we had already decided we wanted to see the Shaker Village again so we found a room in Cave City, Kentucky, for the night. Again, it poured rain and stormed during the night.
Day 27 . We woke up to an overcast morning and headed out toward Shaker Village, but since we were in Cave City, decided to ride to Mammoth Cave National Park. There were several different tours available, but we decided not to take a tour. There was a small side road that had lots of debris all over the road from the storm last night, so we just decided to leave there and head toward Shaker Village.
It was looking a little gray, but we decided to go ahead with our plans. We visited part of the "sleeping quarters" in the family dwelling and the schedule showed that there would be a representation of singing and dancing done Shaker style in the meeting house, so we left that building to go across the street to see it. We were able to watch the 20 minute show and after she finished singing, the singer announced that inclement weather was moving in and that the basement of the two family dwellings would be open for shelter. We checked at the post office/gift shop and were told we could go next door for more information about the weather because she had not been told anything about the weather. The people next door told us that there was nothing more than thunderstorms moving in so we decided to stay and finish our tour. Just then the skies opened up and poured! We stood under a tree that had thick branches and limbs covered with leaves that mostly sheltered us from the rain. We were able to finish the tour and found that by the time we got back to the bike, it was mostly dried off too, so we just got out our bead seats to let air circulate, and we took off.
We had our destination set for home, but when we stopped in Corbin, Kentucky for gas and food, we had already seen several strikes of lightning in the distance and it was beginning to get cloudy and gray looking. A few texts and calls to home folks let us know that it was storming at home and the power was off in places, so we decided to stay in Corbin. But, by the time we got checked in, it was looking better in Lenoir City! Who knows what we would have encountered on the way home though, so we will just anticipate what we will encounter on the way home tomorrow morning! Nite all!
We still have been pretty lucky with the weather, considering all that we have missed by being just behind the bad weather. I would rather be behind it than trying to outrun it! LOL Every evening we have stopped because the weather was looking rather bad. It would storm all evening and all night and then be nice the next morning.
That being said, when we got back on the the road again after leaving Chaney's Dairy Barn in Bowling Green, we realized we would have been only a few miles from Nashville and could have gone on home that way, but we had already decided we wanted to see the Shaker Village again so we found a room in Cave City, Kentucky, for the night. Again, it poured rain and stormed during the night.
Day 27 . We woke up to an overcast morning and headed out toward Shaker Village, but since we were in Cave City, decided to ride to Mammoth Cave National Park. There were several different tours available, but we decided not to take a tour. There was a small side road that had lots of debris all over the road from the storm last night, so we just decided to leave there and head toward Shaker Village.
It was looking a little gray, but we decided to go ahead with our plans. We visited part of the "sleeping quarters" in the family dwelling and the schedule showed that there would be a representation of singing and dancing done Shaker style in the meeting house, so we left that building to go across the street to see it. We were able to watch the 20 minute show and after she finished singing, the singer announced that inclement weather was moving in and that the basement of the two family dwellings would be open for shelter. We checked at the post office/gift shop and were told we could go next door for more information about the weather because she had not been told anything about the weather. The people next door told us that there was nothing more than thunderstorms moving in so we decided to stay and finish our tour. Just then the skies opened up and poured! We stood under a tree that had thick branches and limbs covered with leaves that mostly sheltered us from the rain. We were able to finish the tour and found that by the time we got back to the bike, it was mostly dried off too, so we just got out our bead seats to let air circulate, and we took off.
We had our destination set for home, but when we stopped in Corbin, Kentucky for gas and food, we had already seen several strikes of lightning in the distance and it was beginning to get cloudy and gray looking. A few texts and calls to home folks let us know that it was storming at home and the power was off in places, so we decided to stay in Corbin. But, by the time we got checked in, it was looking better in Lenoir City! Who knows what we would have encountered on the way home though, so we will just anticipate what we will encounter on the way home tomorrow morning! Nite all!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Days 23, 24, and 25 (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday wk 4)
Day 23. . We left Gillette, Wyoming, with South Dakota as our destination. We rode through Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, and then on to Sturgis. Spearfish Canyon is not as pretty as the other scenic byways we have been on this month, so we didn't get many pictures there. We drove through Deadwood without stopping, but took some pictures as we rode through. We picked up some t-shirts in Sturgis. It is sort of a tradition to pick up shirts from this same lady that sets up at both Daytona and Sturgis with her t-shirts.
After all the other days of beautiful scenery we have seen, this was just a ho-hum day! LOL
We did see a reallllly lonnnnggg snow fence that seemed to go on for about 8 or 9 miles. They really have lots of snow out here! Glad we don't have it like that in Tennessee! We have seen signs in a lot of the states that tell people not to pass snow plows on the right side! You would think you wouldn't have to tell people that, but I guess there are some drivers that don't think and drive! LOL
We stopped for the night in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Day 24.. Today our first stop was Wal-Mart. You know, withdrawals from Wal-Mart get pretty bad after 2 or 3 days. :-)
Our next stop was Cabelas. We have found some excellent sales at Cabelas before, but this was the second one we have stopped at this trip and did not find anything! We must be here at the wrong time of the year.
Our next stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell. It was beginning to drizzle, so we did not tarry, but for those of you not familiar with it, here is the story: every year there is a different mural/theme that is made of ears of corn and corn husks. Someone designs the murals and then college kids come in and put it together, from the husking all the way to stapling it to the plywood. We have never been here when they were actually working on it, so this was a treat to see them actually putting it together.
We then got on the bike and rode to get on down the road toward home. We stopped in Cedar Rapids, South Dakota, for the night.
Day 25.. When we left Cedar Rapids, we had Antique Archeology on our minds. You know - from American Pickers! They are located in Le Claire, Iowa, so we left South Dakota and rode all the way across Minnesota today.
There was great disappointment when we arrived at Antique Archeology! No Danielle! No Mike! No Frank! What a big letdown! We decided to make the best of it, though, and enjoy what was there. One of the sales clerks, we believe, is trying to be a "Danielle" though. She had a good start on tattoos on her upper body and was wearing the signature red lipstick. She had blond hair, though, so she is not completely a "Danielle".
A lot of the items they had for sale were things we remembered being picked on the show. There were lots of bicycle frames and a lot of motorcycle vintage stuff. One Indian Motorcycle pamphlet we looked at was "How to Ride A Motorcycle". We would have purchased one, because they had several, but they were $60 each. It was enjoyable seeing the place and all the inventory they had. It looks just like it shows it in their TV show. It is not a big place at all, but they are expanding to have more show room.
We have had our sense of smell assaulted for the past three days. Not a pleasant smell either! People in this neck of the woods believe in the use of natural fertilizer, if you know what I mean. Cow, horse, human, and a little dog mixed in, along with whatever wild animal happens to cross the fields, is what it smells like. All the rain they have had has just rejuvenated the pungent odor! Peeeewwwwww!
We had ridden quite a few miles when the sky started looking kinda bad, so we are stopped in Champaign, Illinois, and will use this as our "catch-up" day.....to catch up on laundry, blogging, resting, etc. and boy, are we glad we did stop when we did because the skies opened up and the rain fell! The wind blew! The lightning struck! The thunder boomed! The wind blew the cover off the bike, including our GWRRA windshield cover! We thought it had probably blown away to the Atlantic Ocean as hard as the wind blew, but luckily the straps held it onto the bike....it just didn't cover the bike....and the windshield cover was heavy enough from the soaking rain that it had just fallen on the pavement right next to the bike.
We have decided that we will now head for Bowling Green, Kentucky, to visit Chaney's Dairy Farm (we haven't smelled enough dairy byproducts already apparently!) and then on to see Shaker Village in Harrodsburg before heading home to Tennessee.
After all the other days of beautiful scenery we have seen, this was just a ho-hum day! LOL
We did see a reallllly lonnnnggg snow fence that seemed to go on for about 8 or 9 miles. They really have lots of snow out here! Glad we don't have it like that in Tennessee! We have seen signs in a lot of the states that tell people not to pass snow plows on the right side! You would think you wouldn't have to tell people that, but I guess there are some drivers that don't think and drive! LOL
We stopped for the night in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Day 24.. Today our first stop was Wal-Mart. You know, withdrawals from Wal-Mart get pretty bad after 2 or 3 days. :-)
Our next stop was Cabelas. We have found some excellent sales at Cabelas before, but this was the second one we have stopped at this trip and did not find anything! We must be here at the wrong time of the year.
Our next stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell. It was beginning to drizzle, so we did not tarry, but for those of you not familiar with it, here is the story: every year there is a different mural/theme that is made of ears of corn and corn husks. Someone designs the murals and then college kids come in and put it together, from the husking all the way to stapling it to the plywood. We have never been here when they were actually working on it, so this was a treat to see them actually putting it together.
We then got on the bike and rode to get on down the road toward home. We stopped in Cedar Rapids, South Dakota, for the night.
Day 25.. When we left Cedar Rapids, we had Antique Archeology on our minds. You know - from American Pickers! They are located in Le Claire, Iowa, so we left South Dakota and rode all the way across Minnesota today.
There was great disappointment when we arrived at Antique Archeology! No Danielle! No Mike! No Frank! What a big letdown! We decided to make the best of it, though, and enjoy what was there. One of the sales clerks, we believe, is trying to be a "Danielle" though. She had a good start on tattoos on her upper body and was wearing the signature red lipstick. She had blond hair, though, so she is not completely a "Danielle".
A lot of the items they had for sale were things we remembered being picked on the show. There were lots of bicycle frames and a lot of motorcycle vintage stuff. One Indian Motorcycle pamphlet we looked at was "How to Ride A Motorcycle". We would have purchased one, because they had several, but they were $60 each. It was enjoyable seeing the place and all the inventory they had. It looks just like it shows it in their TV show. It is not a big place at all, but they are expanding to have more show room.
We have had our sense of smell assaulted for the past three days. Not a pleasant smell either! People in this neck of the woods believe in the use of natural fertilizer, if you know what I mean. Cow, horse, human, and a little dog mixed in, along with whatever wild animal happens to cross the fields, is what it smells like. All the rain they have had has just rejuvenated the pungent odor! Peeeewwwwww!
We had ridden quite a few miles when the sky started looking kinda bad, so we are stopped in Champaign, Illinois, and will use this as our "catch-up" day.....to catch up on laundry, blogging, resting, etc. and boy, are we glad we did stop when we did because the skies opened up and the rain fell! The wind blew! The lightning struck! The thunder boomed! The wind blew the cover off the bike, including our GWRRA windshield cover! We thought it had probably blown away to the Atlantic Ocean as hard as the wind blew, but luckily the straps held it onto the bike....it just didn't cover the bike....and the windshield cover was heavy enough from the soaking rain that it had just fallen on the pavement right next to the bike.
We have decided that we will now head for Bowling Green, Kentucky, to visit Chaney's Dairy Farm (we haven't smelled enough dairy byproducts already apparently!) and then on to see Shaker Village in Harrodsburg before heading home to Tennessee.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Day 22 (Saturday wk 3)
We left Cody this morning with a warmer morning at 54. We had such high hopes! We had missed Chief Joseph Highway, so we decided to go back and ride it then double back to head back east.
The weather did not cooperate though. We started up the scenic highway and made it just a few miles in when it started raining again. Since we didn't want to take another chance of running into snow, we turned around sooner than we wanted. Disappointment!
But, all was not lost! We got on highway 14 going into Sheridan, which was another scenic highway. It was another beautiful one! We kept running in and out of the sunshine with menacing looking clouds and sky in other places. You can be in sunshine one minute, turn a corner, and be faced with dark gloomy clouds. We went through a big town called Emblem, with a total population of 10! That's right, 10!
We passed through Granite Pass, which was a really large one. At one point, we saw several cars pulled over so we knew something was cornered. It was a moose eating shrubs on the side of the road. We got a few pictures of it, of course.
It got really foggy on us then, and at one time, we could only see a few yards ahead. There was one spectacular scenic area pulloff where we could see the fog caught down in a valley, and we got some more pictures. The valley was so green and the fog line was unbelievable.
We finally reached Sheridan and got on I-90 headed toward Gillette, Wyoming. The temp began to get a little cooler and all of a sudden, we realized there was snow on the side of the road and on the rooftops of the houses! We had missed that one by only a little bit! This was about 10 miles outside Gillette.
We found a motel room in Gillette and went to eat before unloading. At the restaurant, there was a large area of flooding in the parking lot. When I asked the waitress about the flooding, she said,"oh yes, we have had two days of heavy rain!" But the surprise was that we had just missed a hail storm, according to someone walking through the parking lot at the motel! He says the hail was quarter to half dollar sizes e 70 mph winds. We sure are glad we missed the snow, hail and wind.
We want to head south tomorrow to get below all this nasty weather, but north enough to miss the high temps in the south. Reckon that can be done? LOL
Can this really be June???
Again, pictures will follow. Slow Internet again!
The weather did not cooperate though. We started up the scenic highway and made it just a few miles in when it started raining again. Since we didn't want to take another chance of running into snow, we turned around sooner than we wanted. Disappointment!
But, all was not lost! We got on highway 14 going into Sheridan, which was another scenic highway. It was another beautiful one! We kept running in and out of the sunshine with menacing looking clouds and sky in other places. You can be in sunshine one minute, turn a corner, and be faced with dark gloomy clouds. We went through a big town called Emblem, with a total population of 10! That's right, 10!
We passed through Granite Pass, which was a really large one. At one point, we saw several cars pulled over so we knew something was cornered. It was a moose eating shrubs on the side of the road. We got a few pictures of it, of course.
It got really foggy on us then, and at one time, we could only see a few yards ahead. There was one spectacular scenic area pulloff where we could see the fog caught down in a valley, and we got some more pictures. The valley was so green and the fog line was unbelievable.
We finally reached Sheridan and got on I-90 headed toward Gillette, Wyoming. The temp began to get a little cooler and all of a sudden, we realized there was snow on the side of the road and on the rooftops of the houses! We had missed that one by only a little bit! This was about 10 miles outside Gillette.
We found a motel room in Gillette and went to eat before unloading. At the restaurant, there was a large area of flooding in the parking lot. When I asked the waitress about the flooding, she said,"oh yes, we have had two days of heavy rain!" But the surprise was that we had just missed a hail storm, according to someone walking through the parking lot at the motel! He says the hail was quarter to half dollar sizes e 70 mph winds. We sure are glad we missed the snow, hail and wind.
We want to head south tomorrow to get below all this nasty weather, but north enough to miss the high temps in the south. Reckon that can be done? LOL
Can this really be June???
Again, pictures will follow. Slow Internet again!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Day 21 (Friday wk 3)
We left Butte, Montana, and rode interstate most of the morning. To get to Cody, Wyoming, we chose to ride through Yellowstone National Park instead of staying on the interstate all day. We saw a different part of the park than before since we wanted to leave the park through the East entrance.
We stopped at the visitors center and got our passport stamped. This visitors center was in the center of what looked like a small town. There was an engineers office building, a post office, a lodge, a restaurant, and other buildings. Just above these buildings was Mammoth Hot Springs. It is an amazing sight! The smell is terrible because it is hot sulfur, but there was steam rising and there was a flow of the hot sulfur that had hardened. A walkway has been built all around the area and has several levels to walk on to get up close and personal with the hot springs. All around the loop in the park are small pools with hot bubbling water with signs warning people not to get close to the hot bubbling area.
There were also signs warning not to approach the bison because they are wild animals, which we already knew. Boy, do we ever know! A couple chased us on the bike for several yards before going off into the woods when we were in Custer State Park several years ago. Julie Moats was able to get a picture of that and she presented us a copy of the chase! LOL We had stopped for Pam to get a picture while they were lying down, but there was something they didn't like and, before we knew it, one was actually blowing steam through his nostrils, jumped up, and started toward us. They may look slow and sluggish, but, man, are they fast!
Anyway, today as we rounded a curve, we saw what looked like a big yellow rock on the side of the road. However, when we got to it, we realized it was a bison that had not shed it's winter coat! We breathed a sigh of relief because this one was not interested in chasing us and just laid there.
We were lucky enough to be first in line when an elk crossed the road in front of us. She stopped on the side of the road to graze on some tender tree leaves and paid no attention to the cars stopping to take pictures.
We saw a coyote in the pounce stance and had gotten a couple of pictures of it when someone in a car pulled between us and the coyote. Never even realized we were there! So we did not get a picture of him when he pounced on whatever it was. What a disappointment.
We saw several other small herds of bison on either side of the road and then we saw a HUGE herd of them near a pond. There were several baby ones with the herds. They were all up and were grazing.
We started to notice that several trees had the bark knocked off the trunk from 3-4 feet from the ground and we thought maybe it was from the snow plows, but then we saw some damaged trees not close enough to the road. We wondered then if maybe the bison or some other animal had been chewing the bark because there were so many damaged trees. A park employees told us it was the bison. He said it is mating season and they must be showing their frustration! LOL
After we got our motel room, we went to the Sierra Trading Post Outlet. Pam orders quite a bit of things from their Internet store, so she thought it would be fun to visit one of the actual stores. She was disappointed in the size of the store. She did find a jacket and a carabiner and got a deal on the jacket since she was in their computer system, and got a 35% discount. She was very pleased with that.
Our goal had been to ride the Chief Joseph Highway today also, but we missed the road to take us out to it, so we ended up a little lower down in the state, but it was a scenic highway, too, so we were not too disappointed. We plan to get up tomorrow and ride it up and back and then head on back toward Tennessee with a few more stops between here and there. We are in for the night at Cody, Wyoming.
We'll add pictures later because of terribly slowwwwww internet at our motel.
We stopped at the visitors center and got our passport stamped. This visitors center was in the center of what looked like a small town. There was an engineers office building, a post office, a lodge, a restaurant, and other buildings. Just above these buildings was Mammoth Hot Springs. It is an amazing sight! The smell is terrible because it is hot sulfur, but there was steam rising and there was a flow of the hot sulfur that had hardened. A walkway has been built all around the area and has several levels to walk on to get up close and personal with the hot springs. All around the loop in the park are small pools with hot bubbling water with signs warning people not to get close to the hot bubbling area.
There were also signs warning not to approach the bison because they are wild animals, which we already knew. Boy, do we ever know! A couple chased us on the bike for several yards before going off into the woods when we were in Custer State Park several years ago. Julie Moats was able to get a picture of that and she presented us a copy of the chase! LOL We had stopped for Pam to get a picture while they were lying down, but there was something they didn't like and, before we knew it, one was actually blowing steam through his nostrils, jumped up, and started toward us. They may look slow and sluggish, but, man, are they fast!
Anyway, today as we rounded a curve, we saw what looked like a big yellow rock on the side of the road. However, when we got to it, we realized it was a bison that had not shed it's winter coat! We breathed a sigh of relief because this one was not interested in chasing us and just laid there.
We were lucky enough to be first in line when an elk crossed the road in front of us. She stopped on the side of the road to graze on some tender tree leaves and paid no attention to the cars stopping to take pictures.
We saw a coyote in the pounce stance and had gotten a couple of pictures of it when someone in a car pulled between us and the coyote. Never even realized we were there! So we did not get a picture of him when he pounced on whatever it was. What a disappointment.
We saw several other small herds of bison on either side of the road and then we saw a HUGE herd of them near a pond. There were several baby ones with the herds. They were all up and were grazing.
We started to notice that several trees had the bark knocked off the trunk from 3-4 feet from the ground and we thought maybe it was from the snow plows, but then we saw some damaged trees not close enough to the road. We wondered then if maybe the bison or some other animal had been chewing the bark because there were so many damaged trees. A park employees told us it was the bison. He said it is mating season and they must be showing their frustration! LOL
After we got our motel room, we went to the Sierra Trading Post Outlet. Pam orders quite a bit of things from their Internet store, so she thought it would be fun to visit one of the actual stores. She was disappointed in the size of the store. She did find a jacket and a carabiner and got a deal on the jacket since she was in their computer system, and got a 35% discount. She was very pleased with that.
Our goal had been to ride the Chief Joseph Highway today also, but we missed the road to take us out to it, so we ended up a little lower down in the state, but it was a scenic highway, too, so we were not too disappointed. We plan to get up tomorrow and ride it up and back and then head on back toward Tennessee with a few more stops between here and there. We are in for the night at Cody, Wyoming.
We'll add pictures later because of terribly slowwwwww internet at our motel.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Day 20 (Thursday wk 3)
Today we left Enterprise, Oregon, braving a cool temp of 47 degrees and a view of the mountains with a fresh coating of snow! We ate breakfast at the local happening place, "Friends", and, as each local left while we were taking off some of our layers, he would stop and ask us questions about traveling on the bike and, of course, where we were from and where we were headed. Once we got inside, we got the same questions. One of them did help us by giving us information/advice about the road he would take to get out of there to get to I-90. Some of that info included the fact that we would probably see snow in a couple of places and to take it easy on the "90 degree turns". But he assured us that there would probably be no snow on the road.
We never did see any snow on the road, but there were a couple of times that there was some spitting snow falling from the sky. We had a little more rain and cool temps all day. Pam did have her heated suit turned on most of the day.
From Enterprise to Lewiston, Idaho, was only 87 miles, but it took a good while due to the conditions. The road took us down into and up out of canyons several times on very curvy roads. From there we rode to Missoula, Montana, and on into Butte, Montana, where we have stopped for the night. We have been on the road 12 hours today and expect several hours of riding tomorrow before we make it to Cody, Wyoming.
Again, no pictures today. Too cold!!!!
We never did see any snow on the road, but there were a couple of times that there was some spitting snow falling from the sky. We had a little more rain and cool temps all day. Pam did have her heated suit turned on most of the day.
From Enterprise to Lewiston, Idaho, was only 87 miles, but it took a good while due to the conditions. The road took us down into and up out of canyons several times on very curvy roads. From there we rode to Missoula, Montana, and on into Butte, Montana, where we have stopped for the night. We have been on the road 12 hours today and expect several hours of riding tomorrow before we make it to Cody, Wyoming.
Again, no pictures today. Too cold!!!!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Days 18 & 19 (Tuesday and Wednesday wk 3)
TWO BAD DAYS!
Our first clue should have been that the GPS would not bring up directions to Mount St. Helens. When we were leaving the Sportsmans Warehouse that we told you about in the previous post, we tried to get directions from there on the GPS to Mt. St. Helens. It spun its wheels forever and came up with a St. Helens in Jamaica and a couple of other places but not the one in Washington. We decided we would not let it get the best of us, so we put in the city of Cougar, which is near there. When we left Madras on Tuesday morning, we had both St. Helens and Mt. Ranier as our points of interest for the day. However, it was not to be. We never got there! The route that Ms. GPS took us had us going out into the country, and several times we decided that this was not the way we went into it the last time we visited. When Ms. GPS tried to get us to go down a dirt road, we knew she was really confused. The road got more narrow as we traveled (but the road did have a yellow line), until we decided to turn around when we found a wide spot in the road. This made our whole day a day of travel in the seat with the only times off the bike being when we stopped for gas. We then decided it was time to just try to get to Hells Canyon the next day.
We ended up at Hermiston, Oregon for the night. We stayed at a really nice motel that had a stone facade and was really nicely landscaped. There were big stone slab benches outside and just inside the door. There were large leather and cowhide couches inside the lobby with a large ottoman covered in some kind of hide.
We had a restful night and woke up to a cold morning of 47 degrees, with a very heavy overcast sky. As soon as we pulled onto the interstate, it started raining. This should have been another clue not to get off the interstate to travel on a two lane, but we were determined to see Hells Canyon. Soooooo, off we take down the two lane, traveling several miles on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. We noticed several cars, trucks, and motor homes coming from the opposite direction but none going our way. (Another clue?). It was still raining, overcast, and foggy looking over the mountains, and we discussed a couple of times turning around, but bullheaded as we are, decided to go on. Never give up, right?
We got to within 22 to 23 miles of the Hells Canyon Overlook and a truck came up behind us that had 2 kayaks on top, so we were relieved that we were not the only idiots out there! LOL. We stopped them and asked if they had ever been there before and they had not, so they could not tell us the road conditions ahead of us, and we waved them on by us. A couple of other vehicles caught up with us and we waved them on by so we could go at our own pace.
The rain suddenly started looking thicker and falling heavier, and we realized that it was actually snowing - not raining! Then it began to snow really hard, like piling-up-snow hard! We were looking for a place to turn around and a fork in the road appeared, so we took the opportunity to turn around. Everything started fogging up and the windshield got covered with snow, sooooo we had to stop to clean it off. We were able to make it a few more yards and had to stop to clean it off again. The temp by this time had gotten down to 35 degrees! We stopped 3 or 4 more times to clean the windshield before we ran out of the snow, but it was still a cold rain. We knew we had to get out of there, so we did travel a little faster going out than we did going in - still at a safe pace, though. We finally made it back to a little town called Enterprise and stopped for gas. The attendant told us, "Oh yeah, they are predicting 3-6 inches in the canyon!". How did we miss that news?
We got a room at the Ponderosa Motel in town. There were several other motorcycle riders in town stopped for gas at other stations, most single rides, but a couple of others with two-up. By that time, our socks were beginning to get wet and rain was getting in other places that had been dry before. So by 1:30, we were in a nice dry room with the heat turned up as high as it would go! We are in for the night again and are praying for the rain to stop tonight as we head toward Cody, Wyoming tomorrow. It is supposed to be in the 80's there tomorrow! And sunny! Oh, and no pictures from these two days, so don't look for them! :-)
Our first clue should have been that the GPS would not bring up directions to Mount St. Helens. When we were leaving the Sportsmans Warehouse that we told you about in the previous post, we tried to get directions from there on the GPS to Mt. St. Helens. It spun its wheels forever and came up with a St. Helens in Jamaica and a couple of other places but not the one in Washington. We decided we would not let it get the best of us, so we put in the city of Cougar, which is near there. When we left Madras on Tuesday morning, we had both St. Helens and Mt. Ranier as our points of interest for the day. However, it was not to be. We never got there! The route that Ms. GPS took us had us going out into the country, and several times we decided that this was not the way we went into it the last time we visited. When Ms. GPS tried to get us to go down a dirt road, we knew she was really confused. The road got more narrow as we traveled (but the road did have a yellow line), until we decided to turn around when we found a wide spot in the road. This made our whole day a day of travel in the seat with the only times off the bike being when we stopped for gas. We then decided it was time to just try to get to Hells Canyon the next day.
We ended up at Hermiston, Oregon for the night. We stayed at a really nice motel that had a stone facade and was really nicely landscaped. There were big stone slab benches outside and just inside the door. There were large leather and cowhide couches inside the lobby with a large ottoman covered in some kind of hide.
We had a restful night and woke up to a cold morning of 47 degrees, with a very heavy overcast sky. As soon as we pulled onto the interstate, it started raining. This should have been another clue not to get off the interstate to travel on a two lane, but we were determined to see Hells Canyon. Soooooo, off we take down the two lane, traveling several miles on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. We noticed several cars, trucks, and motor homes coming from the opposite direction but none going our way. (Another clue?). It was still raining, overcast, and foggy looking over the mountains, and we discussed a couple of times turning around, but bullheaded as we are, decided to go on. Never give up, right?
We got to within 22 to 23 miles of the Hells Canyon Overlook and a truck came up behind us that had 2 kayaks on top, so we were relieved that we were not the only idiots out there! LOL. We stopped them and asked if they had ever been there before and they had not, so they could not tell us the road conditions ahead of us, and we waved them on by us. A couple of other vehicles caught up with us and we waved them on by so we could go at our own pace.
The rain suddenly started looking thicker and falling heavier, and we realized that it was actually snowing - not raining! Then it began to snow really hard, like piling-up-snow hard! We were looking for a place to turn around and a fork in the road appeared, so we took the opportunity to turn around. Everything started fogging up and the windshield got covered with snow, sooooo we had to stop to clean it off. We were able to make it a few more yards and had to stop to clean it off again. The temp by this time had gotten down to 35 degrees! We stopped 3 or 4 more times to clean the windshield before we ran out of the snow, but it was still a cold rain. We knew we had to get out of there, so we did travel a little faster going out than we did going in - still at a safe pace, though. We finally made it back to a little town called Enterprise and stopped for gas. The attendant told us, "Oh yeah, they are predicting 3-6 inches in the canyon!". How did we miss that news?
We got a room at the Ponderosa Motel in town. There were several other motorcycle riders in town stopped for gas at other stations, most single rides, but a couple of others with two-up. By that time, our socks were beginning to get wet and rain was getting in other places that had been dry before. So by 1:30, we were in a nice dry room with the heat turned up as high as it would go! We are in for the night again and are praying for the rain to stop tonight as we head toward Cody, Wyoming tomorrow. It is supposed to be in the 80's there tomorrow! And sunny! Oh, and no pictures from these two days, so don't look for them! :-)
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