I was up early this morning...woke at 6 and tried to sleep until 7, but then I got up. Ken Malone (RedBird on the Forum) and I were riding to Spearfish together. He had driven home to his place west of Lyons, CO, from KC yesterday and had to take his dog to a kennel near Berthoud. He planned on being there at 8 and then driving back to get his bike and leave home at about 8:45.
I was all packed and ready to go -- I'd even cleaned (most of) the bugs off the bike from my 4,000 mile trip to WV in May and Ken didn't call. I figured he'd run into some issues at the kennel and finally called him at 9:30. He said he was 3 minutes away from leaving. I only had about 10 miles to go to our meeting place. He arrived just after 10:30 and we were on our way!
We rode up I-25 through Cheyenne to Wheatland where we stopped for gas and a burger. Once more, I really enjoyed being able to get on and off the bike without the precariousness that has plagued me since I had it lowered last summer and that has been eliminated by my friend Ken, who shortened the sidestand another 3/4" on Monday.
Ken and I left Wheatland on a narrow, winding, hilly little road that took us past the Laramie River Power Station and Greyrocks Reservoir. My GPS, the mostly faithful "Shirley", told me to take an unpaved road to Ft. Laramie and estimated that route would add nearly an hour to our trip. I ignored Shirley, because I knew that there was a paved road that would take us by the Army National Guard artillery and rifle ranges and then past Register Cliff, historic landmark on the Oregon trail just out of Guernsey, WY, as well as the turnoff to the Oregon Trail Ruts made by the thousands of wagons that had to climb out of the floodplain of the Platte River on their way towards Casper, Independence Rock, South Pass, and eventually, Oregon. It was quite a journey, one that we can demonstrate 170 years of progress easily as we ride our two-wheeled steeds.
After passing through Guernsey, we headed north on Wyoming 270, that goes across a mostly empty basin before crossing US-20 and US-18 at Manville. North of Manville, 270 drops off a break that runs across a good chunk of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and makes for quite a scenic drop, pretty much no matter where you are.
Then through Lance Creek, a dying oilfield outpost that was the home of the 2007 Steer Wrestling Grand Champion, and we turned east until we got to US-85. Another 60 miles brought us to Newcastle, a nice little town where I served as an interim pastor at the United Methodist Church for four months in 2015. North of Newcastle, once we managed to figure out the detour that the signs pointed away from when we left the gas station and took us about 3-4 miles east of town on our way towards Custer, SD, on US-16, a route that would have added at least another hour or two to our trip, we enjoyed the ride through the western edge of the Black Hills (called Paha Sapa by the Lakota who considered it the sacred center of the world. "Paha Sapa" means "Black Hills," BTW.
We got to I-90 at Sundance, WY, and learned that the tailwind we had enjoyed all day could have made our ride less enjoyable if we had had to buck it like we did the last miles into Spearfish.
I checked into Bell's Motor Lodge Motel and learned the NT group was eating at Applebee's. I got there just as they finished eating and Ken arrived (after setting up his tent at the campground) just as my food came. Frosty, Coyote Chris, Chuck Henderson, junglejim were the NT Forum guys there tonight (in addition to Ken and I). Jim Moore will be here tomorrow afternoon -- his wife is going to drive him up so he can see the guys. Frosty and Coyote Chris will be leaving Friday afternoon and then the rest of us will head out on Saturday morning.
It looks like we've got a good chance of getting wet on our way home, but at least we won't be hot!
If you're interested in seeing where we ride (or at least where I ride, you can click on my link to my Spotwalla page:
https://spotwalla.com/publicTrips.php?un=PTarman
Tune in tomorrow for further updates!
I was all packed and ready to go -- I'd even cleaned (most of) the bugs off the bike from my 4,000 mile trip to WV in May and Ken didn't call. I figured he'd run into some issues at the kennel and finally called him at 9:30. He said he was 3 minutes away from leaving. I only had about 10 miles to go to our meeting place. He arrived just after 10:30 and we were on our way!
We rode up I-25 through Cheyenne to Wheatland where we stopped for gas and a burger. Once more, I really enjoyed being able to get on and off the bike without the precariousness that has plagued me since I had it lowered last summer and that has been eliminated by my friend Ken, who shortened the sidestand another 3/4" on Monday.
Ken and I left Wheatland on a narrow, winding, hilly little road that took us past the Laramie River Power Station and Greyrocks Reservoir. My GPS, the mostly faithful "Shirley", told me to take an unpaved road to Ft. Laramie and estimated that route would add nearly an hour to our trip. I ignored Shirley, because I knew that there was a paved road that would take us by the Army National Guard artillery and rifle ranges and then past Register Cliff, historic landmark on the Oregon trail just out of Guernsey, WY, as well as the turnoff to the Oregon Trail Ruts made by the thousands of wagons that had to climb out of the floodplain of the Platte River on their way towards Casper, Independence Rock, South Pass, and eventually, Oregon. It was quite a journey, one that we can demonstrate 170 years of progress easily as we ride our two-wheeled steeds.
After passing through Guernsey, we headed north on Wyoming 270, that goes across a mostly empty basin before crossing US-20 and US-18 at Manville. North of Manville, 270 drops off a break that runs across a good chunk of western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and makes for quite a scenic drop, pretty much no matter where you are.
Then through Lance Creek, a dying oilfield outpost that was the home of the 2007 Steer Wrestling Grand Champion, and we turned east until we got to US-85. Another 60 miles brought us to Newcastle, a nice little town where I served as an interim pastor at the United Methodist Church for four months in 2015. North of Newcastle, once we managed to figure out the detour that the signs pointed away from when we left the gas station and took us about 3-4 miles east of town on our way towards Custer, SD, on US-16, a route that would have added at least another hour or two to our trip, we enjoyed the ride through the western edge of the Black Hills (called Paha Sapa by the Lakota who considered it the sacred center of the world. "Paha Sapa" means "Black Hills," BTW.
We got to I-90 at Sundance, WY, and learned that the tailwind we had enjoyed all day could have made our ride less enjoyable if we had had to buck it like we did the last miles into Spearfish.
I checked into Bell's Motor Lodge Motel and learned the NT group was eating at Applebee's. I got there just as they finished eating and Ken arrived (after setting up his tent at the campground) just as my food came. Frosty, Coyote Chris, Chuck Henderson, junglejim were the NT Forum guys there tonight (in addition to Ken and I). Jim Moore will be here tomorrow afternoon -- his wife is going to drive him up so he can see the guys. Frosty and Coyote Chris will be leaving Friday afternoon and then the rest of us will head out on Saturday morning.
It looks like we've got a good chance of getting wet on our way home, but at least we won't be hot!
If you're interested in seeing where we ride (or at least where I ride, you can click on my link to my Spotwalla page:
https://spotwalla.com/publicTrips.php?un=PTarman
Tune in tomorrow for further updates!
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