Yellowstone to Mama Sage

start 9:38, 14022

end, 19:30, 14381

This morning we started the day in Gardiner, MT just outside the north entrance to Yellowstone. We went on a quick 2 mile run. Would've gone longer, but we ran from one end of town and back again. It was a small town. There was no one else in town running, except an elk. She was uninterested in us and continued to eat her breakfast. The locals looked at us oddly for running. 

We entered Yellowstone at 9:38 and toured for about three hours. We saw the Mammoth Hot Spring, a mud geyser, mud volcano and the Fishing Bridge. The first two and a half hours of sightseeing were fantastic. The last bit was nerve wracking for me. The first incident was a herd of Bison on the road. Not a big deal when you are in a car, but on the motorcycle, it was scary. If one of those guys got spooked and charged us we would have been knocked off of the bike easily. As it was, they ate grass and meandered with no interest in us or any of the other cars. After sitting for about 10 minutes they cleared the way and we moved on. Not really a big deal, but my heart was racing. I did get some great pictures. 

We continued through the park toward the East entrance through the Sylvan pass at over 8400 ft. Going down the pass around Yellowstone Lake was when the real trouble began. The clouds were closing in around us and we really needed to boogie as quickly as the roads would allow. As luck would have it, there was a very cautious driver in front of us going about 25 - 30mph, when the speed limit was 45. Frustrating. And we ended up getting wet. Finally there was a passing lane and Ryan was able to get around them and get us out of the path of the bad part of the storm.

We exited the park through beautiful scenery into Cody, WY. It was a quaint town and looked like it had neat offerings. Unfortunately as we stopped to find a place for lunch, Ryan pulled up the weather and saw there was a severe weather alert forecasting hail and severe thunderstorms in the next 45 minutes. We decided to jet. 

We rode on to Thermopolis, WY with every plan to stop for lunch. There was no restaurant in sight. We stopped at an Exxon. It was there we had our oddity sighting of the day. If you are familiar with Sons of Anarchy, Jax, Piney, Tig, Juice, a couple of others and two "old ladies" on the back of bikes rode in. They were an intimidating group. They all had on cuts of some club name, est in 1977. I wish I could recall the name. The one guy I'm referring to as Jax paid for all the fuel. Everyone had a smoke break and waited on him to go inside. I wasn't in the gas station but I am certain there was a pay off, drug deal or some other nefarious deed. The two females were the most interesting to me. They were in jeans and various accoutrement tied about themselves. One looked like Pocahontas in tall leather Minnetoka boots and the other was definitely a "lady of the evening" in a skin tight top and five inch spiked platform purple suede heels. All of the group appeared to need a thorough cleaning and some personal hygiene and maintenance. Needless to say, we were not invited to be part of their group.However, a "Rider for Christ" gave us a card and asked us to join. Oddly, though, he did not approach the Sons!

We pressed on through some rugged terrain in Wyoming. Learned that "mama sage" supports all kinds of wildlife in the area. 

The hours were long and the miles few, but we finally made it Casper for the night. We had a swim at the hotel, did laundry and had a dinner at Outback. We are ready to ride for the next two days and get home Sunday so we can recover and prepare for work on Tuesday.