Riding Into the Clouds

Our driving mission today was 160 miles, Worland to Gillette. Wyoming Route 14 is one of the most beautiful motorcycle roads I've ever seen. At every one of the hundreds of turns a new picture postcard scene appears. As we drove through the 72 degree prairie and up the mountainside to the Powder River Pass, 9,666 feet in altitude, the temperature dropped to 45 degrees and we froze our butts off! Luckily, we avoided rain, but did have the interesting and humid experience of driving through a cloud. It felt and looked like a normal fog with a hundred feet of visability. We came out on the top side at about 8,500 feet into a partly sunny sky. The rest of the ride to Gillette was beautiful but still cold.

Tonight we are settled into a Motel 6 with a hot tub. I gave my sore leg a good soaking, then we treated ourselves to a great prime rib at the local chop house. Our daily budget is wounded, but we really enjoyed the meal. I guess the beef was of local origin and they claim to age it at the restaurant. Whatever they did, it had the best flavour of any beef I've had this year.

About yesterday's post; it seems not everyone believes there are jackalopes. As a city boy, I've never seen a live one in person, although I have seen many stuffed examples in roadside shops from Georgia to Montana. It's also easy to find photographs on the web. I ate in a Wyoming chop house tonight and there was no jackalope on the menu, but they didn't serve rabbit or snipe either. The birdwatchers among us know there are plenty of snipe around but they are hard to catch, See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe .

Some people don't believe there are attack cows either, but I've seen the signs, warning of their presence, begging the unwary to not let them, in their stealthy quadruped way, creep up behind you and bite off your head. Heed the warning signs!

Tomorrow we visit Devils Tower on the way to Sturgis. I bet I'll get questions like, How did the devil gain ownership of a tower in a national park? Isn't that tower on federally owned land? Is there really a devil or devils? Should devils have an apostrophe before the s to make it a possessive noun or pronoun? All of these question beg an answer and tomorrow I will investigate.