Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Washington Coast 2012 Day Three

More motorcycles.

This morning I'm sure there were more than 90 bikes in the hotel parking lot!  I had to wait for a gas pump behind the Harley's.  Boy they must really pump up the local economy!  We headed out, west again, with the bikers.  I really have only one thing to say Oh. My. God.  I have never seen so many Harley's!  I saw the single rider, the double riders, some fat tires, some three wheelers.  Then I say the bikes in the beds of pickups, on open trailers, inside big trailers that must have held a number of bikes, I even saw three semis with trailers that read "We haul Motorcycles"!  I think the fun one was the motor home pulling a pickup with a harley in the bed!  Every Hotel, and campground was packed and the highway was full as well!.  I decided to head up to Devil's tower National Monument  which is amazing!  I didn't get my patch though as I couldn't get near the Ranger Station or the gift shops for the bikers!  Turns out there was an "Official" ride (and a tee-shirt too!)  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.  I'm happy for them and so glad to be away from the bulk of them!  (although there are several bikes in the parking lot and in surrounding hotel parking lots!)  I don't think I ever want to travel that road again--too boring.  It's weird, I love the drive across Kansas even though I've made it thousands of time (okay maybe only hundreds) but I hate driving I-80 through Nebraska and I-90 through S Dakota and the landscape is pretty similar-go figure.

We drove out of S Dakota and into Wyoming.  Wyoming is the least populated of all the States, I get it there's nothing in the east part-I'll let you know about the west later on in the trip!  Rest Areas are few and far between but we did find one for our lunch.  It wasn't very dog friendly.  The sign said "No dogs on the lawns."  My first thought was where exactly was I to let Quinn walk followed closely by What Lawn?  The grass looked worse than my lawn and that's saying something!

We then drove out of Wyoming and into Montana arriving at Billings about 3:00 Mountain time, took two tries to find a hotel room and ended up with a smoking room, yuck.  I have it covered though, I brought the air purifier (everyone laughs at the stuff I haul on these trips but I use most of it) and I'll take the blankets and pillows off the bed and use my own so it should be ok!

I'd planned to stay here two days but have decided to go on to Great Falls tomorrow, short day but it's hot here and I want the mountains.

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