Easy Rider 2006: Day 10, Bozeman to SLC, the Long Way

We woke up this morning to a clear and cool sky in Bozeman. We'd wanted to hit the road early since it's such a long trip, and as it was we slept a tad later and left a bit after 8am. The downpour from last night had blown over, and the bus that went into the ditch was in the hotel parking lot, so we can assume everything is OK. We've not talked to or heard from any other chorus folk today so we don't know for sure. We took a rather long way to get from Bozeman, arriving at my parent's home a little after 8pm -- 12 hours later, and two miles shy of 500 on the day, with 498 showing on Tony's odometer, going through four states. The Chorus crowd on the buses got off relatively easy, taking I-15 south and only being on the road for 7-8 hours.

It was just the two of us this morning -- Thatcher and Rose were still asleep when we left, and Dan and Ken were dropping off the tour at this point and headed north to Glacier National Park. It was nice just the two of us, we could set our own pace and not have to worry about the rest of the herd. Group riding is a ton of fun, but it's also work, and everything goes by consensus. Tony and I think enough alike that we know when we need to stop and for what, and we even commented that we were riding much more relaxed today, and not pushing ourselves to go as far or as fast as we tend to do in a group setting. The other thing you have to remember is that apparently I'm not allowed, with rare exceptions, to handle the camera -- which is why nearly all the pictures are of me riding, since Tony refuses to let me hold the camera while riding, and I only get it when he sets it down.

We left Bozeman and headed south on US 191, aiming for West Yellowstone and the entrance to Yellowstone Park. We'd dressed in long-sleeve t-shirts but that was too cool, so as we started up the canyon of the Galatin river (where the movie A River Runs Through It was set), we pulled over and put on sweat-shirts and warmer gloves. Our first real stop was at the turn off for Big Sky ski resort, where we stopped for a bathroom break and a drink. I guess we are becoming rather "seasoned". We are looking very weathered, sun burned, and our leathers are covered with bug splats. It seems everyone is curious as to where we are coming from, or where we are going. We have two answers -- the short one and the long one, depending on how much conversation we feel like getting into. We can either answer, "Bozeman to Salt Lake" for the short version for today as an example -- or the long one, which is Seattle to Salt Lake, back up to Pocatello, then to Jackson, over Beartooth to Billings, then to Bozeman, south back to Salt Lake then home to Seattle. Peoples eyes really bug out when we tell them that one. However, we get asked it ALL THE TIME on this trip, and I've been tempted to just launch into the old Hank Snow/Johnny Cash song, "I've Been Everywhere", where the singer runs an entire atlas of cities when asked the question where he's going..."been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa...." and on and on. It does feel that way sometimes.

The ride through the corner of Yellowstone where you don't have to pay was quite nice, with no traffic until we hit the tacky tourist town of West Yellowstone, where we stopped for another quick break and a nice lady asked us "Are you going to Sturgis?" (the big 500,000 person biker rally in South Dakota each summer). I guess we really are looking a bit long in the saddle if we are mistaken for the hard-core bikers who go to Sturgis each year.

We continued south into Idaho, skirting the back side of the Teton's and we stopped for lunch in Ashton. One of the best things about being on the road on the bikes and taking back roads is that McDonalds are more or less hard to find, so you get to eat at local little burger joints with big revolving mugs of root beer for a sign, served outside on a picnic table by a 15 year old girl, and eat real hand cut fries and shakes made with real ice cream on a Kelly Green colored Hamilton Beach three headed mixer. It had warmed up enough for us to ditch the sweatshirts by this time, and we rode in our long-sleeve t-shirts.

We actually backtracked on a 20 mile stretch of road we'd taken earlier in the week from Idaho Falls to Jackson -- only this time we did it in the reverse direction. If you have an atlas, our route has actually been a figure eight, starting and ending in SLC, going to Pocatello, over to Jackson, up to Billings, over to Bozeman, back to SLC -- with the point in the middle of the figure 8 being a 20 mile stretch of Idaho Route 31 between Victor and Swan Valley.

We went south from Swan Valley on US 26 and back into Wyoming's Star Valley on US 89, and despite having grown up in Utah and spent a lot of time traveling the west growing up, I'd never been in the Star Valley. I have some very distant relatives in that part of the country (we Mormon's don't have family trees we have family BUSHES!), as my great, great, great, grandfather had some of his wives stashed up there. We passed a "Gardner Village" service station just after going under the "Worlds Largest Antler Arch" in Afton, Wyoming. The owners son has that "Gardner" jaw, though we didn't stop to find out or chat. It was starting to really get warm at this time and we debated changing clothes, but decided to ride on.

The route took us back into Idaho, then back into Wyoming again, before finally curving into Utah. We went up and over a 7,000 foot pass with some snow still on it, before dropping into Ogden, and stopping for Chinese food in Bountiful, just north of Salt Lake. By this time it was scorching hot and we were ready to rip off the leathers and long-sleeve t-shirts, but decided to spare the SLC traffic the sight of that, and instead we crapped out and took the freeway the rest of the way to my mother's house, feeling like horses returning to the barn knowing fresh hay and oats await. Our hay was a cool shower and the oats were my Mom's chocolate cake.

We get to sleep late, do some laundry and gear up for the final show. Ticket sales aren't great, and I'm hoping the chorus guys will promote the show out at the local bars tonite -- and we'll get some of the last minute types to show up. We've got 20 from my family going, so we'll have a good showing, and I'm going to enjoy watching them watch the show.

Then it's pack up again and head north back home to Seattle. It will be good to get home, most likely exactly two weeks from when we left. Tony and I are both anxious to get back to our home and own bed, our dogs, and our friends back in Seattle.

From my mother's guest room...a tired and sunburned,

Gary and Tony