Mounting Mountaina - Flashbacks from the past...

[GatorTiger]

After a good night's sleep I woke up the next day to this:





Brrr!!! I got myself ready and checked out of the motel:





The weather looked a bit suspicious and it was chilly and wet:





Time for breakfast! Coffee and omelette will do the trick every time! When I come out of the restaurant the weather started to clear up a bit:





Jackson Hole is a nice place! Winter sport galore and such. The city looks more like a small town than anything else. Yet it's widespread (relatively) and provides for all tourist trap provisions... Oh well... At least I saw another Tiger in town!!!



Just when I got out of the city the heavens had me again in their grip:





Should I got back into town and wait it out or press on and risk not seeing the things left and right on the way? Decisions decisions...

Retreat is not an option... So on I go... And it turned out to be a good decision indeed! Soon I was out of it as I was climbing up Teton Pass:





Seemed that the 'fog' was just a low cloud and just hovering over the city:





Teton Pass is not one of the highest or longest, but still fun to, err, pass... Once over it I'm in another valley enclosed by ridges again:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97838076-O.jpg)



I pass through small towns that clearly have a sense of the lands history:





After a while the mountains disappear behind me. I'm on level ground once again. It's amazing how level it can be in the mountains:





Makes for a nice skyline, though:





The roads are nice and sweepy, however! F-U-N! And this is what lays ahead with those roads in it:





So as I was riding my own business, I was wondering...





...who the f|_|ck is Alice?  



Aaaaanywhoo...



This is traversing US-287 northbound. After some sweeps and some straits and some strange election billboards the landscape turned back into this:





And I was heading here:





Again the road was perfect! Smooth, twisty, scenic, yummy!!!! With views like this, who could complain:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/97837403-O.jpg)



And the best: no friggin' tourists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Point made!!

Over the next hill I cam across a strange looking lake. There was a pullout with a plaque, so I turned in to see what was going on. This is what it said:





Explains why the lake looked kinda funky:









I guess this where the land slide happened:





Unfortunately the road straightened out again after that:





Still nice to ride, though:





Then, in broad daylight I saw this herd of deer on the side of the road. Now why is it that when you pass them they don't budge, but when you kill the engine, come to a silent stop while getting the camera out they suddenly run away?



Gratuitous butt shot:





And now, not for the weak of stomach, a reminder why there is always a reason to pay attention even on the best roads. Nature was already cleaning up the mess. And believe me, I took the shot from an angle that made it look the best. Stay safe out there, people!





By early afternoon I reached the town of Ennis, MT. A small community with quite a charm! And (sorry to pull this up all the time): no tourists! Another proof that the real jewels are off the tourist-beaten path:







Suddenly I heard that sound again that I heard the first time when I was camping in Durango: ROAR!!!! This time it was my stomach, though, and not some imaginary wild animals... So I decided to get me some old fashioned food here:





Awesome place! I had a perfect burger and the best lemonade E-V-E-R! Nicely fed I took the farewell picture



and hit the road again for the last few miles back to the hotel.

And with a final sunset I cease the weekend and hit my desk again to prep for another week of work before going home again:

(http://gatortiger.smugmug.com/photos/99495008-O.jpg)





To be continueth...

[GatorTiger]

All trips have to come to an end (unfortunately). So did this one... Time to go home to the family again. Kind of looking forward to that, though...



But, before I went on my way I made sure that the wild animals that were tormenting me in Durango met their fate and all:





They don't look too happy about it:





Unfortunately the leader got away... They only found a foot print of it:





One of my co-workers' birthday was Wednesday. I had originally planned on leaving in the afternoon, but got "talked" into staying for the 'surprise' party his girl friend had planned for him that evening. Had the effect that I left just as it was getting dark. I made it to Bozeman that night before turning in. 100 miles! WOW!



I had some ground to cover to be home to get to Atlanta by Saturday afternoon in time to keep my dinner date with my wife. So rise and shine early Thursday morning and hittin' the slab. There is something about light from a low sun:





When I did the trip in June I took I-90 toe and froe. There was no escaping the great plains section going east-west. But maybe I could make the north-south part a bit more enjoyable. So I figured I could parallel the Rockies as opposed to ride through the fields of NE and all...

Also: When I came up this trip I took I-40, back in the day I took I-10, so it was time to take I-70 back to make my list of east-west-connections more complete. To do that I had to get to Denver first. Fall colors made the ride down I-25 really nice.





In Buffalo I was invited to



but I just passed through regardless...



What was that what I said about the north-south travel and the change of scenery (or lack thereof) again?





I go to Casper, WY, as the sun was setting again. Nice town, the way it is set in front of the mountains:





Time to cheat some...





When I got to Denver it was dark already. I flew on, straight as an arrow, on I-70 going east until about 11 pm. About 10 miles before loosing one hour by going into central time zone I pulled over and pulled in. Time to snooze! I got the Moosedrool that I had planned to bring to Atlanta with me out of the bike case and had me a good night drink... Sweet dreams indeed!





The next day while passing through Kansas I realized what I missed when starting of on the plains in the dark:







Well, plain and simple: nuttin'! Sorry, but I think you have to be a special breed to live there...



Right after Topeka I-70 turned into a toll road. A toll road with construction going on. So what does the biker do: get off! Off the interstate that is. So I paralleled I-70 on US-40. Nice road, actually! Sweepy, somewhat scenic with nice houses along the way. Very enjoyable!! Again getting off the beaten path yielded nice results!!!!!!!

One has to look out for these all the time, however:





It was a weekend with racing going on in Kansas City:





Time to change states, but not cities:





100 Miles the first day, over 900 miles the second day, almost 900 miles the third day. Slabbin' brings you somewhere, but doesn't make for very exciting riding. Unless you are planning to call it the day soon and you "come" across this sign:





Upon closer inspection I didn't like the accommodation too much, though:





Good thing I had reservations that night!!! Remember how I had to hunt down a room in the Paducah area during my last trip? This time I had made reservations for a room. Turned out to be a good thing! When I got to the hotel several people had to be turned away since the hotels were booked solid again. I'm in the wrong business...



After a quick trip to Arby's and the gas station the sandwich and the beer pt me into a nice slumber.



The next day it was up early again (I was about to loose another hour on the way) and hittin' the road. I made it home by 3pm well in time to freshen up and all and put the wifey on the back seat to go have dinner.



It's good to be home!!!!!!!!

[BykBoy]

Great pics and writeup. Brings back memories...



I can't believe you are doing all this without engine protection bars. Especailly after all the effort you put into painting the GatorCat...

[GatorTiger]

Howdy y'all,



Got it finally done and working... Here (http://www.torrentbox.com/account-details.php?id=381077) is a link to the torrents for the videos (17 mins in small or large resolution). You will need a torrent client like BitTorrent or Azureus to get them.



Have fun with them!!  8)



Cheers,

HG

[GatorTiger]

Ok ok... so the torrent was a, well, not so swell idea...  :(  I found a site that will host my files for free. They will be deleted after 30 days of inactivity, though. If you try to get and it doesn't work let me know! I will refresh the link then. Here we go:



small resolution (45 MB) (http://media6.filewind.com/g.php?filepath=4832)



and



big resolution (100 MB) (http://media6.filewind.com/g.php?filepath=4940)



Have fun!!!  :-D

[zadok_oz]

I read about your exploits on the RAT forum, if I remember rightly. Loved the report and pics. Well done :)

[GatorTiger]

Thanks m8! I parallel-post my stuff on various sites. It's very interesting to see the different reactions on different boards with different target audiences...  8)



I tried to post the trip 'video' earlier already, but since I am cheap and don't want to invest into a 3rd-party ftp site it took a while to find something to be able to share this file...



BTW: my old navigator Nils from when I was in the navy just moved to Perth... Doesn't have a Tiger, but a 94(?) Daytona...

[zadok_oz]

My contact details are showing in my profile, so if you think he would like to say hello, feel free to give them to him.