Bob Palmer's blog

Enterprise, OR to Home

Well Sunday morning came as we all knew it would and the last day of our trip would be upon us.  Well, it was here and time for us to make the final trek home.  We got up and started getting everything ready to travel again.  We had only been here for two nights but it seemed we filled it up with lots of memories and fun and new friends.  We went out to find the bikes covered in a light rain filled with dust.  The bikes that had been wiped down after the ride on Saturday were covered in filth.  They wiped off easily so it was no big deal.  The parking lot was a buzz with folks drinking coffee and loading up and getting ready to head out to various places.

Daryl said we were to ready to roll at 8a and we all managed to make that work pretty close to on time.  We hit the road and the skies were a bit cloudy.  We hit some sprinkles pretty soon after leaving town but ran out of then in few miles.  We headed to LaGrande, OR and hopped onto I-84 and headed home.  Di and I have a few "routines" we do at the end of a long trip and we imposed these on the group.  We took the cut off around Tri-Cities and stopped at Columbia Crest Winery for a few quick tastes and some samples to take home.  We then hi Miners Drive-In in Yakima and finally we stopped at The Brick in Roslyn for a final toast and farewell.  We hit terrible stop and go traffic for 40 miles over the pass but we made the best of it.  We made it home at 7:30p and 3,573 miles after leaving 17 days earlier.

What a great trip and what a fantastic time.  Both Di and I would like to thank Vance & Lisa for joining us and helping make a great trip even better.  Until next time...

Baker City, OR to Enterprise, OR

It was Friday morning and time for us to hit the road again and head to Enterprise/Joseph and meet up with some friends at the 4th annual bike rally in Joseph, OR..  We would be staying in Enterprise about 6 miles away.  Di and I wanted to take a few more shots of things in town before we left Baker City and we were headed that way out of town anyway.  We stopped at a mural painted on the side of a building and the we swung by the big Catholic church.  I went into the church office and asked if we could go into the church and they were very nice and said of course.  The church was built in 1908 from stone out of the quarry just outside of town and it was spectacular.  The leaded glass was also painted and each one was beautifully done.  What a treat to be able to go in and see this masterpiece.  We met a gentleman who worked at the church and told us some history and took us down stairs and showed us some pictures of how things looked long ago.  Vance and Lisa then needed to go to a store so Di and I headed on to take a few more pics and shoot some more video before leaving town.  We were invited into an old radiator repair shop as well as a print shop.  We have all been very impressed with how nice folks are in Baker City and we will deffinately be back.

Some how, we manage to take whatever milage we have to do that day, and make it last all day.  We only have about 180 miles to go but we are already joking about how we will no doubt not get in till 5p.  We stop at Sumpter and see an old dredging machine that took gold out of the earth around the turn of the century.  The roads were going to be beautul all day with a short run on I-84 to LaGrande.  We stopped for a late lunch and then ended up pulling in at 10 min to 5p into the hotel.  Sure enough, another all day ride where we saw beautiful roads.  Daryl & Julie and Seth & Kim were already at the hotel and they had some other friends with them who we would meet and enjoy.  We went to dinner and would head to Joseph and to the logde at Lake Wallowa for breakfast in the morning.

Saturday morning came an it was a going to be a fantastic day for weather again.  We headed to the lodge and it was beautiful, built in 1923.  The lake and the veiws were spectacular as well.  We then decided to head up 40 miles to the Hell's Canyon Overlook.  We would be in the twisties for most of the ride and it was well worth it.  What a great look out point.  We could not see the river below but it was fantastic none the less.  We came back and walked the twn and came back to the hotel for dinner in town and our last night on the road for this trip.  We head out in the morning and start back on our planning for the next ride.

Old Faithful Lodge to Jackson, WY to Sun Valley to Baker City, OR

It seems I have a ton of catching up to do and I hope to git-r-done at this sitting.  We enjoyed our brief stay in Jellystone and headed out to Jackson, another favorite place to visit for us.  We took our time and enjoyed the sites on our way out of the park and looped up along the spectacular views of Jenny Lake.  We got into Jackson and it was hot.  We found our hotel and got settled in.

We went to grab a bite at one of our favorite places, The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.  We all split sandwiches and then headed over to another of our favorites, The Cadillac.  We had more fun there and then headed back to the room and ended up sitting and chatting out in the parking lot to finish up the night.  Sunday morning rolled around and we headed out for a bite to eat.  We found a little place off a side street a couple blocks away and it seemed to be the hot ticket in town as there was quite the line to get in.  We had a great breakfast and got to chat with the “Bear” who just happened to be up early and called to say hi.  We were trying to decide what to do with the day as we were staying two nights in Jackson.  We decided to hit the gondola ride to the top of Jackson Hole and the do a cowboy chuck wagon dinner and show that night.  We headed over to the ski area and jumped on the gondola up the hill and wow what a great decision.  The views were spectacular.  We had a great afternoon on top of the world and headed on to dinner at the chuck wagon.  There was a pretty good crowd for dinner and the folks were pretty efficient with that size (about 400+) of a group.  There was  some music at the end and the folks put on a pretty good show.  The dinner and show went till almost 10p so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. 

We got up Monday morning and headed out to Sun Valley, our next stop on our journey.  We headed into Idaho and road over some very pretty areas.  As seems to be our normal, we managed to burn up the day and headed into town just ahead of another late afternoon rain storm.  Well, as luck would have it.  The rains came just as we were coming into town and we looked for a hotel in the rain but was really not that bad.  We found a fine spot in the middle of town and got unloaded.  The rains stopped and off we went to find some dinner.  We decided to hit a few different spots so we were only going to have an appetizer and be able to test a few places out.  We hit Whiskey Jacques and ordered some Tater-Tots.  Well, they ended up bringing us about a pound and a half of tots in each order and that is what we ended up having for dinner as were all full after nibbling on those and neither of the baskets were finished.  We wandered down the street and met up with some very fun locals who told us where to have breakfast in the morning and great places around the town.  We did eat breakfast at The Kneadery Tuesday morning and it was as fantastic as we had been told it would be.  We then headed out towards Crater Lake. 

Tuesday would end up being a warm day as we would be in the dessert of the day.  We had set up a meeting with one of my cousins and his wife in Mountain Home, ID.  We met John and Sharon at Wingers and had a very fun lunch and time of laughs with both of them.  From there, we headed to Grand View, ID where my dad grew up and where my grandparents lived when I was a kid.  We went thru the town and took pics and ended up meeting the gentleman who now lives in “the pink house” where my grandparents lived for years.  The house is now white but it brought back a ton of memories of days and times gone by.  This crazy little town is very cute.  While I was taking pics of the place, Di and Vance & Lisa headed into the store for some AC and asked who knew any Palmer’s in town.  Well, in a town of 480 people, as you can imagine, the folks inside know my dad and my grandparents and my cousin and cousins I did not even know I had.  It was a great afternoon and the rest of the group was great about hanging and letting me do my thing.  Thanks so much everyone.

At this point in time we had burned up a ton of time and needed to make tracks.  We ran down the road and pulled into Mesa, ID and got gas and swung into The Pour House where we were going to look at a map and maybe change our thoughts on the next few days.  We ran into a couple of very friendly and helpful locals who told us of some of the local rides after we told them we were thinking of staying on the eastern side of the state.  So that was all it took.  It was 102 outside and we decided Crater Lake would have to wait till another time.  We decided to head to Ontario, OR and call it quits for the day.  Well, as luck would have it…….I just happened to have an aunt in Ontario so I called her and we made plans for breakfast Wed. morning.

We dropped the dirty clothes off at the laundry mat and told Karla we would meet her at the pancake house across the street.  OK, so here is a little more back ground on Ontario.  I lived in Ontario when I was in 2^nd & 3^rd grade.  When I lived there, we had one stop light and 3 stop signs.  There may have been a few more stop signs than I knew about at the time, but I do not think I am off by too much. And here is the other funny part……Rusty’s Pancake House is housed in the same building where we used to go to church when I was a kid and lived there.  So as you might imagine, the whole experience was a bit funny but breakfast was good and it was great to see and catch up with Karla.

We then left Ontario and headed out to run Hell’s Canyon.  It was a great day for fantastic roads and beautiful scenery.  We would end up staying in Baker City, OR  Wed night and decide in the morning what to do.  Well, Thur morning came and I went out to wipe the bike down and struggle with the blog, when I notice that Vance’s back tire is about half inflated.  So, needless to say, we were off to get that taken care of before anything else would take place.  We got that handled at a Honda shop in town and by then, the girls decided to just hang at the hotel and get some pool time in so we took the day off and I worked on getting the blog back up to speed as well as getting my business email and website back on line.  I feel like the day was a total work day but with any luck, after I get off of “ignore” from the website people, I will have my business issues handled and back up and running.

Thanks for hanging in there with this novel and stay tuned for the end of the trip and our loop up to Joseph, OR tomorrow.

 

Cody, WY to Old Faithful Lodge

OK, here we go with attempt #2 for this post as the last one seemed to disappear as did most of my post before that I noticed.  You gotta love the technology.

Ok, so where was I........oh yeah, we got up and did some much needed laundry in Cody before we headed to the museum.  We got to the museum and there was a gentleman out in front cooking up some beans and biscuits that he said would be ready at noon.  So in we went and wow what a place.  This place is huge and very well done. I t has 5 different sections, Buffalo Bill, Indians, Western Art, Guns and something else I cannot remember.  It is all very impressive.  We were doing buffalo Bill first and then heeded the call for a Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley shooting demo.  We headed down stairs for a very good and very boring talk by both of them on their lives and what not. It was good but it also rated a 9 on the boring scale.  We headed from there to the HD shop and then to lunch before heading over the mountain.

At the HD shop we ran into a group of folks from Australia who were a ton of fun to talk to.  After that we headed to lunch and the lodge where the weather caught up with us.  We got rain and hail for the last 40 miles.  We did not stop to put on rain gear and just made a run for it.  We pulled into Old Faithful Lodge and were a bit wait and tired and ready for a good night at the lodge. We checked into our room and headed for dinner shortly after that.  Dinner was excellent and we called it a day.  Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed the cool air around Old Faithful.  We packed up and headed out around noon towards Jackson. 

 

 

Sturgis to Cody, WY

 

Well, we have been having a great time for the past few days and now I need to get busy and write  some of it down so you kids can get caught up with where we are.  I will start off with saying I am up early on Monday, August 16 writing this.  This is the 33^rd anniversary of the death of Elvis.  The King would have been 75 this year.  I am not sure if that would have been good for him or not, and I am not sure it is even important or not, but it is what it is and we will be listening to Elvis all day as we ride.

Last time we spoke I believe we had left Sturgis and headed to Cody, WY.  On our way to Cody, we decided we could include Devil’s Tower which we had decided to drop earlier in the trip due to time.  Well, it would make for a long day, but we were up for it.  We hit the road out of our B&B and made one last swing thru Sturgis to get some more video and hit one last vendor.  After that, we jumped onto I-90 and blasted towards our first stop.  As luck would have it, I was the lead and I reached down to set my cruise control and the lever broke.  Looks like the rest of the trip will be without all the comforts of home,,,, oh well.  We rolled for a bit on I-90 before we got to our turn off that took us off the freeway and onto a rolling highway that stretched out across the plains.  Once again, the weather was fantastic and we were having a great time.  None of us had ever seen the tower before and we were all very excited to see it for the first time.  Then we got our first glance at her and cool was that?  She sticks up out of the earth like nothing else around her.  We made a stop to take a few pics at a pull out and ended up meeting some great people from Austria who were over here on a fly and ride program.  One of the riders owned the same bike Vance & Lisa have so they came over to chat.  The whole group was great and we took pics together and sent each other on our separate ways.  The closer we got to the tower, the more spectacular she got.  WE entered the park and made a loop around the mountain to get to the parking lot.  We made a short walk up the trail and watched in awe as we observed some mountain climbers making their way up the side of this beauty.  I certainly recommend the trip out to Devil’s Tower if you have never been there.

We still had a long way to go, so off we went.  We hit I-90 again and headed west towards our next highway that would take us towards Cody.  The day rolled on and the skies got darker.  It was looking like we might get a change in the weather by the time we got to the hotel.    Well, as luck would have it, Vance pulls off the freeway where there was posed to be a gas station but there was none and he is not sure he can make it to the next gas which is 38 miles up the road.  Sure enough, he is right.  He makes it about mile shy of the next gas and Di and I go fetch him a gallon of gas and we both stop for a few laughs as we fill up.  The skies are definitely looking bad so we pull to the side of the station and put on chaps and jackets to get ready for the next section of road.  We meet some other folks doing the same thing and another  biker hears us talking about which way we are headed and says he was just on that road yesterday and not to take it as it was all tor up.  So we head south after filling up and changing attire as we watch the weather move in around us.  We see some bright spots ahead and hope our luck will continue with dry roads.

We are now headed over Long Horn Pass and it is another beautiful stretch of road.  We get into some wet roads but no rain for us so far and we are happy with that.  The whole road thru the mountains was just fantastic.  We pulled into Cody late and decided to eat before checking into the hotel.  We headed downtown to Irma’s.  Irma’s was Bill Cody’s place.  It is still a working hotel and restaurant.  We had a great meal and met Michael who is a local leather worker and rodeo guy.  We had fun talking with him and did I mention he looked a lot like old Buffalo Bill himself?  We would call it a night and get up the next day to do the Buffalo Bill Museum in the morning.

Last Day In Sturgis

 

Wednesday was our last day in Sturgis.  Today, we took off after a lite breakfast at the B&B to head to Rapid, City to see my sister and her husband for breakfast.  They live in eastern South Dakota and made the trip over to see some friends and us. We decided to take a back way to Rapid City and we made have riden on the most spectacular road I can recall ever riding on.   We met them at I-Hop and we had a great time catching up.  Vance and Lisa joined us and we all had a great time. What a treat to see her and Dick. 

After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and grabbed some gas, where there were no lines, and headed to Mt. Rushmore.  Di had never been there before so I was very excited to have here get there and see it.  This was my 3rd time to the mountain and it was as fantastic again as the first time.  For those of you who have never been back to this part of the country and seen the Black Hills area, you need to get out here

sometime because the riding is absolutely fantastic.

We hit a few small towns and headed back to our B&B where we recharged the cameras and then headed back to Sturgis for a final swing thru.  We saw Main St at night and found a few more treasures and headed back to our room where we did some looking for rooms and I did the blog.  Tomorrow we will head out to Devil's Tower and then Cody, WY.

Talk to all of you later on.

Sturgis +

We started Tuesday off with breakfast at our B&B and then headed into Sturgis where Di and Lisa got their first look at "Sturgis".  Di loves this stuff.  We headed out of Deadwood to Hwy 14A and a spectacular ride thru the canon for about 10 miles and then there you are in a sea of rumbling rolling machines.  It is certainly a sight to behold as this little town of 7,000 people turns into a motorcycle mecca of 500,000+.  The weather was warm with a slight breeze that made it very pleasant.  We walked up and down and then in the middle of the afternoon decided to head back up the hill to our place.  Everyone was ahead of me as I stopped to look a a patch for my vest and I came our the tent and headed to them to find my scoot there buy no sign of Vance & Lisa's.  This gives you a very bad feeling as you can imagine,  Well thank goodness it was not stolen and only toed.  We picked a place where they had limited time parking and we did not realize it.  So, Vance hopped on the back of mine and off we went to get his back.  The people were nice and were no doubt used to people who were not that happy.  We got her back and life went on.

We headed into Deadwood that evening for pics with the scoots and dinner.  We had fun taking some old time photos and had a bad late night dinner and came back to the place and hit the sack after another great day.

It's Wed. morning now, and we are getting ready for the day.  We start off with a ride to Rapid City where we will catch up with my sister Connie and her husband Dick for breakfast.  They live on the east side of South Dakota but made the trek over here to see friends and us and we look forward to getting to spend a little time with them.  From there we will head to Mt. Rushmore and the Needles Hwy and then back to Sturgis for a run thru downtown and a look for a few vendors we still want to look at.

More later.....

Billings to Sturgis

Well, we had another fantastic day.  Did I mention it was my lovely brides b-day?  We pulled out from Billings and rolled out to Little Big Horn to see where Custer and Sitting Bull ran head to head with each other.  We ran then on Hwy 212 thru some unbelievably beautiful country side.  We stopped at a little bar in this little town of Ashland, MT where we met Louse and got some great stories about Devil's tower and about his grandfather the original owner of the bar, and a scuffle he got into with a patron at the same bar one night where he ended up shooting him in the head and the bullet is still lodged in the picture on the wall. 

We a couple of great guys from Edmonton Canada at the same place.  We hit the road again and it had gotten hot  We ended up stopping at about 2p and these same guys came rolling in a few minutes later. This place was like a scene right out of Star Wars or an old western where the weak of heart should probably not enter in, but Lisa did get a good toasted cheese sandwich for $1.75 and the tater-tots were hard to beat. 

The day was winding on and the heat was rising.  It was 100 degrees and we were running short of time and decided to blow off Devil's Tower for now and get to our place in Deadwood, SD.  We pulled into Deadwood and as I had alraedy figured, Di was a giddy as a school girl with her first love.  She is so much fun.  The roar of bikes and the constant stream of machines and paint and chrome.  We got to our B&B, Strawberry Hill and we got set up and relaxed and headed for dinner at about 7p.  There was a hugely long line of bikes headed into town as we headed up to the B&B so we were a bit worried about the ride down into town.  We headed out and just sailed into town without any troubles so that wa great.  We had dinner and walked and shopped and had a great time.

We will hit Sturgis in the morning and see what Di thinks of her first trip to Sturgis tomorrow.  I am having trouble with the pictures so I am going to post w/o pics today and hope to get them loaded another time.

Enjoy......

Missoula to Billings, MT

We had another great day on the road.  We started the day offf in the garage finding a guys dirt bike fell over into the other side of the car we were parked next to in the garage.  The handlebar had jammed itself in the headlight....not good.  We left the hotel and headed out in search of breakfast and wow did we ever find a great place.  Today would end up being the day of great food.  We ended up at The Shack in downtown Missoula and we will definitely be back next time we are in town.  We had a very cool waiter named Jesse who took excellent care of us.  A few extra minutes in town allowed us to just miss a rain squall that ran thru just a head of us not too far out of town. 

We made a much anticipated stop at the Testical Festival, or sometimes refered to as the Testy-Festy.  It turn out it ended on Saturday night so we were maybe a few hours too late cuz it did not look like it had been over for all that long when we got there.  Wow what a sight as some kids were just starting to clean the place up.  It had certainly been one heck of a party.

We wiould roll all day on I-90 to get to Billings so the excitement of new roads would not be there but we made up for it in great weather and great food,  We stoped for a snack in Bozeman at a cute little spot in downtown called The Plonk.  It is a wine bar with great atmosphere and also great food.  We headed out from there on our final push into Billings. 

Our hotel is a very quaint little hotel from the 50's.  We end up getting all set up as a group of 6 bikes pulls in and as we are cleaning the days bugs off of our scoot, Di says she knows one of the group.  She goes over to find out and sure enough, this guy plays golf at Redmond Ridge and comes into the Crooked Spoon where Di works.  Turns out a guy with them used to play for the Mariners when I worked for them, Tom Lampkin, and we both know another guy, Kent, who we ride with, so we had fun swapping stories and talking to Kent who is also on the road to Sturgis but is coming in from the south and was in Jackson Hole when we found him with some of our other dear friends Mark & Lori.

Well, it must be time to eat again I spose so off we went in search a 3rd geat meal of the day, and we found it at The Montana Brewing Company.  It was about a 3 block walk from our place and it was a great way to finish up a fantastic day of food on the road.

We

 hit Custer's Last Stand tomorrow and then on to Devil's Tower and then into Sturgis. Oh, and did I mention that tomorrow (Monday) is my lovely brides B-Day?   See you next time out. 

Seattle to Missoula, MT

Well here we are on the road again.  Mother nature decided to change our initial plans so we hit the road earlier than planned to get out of town Friday night before the rain moved in early Saturday morning.  So we hit the road just before 8:30p and rolled over the mountains to Ellensburg, arriving at about 10p.  We got up to sunshine and headed to Moses Lake to meet my fantastic Aunt Jane for breakfast.  Well, as luck would have it, Vance noticed some oil leaking and we both decided he needed to get this straightened out before we moved on.  He called the closest shop (heading east) which was in Coeur d' Alene, ID.  There was another biker just leaving the restaurant who looked to be local so I asked him if there was a shop in town that we could go to first and he was nice enough to escort Vance and Lisa there as Di and I had a great time with Jane over breakfast.  The shop helped a bit but could not do what was needed so we were all done about the same time and off to HD to see about a fix, about 2.5 hr down the road.

We pulled in just past noon and as you might expect, there were lots of folks there on the road having trouble and Vance was number 3 in line with 8 techs working like crazy in the back.  3.5 hr later we are back on the road and headed to Montana again.  We of course had to make Di's and my usual stop at 50,000 Silver Dollar Saloon and Gift Shop where Di and I looked up our personalized silver dollar and we all had a bite to eat.  We pulled off the road to take a look at an old church and we found an elk eating in the field just before the church.  What a spectacular sight. 

 

We ended up rolling into Missoula at 9p as it was getting dark and it was still 79 degrees outside.  It had been a great day on the road and we had met Rick in Moses Lake who helped us and several others at the HD shop who had also gone out of their way to get us back on the road.

So, untill next time......

Aug 7-22, 2010: The "Born To Be Wild" Ride

Welcome back friends-
Here we are getting ready to start another trip.  I have always told Di that I would take her to Sturgis if she ever wanted to go, and last year she decided she wanted to go this year, so we take off tomorrow and head out to South Dakota and places beyond for yet another adventure.  Vance and Lise4 will be our riding partners as we head to Custer's Last Stand, Devil's Tower, Sturgis, Cody, Jellystone, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Crater Lake, Joseph Oregon and home.  I hope to post pictures this year and keep pretty up to date on this thing.  So sit back and relax as Di and I once again, hit the road and take the world in a love embrace cuz this trip is the "Born To Be Wild" ride.

This is a video celebration for Di's Grandmother who left us May 22, 2010

Gramma's Goodbye

A video tribute to Diane's Grandmother, a great lady.

10/9/09

Bob at the fire

West Yellowstone thru Montana, Idaho & Home

Well, sorry for the delay on the final days of the trip and I am still having trouble getting pics to load in so there are still no pics for you all.  We left Yellowstone Saturday morning and had a fantastic ride, except for some road construction on Hwy 191.  We road out to Bozeman and stopped at Yellowstone Harley before leaving town as none of us could say no to a Yellowstone Harley shirt.  We then headed up Hwy 287 thru Helena. MT and enjoyed the Montana countryside and ended up in Missoula for the night.  We had dinner at a great place called The iron Horse.  We sat upstairs and enjoyed the warm Montana evening and good food.  we headed back to the hotel where we sat and talked about life and growing up and our kids and who knows what else, but be assured, we had fun.

We took off Sunday morning under another day of beautiful sky's and headed north up Hwy 93 to Polson and eventually decided to hit Montana Harley in Kalispell.  The ride along Flathead Lake was beautiful.  We headed out of Kalispell on Hwy 2, which most of us did realize went over thru there.  We were headed to Libby as the day grew warmer.  We stopped in Libby for lunch.  This is small town that is surrounded by trees and mountains and is just a great little small town America kind of a place.  It was Sunday and the town seemed almost shut down.  There is very cool art around the town and because of that we seemed to find the main drag thru downtown.  About half way down Main St. we saw the Libby Cafe and it looked just like our kind of place.  The folks there were fantastic and the food was just as good.  It was getting very warm by the time we stopped and even warmer by the time we left.  We ran up thru Bonners ferry and decided to end the day in Coeur d' Arlene, ID.  We had dinner once again at Moon Time and ended up calling it a short night as we all were tired from the heat and the ride.  We left semi-early to get thru eastern Washington before the heat of the day hit us.  We also wanted to stay on Hwy 2 to see some different sights and not be on the freeway the whole way home.  We stopped in Leavenworth for lunch at 1p and it was a toasty 100 degrees.  we had lunch and hit the road, running a bit ahead of plans which was going to get us home earlier than any of us thought and we were all OK with that.

The trip ended with Di and I putting on 2,224 miles.  A great time was had and once again we saw some spectacular sights.  Ron left for Los Angeles this morning so we will be seeing both Ron and Lisa only speratically over the next 12-18 months.

Thanks for a great trip you guys.

Jackson Hole

We decided to make our way to Jackson Hole, WY on Friday.  The day started out a little warmer than Thursday but not that much really so we had chaps and jackets on.  We headed out on Hwy 20 and would hook up with Hwy 33 rather than going thru the park as some other riders had told us that there was extensive road construction the park toute where they had to ride 25 miles on gravel, so we thought we would go the longer way to avoid that.  It turned out to be a beautiful ride and we had a great day.  Di had been there before years ago but could not remember much about it.  The rest of are thinking maybe she chose to forget it because it was one of "those" kind of trips.  We wound our way thru the mountains and down into the farm lands of eastern Idaho and rode across her rolling fields.  The weather warmed up and we shed the jackets and enjoyed the little towns we rode thru.  As we got closer to Jackson we could see the Tetons towering up over the top of the mountain range that was between us and Jackson Hole.  What a spectacular site as you ride along.

We exited the farm land and started up into the mountains as we rolled into Tetonia.  The road starts a gradual climb upwards into the mountains that becomes a very steep climb as you make your way to the top.  As you come to top of the pass and you crest over and make your way down, you get another unbelievable view as you look down upon the valley where Jackson sits at the base of the 11,000 foot mountains that hold her.  It is truely one of the most breath taking views you can see and worth seeing if you are ever in the area.  We dropped down into the valley and found our way to the center of town and parked the scoots and started our Jackson Hole adventures.We started out at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar where the decor is just plain fun.  We walked around and shopped for a bit and then decided it was time to eat.  Two seperate people said to eat at Billy's so we did and they were right, it was good and very fun too.

We walked around a bit more and decided it was time to make our 3 hour trek back to West Yellowstone as the weather seemed to be changing and it was about that time anyway.  We head out and start to feel a few drops coming down.  We start up the mountain and I take advantage of some open road just in front of the two cars ahead of us and I pass them annd have the pass to myself.  As we get to the top I can see that it is raining on the other side and I want to wait for Ron and Lisa anyway so I swing into the lookout and put on my chaps and jacket as I get ready for the rain.  It looks like we will ride thru it, but it's cool enough out here that I don't want to go thru it sleeveless and no chaps.  As I am putting on my chaps and Di is digging for her jacket, we see Ron and Lisa coming up the mountain behind a truck and trailer.  We then see them ride by and hear Lisa saying, "there's Bob and Di" and and pointing as Ron, focused on the road never saw us and rolled right down the mountain and into the rain sleeveless and Lisa with only her sweatshirt on......oh well.  We caught them at the bottom of the hill as we all waited for road construction.  We laughed about that for a bit as we both looked at Lisa's face as they rolled by as she was as surprised as we were that they weren't stopping.  The rest of the ride back was warm and dry and we had a great evening laughing and sharing.  It has certainly been a great trip so far and we head towards home.....the long way, Saturday morning.

Thursday, 7.30.09 In Jellystone

WE had a great day in the park.  Saw lots of bison and elk.  The weather was fantastic but cool.  We would think it was warming up and then it would cool back down.  This was the first day Di and I road with jackets and chaps so far on the trip.  We had 3 close encounters with bison throughout the day.  Like 15-20 feet close, and when you are on a bike, they are bigger than you are and you feel somewhat vulnerable.  We rode the lower loop and saw spectacular views and meadows.  We had a bull elk off the road a bid and my spectacular wife could not get there quick enough.  She was off the scoot and down the bank and after a shot.  Well, as you can imagine for those of you who know her, she did in fact get the shot.  He was huge beautiful 7x6 point bull elk.  Di was so excited and she is so fun.  We finished the day at Old Faithful and had great seats to watch her erupt in all her glory.  We headed back to West Yellowstone when we can across a mother elk and her young son by the river and Di was off again.  She brought back with her more great shots and a smile that cannot be beat.  They are doing road construction in the park in a couple of areas to repair damage done this past winter.  Well, this has water and mud all over the road and we managed to ride through it going out this morning as well as coming back, so Ron and I had a small chore to get the bikes cleaned up and ready to ride again on Friday.  WE had fun looking at the pics and the videos of the day and managed several rounds of uncontrollable laughter.  Friday is looking like a trip to Jackson.

7.29.09 Missoula, MT to West Jellystone

First off I need to apologize as I am unable to post any pics yet.  Please hang in there as we are hoping to remedy that today maybe. 

Di and I started Wed on a casual note and did not get out of town till just before 10a which was actually a great way to start the day.  We jumped on I-90 and headed east to Butte, about 120 miles away, where we would stop at Thunderbolt Harley, get gas and a bite to eat.  The weather was cool but not too bad so we dressed with some gear on but not too much.  Well, as luck would have in, while Seattle is burning up with the hottest temps on record, we managed to lose heat as we got closer to Butte.  We pulled into the Harley shop and it was 59 degrees and Di was frozen and I was a bit chilled.  We got some coffee and looked around.  The gal working in motor clothes asked us where we were from and where we were headed.  She asked which road we were taking to West Yellow stone and then pulled out a map and said here is the way you want to go.  One of the great things about riding is any shop knows the best roads to ride in there area, so if you need any help on a route, they are the usually the best ones to ask.  She said to go to The Montana Club to eat, there would be gas right there as you come out and then take a right before you get onto the freeway onto Hwy 2 and take that to Hwy 41 and then Hwy 287 to 191.  Well, she was right, we road on great roads and saw great scenery all day.

WE tooled along the beautiful back roads of Montana and ran through some quaint little towns that are the picture of middle America.  Then we rolled into Nevada City........Montana.  This is a historical city and has 90 buildings from across Montana that have been moved there to save and recreate the town of the mid-1800's.  We pulled off and wandered through the town taking pictures and shooting video.  WE hopped back on the scoot and went on our way but very shortly came across Virginia City......also in Montana.  It just seems funny that both Nevada and Montana would both have historical cities with the same name.  So, of course we stopped and looked around in Virginia City as well.  Virginia City is bigger than Nevada City and was not "put together" as much as Nevada City.  There was a plaque on one building that said that in 1863, the man who owned that particular building was one of 73 licensed liquor retailers in the town at that time.  Now from what we can see and figure, the town is only about 4 blocks long so it seems the competition and choices for where you can go to get a drink is almost overwhelming.

We had fun looking around town and decided it was time make tracks and catch up with Ron and Lisa.  The weather had warmed up to be very pleasant throughout the whole day, hut it  was 4:30p by now and we were a little over an hour away and it was looking to start cooking down a bit.  We hit the road again and continue to ride across some spectacular country side.  We are headed towards Ennis on Hwy 41 as we came out of Virginia City and we headed down into the valley where we would join up with Hwy 287 in Ennis.  I cannot describe the beauty of this valley as we made our down out of the mountains.  It was right out of movie and hope some of you take the opportunity to see it one day.  We came through Ennis and along a couple of lakes and arrived in West Yellowstone at 5:30p after a great day of riding and seeing the world that is right next door.  We caught up Ron & Lisa and had a good dinner and shared our stories from the road.  Thursday we head into the park and are very much looking forward to that.

7.27.09 Duvall to Missoula, MT

I know the title is for Tuesday, but I will start on Monday.  Di was working all day, open till close, at The Nines, so I knew I would not see her till late which was OK cuz I had plenty to do to keep me busy in the mean time and she tends to distract me in all the right ways.  I got on a plane in San Diego after working ComicCon for 6 days and was ready for some much needed sleep and very much looking forward to the road trip.  Our son, Chris, picked me up at the airport and we headed over to The Nines to stop by and kiss my lovely bride and say hi before heading home and getting ready to roll.  It turns out, one of her many guests that she loves, Tom & Pam, are moving and had some furniture for sale that Di wanted me to look at.  Well, it was just what she had been wanting, so we added another thing to do to the evenings "to do list".  Chris and Tom and I muscled the pieces into the trucks and took them home.  With the help of one of Chris's friends, John, we managed to get them into the house and ready for the next phase when we return.

Di got home and now we both are getting the final preparations done for the trip.  After we got most of the chores done, Di convinced me to come to bed and finish the rest in the morning.  By this time it was 1am and we had an ETD of 5am in order to make it to Moses Lake for an 8:30am appointment with her dentist to get her first installment of her new braces which she is very excited for.  Well, as it turns out, neither one of us sleep very good and I have the alarm set for 3:30a so I can finish getting the scoot ready to go.  So, after maybe an hour or so of good sleep through the night, I am up and at it again at 3:30a.  We manage to hit the road at 5:15a and are on track to make our 8:30a appointment with Dr. Craig Harder.  We have a great ride up and over the pass and into eastern Washington.  3 hours later we are at Moses Lake Family Dentistry, ready for Di's braces and the scoot needs gas.  Dr. Harder is great guy and his whole staff is fantastic.  We have a great time with them whenever we are there.

We stopped by Bob's Cafe on the way out of Moses Lake for a fantastic breakfast and hit the road again at 10:30a heading east on I-90 to Idaho and Montana.  I figure we will be ready for a stop again for gas and a leg stretch at about noon which will get us to Coeur d Alene, Idaho.  I remember a place I have stopped at before and I think I can find it.  We pull off the freeway and go through the cute little town and I pull in for gas and it feels like we are very close.  Di asks the attendant and we are a short block from The Moon Time Cafe.  This is a cute little place with great food and always a great assortment of beers of which I usually have only heard of half of.  We stop for something cold to drink and give ourselves a break.  It is 1pm when we head out and have already put on 320 miles.  We take off, and an hour later find ourselves at another one of Bob's "must stops", at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Saloon-Cafe and Gift Shop.  This is one of those fun quirky places I like to stop at whenever I am rolling by.  Di and I buy a silver dollar to be put up with our names on it when the next batch gets put up on the wall next February.

Well, it's back on the road and we are hitting a fair amount of road construction which has us slowed to 35-45 mph off and on for maybe 30 miles over the next 100 miles.  We are not making the time I was hoping due to this but we are having fun and we have picked up a fellow rider as we get on the freeway leaving The Silver Dollar.  I realized, and had not added it into my planning that we lost an hour by this time of the day moving east, so that may affect what we do by the time we hit Missoula.  Our friend rides with us to Missoula and pulls off with us to get gas.  He asks if we are headed to Sturgis as he may be going there but is not sure.  He is out of North Carolina and has been on the road for 5,600 miles so far and plans on being home on Aug 10th.  He was fun to chat with but was headed up to a buddies about 50 miles out of town so we parted ways and wished each other a save ride.  By now, it is 5pm and Di's teeth are giving her some pain and with the Montana late afternoon weather, we decide to stop for the night and find a place to call home.  We managed 490 miles for day one and should be in Yellowstone with Ron and Lisa mid afternoon on Wednesday.  Another fantastic day on the road and we will get to ride some beautiful roads today that I am really looking forward to.  That's it for now.  I will add pics by late Wed is my plan.

Jellystone 2009 w/Ron & Lisa

We are headed on a new adventure with our dear friends Ron & Lisa.  They have had a trip to Yellowstone planned for some time and they were kind enough to invite us to join them.  Ron has just been relocated down to Los Angeles for work so we decide about 10 days ago to take advantage of the offer and make the trip with them.  They are leaving Sunday morning July 26, and I am working in San Diego at Comic-Con until Monday, so Di and I will hit the road Tuesday morning and catch up with them in the park on Wednesday.  Stay tuned as I try and tell the story of the trip using the hotel computers as we will not be taking a laptop with us this time.  Another road trip is about to unfold and Di and I can hardly wait to get back on the road again.

Back Home

Sunday, Sept 14

Well, we made it home.  18 days on the road and a fantastic time was had.  We managed to visit 18 states, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  The total miles ended up at 5,648.  We had to make a few stops on the way home today as Di and I have a few "traditions" and the rest of the group was nice enough to go along.  I also made a last minute decision and veered off the freeway to get a group shot of the bikes in front of the old Tea Pot gas station in Zillah.  After that we swung by Miners hamburger joint in Yakima.  The rest of the group had never been there before and they seemed to enjoy it.  The food was great as usual and of course we enjoyed the company.  From there we had our last toast together in Roslyn at The Brick. From there is was home to unpack, wash the scoot, look at mail and catch up with Christopher on what we missed and see how he was doing.  Back to work tomorrow with our heads full of great memories and our souls re-charged. 

We talked over dinner about all the things we saw and what was the best parts.  There are too many to even remember for me.  We road Route 5 in Virginia and it was a great road.  We also road some back roads in and out of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  We road some spectacular country side in Kentucky.  We spent 30 minutes in a tavern with some locals outside of Santa Fe and laughed and had fun.  We met some fellow bikers at a gas station who were from all over the south.  We had several spectacular meals, including some from a street vendor and the weather turned out great.  The question still stands, what was the best part?  Being on the road was the best part.  Seeing new things was the best part.  Taking friends to places I've been and showing them was the best part.  Di at my side the entire time was the best part.  Being able to share the fun with good friends was the best part.  I guess it's official, the whole thing was the best part.

Di, is happy to be home.  So am I.....but I am ready for the next ride already.

Jackpot, NV and Pendleton, OR

Friday & Saturday, Sept 12 & 13

We got up Friday morning and headed out into the dessert.  This would be the coldest start to any of the days we have had on the entire trip.  Delta is not that big of a town and as we left the out skirts, we saw a sign that said, "NO SERVICES FOR 84 MILES".  So, with that in mind, off we went into the dessert with the sun shining and 44 degrees.  We came across the "services" at 84 miles and it was time to stop and take a break.  This little oasis in the dessert had a cafe so we went in for some hot coffee and some breakfast.  It turns out that they did a nice job on breakfast and when we got back on the bikes, the temp had come up a bit and it was not so bad.

We have managed to plan our routes around the weather and it looks like we are out of any of the rain and other issues.  It looks to be smooth sailing from here on out.  The unfortunate thing is, the really great roads are now behind us and we are just heading for home sweet home now.  We decide to head to Jackpot, NV for the evening.  We make pretty good time all day and get to our hotel, Cactus Pete's, by about 4pm.  We get rooms on the ground floor and all gather on our patio and laugh and share thoughts about the trip till we decide to go to dinner.  We end up at the Plataea room for dinner and would end up having the best dinner of the entire trip and one of the best meals of our lives.  The food and atmosphere were both spectacular.  It really was one of the best meals I have ever had.  If you ever find yourself in Jackpot, don't miss this place for dinner, you will not be sorry.

We got up Saturday morning and headed to Twin Falls where we would swing into Snake HD and snag a few shirts, as usual, and then head down the road, hoping to get to Pendleton by Saturday night.  Once again, we roll all day and get to a hotel that was recommended to us at Birds of Prey HD in Caldwell.  Well, as luck would have it, this weekend is the Pendleton Roundup so of course there are no rooms in town.  We are looking to have to go at least 60 miles further to find a place and Lisa finds us 3 rooms just down the road a bit.  We end up at a Holiday Inn Express and have a fine room and it is clean.

It's hard to believe it is the last night of a really great trip.  We have had the best time.  We have been able to ride some truly spectacular roads and meet some fantastic people and share our travels with them.  This trip was everything I had hoped it would be.  We had to make a new plan, but every day was fun and adventurous.  We passed 5,000 miles this morning as we were entering into Twin Falls.  We have seen more things on this trip than a lot of people get out to see in 10 years time.  I am glad I have a bride who loves going places with me and friends who also are up for an adventure and through their hearts and souls into making it work.

We have all had a great time and we still have one more day......I can hardly wait!!!

 

Wed & Thur, Santa Fe, NM to Durango, CO to Delta, UT

Wed in Santa Fe

We got up to find blue skies, a very different picture than when we went to bed.  We load up and head to Santa Fe.  I have been here only once before but I was looking forward to coming back because it has such a cool old town area.  We get into town and don't have too much trouble finding the old town square.  In the old Spanish tradition, the church and a park are the center of the downtown area.  I spot the old church and park the bikes.  The sun is warm and we immediately start looking around and feel we have found a friendship with this cute old town.  Di and I start talking to a lady who seems to be with the church as we are just coming out from walking thru the sanctuary.  It turns out that Santa Fe is the oldest city that is a capital as well as the highest in elevation at 7,500 ft of any of capital city in the union.  There was a little cart on the corner of the park that a few guys were cooking at and the aroma was fantastic so Di and I decided to wander over and try one of their goods.  We had a chicken fajita and it was fantastic.  We sat on a park bench and enjoyed the sunshine and the great food.  Soon, the rest of the gang joined us.  We continued to wander in and out of the shops picking up trinkets along the way.  Lori found a silver piece that Di and I had seen too, but Lori decided to buy it.  Way to go Lori, so Di and I can enjoy it again and not just that one time in the store window.

Reluctantly we loaded up to head to the Santa Fe HD shop to look at some t-shirts to pick up to mark where we have been.  This is a part of the HD culture that is somewhat unique to Harley I believe.  We look for cool logos on the back of t-shirts at the HD shops where we travel.  It's fun to a great a logo on a shirt that tells a story about the city and it's heratige.  Well, it's about 2pm now and we have gone 100miles.....this is not good.

The ride to Durango is beautiful.  We managed to find ourselves running thru another afternoon shower on our way into town, but one is nothing like yesterdays gully washer.  We get into town at about 6p to find the place is packed and rooms are scarce.  We go here and there and finally find a place on the other side of town that has rooms and will hold them for us.  We pull into The Iron Horse, an old hotel built in the 60's it would seem.  All the rooms are little condo like things with a small kitchen and a loft upstairs.  It is not all that nice and needs to be half the price, but is was better than no place at all and was also better than riding on to the next town to be disappointed again.  We all went across the highway to get dinner.  This place too was an architectural beast from the late 60's or early 70's.  Lurch, from the Adam's Family, has a cousin who works here as the matradee.  He took us down into the dungen where we had a fantastic dinner and laughed almost all the way thru it.  It was now off to the hotel and some sleep.

Thur, Durango to Utah

I seemed to be the only one who slept good Wed night.  Mark and Lori did not sleep much at all it seems.  Mark mentioned he was woke up once to Lori pounding on the wall to try and get the neighbors to be quiet.  Vance and Lisa seemed to have some sewage issues that were less that pleasant.  Needless to say, everyone was ready to go and get some breakfast and wait for the sun to warm up the day before we hit the road.  We spotted a place as we were leaving town that looked good.  It was an old house made into a restauraunt.  We stopped in and were seated by Dori who happens to own the place.  It was a busy place and she was very nice.  We had another good breakfast and hopped on the bikes to make tracks to Delta, Utah. 

We have been watching the weather very closely and have managed to miss most of the weather issues.  As we head west and start to swing up, we will find the weather issues lessoning for us.  We decide to ride out of Durango and head to Hwy 95 thru the very majestic dessert of Utah.  Today would another spectacular day of beautiful scenery all day long.  If you have never been down this way, if is another must see.  Every turn brings fantastic views and breath taking rock formations.  It was a beautiful day that ends up a bit later than we wanted at just before 8p to the rooms.  We had some bad Mexican food for dinner across the street and head to bed.  Tomorrow we head up to Jackpot Nevada for a semi short day of about 300 miles that will get us home by Sunday.

On to Oklahoma City and heading Towards Santa Fe

Monday

Reluctantly we load up and leave Memphis.  The weather is telling us to move along I-40 westward and swing north as soon as we get a break in the weather, but this way, we are.  It was a beautiful ride on Monday as we head towards Oklahoma City.  If we go this way, I certainly wanted the group to see the Memorial to the 1995 bombing.  We hit the road thinking we would not make it to Oklahoma City but as the day wore on, it looked more and more that we would pull it off.  We did in fact make it work.  We caught a few sprinkles as we got into town.  After we landed in our hotel, it seemed to open up and rain a good part of the evening.

Tuesday, Sept 8

We got up and the parking lot was dry.  This is always good news when you went to bed knowing it was raining.  I went to the lobby to get coffee and head back to the room to finish up and get packed.  We were ready to load the scoot and I opened the door to find the rains had returned and it was springkling......bummer.  By the time we were loaded and ready to go, the rains had stopped.  We headed downtown to see the memorial.  We got down to it a bit after 9a and stayed for about an hour.  It is quite breath taking and very well done.  If you are ever thru this area, you need to stop by and see it.  We left and headed towards Amarillo, home of Cadillac Ranch.  This is a must see as far as I'm concerned.  It is nothing special, but it is certainly cool and worth a look-see.  From there we headed towards Albuquerque.  On the way, we decide to swing up to Santa Fe instead.  This was a good idea right up untill we took the turn-off and saw a light show in the sky right where we wanted to be.  We continued on, watching the sky light up and get darker as we headed that direction.  There was no doubt we would ride  right into it, the question was, how much rain would we get before we rode out of it.  It came hard and fast with a bit of hail mixed in for good measure.  It was pouring down before we knew it and I do mean, pouring.  Then, about the time we could not hardly see the road, along comes a large tow truck heading towards us and before any of us could get out of their way, we were all soaked by his huge wheel splash that this thing thru out.  Thank goodness we only rode thru this mess for a few miles, but we were all soaked and wet and cold by then.  We decided we ould not not make Santa Fe tonight and stopped in at Las Vegas........New Mexico. 

We are cold and tired and headed to bed after ordering up some pizza.  We may be in some rain tomorrow also as we head to nicer weather on the west coast.  I finally have a connection and have posted some pics on the last few days if you would like to look back.  More later.....

 

Nashville, Lynchburg and on to Memphis

Friday, Sept 5

For the first time this trip, we have to start the day with our jackets.  There was a heavy dew in the air as we started out.  We had an early start as we hoped to get in early enough to do a tour of  the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We had an advantage of gaining back an hour as we rolled westward.  We made good time all day and don't recall the last time we saw that many cops waiting with radar.  These guys were down on the gully, around the edge of the mountain and any where else they could hide.  We managed to slip by with no problems.  As we rolled into Nashville the roads were still wet under the over passes and on the edges but the roads themselves were fine.  We got to Nashville around 2p so the girls headed to the museum and we headed to get checked in and stash the bikes and would join them later.  We got all squared away and headed to the museum.  When we were in there, the rains returned and it would end up raining the rest of the evening.  We headed to the Wild Horse Saloon for dinner and it was good as usual.  From there, we went to the Cadillac Ranch where we listened to a very good song writer/performer with his group.

 

Saturday, Sept 6

We managed to stuff the day with enough miles, about 300, for that to be all we needed to do, but we also planned on stopping several places in the mean time.  We took off from Nashville and headed out to the Loveless Cafe for breakfast.  This is a great place to stop by if you are ever in the area.  Known for their biscuits and pies, but they do everything good.  We had a great breakfast and we all ate too much.  Now, it's off to Lynchburg, the home of Jack Daniel's.  This is our second trip to the the JD plant and we continue to have troubles finding it.  The  whole town is tucked away in the hills of Tennessee and my hat is off to anyone who can find this town the first time as the Tennessee Dept. of Roads does not seem to want to help with much signage.  About 5 miles out of town I had a check engine light come on but the bike seemed to be running fine so we continued on in.  We were hoping to get Dave, the same tour guide we had last time we were there as he was a real character.  Dave was not around so we took the next available tour as it was already after 2pm and we still needed to roll off some 200 miles and we were still a few hours from leaving this fun little town.  We finally hit the road at about 4p.  Lori's back was bothering her but we rolled on trying to get as close to Memphis as we could but there was no fast way out of Lynchburg so were not able to make much time on the road but the roads we were riding were very fun.  It was dark by now and we decided we would stop at a hotel as soon as we saw one we liked, but ended up rolling another 45 miles further than planned as we could not find anything in any of the small towns we were rolling thru.  We stopped just outside of Memphis at 10pm.  Needless to say, we were all too tired to get to downtown Saturday night so we are looking at it for Sunday night.

Sunday, Sept 7

We got up this morning and decided to change hotels and move to The Peabody in downtown Memphis.  We packed up and moved and then headed out to Graceland Harley for a t-shirt or two.  We were told that the t-shirt shop had a sister shop about 6 miles away that was a full blown shop.  It is called Southern Thunder Harley-Davidson and we decided to run over there and see what they had that we could not live without.  When we were there I asked if there was anyone in the service dept and it turns out the service manager, Dennis Duboise, was there with another tech.  I wandered back and explained my light issue and he said to bring it on up and he would be happy to take a look at it.  In talking with Dennis, he did some HD training at Lake Wash Tech and loved Seattle, so that was a fun conversation.  The entire shop was fantastic from the help on the floor when you walked in to finding a tech on duty on Sunday.  They said they do that for reasons just like mine where folks are on the road and may need some help.  Dennis re-set the system and said to have it looked at when we get back but it is not a big problem that needs to be fixed right away.  Turns out that Vance & Lisa and Mark & Lori recognized a salesman, Dave Opitz, who did a few rides with them from when he was in Seattle. 

We left the shop and headed back to the Peabody as we were all ready for something to eat.  We got some food and headed back to the hotel to watch the ducks, which the Peabody is known for.  We watched the show and ended up talking to the Assistant Duck Trainer, Don Fort, who was great.  Our stay here was fantastic and now we are looking at the weather and planning our trip home, to be back one week from today.  There are several systems out there so we are headed towards Oklahoma City for now and we will see what the weather is like when we get there to plan the rest.  It looks like it will be a day to day decision.  I will get some pictures posted as soon as I can.

See you all later.