WWR 7

Day 1

August 9, 2013

We left town somewhat early. The Sturgis motorcycle rally was going on, and we wanted to get out of town while before traffic got too bad. We took I-90 to Billings because there was road construction on US-212.

When we got to Billings, Melanie had found a place that sounded good, so we looked for it for a little while, but we found the "Burger Dive"!. It is a little building, and you have to be looking for it to find it, but the food was good, and the Garlic Fries were some of the best fries I have ever eaten.

This was overlooking Billings, MT. The rain showers in the distance nearly got us, but we kept going and stayed dry all day, and we were checking in when it started raining. I had told Melanie it was going to be close!

This is just a mirror shot of Melanie.

This is where the bikes spent the night, beside our little cabin at the Tenderfoot Motel in White Sulphur Springs, MT. The mineral springs were right across the road and they felt good at the end of the day.

These Hollyhocks were right outside our door.

 Here is the route for the first day.

555 miles,  and only a few rain drops.

Days 2 to 4

We made it to Kalispell, MT and stayed dry today too. We went the long way, through Great Falls and Browning MT, then we rode the Going to the Sun road. 

The storm in the picture below tried to get us wet though. We stayed at Melanies sisters house. They have a nice spare bedroom, and we always have fun with them.

The next day was our anniversary, and Melanie wanted to do a hike to Avalanche Lake. we both enjoy it, and it is beautiful.

Every time we have been to Avalanche Lake, we have done a self portrait. I don't know how this got started, but we did it again.

Day 5

We stayed at Arco, ID at the DK Motel. It was an older motel, but it was clean and comfortable.

There were several neat things in this town, one of them was this is the first town to be completely powered by nuclear power.

This is a picture of "Number Hill". It was started back in 1920.

This was from a Sturgeon Class submarine. Those were the actual numbers it had when it was in service.

This was an actual torpedo.

We ate two meals here, and the food was very good both times.

403 miles, and no rain.

Day 6

We started the day by going to Craters of the Moon Nat. Monument. We discovered this when we were driving through Idaho on our way home form WWR2 in Coos Bay, Oregon.
This place was incredibly beautiful in its own way. We both want to come back again.

There was snow in the bottom of a cone on August 14th, in the middle of a heat wave!

These next two were taken from on top of a large cinder cone that they let you hike to the top of. There were no board walks or anything, just a foot path on the cinders.

I was really interested in the lava tubes. They actually have a path that you can go inside of one and hike through it, and come up at a different spot, then "scramble" back to the foot path.

Melanie is in this picture to give an idea how big this lava tube was. We were both amazed that we were able to walk inside of one.

We blew it. Not one picture. We stayed at Lava Hot Springs, ID. We had so much fun, we never thought to take a picture of anything. The Home Motel was incredible. We went there to enjoy another hot springs, but it was so hot when we got there, I was not looking forward to it. At all. BUT, we noticed lots of people walking by the motel with inner tubes. We asked one couple what was up, and they clued us in to the tubing of the Portneuf River through town. We were getting swim clothes on very soon after that. It was very refreshing, not to mention a lot of fun. After that, we mentioned to the motel clerk that we were going to go to the pools to soak, when they asked us why we would do that when the same water was in our room. That town just kept getting better. We had supper at the Blue Moon Bar and Grill. Walking in it just looked like a bar, but they had great food. We both want to go back to this place, and if we are ever in the area we will stay here again.

165 Miles, hot and dry. At least until we got in the river.

Day 7

Logan, UT

We had a short ride to get to the Kaw Pasture, so we took out time. We stopped at Soda Springs ID to see the most consistant geyser there is. The sign said it goes off "Every hour, on the hour". We were there an hour, and it never went off. We took a couple of pictures, but somehow I forgot to include one.

This was overlooking Bear Lake, Idaho and Utah.

Here was the motel for the Rally. There were fires in the area, and a lot of helicopter traffic.

Here the bikes got shade in the afternoon.

The meals, the raffle, and a lot of visiting happened under these big shade trees.

Saturday, some of us decided to go on a ride, but we couldn't find anywhere to ride to. We tried a scenic canyon that Jack 4E heard about, but we couldn't get there. We ended up having to settle for going to Paradise. It sounds better than it really was.

Melanie liked this little car.

And this house.

I don't know what she liked here!

The group looking for a ride.

And we found this!

And we ate here. I will say one thing, the food in Paradise is good. So was the company.

The group. Jack and Barb 4E, Sherm, KrazyBob, KrazyBarb, and Trouble.

We wanted to get some thing for breakfast, and we think Sherm just needed another Walmart fix. He really enjoyed the special parking!

It was 122 miles from Lava Hot Springs to Logan UT they route we took.

Day 10

Heading home. I did some video of Logan Canyon early in the morning, and Melanie spotted a moose along the road, and it showed up in the video, but no real clear.

This was some of the landscaping mother nature did in Wyoming.

605 miles, it was long, it was very hot, and we stayed dry.

This was one of my favorite vacations ever. Good riding, good food, and great people.