A Standing Ovation

The day was wonderful. My brother Rob, married his beautiful bride, Sharie on Saturday. The entire event was fun filled, and at times, off the chart.
The ceremony took place at the Jefferson Beach Marina.

Immediately following the ceremony, we boarded the Ovation, and headed out into Lake St Clair and down the Detroit River.

We toasted and danced the night away. There were flip flops in case your feet got tired and top notch food throughout the entire night. Celebrities spotted that night included; the Marlborough Man, Blondie, Dutch Boy, several Pro Hockey players and a few Nobel Statesmen. Private photographers were suggested to leave the photographs to the professionals.

After slipping into the galley for some private time away from the paparazzi, Rob's only comment as to how the evening was going was, "YUM".

Buddy's Pizza Detroit's #1 pie

During dinner, with some good friends last night, conversation turned into a discussion as to what pizza was the best in Detroit. Truth be told, it's Buddy's Pizza. So we went for Pizza at Buddy's       http://www.buddyspizza.com/aboutbuddys.html

During our brief wait at the bar, in Grosse Pointe, I had the opportunity to meet Penny. If you are ever there and see an old lady at the end of the bar, stop and say hello. Don't let her fool ya, she's a REAL fire cracker.

Jet's Pizza.........worth the trip

This Thursday, I got a hankering for some good pizza, so I hopped on a plane and flew into Detroit Michigan for some Jet's Pizza . Some of the best pizza out there.  It's all about the corners!

2000 Miles from Graceland

Yep, it's Cowboy Elvis. I had a chance to party with "The King" himself. Right here is a crazy moment of who spotted who. This is Elvis taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. I was lost for words, all I could muster was, "thank you, thank you very much."

4 H Ranch Rodeo

Thursday was the ranch rodeo portion of the 4 H fair. When you watch the ranch hands roping, riding and handling livestock, you begin to have a real appreciation for the guys that rodeo for a living. Good is good, but great, is a thing of beauty to watch. The real art come in the fact that they make it all look so easy. The ranch hand teams competed to trailer cattle, brand calves, doctor sick cows and milk wild cows. All in a days work and surrounded by so much history. Yup, that's what they did before there was television!

Skalkaho Pass, Day 6

Suffice to say, it was quite chilly Thursday morning when we all awoke. A soak in the hot springs would have been welcome, however, one of our best days lay ahead. We sported some extra layers, for the first time on this trip, and headed east, to the edge of Missoula, for a bite to eat and some coffee to warm our bones.

As was custom during breakfast, everyone kept inquiring as to our plans for the day. I had something special for the crew and managed to play it close to the vest until the moment of truth. I let the crew ramble and fuss about our route and only talked about our final destination for the day. When breakfast was over, I managed to get suited up and take off with the pack in toe and smiled the whole way.

We headed south on 93 towards Hamilton. Once we passed Hamilton we turned east on 38 at Grantsdale. The boys didn't know what they were in for, but they were headed over Skalkaho Pass.

The pass is a 45 mile drive through the Sapphire Mountains; a passage from the Bitterroot Valley to the Philipsburg Valley. The fun part is that the pass peaks out at 7,258 feet above sea level and while half of it is firmly packed gravel, only one small section of it,at the waterfall, has guard rails.

Being the ornery one that I am, I never pulled over until the halfway point, which happens to be the waterfall at the top of the pass.Skalkaho Pass - Visit Montana

Needless to say, a few of the guys were white knuckling it by the time we got to the falls. The nice thing about being half way is...................... YUP, keep going.

Coming out the other side of the pass, it dumps you out, smack dab in the middle of the Pintler Scenic loop; a 64 mile rolling route through beauty. We headed southeast toward Anaconda. The folks at Anaconda want to make sure you are slowed down enough from your journey, so you can take in all the sights they have to offer. It sure seems that way, because they slow you down to 30 m.p.h. for the prior 5 miles before you reach town. We assumed parade formation and road as if we were riding with a 4 star general, anticipating a welcoming band.             Nothing, Zip, Zilch!

The fascinating thing about Anaconda is the enormous pile of slag at the east end of town. I don't know where else in the world you would ever see another.Anaconda, Montana - giant slag piles

Once through Anaconda, we headed south on 274 towards Wisdom; our next stop was to be the sight of the Big Hole Battlefield. The scenery, all the way there way stunning, as each stretch seemed to rival the other for pure beauty.

The ride along the Big Hole River was way cool. It was wide open and a chance to open it up and blow out some of the dust; that's exactly what I did.

Big Hole National Battlefield - National Park Service

The picture above is the location where the battle took place. Standing inside the visitor center and reading the accounts of what happened that awful day was humbling and surreal.

From the Battlefield we headed to Jackson Hot Springs for the evening.

Jackson Hot Springs | Montana Hot Springs Resort | Montana ...

It may not look like much, but don't let looks throw you off. It is tops!

I had my own cabin, again.

We all got to soak in the hot springs directly after dinner; and then we had the entire hall, almost entirely to ourselves!

Big Timber, being the one to claim he loves being on the road more than the rest of us, upped the ante by sleeping in the middle of the road.

All's well that ends well!

Northwest Passage Scenic Byway. Day 5

As morning came, I couldn't get out of Coeur d'Alane fast enough. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a hater, there were just too many cars and too much traffic and people for me;simply put, it was just time to move on. I must admit that the countryside, south of Coeur d'Alane was beautiful. I enjoyed the trip all the way down to Lewiston. Plummer to Moscow is a great ride complete with rolling hills and ranches.

As the rolling scenery begins to change, it comes to an end overlooking Lewiston, ID and Clarkston,WA. The photo below doesn't do the sight justice. To get down below, there is a series of fast elbow turns on a steep grade. You need to fight the urge to gawk at the scenery and stay focused on the road.

From Lewiston, we were headed to the Lolo Pass. The sign below is an actual sign. It lets you know exactly what you are in for. The next reminder signs are at 77, 55, and 33 mile increments.

I led the charge for the following 99 miles. It didn't exactly go by at light speed. Traffic was almost non-existent as we twisted our throttles and laid our bikes from side to side, steadily uphill all the way. I must admit, by mile 77 I was looking forward to seeing it end. Kind of like eating a whole big bag of chips all by yourself. They're great, but too much of a good thing all at once......... well, you know.

When we reached the summit, it definitely wasn't the highest, but it did indicate we were going to be headed down. As we made our way up, all the water we passed was headed out to the Pacific Ocean; on our decent, we would be following all the water on it's way to the Atlantic.

We stayed in small cabins across the road from Lolo Hot Springs. http://www.lolohotsprings.com/

Steeped in history, the springs are a welcome resting spot for tired and sore muscles. The natural, hot mineral water runs in at about 106 degrees. After a challenging meal, we soaked until we resembled prunes and then we spent the evening relaxing outside the lounge enjoying ice cold Moose Drool.

Everyone knows: heat, then ice, heat, then ice... repeat as necessary until pain subsides.

The guys gave me my own cabin. It was the handicap one with a ramp, facing the bathrooms. They couldn't comprehend that I actually wanted to sleep outside under the stars. (City Slickers!)

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the end of a long day in the saddle.

Bridges, Borders and Salmon Burgers. Day 4

This morning we back tracked the only time throughout the trip. On the way home yesterday we saw this bridge and decided to cross it in order to make our way to the northern tip of Idaho. We headed back up 93 north to Eureka and then south on 37 until we came to the bridge.

Once we crossed Lake Koocanusa, the real fun began. We got on NF92 and it curved and weaved it's way up through the Kootenai National Forrest to within a mile of the Canadian Border (A?)

The road we were on seemed to be like a well paved logging trail. We twisted and turned for 35 miles before we stopped to take a break.

While we stood around chatting, we ended up being watched by 3 really large mule deer. I couldn't resist walking up to say hello and get a better look. You can only see two, but there was a third, when I got close enough to see around the corner.

The road turned out to be one of my favorite on the whole trip. We buzzed for miles without seeing another car in any direction; a theme that would reoccur throughout the remainder of the trip.

We continued to follow the Yaak River until we were dumped out at the bridge to Bonners Ferry, ID. We headed south on 2, through Sandpoint and on into Coeur d'Alane.

http://www.kootenairiverbrewingcompany.com/

In Bonners Ferry, we stopped at the Kootenai River Brewing Company. I had the salmon burger which was almost worth the trip itself. Super, ultra delicious!!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite meal of the entire trip.

My least favorite part of the ride was Coeur d'Alane. It was way too crowded and way too much traffic. I just don't understand the appeal. Dinner that night was my second favorite meal.

Spaghetti and meat balls at Tito Macaroni. An incredible days ride for sure.

Ross Creek Cedars, taking on the Giants. Day3

Waking in the morning, I had one request at the driver meeting. I had heard about a grove of giant cedars in the state, they were near Libby and I wasn't coming this close without seeing them. We headed out of our bunk house in Whitefish, headed north, 38 miles to Trego, where we turned west onto NF36 and took on 45 miles of paved road, that was beat into submission by years and tons of logging trucks. Once we made it to US 2, we stopped to assess any damage we incurred due to pot holes and uneven bridges. There was none to speak of, but it had all the makings of a shock absorber commercial gone wrong. While stopping in Libby for a bite to eat, I met a local old man, that gave me some decent directions in trade for letting him sit on my bike. (fair trade)

From Libby, we headed north on US2 toward Troy and headed south on 56, to the southern tip of Bull Lake. The cool part started when we hit the 7 mile, paved road, back to the cedar grove. It was like getting to haul ass on a private bike path.

A fallen giant. Without any reference, it's hard to see how big these boys are.

So, here some big boys!

Big Timber celebrating his heritage! 3 tours will do that to you.

Anyone can look at the outside of a tree. I found a small opening and crawled inside.

Time to head back to the bunk house. We decided to travel 37 north along Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenai River until we got to Eureka, where we hit93 south back to Whitefish.

We had pizza and great beers at the Black Star Brewery. http://blackstarbeer.com/

Another 280 miles of WOW!