Our final day and Mikes Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to Mike from our little tent in Havre, Montana. Not much sleep last night and looking forward to our bed tonight. The campground at the all night gas station, on a busy highway, next to a railway track, and with a guy from the Netherlands in a tent right next to us made for a very restless night. lol. We woke up early to the Dutchman phoning home at 5am!  “Buddy, our tent is not sound proof!!”  We then went for breakfast and decided to carry on all the way home. The weather in Canada not looking so great. Oh well, we loaded up the bike and started off. No problem at the border, and on to Cyprus Hills. You know you are back in Canada when you pay $16.00 for 2 Caesar's and gas is 1.00/litre, but we are home. It started raining in Medicine Hat and rained all the way home. 600 km in the rain was not great, but my heated vest made all the difference. Mike was not so lucky as he couldn't get his heated jacket to work. Got home around 6:30. Turned the T.V. on and watched the movie "Wild Bill". Made us want to be back in Deadwood!!! Well 3 weeks and we will be off for the west coast and more adventure. Keep posted..........

Friday

We got misinformation and told there was no camping in Lewistown. So off to a Super 8 motel. After checking in we decided to go for supper and rode past the campground. Well I'm not sure what is up with that.Woke up and carried on to Fort Benton. Fort Benton is home to the oldest hotel in Montana,"Union Hotel". Lots of history in this little town. They had to bring in the army and circle the town to get it under control in the late 1800's. The weather is still warm and on to Havre to camp one more night before we make our way home. Lots of farm land and rolling hills for scenery.

Day 15 - Were in Montana and...

From Medora campground, we rode thru the Theodore Roosevelt National Park for about 20 miles. Spotted buffalo, deer, wild horses and the biggest prairie dogs ever. Hundreds of them. It was a long ride (550km) through the grasslands state park. Joanne slept most of the way. We have rode a total of 5700 km so far, and we have about 900km to go. We are finally back in the Montana mountains and stayed in Lewistown. Close enough for Caesars! Gotta love it! Stopped for Caesars in a little bar downtown Lewistown that has a stream running underneath it. You can sit in the bar and watch the water flow under it. This is an awesome country, but they need to learn about Caesars other than in just Montana!!!

It's official...

We have left Deadwood! Were in Medora, North Dakota and slowly making our way home! 5141 km so far and many more to come!

The road today is long and non scenic until we got to Theodore Roosevelt State Park. At least the weather is warm and it isn’t raining. This place is amazing. The colored canyon goes on forever and this is the location of Custer’s last stand. The history is fascinating. We are in our little tent tonight wishing we were in the John Wayne suite again.

Weather might be a problem today…

The weather has turned for the worst, so….

Hello Deadwood for night number 3!  And if you believe it were moving rooms!  I’m really starting to think that Joanne is starting to like John Wayne!  Were moving into the room that he stayed in when he stayed here!!  What’s another 200 bucks! Hello Casino, gotta pay for it somehow!! So I guess it’s a little more history for today! Joanne says “Johnny slots paid so well, let’s just DO IT!!”

Well it was a great choice to stay one more day, it spit rain most of the day and it gave us a chance to go to the Adams house and the Chinese underground tunnels. We walked the city and got a great history lesson about the wild west days.  After another 16 oz. prime rib supper, back to the casinos for more fun. John Wayne slots paid well, but not so much for Mike at the tables. Back to our room around 1:00 am, Mike had a shower and the ghost of John Wayne shut the light off  in the bathroom. Apparently many of the hotels are haunted in Deadwood. We did our souvenir shopping as well today.

Were still in Deadwood…

Well 2 days have past here in Deadwood, and we have been too busy to update the blog. On Sunday, July 4, we rode out of Keystone in the pouring rain. Luckily we only had a hour ride north to Deadwood and the skies stopped raining by the time we got there. What an amazing place. We checked in out hotel and omg,, we feel like Kings. Our corner suite overlooks Main Street Deadwood. We look into the old “Number 10 Saloon”, where Wild Buffalo Bill was gunned down in broad daylight in 1876. Our marble tile and Jacuzzi tub with huge walk in shower was something beautiful. The fireplace was welcomed after riding in the rain for an hour. Mike wont quite playing with the electric drapes. Quite a step up from our little tent!! This hotel is were John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogard, among other famous movie stars stayed.  It was the 4th of July and the place was buzzing with activities. 4th of July day parade came right past our hotel and we could watch from the balcony. Then it was on to the Deadwood tour around the town. Checking out the places to eat and the things a guy must see, like the old cemetery. Where Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane lie buried side by side. Even though they were never lovers. A little more history and then we were let loose! Country performers filled the casinos and we watched the # 2 in the country fireworks display, up the hill in the old gold mining town of Lead only 2 miles away. Then back to town for some gambling and fun.We love this place so decided to spend a couple days here. Yesterday we woke up and went on a mission to find old ghost towns. Down some scary gravel roads, a few beers in some little town saloons and finally we came to Rockerville where they still have some old buildings from the 1800’s. Old ghost towns are hard to find. We rode past the signs to the Black Hills Caverns and decided to check it out. These hills are full of caverns as there are several in the area. We couldn’t believe how we toured down 225 ft to open caves and had to turn sideways to walk between crevasses. The hour long tour was exciting and something to see.  Then on up to Sturgis and back to our room to get cleaned up for another night on the town, and that we did! Joanne was winning on the John Wayne and Miss Kitty machines and well I was finally making a little back from the night before. Were not leaving Deadwood any extra money.  I made my money back and Jo, well somehow she won over 200 bucks! I think old Johnny had a thing for her, cause every Johnny machine that she played paid her. Meeting back at our room at 2am, I thought that I was dead for being so late.  As it turned out she got back to the room too! It was perfect timing! Gotta love it!!! But now our time has come to an end.  Were packing up and heading up to the Adam’s House for one last tour and then were off to Devil’s Tower for the day.  Were hoping to be somewhere in North Dakota tonight but we’ll see. Deadwood might call us back for just one more night!!

Deadwood, South Dakota

All is going really well!! Deadwood is a pretty cool place, so we have decided to stay another night! Joanne will update the Blog tonight while I’m winning at the Casino!

Ah why

SOS having too much fun in a 1800's salon! Ah were gonna hurt in the morning! Keystone is awesome!

What a awesome day!

Wow! Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse amazing! More to follow...

Were do we start?  We woke up in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on a mission and mission was to get to the Black Hills of South Dakota today! The weather was hot and dry for the ride out of Nebraska with wide open pastures guiding us to our destination.  As we worked our way north there was more and more to look at.  All of a sudden there were trees and rolling hills!  And that was the end of the wind! We rode into Keystone, and on roads thru narrow rock tunnels and on hairpin turns like we have never seen.On the wildlife loop of the highway, we saw more Bison, Antelope, deer and a herd of wild donkeys. Some were right on the highway, close enough for us to touch as we rode by. Our favorite part of Custer State Park is the Needles highway. Tall rock lined the roads and we rode thru tunnels only 10 feet wide. We had to honk before we entered them to let the traffic know we were coming thru. Then on to Crazy Horse. What can I say, it was absolutely amazing. The work that has gone into, and continues to be done, is unbelievable. We walked thru the museum and learned a little history of Crazy Horse and all that he did for his people. Next was on to Mount Rushmore. The monument is huge and quite touching as you read about the work that went into designing and constructing such a monument. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln actually looked like they were watching over us. We watched as they lit up the faces after dark. Next we decided to go to our hotel and off for supper. It was 11:00 so no supper, but we found a saloon called the Red Garter Saloon. There was a guy playing and singing out time country music. We felt like we were back in the wild west. He sang Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, &John Denver. It was awesome. I kept thinking how much Lynn and Randy would have love it!!We got back to our hotel about 1:00 in the morning. What a perfect day!!!! 

 

 

Well the road took us to….

Big Ed’s Steakhouse! In….Bird City!! Oh Yeah!!!

Holy Crap were in KANSAS!!!

Day 8

Happy Canada Day!!! We rode out of Laramie at 9:30 this morning into Colorado. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery riding thru the mountains into the prairies. The temperature was 25 degrees and the sun was shining, but about 1/2 hour into our ride and onto  the prairies, the temperature reached a whopping 37 degrees. We nearly died in our biker clothes. The landscape was flat, dry, and not tree in sight. Just like southern Alberta. We even had the extreme wind like home. We have a campsite tonight in North Sterlling State Park on a reservoir, but there isnt any trees and we may blow away in our tent. We are leaving now for a ride to Nebraska only 20 minutes away....Well it was more than 20 mins but well worth the 45 min trip one way.  The park ranger said it was 20 mins so I had enough fuel for that kind of a trip but when it ended up being a little longer than that....Well, we were sweating and for once it wasn't because of the heat!  We got to see the Cabela's headquarters for North America at Sidney, Neb.  The place was massive!  On the way back to the campground it got  dark in a hurry.  Riding country roads in the dark in a strange state is not what I call FUN! All was well, turned into our campground and wind was blowing like crazy.  Someone is scared of wind so she didn't have a very good sleep, well until about 4 when it finally quit.  Woke up this morning again in the extreme heat, 26 at 8am.  Crazy hot without the wind!!  Anyhow were having breakfast now heading down the road.  3200kms so far and still heading east.  Where will the road take us next....

Day 7

Woke up early dying of heat and dehydration. Some how we ended up meeting up with the bartender, Donny Armstrong, from last night for a tour of the country side. It suppose to be a golf game but someone was to hung over to even think about golf.  (Joanne promised him that she would go golfing with him in the morning but somehow she doesn't remember that part.) More beers and loaded guns, dead coyote pelt on my lap and off to the hills for an excellent tour. How stupid are we, but very adventurous. Had the time of our lives, mountain scenery, lakes, streams and more antelope again. Even had a tour of Donnys home. At 2:00 we left town and rode over the Snowy Mountain Scenic Byway to Centennial. Gorgeous views and tons of snow on top the mountain. Someone still wasn't feeling very well so we ended up only riding  about 1 an hour today. So we decide to do a prison tour instead of carrying on.  The historic prison held many outlaws from 1883 to 1903 including "Butch Cassidy" . There was the actual safe that Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid blew up in one of thier many train robberies . Pretty cool to see some of the amazing cowboy history here.  Then we rented a room in Laramie and then went for a excellent supper at the "Attitude" restaurant.   Joanne washed laundry and I watch a little tv!

Our taxi

Donny’s House

On our tour

Going over the Snowy Pass to Laramie

The Historic Prison

The safe from a train robbery done by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid