Day Seven: Due East
Morning, another night with only 7hrs of sleep. I cant seem to get any more than that this entire trip. The hotel I’m staying at has some free breakfast voucher at the attached restaurant but they’re taking forever to seat people so I passed. I geared up, checked out and went searching for breakfast. I settled on some place called Buckaroo Bill’s since they’re the only ones displaying they’re open and have breakfast. I find a table on the corner of the patio and order the french toast. I notice a couple come in that seemed really unbalanced. The woman is decent looking but looks like she just crawled out of bed and a beer belly having guy who looked like he was on his way back from Sturgis. I imagine this was the morning after a drunken hookup. As their conversation goes on I find out my assumptions were right. He’s trying to impress her with stories of successful pest control sprays around his house and other equally exciting tales. She does a very poor job acting impressed. As gripping as the conversation was it was time for me to leave.
The line into Yellowstone took about 10 mins to get through, there’s those familiar pines. When traffic backs up odds are there’s an animal people are pulling over to gawk at and that was the case about 5 miles in. I pulled over too because why the hell not? Turns out it was just a bald eagle, disappointing. After that brief jam the next 10 miles to the intersection were nice and clear. I took the road towards Old Faithful which eventually leads to the east exit where I need to go. Not more than 2 miles into that route there’s another traffic jam but this time it was something worth seeing. Two young moose feeding in the woods about 20ft off the road. It’s kind of embarrassing to get all touristy and “ooh” and “ahhh” with all the families but….its Yellowstone, its nature, its neat. I knew selling that higher zoom lens for the trip was a bad idea. Going towards Old Faithful there’s quite a few other geysers and sulfur ponds, I stopped by the first one with a parking lot and strolled along the boardwalk. The nice thing about checking out the sulfur ponds is if you forgot your deodorant no one knows. I thought i’d skip the next one but saw it’s runoff into the river so I stopped and watched that for a while. Time to move on to the main event.
Once you show up to it you can see this is the attraction they pumped the most money to at the park. The parking lot is massive there’s about 3 visitor centers/giftshops and then the main attraction. It’s blazing hot out and i’m in all black gear so my patience is pretty thin when it comes to this one. I walked into the info center nearest to the geyser and found out the next expected eruption was 40+mins from when I arrived. I cant stick around for that but I walked up and checked it out. Not terribly spectacular when its not doing its thing but it steams away so at least you’re not just looking at a lump of earth. There are benches multiple rows back that circle around it and when scanning the layout I noticed 4 nuns (I think) sitting and waiting for the next “show”. This was an opportunity for a great photo which has turned out to be one of my favorites of the trip and made me feel better about coming to see Old Faithful after all.
It was time for me to go so I made my way out of the park stopping to take pictures far too often but it’s just to fantastic not to. The ride east of Old Faithful goes along side the lake and it was there I saw another traffic jam for a lone buffalo feeding in a field. No zoom lens no great pic, I snap one anyway and keep going. As I keep progressing out of the park I see a dead dear on the side of the road, the stomachs not bloated and the blood out of its mouth doesnt look too dry. Last nights kill, glad it wasnt mine.
I finally exit Yellowstone and I dont feel too terrible about leaving because I will be coming back again. My goal now is to get as far east as possible before I lose too much light. I knew that Big Horn was on the way but for some reason I didn’t think that it would be that large, long to drive through or amazing. This is the problem with the national parks when you’re trying to go somewhere you get caught up in them even though you know you have to keep going you have to stop and enjoy the views. I moved along at a reasonable pace through the park, this one is less patrolled and has MUCH fewer people in it. About 1/4th the way through the park I see a couple of deer feeding right off the road. ”Thats just wonderful” I think, it’s about 2hrs from sundown and they’re already out.
I tell myself after seeing the deer I have to stop taking pictures but then I come around the next bend a few miles down the road. A stunning rock structure and a herd of cattle grazing in the grass below. As I’m taking photos of the cows a semi advances down the road ahead of me. I remember that I should keep going hop on the bike and start the decent out the canyon area. Having that semi get in front of me was a terrible thing to happen as there’s construction all the way down the hill. A semi going down very twisty roads at a steep decline means they’re going to take your tolerable construction traffic speed and 1/4th it. After about an hour of this crap I lose patience and end up passing it. I finally get out of Big Horn, if you’re heading out that way or anywhere near it you should definitely visit that national park.
I pull off the highway in Sheridan to get some gas and the sun is just about to set. I should just stay in this town for the night but I think in my head…why not go to the next major town? Gillette is 100 miles away, why the hell didn’t I learn my lesson the night before? Lets do it! I get going at a good clip of 85mph, only 10 over. The sun sets and I slow it down to the speed limit so I can tail someone else. The highway is much straighter and better marked than the roads in Yellowstone so I feel more comfortable. Finally a silver Nissan Murano flys by going 85 and I decide I’m going to tail this guy for as long as I can. I’m trying to keep pace with this car but at times its difficult. My mind is fading from the long days and when I stray a bit I tend to over correct which makes the blood race when you cant see the road that well. Following is much easier than the night in Yellowstone but there are occasional drastic elevation changes when the hills roll. Bridges are something to prep for too, when you see the asphalt turn to cement brace for a dip or raise. There were a few times where I wasnt prepped for the bounce and lifted off my seat for a moment.
After a very long and dark ride into Gillette I arrive safely. I do my routine call to all the hotels and find the cheapest rate and set out to find something to eat. When riding around some local kids want to race me with their 2.3 nonturbo shitmobile and I decline since I saw some cops eyeing me at a stoplight earlier. They said I should go meet up with them at some parking lot and I do, why not no restaurant is open in this town at this time. I pull up and its a shitty truck, a shitty car, and a slightly beat up right hand drive Nissan Silvia. I quiz the guy a bit on the car and its actually legit, it’s too bad it had such tacky wheels. They head off to terrorize the town and I just went back to my hotel room tired and hungry.
