The Devil is in the Details

Day 12: Sheridan, Wyoming
Distance traveled: 417.3 km
Cumulative distance: 4,659.3 km
Maximum speed: 139 kph
Moving average: still messed up from yesterday
Temperature range: 17.4 - 35.6 C. It was really hot. I think our hottest riding weather ever!

Hanna Campground

We left Hanna Campground around 9:30 this morning. The camp host, Gerry, had been by a number of times the evening before with his therapy dog "Crisis". He seemed very concerned about our well being and mentioned a couple of times that he had come out at 4:00 a.m. to find campers in their cars with the motor running and the heat going full blast. His concern is that at our elevation, over 6,000 feet, the temperature will drop down close to freezing. I wondered what he was doing wandering around the campground at 4:00 a.m. Going for coffee, apparently. He stopped by in the morning to make sure we survived the night.

The morning ride started out fun as long as we were in the Black Hills National Forest, but that ended soon enough, and so did the squiggles. By 10:30 a.m., the temperature was up to 30 and we were out of the park, riding out on the open plains. We knew it would be a hot one. We stopped in the little town of Hulett for lunch, just before our main attraction for the day and Nan bought some jewelry in the cafe. Beer tab earrings. "Locally made", I might add.

So, the main attraction was Devil's Tower. If you have never seen it but have seen the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", you have seen Devil's Tower. Thanks to my cuzzin Iron Butt Bruce, long distance rider extraordinaire, who just happened to be riding in the same area as us at the same time but not quite exactly the same time, put on HIS post that this year there is a 40th anniversary special edition DVD/Blu-ray release of the iconic movie. "Special edition" is a euphemism for "more money than ever before" and if you bought it on the first release (i.e. VHS) here is your opportunity to pay us AGAIN. This is the movie equivalent of The Eagles for This-is-our-final-tour-and-this-time-we-mean-it! tour.

But for us, it is a visit to the first National Monument in the U.S.A., (1906). We pay our $10 (as opposed to just driving by) and go up to the parking area. A nice motorcycler shares his parking spot with us, which is great, because it is right at the trail head, as opposed to halfway down the mountain where most of the parking is located. This is a great relief because it is so hot. However, walking on the well-constructed foot path, in the shade of the trees that did not burn in the last forest fire, it is actually quite pleasant, especially as we have stripped off all our riding gear and abandoned it on the bike, praying that somebody will steal it so that we don't have to wear it for the rest of the trip.

Oh. That's helpful information. 

Devil's Tower is a remarkable place. After we had had lunch, we were riding towards it and came over a rise and saw it towering above the landscape. But we were fifteen or twenty kilometres , so it was very impressive. From each angle, it takes on a different texture and all are worth exploring. It is a lava formation where the magma pushed its way up through the crust and formed a butte, probably due to the erosion of surrounding soil; it is much smaller than estimates for its original height as pieces are continually falling away from its sides. We hiked around it for an hour, which was plenty, as it turned out. It would be fun to come for a night visit some time, in a future life.

Staying with the program, we avoided the interstate to Sheridan and took Highway 14/16, which basically paralleled the interstate the entire way. However, staying off the Interstate has its own rewards and today, we got to stop at the bar in Spotted Horse. We were in urgent need of some time off the bike but we needed shade to do it and when we say a mileage sign that said "Spotted Horse 10 (miles)" we were determined that this would be our place. It turns out Spotted Horse really is a place and not an animal on the side of the road. However, there isn't much there. The bar and that is the only building we can see, though there looks like another building, a farm house or something, about a half mile away. I suspect there used to be a gas pump outside the bar but it has been moved inside and no longer spews gas to passing motorists.  And there are a lot of other things in the bar - old time decorations and one dollar bills with hand-written messages of encouragement or services offered are plastered all over the walls.

Spotted Horse

There is a picture on the wall of an American Paint (a type of spotted horse, apparently)

Bessy, in Witness Protection, with Nan.

The bar-keep is Bessy. We are so intrigued with the room we want to take pictures and she says sure, as long as she isn't in them. Witness protection, she explains. Nan snaps a bunch then I snap a few. Meanwhile, Nan has taken her Powerade outside to the veranda and while I am snapping away, Bessy moves outside as well and occupies the swing with Nan. She is getting a little friendlier now that she knows we are motorcyclers and not bikers; I suspect the latter are a big part of the clientele. When there is one. I come out and she offers to take pictures of Nan and me, which is nice since we are so rarely in pictures together, especially when traveling. I snap some pictures of her with Nan, then I hand her my camera and point out the shutter and she exclaims "I KNOW HOW TO WORK A PHONE!". O.K., then, don't let me get in the way.

Next stop is Sheridan. All we want is a cool drink and something to eat. Sadly, we were enticed by the multiple discounts offered up by the hotel to eat in their own establishment. We would have been better off paying full price somewhere else.

A long line of train engines at the coal mine

Grain elevator at Clearmont

Why bother?