Day 19 Tuesday 3rd August 2010
Cody to Red Lodge114 miles 183Klms
I thought it could not get any better....well I was wrong, this was a top day.
We started the day with breakfast served in the old dining room at Irma’s Hotel a lovely old hotel originally owned and run by Buffalo Bill and family. We had a typical western breaky with biscuits and gravy ,scrambled eggs, buffalo sausage, Irma’s baked potatoes, tomato salsa, all good tucker. (Irma was Buffalo Bill’s daughter). We then did a walk of Cody main street and tried on some cowboy hats and had a great laugh, did a lot of browsing the shops until it was time to move on to the Buffalo Bill Museum.
The museum is incredible, divided into several sections it illustrates by paintings and artefacts both Indian and old time western culture. It has an arms section that has some 2700 guns, some dating back centuries. It centres on the life of Buffalo Bill and his family but gives an accurate viewpoint of the times. Well worth visiting and spending hours in, which we did.
We then rode what must be the best motorcycle road in all America, Bear Tooth Pass. Probably one of the best roads Vic has ridden and we have to ride most of it again tomorrow. For those that ride if you can imagine a road with an almost perfect riding surface and corners that have a constant radius and a road that goes on and on and having Harleys to pass, you know we are in motorcycling heaven.
When we first started the upward ride we could see a storm brewing in the mountains and with deadly accuracy the road wound straight for it. Rode into it and always climbing we eventually went above the snowline to 10,947 feet, the views at the top were stupendous.
We arrived in Red Lodge in Montana and staying at the Comfort Inn. Walked about half a mile to the first bar and had a beer, then the next bar for a beer, then a wine bar for dinner. An excellent meal and another kilogram to lose when we get home.
Leaving the restaurant we had only walked about 200 metres and stopped to look at a Pan Head Harley under a marquee when the rain bucketed down. We were getting sprayed under the marquee so seeing the roller shutter door to the HD workshop was open and there was a lounge chair we went inside, consider this is 9.00 in the night and the workshop had several Harleys inside plus all the equipment. Waited there for about 30 minutes when a young guy came down from a living area and realising our plight volunteered to drive us back to our motel – Montana hospitality at its best.
Looking forward to tomorrows ride back to Jackson.
Found out more about the rarest of animals, the Jackalope, it can only be hunted in the first full moon of a leap year.
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