6-18-05

Frazier and friend head home in the morning.

Bill and I headed out for my camp fairly late in the morning and headed across the Crow Reservation. We hadn’t gone far when I noticed that Bill was no longer behind me. I turned back and found him in about the only shady spot with a flat tire. It was get out the tools and get to fix’n. 
 


We had a wonderful ride across the Rez on a great road with no traffic.

We headed up the Tongue River road when we reached Ashland and I think we only met a couple of pickups the length of that  road. The Tongue was flowing high and muddy after all the rain we have been having.

We made it into camp and I got Bill set up in the pod (little Airstream trailer) for sleeping quarters. I had enough food at camp so we didn’t have to go to town and eat that evening. In the morning Bill caught up on maintenance and I had to repack my outfit. We finally got going late and headed up northeast toward Sidney. I had never been up there and was surprised at how prosperous that part of the state is. The oil business I am sure brings a lot of money into the country as well as lots of grain and sugar beets.

We stopped at the trading post that has been re-created at the point of the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers as well as the interpretive center that the park service has recently built. There has been a lot of new stuff built for the two hundred year celebration of the Lewis and Clark discovery expedition.

The trading post was a huge success and there was a booming business with the Indians for furs in the old days. Now the park service does a smaller business selling trinkets to the tourists. It so happened that we got to the interpretive center just before they closed so they let us look around for free. It sure pisses me off to have to pay to see something that my tax dollars paid for in the first place. On the way over from Bob’s to my camp we stopped at the Custer Battle Field and they wanted ten bucks to get in. I bulled up and wouldn’t pay it and now feel sorry I did as I think Bill really wanted to go see it. Oh well, next time he will know to not go with me when it comes to spending money.

The roads were lightly traveled and the scenery varied from wide-open big sky to treed valleys.

We made it to Stanley, ND and started looking for a camp spot. We were on our way out of town when we spotted a sign that said “Free overnight camping”. We pulled into a really nice little campground right across from the courthouse. Bill went over to the restroom and  came back to report that there was a shower there with hot water. What a deal, eh? We had a nice little covered pick nick table that was built by an eagle scout for one of his projects. There was a little rain over night and the covered table was  much appreciated by us in the morning for a place to sit and eat breakfast and drink our tea and  coffee.

We continued on north and I thought that this abandoned homestead was just so beautiful I had to turn back and take a photo of it.

We traveled for several miles along a wildlife refuge. There are lots of small lakes in the area.

This is pot hole country and  there were lots of small ones out in the farmers fields that  they had to farm around. With all the rain they were full.

We now entered the official Scenic Byway. It is nice to know when to enjoy the scenery. Somebody shot this buffalo in the ass.

  This is the only part of the state of North Dakota that has crooked roads and it was a really beautiful area. We had fun twisting through the turns after hundreds of miles of straight ones.

We are up along the most northern road that  runs along just south of the Canadian Border. I really like these North Dakota signs with the Indian head.

Bill with his loaded bike at a rest/nap spot along the road.

As we were traveling along we noticed lots of trees blown down and some serious damage had been done to the numerous windbreaks surrounding the farmsteads. We came across this grain bin that has rolled from across the highway and ended up against the power pole. I stopped and asked about what had happened and the guy told me that there had been a ‘straight line wind’ that was clocked at 130 mph. Both of us were very thankful that we weren’t camping out there that  night in our little tents. VERY thankful.

We finally got on gravel back roads that went through forestlands. I think this was in Minnesota.

Bill was riding on ahead of me here but most of the time we traveled with me just behind and to the rear of him, out of his dust and rock spray. Bill went across a bridge and when it was my turn a large rock by the side of the road moved into my path.

This guy was huge, maybe 18” long and he was in a bad mood. He snapped at me and I bet he would get a half pound of flesh if he took a hunk out of you. I am glad I missed hitting him with the bike. It would  have been one hell of a bump.
We were lost most of this leg of the trip as the map didn't have many of the forest roads on it. Bill's GPS just showed an arrow in the middle of a blank screen, it didn't know where we were either! Fortunately we had the sun to steer us and we kept it to our back as we headed east.

A steel fire lookout that bristled with lightning rods.

Here is a pile of logs by the road cut into eight foot lengths. They were all little pecker poles and I guess they were for paper pulp.
 
We stopped in a little town and I asked a guy that was cutting grass if we could camp out back of this little liquor store next to the Canadian Border. He said sure just as soon as he finished cutting the lawn back in a clump of trees. It was a really nice camp spot and we were able to walk into town a few blocks for supper. There was a picnic area across the street that provided restroom facilities.

The guy that was cutting the lawn had a garden behind our camp and he was growing a wonderful garden. The soil was black and he said it was several feet deep.

He hadn’t had to water it yet this year. That is a big raspberry patch in the rear. Some good grazing will happen here this year.

We started getting into some serious trees in Minnesota. These roads are very dangerous, if you run off the road, you WILL run into a tree. Out west you probably wont run into a tree but you might hit a barb wire fence and make thick slice baloney out of yourself. 

We stopped at a really nice rest stop so I could take a little nap while Bill read a few pages in the book that he always keeps handy. Bill reads books and takes three on the  road with him as he travels. One book to trade or give away. one book to read and one to read when he finishes it. I had just parked my bike and put away my earplugs and sunglasses when I turned around and started walking to a shady spot for my nap. It turned out that there was a huge hole that the grounds keeper had mowed over and I stepped into a hole that was about two feet deep with my left foot. I went down in a pile and I am sure I must have made more noise than a Grizzley bear with a snoot full of pepper spray. It was about the most painful thing that I have ever encountered. I rolled my self down the hill into some shade and rested there  for a while. When I tried to stand I knew I was in trouble as I could hardly walk and my knee was swelling up. This is  a photo of Bill kneeling with his left leg on the grass and  his right leg down in the hole. This should give you an idea how deep that hole is.

We stopped at a pharmacy and I bought an elastic knee bandage and headed on down the road to Duluth. The weather had been hot but when we broke over a hill above Duluth the temperature dropped thirty or more degrees. The lake is forty degrees and it affects the weather for the city if the wind comes from the lake. It was a lot like coming into San Francisco as the town is built on a hill. There are absolutely enormous grain terminals here as they ship out grain to the world from this major international port.

We were trying to find the Areostitch store (motorcycle gear) and made a run through a section of down town.

We finally did find the store and spent several hours looking and buying some very expensive items. I ended up buying a coat with an electric liner that will be my home while I am out on the road. The liner will plug into the motorcycle and hopefully keep me toasty warm.

We stopped at a nice little restaurant and had a meal. As we were leaving one of the guys eating there asked about the bikes and where we were traveling. Bill asked him if he knew of any free places that  we could camp for the night as it was soon going to be sundown and we would have to set up camp soon. They talked for a bit and drew a map on a napkin and off we went over the high bridge out of  town. Just the other side of the bridge was the place that he directed us to. He is a captain of a ship that takes tourists around the harbor in Duluth and surrounding areas. The place we camped is a place where a few people keep their boats tied up. It is in an industrial area with train tracks and a grain truck unloading area but it was set up nice with a shade shelter and even a wood stove that he said we could  use. The guy said if  anyone asked we should just say that Captain Mark  said it was ok to camp there.

There were a few really cool old boats around.

 

This is one  of the smaller grain terminals.

There were some that were a lot bigger. 

After breaking camp we hit the road going in different  directions. Bill headed to the twin cities and I headed over to my brothers place at Hancock on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or UP for short. Once I got  out of Duluth the weather turned hot and muggy. When I got to Dan and Bette’s place it was about 90 degrees which, they said, was the hottest it had been this year and was unusually hot  for this area.