Blog Negligence

It was pointed out to me last week that my Grandmother has missed my blogging and that I am behind on keeping the family posted on the news.

In my defense I have been super busy.  So I will try my best to keep up to date.

September we went on the Yellowstone Park Ride with an overnight stay in Chico.  The first time we went on this ride was two years ago and the weather was awful, pouring down rain all day long.  Couldn't enjoy anything.  The route two years ago took us over Beartooth Pass and we entered the park through Cooke City.

This year we had great weather, nice and sunny.  The route this year we went to Cody for breakfast and then made our way to the east entrance.  There were about 30 of us in the group, had a fun ride to Cody.  As we left Billings we took the River Road route to Laurel and had to avoid turkeys.  Then about 10 miles out of Cody a fox ran across the road in front of our leader and a couple feet up the road a coyote was sitting on the side.  He was hard to see as he blended in with the weeds and such.  We ate breakfast at Cassies.  We were too large a group to sit together so we were spread out all over, but they did a good job getting us seated and served.

As we entered through the east gate, pulled over to regroup and take off some layers, it had warmed up quite a bit.  We made our way to Old Faithful.  We couldn't all park together so we got separated here.  Had great timing, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before the eruption.  We couldn't find the main group and had no clue where they were.  Lesson learned get the plan before stopping.  The group we were in made it to our bikes and we waited and waited.  Figured that somehow the others are ahead of us, we know where our end point is so we made our way to Gardner.  Didn't see anyone so we waited at the gas station in Gardiner for 30 minutes and still no one.  The guys decided to head on to Chico, took a back road into Chico and it was very scenic.  Saw an eagle sitting on the rocks above us.

Our group was the first ones to arrive in Chico and we got there around 5:30 pm.  Got checked in and then we waited for the others.  They were about an hour and a half behind us.  Like I said lesson learned get the plan before stopping and find a gathering spot.  Everyone made it safe and sound.  The fires around Livingston didn't bother us, but you could sure see and smell the smoke.

Had a great time in Chico, enjoyed the warm waters in the pools after a long day of riding.  We ate supper in the bar and Gary and I split a whole order of ribs.  They were sure good.  Every weekend the Chico bar has live music so we got to enjoy good music.  The group was based out of Bozeman and called Six Strings Down.  Rumor had it that the lead singer is a grammy winner.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast in Gardiner, which is not an easy thing to do.  Most eating establishments are closed and don't open early.  We ended up eating breakfast in a bar.  It was good, but we had to get our own coffee and silverware.  This time we rode through Lamar Valley and out at Cooke City. 

We got into Red Lodge around 2:00 in the afternoon.  Most of the group went to the brewery to eat, but we decided to just head on home.  Had a great time and we already made reservations for next year.