Chores Done so... Montana Bound

Finally got the VA to let go... and I ain't dyin'... this week anyway... so, I'll try and catch up a mite...

Moved over to Vadauwoo west of Cheyenne to make life easier (cheaper) for all the appointments... even with the camp fees...

It also has some nice hiking around the base of the "major" rock pile/Mountain. Made the 3+ mile walk with Arlo four times in different directions.  Pushed pretty hard a couple times to add some extra effort to the deal. I'm still on the gain from last winters shoulder crunching and pneumonia... but juuuust about there.

*Along Turtle Rock Trail*

This place is a go to spot I guess for rock climbers in the area...

Now... they all call ME crazy for rumbling a big Ol' Red motorcycle through the wind at upwards of 130 miles an hour (yeah... bustin' the rules I know... so sue me) ... but these guys are WHACK!

Hangin' by a thin lil' cord that's strung through some aluminum bits you wedged in a crack in the rock? Um... No.

Then... there's another issue... Have you ever seen what comes-a-rushin' out of a 20 pound scairt goose? Uh Huh...

Standing directly under a guy doin' an imitation of a fly... is not my idea of wisdom... If you should ever be in a sitchy-ashun where ya'll talked THIS fool into climbin' in such a way... Never, EVER stand under me. I might not fall... but use your imagination here... multiply that scairt goose by 'bout 8 and extrapolate what might could come-a-rushin' your way...

Stand Back! and DO NOT look UP!

*On top at Vedauwoo*

Yeah__ I'll leave scrambling up a rock face to the lizards and rock climbers... and shroud myself in the safety of splitting the wind at 130mph on two wheels :) ...assuming I someday Regained two wheels...

The big fire over west a hundred miles or so contributed some smoke to add a bit of color to the sunsets... when it wasn't blowing straight at us. Smelled like a giant campfire some nights...

Got my VA stuff out of the way and headed north. Spent a night at one of the Wyoming State rest areas south of Meeteetse. Too far to make the haul in a day and I wanted to be pretty fresh for the haul over the mountain between Cody and Cooke City anyway.

That's not a real tough haul. (if you've learned proper mountain driving ways) It's a stiff climb up the east side and a steeper twisty drop on the west... but easy peasy if you've learnt the right ways to brake and such...easy except for the Moh-Rons that populate the highways and insist on making life difficult...

Left out of Meeteetse and promptly played some "lets see if that guy can turn his 18,000 pounds or stop quick enough to not kill me" games with a hundred bicycle pedlers along the highway.

Is the physics really so hard to understand for those folks? I mean... dart out from the side of a U.S. highway, across the shoulder stripe, into the traffic lane...20 feet in front of a 50 foot long, 18,000 pound rig traveling at highway speed... and Expect him to not blast you into the next world?

Courtesy by drivers is a fine thing... but I have to say my "courtesy" can't make that rig turn faster or stop quicker than physics will allow. No matter how much walt disney has taught me to want to... or how hard I say "pleeeeeeeeeease" through gritted teeth while I try!!!!

Then... there's the sweet lil' wrinkled up fart of a fool that followed me down the mountain in his lil' blue compact... I get to the bottom and bump into fourth when I finally get to where I can start rolling again... and... Yup... he darts out and passes, cuts back in less than a car length in front... still on the down hill... and BRAKE CHECKS ME! for__I guess__ coming down the mountain in a LOWER GEAR! .....

Um... Physics people... I very nearly had a 2500 Pound medium blue hood ornament...

Well... we survived those moh-rons and one fool of a Biker (motorized)... that passed to cut back in and grab the binders__ because he SAW A BUFFALO! ... not a hundred... or twenty... ONE! Missed him by inches... Hope he got his picture... and some clean shorts....

Fun day... but we got here... my fine camp on the Yellowstone River in Montana!!!

Couple of small ranches across the river... and a few lil' homesteads and houses... but off there just over that far ridge is the Lee Metcalf wilderness... North of here a goodly ways is the Bob and the Scapegoat. Northwest is the Salmon and the Frank Church wildernesses... and all around are several more that escape memory just now... Montana... God made it last when he'd perfected his skills!

The views here in just about any direction wash away all that crap you stumble through on the way to get here... and being as close as I am to Yellowstone herself... with her waters flowing just a few feet outside my door... awesome.

Few hours each day writing... a couple of days a week to go do some hiking and picture hunting... and the time I'm allotted here will race away much too fast!

Buuuut... I've got two more sweet camps I know about... over to Sula and up on the Clearwater... So the middle part of the summer is looking pretty fine...

One thing that run yesterday has driven home is that at this point in my gypsy livin' I've grown pretty weary of pushing what amounts to a "Big Rig" around... I'm really wanting small, light and what most would consider minimal... Filling a book with sketches... It promises to be an interesting fall and winter after the Harvest in September/October...

I'm kinda impatient for that harvest to come and go... Got great plans to make up for and clean up all the boneheaded mistakes I made last year.

But for now... I'll just write my stories and enjoy the Yellowstone rustling by... while the scent and sound of that river makes for good sleeping.

-Brian