Well, after 5 days of shorter rides and staying in the South Dakota area around Mt.Rushmore and other great day rides, we were back for another longer ride but we were still enjoying wonderful weather so a day on the trike really isn't too bad.
We left Custer and our first stop was at the Harley shop in Sundance, Wyoming and then breakfast around the corner.
A good part of the morning was on Interstate 90 but then things got interesting as we headed south from Buffalo towards Thermopolis. We were doing good and the roads were virtually empty. The only thing that slowed us down once in a while was when we had to climb a mountain. And we did climb a mountain!
As we started through Bighorn National Forest the temps were around 90 and plenty of sun. That changed as we got higher and higher. By the time we got to the summit, I would say the temps were somewhere around 65-70 and I was tempted to pull over to gear up. But then we started down and you could feel the heat rising and it was actually hotter on this side of the mountain.
But the road was beautiful and as I said, we were almost alone to enjoy and ride just the way we wanted.
There were the occasional switchbacks and when the sign said 25mph, you did 25mph. The scenery was breathtaking and that kind of kept Faith occupied with her pictures and I didn't hear too much about my driving.
I love these long, winding mountain roads when you can see so far ahead to where the road will take you. Here you can see that we're rather low in the valley but believe me, we rode to the top and over.
After leaving the National Forest we rode through one or two small towns as we got closer to our destination. One town was called Ten Sleep. The name comes from the Indians because they used to mark distances by the number of "sleeps" between stops. This town was ten sleeps from the next.
When we got to Thermopolis we had some time relax in the natural hot springs tub. This town is the hot springs capital of the world. People come from all over to soak and feel the healing power of the hot mineral water. Our hotel is the only one with a naturally fed mineral tub. The water temperature was around 105 and it really did make you feel good after a nice soak.
While we were in the pool we met a great couple of people from Canada. We talked a while and then met for dinner.
While eating at the outside bar of the hotel, we got a visit from a deer who stopped by to get a treat from the bird feeders right over the railing from where we were sitting. He was joined by a smaller doe and the people taking pictures and actually getting quite close didn't seem to bother them at all.
So after a nice meal with some nice company we said our goodnights with plans to meet for breakfast.
318 absolutely beautiful miles and I think that this was really the last big mile day of the trip.
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