August 7, 2025 - Laurel, MT to Valier, MT

 August 7, 2025 - Laurel, MT to Valier, MT

Today started a little late.  Larry needed to get an oil change.  We are traveling to Valier, MT.  This is a travel day since tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park. Here is how we started.

We have been watching weather most of the day.  In and out of light rain until lunch.

We stopped in Bozeman, MT for lunch.  A pretty cool little place.

Hope you can read this.

As we finish lunch we had a visitor. Beautiful bird.

He landed on the table as we were getting up to leave.  

No handouts from this table.  ☺☺

Rain is supposed to hit at 2:00.  We gear up and head out. 

Check out the pics.  It was really cool watching the clouds.

Keep in mind we are trying to miss this storm.

We stopped in a little town to miss the hard rain for about 50 minutes.

Back on the road.  Beautiful!!!!

Here is Ron saying WOW check out the blue sky.

Hard to believe we just went thur all that rain.

I believe this is a "shelf cloud".  Neat formation.

We pass thru Great Fall, MT to our destination.

Sunset...

We stayed in Valier, MT.  Check out this BIG town. Hahaha

It MIGHT be 1/2 mile long.

This is our hotel.  I think the carpet has been down since the 1960s, but it is very clean.

Destination: Valier, MT

Miles: 422

Temps: 57-80

Route: I-90, St Rt 86,89,87, I-15

August 6, 2025 - Cheyenne, WY to Laural, MT

 August 6, 2025 - Cheyenne, WY to Laurel, MT

What a great day!!  It started out pretty foggy.  And yes, Jenny, this is really fog.

But it soon started to clear and the colors are amazing.

Heading down the road we saw bison.  (sorry no pic)  Question of the day:

What is the difference between bison and buffalo?

Answer:  remember the 3 H's: hump, home, horns

1. Bison have a hump, buffalo do not

2. Bison are native to N. America, buffalo (water and cape) are native to Asia and Africa

3, Bison have short horns and buffalo have long ones.

Aren't you glad  you now know that.   Hahahaha

Ok moving on.  As we head to Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, we go thru Shoshoni. This is a lake as we see as we enter the town.  Kind of strange since for miles there are no lakes or rivers. Not even trees.  Just rocks.

We enter Chief Joseph and here is the Wind River.  It runs along the road for a long way.  This is also an Indian Reservation for Shoshoni and Arapaho.

Fun Fact: The Wind River Indian Reservation is the seventh largest American Indian reservation in the United States by area and the fifth-largest by population.

The pass is 26.1 miles long.

Amazing how big this is!!!

Here are some spectacular pics that do not even come close to their beauty

There was a bridge that we stopped at for photos.

If you see the cars on the left, Larry is actually standing there.  

Ron and I were across the bridge.

See if you can find him, he has on a red hat.

We go right into Beartooth Highway.  This is 68 miles long if you go from Red Lodge to the entrance of Yellowstone.  We were on about 2/3 of this.  It was a very windy road and again beautiful.

At the top.

Now.... on the way down.

In Beartooth, we hit an elevation of about 10,950.  

We went from 84 degrees to 64 degrees. 

Destination: Laurel, MT

Miles: 554

Temps: 57-90

Route: I-25, St Rt 26, St Rt 20, Wy 120, St Rt 296, St Rt 212

August 5, 2025 - Kansas City to Cheyenne, WY

 August 5, 2025 - Kansas City to Cheyenne, WY

Today was another boring day but beautiful. 

Pretty cool.  Love the shape of the bike in the shadow.

As we cross the state line into Iowa, we were given the Red Carpet.

Yes, the road is actually red.

At one of the stops, the guys were checking hotels.... no need to check directions.  

We went on I-80 most of the day

FLAT.....most of the day.  Mostly corn , some  soybean

Once in awhile we saw hay field....

We came up over a small hill and this was a wake up.  

Wow!! look at all the white.  Pretty shocking.

Here is what most of the day looked like....BORING.

We did end the day with this huge field of sun flowers.

Destination: Cheyenne, WY

Miles: 629

Temps: 64-97

Route: I-29, St Rt 2, I-80

August 4, 2025 - Loveland to Kansas City, MO

 August 4, 2025 - Loveland to Kansas City, MO

Yeah .... we are off.  Here is the reason for our ride. Larry and I want to get all 50 states riding on the motorcycle.  We have 2 left: Washington and Oregon. Ron is ready for the adventure.  He loves National parks and has several for us to go thru.

Temps were good as we left and no rain. We did get a little rain west if Indy.  It was a boring day since it was mostly highway.  Just trying to get west thru the plains.

BUT....... we hit our first construction delay at the end of Boots Lane.  (That is the street we live on.) They were blacktopping the street we need to leave on.  

We got to our first stop and Ron was a little sad.  He got new flag posts and attached Jerry.  

Well..... a post came off and so did Jerry.  Such a sad day.

Ron is on a beautiful new bike.  

                                                            Check out the blue sky.

Not much else to see except corn fields.  

This is a cool bridge over the Missouri River.

Tomorrow will be just about as boring.  

But stay tuned, there should be lots of great sites in the days to come.

Destination: Kansas City, MO

Miles: 622

Temps: 62-84

Route: I-275, I-74, I-70, I-270, I-70