An old classmate, Yellowstone, Beartooth

At the 50th reunion of the Euclid High School class of 1963 I met Bob, whom I hadn't seen since High School. We discovered that we both enjoy long distance motorcycle riding, and he invited me to stop by his house in Big Sky, Montana, if I was ever in the area. So, this morning I rode towards West Yellowstone and stopped at Bob and Sylvie's house, which overlooks a ski resort. We talked for a couple of hours about our motorcycle trips and he showed me the bike that he and Sylvie rode in two Iron Butt rallies. (For those of you who don't know: The Iron Butt Rally runs every two years and entrants have to visit several checkpoints and also collect bonus points by visiting various sites around the country. Typically, riders cover over eleven thousand miles during the eleven days of the event. Very few entrants ride two up, and Bob and Sylvie did it twice.

The BMW K1200GT which Bob and Sylvie rode in the Iron Butt

Bob and Sylvie are riding this CVO Harley to Vermont in a couple of weeks

Yellowstone Park was what you might expect in mid-summer - crowded. The traffic situation wasn't helped by the fact that for some reason people think that it is just fine to stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of a bear or moose or bison. In one such jam I overheard a woman, who was walking on the road, tell the driver of the car ahead of me that all the people alongside the road with cameras on tripods and large binoculars were there because someone saw a bear on the hill. There was a black dot about 300 yards away that could have been a bear, I suppose. People - go up to Squaw Valley or Heavenly in the winter and you'll have bears on your back porch. Yellowstone Canyon was impressive as always, but I was just passing through on my way to the northeast entrance and Cooke City. The Beartooth Highway begins there and goes over Beartooth Pass (almost 11,000 feet) and then down into Red Lodge, and it is over 50 miles of curves, switchbacks, and stunning views, which you mostly don't see if you are concentrating on the road like you should. The weather over the Beartooth can be rough, but today it was gray and cool but dry.

I'd planned to spend the night in Red Lodge, but I discovered that there was a Harley rally in town and there were no vacancies. I stopped for gas and while I was there it began raining, so I put on my rain gear and swapped out the sun shield on my helmet for a clear one. By the time I left the station the rain had stopped, and five miles outside of town it looked like it hadn't rained for a month.

There were no rooms in Billings, either (a large wrestling  tournament, I was told) so I rode another 45 miles to Hardin, where I'm spending the night. Tomorrow I'll  probably visit Little Big Horn, site of Custer's Last Stand, and try to figure out what I'm going to do with all the time I have between now and the BMW rally in St. Paul next Thursday.