There's a lot of Cavalry, Cowboy and Native American here. However we probably won't be going as far east as Little Bighorn or Custer but one nonetheless gets the impression of what it's like here; no shortage of shops selling cowboy hats etc. One of our bases for this exploration is the small town of Cody. Named after Wild Bill Cody or Buffalo Bill, who should really have been called Bison Bill. Apparently his claim to fame was that he shot buffalo, who were really bison, in order to provide sausages for railroad workers.
The mountain passes are not as high as those we crossed in the Andes but the views are equally as stunning, and the roads are of better quality! There are also petrol stations and places to stay en route. Motorbikes take over the roads as this is the week of 'Sturgis'. Sturgis is a motorcycle rally in South Dakota and currently, all roads lead to Sturgis. More than a half a million people are expected in Sturgis for the rally; the vast majority riding Harleys like the one we left at home, only louder. Not only do we seem to be the only people riding a Harley PanAmerica but we are also among the very few wearing helmets and jackets. One wonders whether there is a deafness problem here, or have they found a way of keeping earplugs in place without a helmet or bandana? Or perhaps there is a neat little accessory that fits on the end of your Ray-Bans that holds the earplugs in place?
What tends to happen when we stop to take photos or have a coffee is that we draw attention from all sorts of different people. Here, the three South American questions, 'How big?, How fast?, How much?' have been replaced by , 'Which state is the license plate from?', 'How long have you been in the States?' and ' How y'all like it here?'. All our answers are met with incredulity and there is little comprehension of us having travelled through other countries to get here. Photos of us are then taken, email addresses and details of our Blog given.
We rode back through the Park for a rendez-vous in Belgrade. Belgrade near Amsterdam. In Montana. More bison were on view. Clearly not enough people are eating buffalo or bison burgers and sausages. Bison calves are called 'cinnamons' due to their light brown colour before they turn into moody black adults. We also saw our first bears! And lots more splurge, splutters, splodges and spouts.
When we rode around the world we did it in four distinct parts. It wasn't the plan but that's how it worked out. Because there was a lot of ocean crossing we did less mileage on the bike than we have done so far on this trip. Not only that, but the bike was looked after back in the UK between the separate parts of the trip. We are in Belgrade now for a few running repairs on the bike not sure as to how long it is going to take. As much as we might begrudge having to hang around for a few days to get repairs undertaken, (and spending the money!) it's definitely the right thing to do. And for once we were talking with people who actually rode and owned Harley PanAmericas themselves!
Whilst waiting for the bike we take the opportunity to stay at different places. This is often driven by financial considerations but we did manage to fall upon Livingston which is a great little place. On leaving our evening's eaterie we were picked up by Michael whom we had seen whilst we were waiting at the Harley garage. He is not only the local character but also the blacksmith and he rides a Harley PanAmerica too - and two Russian Ural sidecars that pull his mobile blacksmith's rigs. He took us to his workshop and in some respects we went through a Gretna Green reenactment of our marriage vows- well we now have a horseshoe with our names and the date of our marriage on.
Although we managed to miss the UK elections we haven't missed the Argentinian and Mexican ones. We are also full bore into the American ones at present. We, in the UK should count ourselves very lucky indeed that we only have to endure a six week lead-in. Here it lasts months. And could you imagine Rishi bandanas and Kier T-shirts?
With a happier motorbike, and therefore a happier Paul we are heading North to the border with just one more National Park to visit on the way.
