Monday we decided to explore the Billings area. There were some rides scheduled but after riding the two previous days, we decided to stay close to home base. I got a map of the city from the front desk and we started looking at it. We decided to take a look first at Boot Hill and then the downtown area.
Once we located the Boot Hill area, we found the road has deteriorated and is not being maintained much. After riding part way, I parked the Wing and we walked…. And walked…. And walked. Got some great pictures of the city and located the grave of Yellowstone Kelly. However, we did not find the Boot Hill Cemetery. I’m sure if we’d have walked farther we would have found it.
There has been a Gold Wing Touring Association convention in the downtown Billings area. When we found our way back down from Boot Hill, we made a stop to see the Gold Wings. I talked to a couple of guys who were in Billings for the GWTA convention, but are also Blue Knights and are making trips back and forth between both conventions.
Having found a parking place and not wanting to lose it, we elected to walk to a downtown café for lunch. Found a place called “Hog Wild” that had good sandwiches, then walked back toward where the GWTA convention was. Across the street and just to the east is a restored railroad depot so we stopped to look around. It reminded me of the old Burlington depot in Crete and brought back a few memories. I told Kayla about some of the things I remembered and she acted like she was listening. There are a lot of times I wish we could go back in time about 50 years so the grandkids could actually see and understand what we are talking about. There were 3 old cabooses outside and I explained what I could remember of them. We were able to look inside one of them from one end and she could see what I was talking about. As we were getting to the end of the “lesson” we were approached by three women from the GWTA. They were having a scavenger hunt of sorts and needed a Blue Knight to sign cards that they had. He had a nice conversation before going our separate ways.
Monday evening’s hospitality room gave me a chance to connect with a few old friends and meet some new ones. We had 4 Nebraska I members in attendance - Clyde, Roger, Jack and I. It had been several years since I’d seen Jack even though we send e-mails back and forth all the time.
Tuesday we went on a group ride of about 275 miles. We left the hotel and rode 12 miles west on the Interstate, then headed south. We went through an area that looked a bit like home, but you could see some mountains in the distance. We stopped at Red Lodge, Montana and topped off with fuel. From there we began climbing the foothills and got into the mountains. We had a couple of stops along the way to take in the view and get pictures. At one stop, hungry chipmunks swarmed anybody that had foor for them. Kayla fed them her entire bag of dill flavored sunflower seeds. She could get them to sit on her leg as they ate, but they were entirely too fast for her to touch.
We continued climbing to an elevation of almost 11,000 feet when we went over Beartooth Pass. There were a lot of signs warning us that we were in grizzly bear country. Our guide told us that a grizzly bear can run 35 MPH. I’ve never been much for running, but I’m thinking I might be able to run 36 MPH for a short distance!
We were able to get through the entire day without seeing any live animals on the road or near us. We crossed into Wyoming, then back into Montana through absolutely beautiful scenery. We stopped for lunch at Cooke City, Montana, which was our turning around point. The little town was busy since not only were there a ton of Blue Knights there, but a large number of the GWTA people were also there. On a side note, gas there was $3.40 to $3,80 depending on what you wanted, which was the reason for topping off at Red Lodge. On leaving Cooke City, we backtracked to Hwy 296 which becomes the Chief Joseph Highway. When we got to the top of Dead Indian Pass (elevation 8,060 ft) we took another break for pictures. We were able to look back in the direction we came from and see Beartooth Pass about 15 miles to the north. It is hard to imagine how Chief Joseph and his Nez Pierce tribe were able to travel through these mountains while fleeing the Army.
There was a lot more great scenery from Dead Indian Pass to Hwy 120. We took Hwy 120 back north and eventually ended up back on I-90, which took us back to our home base for the week. We got a ton of pictures and saw a lot of great country while getting a little bit of history.
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