Jake's on his way to Disneyland! Yikes!

August 10, 2009

Harley Ho's and Butt Quacks!

Or Brrrrrrr. Shhhhhhhhhh.... it happens!

August 5, 2009

Robert and I went on a great Harley trip with some good friends to Glacier. We were really worried about the heat so we packed lots of sunscreen, water and T-shirts. Last minute I thought about the "chill in the air" at night after the sun goes down in Montana... so I threw in a couple of sweaters and a hoodie. Who knew we were actually on our way to the North Pole!

We went to West Yellowstone the first day and had a great time. We met up with Aaron and Maida along the way and Dean and Tami were waiting for us at the "Ho" motel! (Before we went maida and I decided we would be "Harley Ho's" so it was kind of funny when Tami told us where our rooms had been booked!)

When we woke up we had a great breakfast and I got the kids some boxers that said, "Butt Quack" on the back with three mallard ducks. They were awesome! We got on the road and started for Mammoth. We went to see my brother, Sterling. He works at the Park now in Mammoth and it was so fun to see him. When we left there, we had pretty great weather but it was getting a little cloudy. Our destination that night was Red Lodge so we started over Beartooth Pass... bad choice! It started to hail and then snow and snow and snow.

With the outside temperature being about 30 and a wind chill of 75 mph... it was about 2. I had everything I owned on and I was freezing. The roads were slick and pretty scarey but we were stuck. We had to get off the mountain. Poor Maida didn't have her rain suit so she was soaked and freezing as well. We tried to stick together, but I had to go to the bathroom so bad, that we had to stop. I just went right there on the side of the road with cars passing... there was lightning all around us and we just kept praying that we would get to the bottom of the mountain alive!

Eventually, we did. We pulled into Red Lodge and Randy was waving us into the motel we stayed at that night. As we checked in, alot of the riders that were before us said they had just closed the pass. We really were lucky we got through. I kept trying to visualize some tropical location to get warm, but all I could think of were those rats from the "Muppet Christmas Carol" saying "HEATWAVE"!

Everything we owned was wet. So we hung everything around the room and cranked the heater on. It smelled like wet leather when we came back from dinner!

The next day we headed for Glacier... over 500 miles. Maida and Aaron decided to go to Cody, and part of us felt like we should have followed them. We rode from gas station to gas station that day... or so it seemed. We rode through Three Forks where Dad is from and we actually stopped in Livingston. I was only a few blocks away from Renee's shop but since we were with all those people, we didn't want to make them wait.

We got to St. Mary's Lodge... it was a beautiful place, but Resort prices. Our room didn't even have a closet... or a peg to hang our gear on. We had the place for two nights and Doug's room was even worse than ours. They did say they would give us a discount on the room, but we just wanted out of the next night so we could stay in a place that at least had a closet!

The next day was my favorite of the whole trip. We headed up to Canada and we had beautiful weather! It was cold, but so pretty. We went to Waterton and through Waterton National Park. The Prince of Wales hotel was wonderful and we looked a little out of place walking around in our leathers with all the people that were staying there! We got back on the bikes and just rode around Canada for a few hours and then made our way back to St. Mary's. We then headed off on "The Road to the Sun". It was spectacular. We stopped along the way and took pictures of the wonderful scenery and the gorgeous, breathtaking mountains. We were planning to spend the night in Kalispell, but kept on riding to Missoula. We ended up staying at the last place in town that had a room, but it was beautiful. We've never slept on a more comfortable bed. and it had a closet!

We got up and noticed that the Harley dealership was just across the street so we stopped in to buy a T-shirt and ended up making an offer on a bike for me! Crazy, huh? I LOVE this bike... but I think we've decided that I need to get more comfortable on a bike before I get one. I really like just being the passenger, but I also think I'd love riding on my own. We'll have to see.

The trip was wonderful, and we love doing this together.

Next time we go to Glacier, we're getting snow tires...

... and I'm packing snow suits and "Polar Bear" spray!