My USA & UK Trip (17-08-2013) After breaking camp and packing the GS, and I must confess that after spending 14 days in one location I had a devil of a job remembering how I had packed previously and I really battled to pack everything away, and it was not because I had bought items and now had more to pack, somehow it just seemed to be so much more. Anyhow after two or three attempts I finally got it all together and bid the camp site which now felt a bit like home, goodbye, I made my way to the local grocer where I had bought my supplies since arriving in Sturgis and asked them if they possibly sold SIM cards for cell phones, because by now my Blackberry had been more than ten days dead. They told me that they did not but pointed me in the direction of a place where phones and related items were sold on the opposite side of town, I made my way slowly down the main street, now completely deserted except for the odd marquee tent still being dismantled and some repair work which was obviously returning installations which had housed signs and other similar items back to normal, and it really was quite remarkable how Sturgis looked like any other small town. Arriving at the shop they told me they did not in fact sell SIM cards like I was looking for but there was a AT&T in Spearfish which would have, and the salesman very kindly looked up the exact address so that I cold program the GPS and easily find them. I must confess that I have found the people in the shops to be extremely helpful, going out of their way to help and make sure that you have exactly what you need or that they have helped as much as they possibly can, and very polite and professional, so very different to what I have become accustomed to getting back home. Finding the shop I went in, was immediately served by a young fellow called Matt, he produced a scanner and checked my phone, announced that it should work and we installed a SIM card, unfortunately it was not compatible although the phone functioned and all appeared to be correct on the surface, when a call was received it went straight to mail box and so we realized that it was blocked somehow, by now I had already paid for the card and loaded airtime, so we had a brief discussion about options and he said, hang on a minute, had a short chat to a colleague and soon came back saying they could let me have a new Alcatel for $ 15. And so for $ 40 I now had my own USA phone, once again I was completely thrown by how easy and efficient the process was and again thinking back to how difficult it is in SA where you have to provide proof of address and do the whole Rica thing, SA have lost the plot somewhere. By now there was a massive big very scary black cloud rolling in and it was almost directly overhead, I have had enough experience by now to know that thunder storms are not to be taken lightly and that they are very unpredictable and dangerous. I made my way quickly to the nearest petrol station and fueled up and was soon on my way to Deadwood, the storm hard on my heals with large drops hitting from time to time as the road wound it ways through the pass on the way to Deadwood. Just before leaving for his long trip home, Rob my neighbor had told me about a park which Kevin Costner had built in remembrance of the Bison (American Buffalo), the park is called Tatanka and I learnt that this is the Indian name for Bison, after first riding straight past the park I got directions in town and doubled back and eventually arrived at the park. It seemed as though I had escaped the thunder storm which had been held back at the summit of the mountain range in-between Spearfish and Deadwood, the prevailing winds pushing it upwards and away to allow the summer sun to shine happily through. As I made my way up the winding road towards the Tatanka facility and parked, I noticed that once again it appeared as though there is a big information center. Upon entering and paying a small fee I found that there was a shop and a tea room and a lot of information on display about the Indian culture, how they used to hunt the Bison and the uses they had for almost every part of the Bison, Costner had commissioned a very well-known sculptor to recreate a scene where the Bison are hunted by Indians on horseback and they are chasing the Bison over the edge of a cliff, it is the third largest sculpture in the world. Originally Costner had wanted to build a hotel and have the sculpture as a part of the theme for the hotel, but for some reason he did not obtain the required approval for the hotel but eventually went ahead with the park anyhow, there is a 20 minute video presentation with Costner and various people talking about the making of Tatanka and this is followed by a live talk from an Indian fellow who is a part of the tribe who acted together with Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves, it is a very interesting and thought provoking visit. There are photos on display of massive mounds of Bison bones which were collected from the prairies, the mounds of bones were later shipped away to be processed for the manufacture of fertilizer, after the hunters had killed and skinned the Bison they had left the carcass to rot. These bones were later collected from the prairies. Eventually only a few Bison remained and Buffalo Bill and two other cowboys bought them and protected the species from complete extinction. I had just finished listening to the second presentation when I heard someone asking in a clearly Australian accent, who is riding the bike parked outside, me I said, walking over to him. He told me there was a really big thunderstorm coming and that they had received reports of heavy rain and hail from a neighboring area, he suggested I should bring the bike up to the front of the facility and park it on the one side of the entrance as it was protected by an overhanging roof, I gratefully accepted and quickly fetched the GS and rode it up the ramp which was obviously built for prams and wheelchairs, to the entrance, parking it behind a pillar for maximum protection. After securing the GS I went back inside and minutes later the storm hit, there was thunder and lightning and some hail, but not as bad as we had feared it may be, after some time the rain stopped just long enough for me to dash outside and take a few pictures, and then the storm hit again, coming from the opposite direction this time, or so it seemed. I decided to relax and had a cup of tea, very good tea I might add, and eventually it was almost five o’clock and I found out from the fellow with the Australian accent and with whom I had been standing and chatting, that the facility closed at five. The Australian fellow had an easy way about him and I guessed he would be good with people, I got the idea he was in charge of the facility and soon after I realized that he was the manager. By now the rain had eased and although it was still raining the danger was over, I made enquiries about a cheap motel in town having no desire to pitch a tent in the rain and received some tips about an old place in Main Street. As we were leaving and the facility was being locked up, the Australian fellow with whom I had been chatting while having my tea, said I should follow him and spend the night at his place as he could not possibly allow that I spend the night at the flea pit which had been recommended, I very gratefully accepted his kind offer and we set off towards town, he drove through town and dropped his employees of and then we made our way up to his home in Deadwood. His home was situated high up on the hill on the one side of Deadwood and overlooked the town with the Lead goldmine in the far distance on the opposite side of the valley; the rain had passed and cleared enough to see that the view was truly spectacular. By now I had learnt that his name was Stephen Laffey and that he was in the US on a four year visa, we put my wet bike jacket into the tumble dryer and made a cup of tea and chatted while waiting for the tumble dryer to do its work. There were a lot of interesting items on display in a show case in the lounge and Stephen told me that he had been involved in setting a world land speed record with a trike a few years previously, and he spoke a bit about a special engine they had developed. Later Stephen suggested we go down town and he would show me the engine and perhaps get a bite to eat. We made our way into town and went into an old building on a back road running parallel to the Deadwood main street, going down a flight of stairs we reached a small entrance room with a steel vault door, at the far end of the vault room there was a second steel vault door, Stephen told me that the vaults had been used in the 18th century for storing bison hides as they were a very valuable commodity in those times. To the side of the vaults there was another small room and this was where the engine components were stored. Stephen has developed a V Twin motor which is the same configuration as a Harley Davidson engine or I think more accurately the same as an Indian engine, because he has a beautiful Indian standing in his garage fitted with one of his engines, so I am not sure if Harley Davidson and Indian have the same engine mounting configuration and if the engines are interchangeable, but they look similar. Anyhow the difference is that the engine he has developed is unique in that the main components in the engine like the pistons and cam followers, are all V 8 motor car engine components, making the replacement and sourcing of parts much cheaper, a second major factor is that the engine casings have been very carefully designed to give maximum strength and additional durability, items like the cam shaft bearings which on a Harley Davidson engine for example are simply machined into the casing and do not even have a brass bush so the cam’s run in the casing alloy, on his engine he has needle roller bearings. The intake and exhaust ports have been specially designed and gas flowed and the castings are beautifully manufactured with a very good finish, the cylinder head has duel spark and again I do not know if Harley Davidson or Indian have duel spark, but I think they do not. With the limited product knowledge I have on Harley Davison or Indian I could not really make a proper comparison or gauge to what extent the engine which Stephen had developed was superior to that of Harley or Indian, but he had some of their engine casings in his store and I could easily see the absolute superiority of what he had, but I had no doubt in my mind that the engine he had developed was a beautiful piece of engineering and undoubtedly superior to anything I had seen before. In fact I could not imagine how it was possible to develop and produce something of that caliber without the resources of a massive corporations backing. We left his workshop and went into the main street of Deadwood and had a very nice supper, early the next morning I awoke from a very good night’s sleep in the most wonderfully comfortable bed, and just around seven am I was back on the road again after having a nice early morning cup of tea. For all of the time while I was there and even now, I have this incredible compulsion that I am supposed to somehow help Stephen do something with this engine he has developed, I know it is silly but I guess it comes from my appreciation for what he has achieved and the fact that I know it can be revolutionary somehow, if I just knew how, they have another speed trial and he was telling me that they were achieving speeds of 110 miles per hour in third gear, (that is with a trike I might add) hopefully they were going to crack 140 miles per hour on the next run. Who would have ever though that the manager of a facility like Tatanka would be the developer of an engine capable of achieving world top speed records, you can never judge a book by its cover. I really enjoyed my time in Deadwood. At one time during our discussion during the evening Stephen had told me about the Crow Bighorn Battlefield which was more commonly known to me as Custer’s last stand, and so with a stroke of the pen I had once again changed my route and was headed in the direction of Crow Agency. I arrived at the Battlefield around midday and spent a very interesting afternoon walking the paths and reading up on the history and events leading up the battle. What was fascinating for me was the fact that the battle took place in 1876, but they have detailed records of where every man fell in battle, actual word for word testimony from survivors and a detailed account of the time leading up to the battle and the actual battle itself. I was completely spellbound as I listened to an account of the battle which was presented by one of the officials at the site, there were rows of benches and there must have been more than 120 people present, he spoke with a microphone to be heard and was dressed in the typical uniform of the area, I could even see the stains from riding a horse for a great distance on his legs, if he actually really rode a horse or not I did not know, but it certainly looked as though he had been in the saddle all morning. He was excellent, he put on a brilliant performance and the entire audience was captivated. Pointing out actual slopes on the hillside as he spoke and acting out some of the scenes, we were transported back in time and saw the battle through his words and description. I was very impressed and when I eventually left I felt saddened not by the history and the events that had happened, but because we also have such a magnificent history in South Africa, but our story is never told, the tale is lost and we have no heroes to worship and no history to glorify our land. All has been lost. Leaving the entrance to the battlefield I saw a big trading post across the road and obviously had to investigate, it was an Indian trading post and there were many things to see and buy, I spent some time walking around and eventually my thoughts turned to the need to find somewhere to stay and I set off to find a camp site. After a short ride I realized that the town of Crow Agency was in fact a big Indian settlement with lots and lots of Tee Pee and all the Indians living in their traditional village fashion. As I rode around there were lots of Indian children riding ponies and chasing after each other and old people sat under shelters chatting and enjoying the afternoon sun, it looked like a very happy and relaxed place. I sat on the GS on the outskirts of the village wondering how this had come about, I later learnt that it is the biggest settlement of its type in the world, a mixture of old tradition and new. Realizing that I was plumb out of luck regarding a place to stay, I made my way back to the trading station and chatted to three young Indian girls behind the one counter, they told me there was a camp site in Hardin which was just 12 miles away, also that I should be sure to come back to Crow Agency the following day because it was the start of the Indian Fair, first a Powwow and then a parade and then a rodeo, I promised I would, who could resist an Indian fair. I saddled up and after checking out three motels and two camp sites in Hardin, I found an affordable place which I found suitable. It was run by a family and they told me there were other South Africans staying in the camp because it was corn harvest time. I did not get to meet them as I figure they were all working. The next day I went to the fair, which was actually really all about rodeo, roping and horse racing, but I enjoyed the day and it was quite an experience to actually see the events for real, for the most part it all happens just as we have seen it on TV. I was also able to have my very first taste of US lemonade, and was very interested to see how they made it, they first cut a lemon in half, squeeze the juice out on a cone shaped juice extractor, place the two squeezed lemon halves and the juice into a large cup about the same size as a McDonalds large coke, then they add a normal tea cup of ice cubes, a measure of sugar which I estimate to be about three tea spoons, fill the large cup with ice water, shake well and there you have, one lemonade. It was really a very nice, refreshing drink. Returning back to Hardin, I found that another tent had arrived, a fellow by the name of Jeff Kichefski, a very nice chap who specialized in Home Accessibility which included the installation of chair lifts and making the home safer. We chatted about this and that and one of the things Jeff told me is that he always bought ex-police bikes, they had low mileage and were specially tuned. I must admit his bike was nice, still had the mounting for the blue light etc. but no light. I started to think the next day’s ride and asked a number of people about Buffalo, no not much there they told me, cannot think of a reason to go to Buffalo. So I decided to make straight for Cody the next morning. After hitting the road I was rather surprised to see that I had in fact punched Buffalo into the GPS and I was it appeared on my way there, why not I thought. Eventually I passed through a big city, Billings, and after I started to get the uneasy feeling I was headed in the wrong direction, eventually I pulled over and sure enough I should have changed from Montana to Wyoming and I was headed for the wrong town of Buffalo, I was furious with myself, there was no option but to turn around a retrace my steps because I had really headed in completely the wrong direction. So the ride to Buffalo was a long hard haul and I hit town tired and grumpy, I had found a camp site on the GPS and just went straight there and paid, normally I go and have a look at the site and showers but I was too tired. Was a big mistake, it was a terrible camp site and I have never seen so many flies before, the ground was very hard and uneven and I did not think very kindly of Buffalo. After setting up camp I needed some supplies and set off to find a shop, eventually stopping at a petrol station shop. A very friendly fellow behind the counter suggested I should go on over to the Occadential Saloon as he recommended it. So after a bite to eat I left the GS at the camp and took a walk to the Occadential Hotel. Arriving at the saloon I made my way over to the bar and ordered a Koors Light, and before long was chatting to a couple of locals. At 7.30 some old boys came in and did the Country & Western bit and it was a really nice evening. The one singer was a fellow called David Stewart and he also was the owner of the Occidental and the other singer was Larry Elliott, I really enjoyed their music, a lot of which I had not heard before. Later I had a good look at the hotel and was really very impressed, it was totally authentic. There were old valve radios playing quietly in various locations which surprised me, the lady at reception told me that someone around there was enthusiastic about them and replaced the valves when needed and kept them in good working condition. The passages and rooms were lined with old photos and historical items and there was a room which had belonged to Herbert Hoover and every other famous person had been there at one time or another. I soon realized that all the people in the saloon were locals and they were dancing and chatting and that Buffalo had a really wonderful community. Outside I met a lady who had a horse buggy and she would take people for rides, the buggy had rubber wheels and I noticed that the buggy frame was built from square tubing and was beautifully built. She told me she had been giving rides in town for seven years and that she had designed the buggy and together with her dad they had built it. It was really beautiful, she also told me that she was responsible for painting the wall murals in the town square, they were also really beautiful. As I was really tired I did not stay up late and went to bed early, but I was up early the next morning and eager to get out of the filthy camp site. There was a massive gathering in the main street of Buffalo and I had heard that the author of a very successful and popular TV series actually lived in Buffalo and that the gathering was related to the TV series. To my surprise everybody got free breakfast and there were long queues for autographs and free breakfast, the horse buggy was there giving rides and there were old and classic cars on display, although I suspect the two functions were not related. The TV series is called Longmire Day, very big in the US apparently. I eventually left Buffalo very happy that I had spent the night there, someone told me that they did not want Buffalo to be a tourist town, they wanted it to be their town and that it had real people and that it was a genuine town, this I believed most sincerely and I think if I had to choose a place to call home and live, I would go and live in Buffalo, it really is nice. Leaving Buffalo I made my way to Cody, on the road I passed through a little town and saw an ice-cream shop, after leaving the town all I could think about was the ice-cream and eventually I turned around and headed back into town, I had a huckleberry ice-cream and it was really very good, the local sheriff came gliding up to the shop and sat there eyeballing me, but soon a speeding car gave him a better distraction and he sped off to deal with the evil doer. Leaving the town the road started a series of long steep assents and wonderful twists and turns, the GS and I had a most wonderful time gliding around the bends and climbing ever and ever higher, I stopped quite a few times to marvel at the view and look down into the valley at the little town with the ice-cream shop. Eventually the pass came to an end and at the very top of the massive mountain I came upon a big lake surrounded by pines, it really was very beautiful, the lake is called Sibley Lake, typically there is a really nice camp site below the lake and a place to climb up to the water level from below. There were lots of people riding quads and just having a fine old good time. After leaving the lake it became progressively hotter and drier and eventually I stopped at a place called Shell Falls and saw on the sign board that I was now officially riding in the desert. The rest of the ride into Cody was hot and dry. Arriving in Cody I managed to find a nice log cabin, just under $100 for two nights, I was very happy because I wanted some power to download pictures and update my computer, but upon arriving I was soon informed that there was a shootout in town at the Irma hotel. Sure enough they had closed the street off, there was a bank, a bar and a jail and about nine or ten actors in the cast, four bad guys, two ladies and a Lady Playing the part of Calamity Jane. A card game and you expect the obvious, but the one fellow, the sheriff I think, decides to go and take a nap in the jail, meantime the four bad guys decide to rob the bank, sure enough the bad guys refuse to surrender and there is a hell of a gun fight, but nobody gets hit, eventually the one lady comes flying out of the bar and says OH Hell, and shoots the bad guys with a double barrel shot gun, takes two down with one shot. The sheriff decides he cannot see properly anymore. It was a lot of fun and a really good re-enactment. Tomorrow I head off for Yellowstone National Park.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 20:41:46 +0000