Retirement Guys Bonus: The 2009 Wild Hog adventure
Written by Nolan Baker Mark Clair | | letters@toledofreepress.comEver get a chance to do one of those once in a lifetime things? Well, I (Mark) got the opportunity recently to go on a cross country motorcycle trip. The trip was to start in Nebraska and stretch over 2300 miles going through Jackson, Wyoming, The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, The Legendary Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, The Badlands and eventually back to Nebraska and then home to good old Toledo.
When first approached with the idea, I was scared. I had never ridden my motorcycle more than 3 or 4 hours at a time. I was concerned that I could handle it physically and didn’t want to torture myself (in your late forties, comfort is the name of the game). My college roommate Kelly, asked me to go and sensing my hesitation would tantalize me each day with a new email telling me about the great sites we would see and included pictures of places like Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, etc. How could I pass this up?
At the Badlands
I guess I halfway wimped out, because I trailered my motorcycle for 700 miles out to Omaha, Nebraska to begin our trek. My logic was that I didn’t want to feel dead by the time I arrived at the “starting point.” Since Kelly and his son Nick were coming from southern Missouri, the plan was to meet in Lincoln, Nebraska and go on from there.
After a day of driving to get to Omaha, I jumped on my bike the next morning to meet my friends. We then traveled some 450 miles to Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska. Along the way we saw Chimney Rock which is seen in many western movies. We stayed at a hotel for the night and then the next day set out for Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I didn’t know what “Jackson Hole” was since the town is Jackson. Evidently the “hole” is the valley because trappers had to descend along steep slopes to enter giving the feeling of entering a hole. Near Jackson we entered Grand Teton National Park which is absolutely gorgeous scenery. Needless to say we took a lot of photos. We also encountered the edge of a storm the almost blew us off our bikes. It seemed like we were riding tilted at a 45 degree angle.
After a night in Jackson, we continued on to Yellowstone Park. What an amazing place. I did not realize how big it is. It took us an entire day just to travel through it. We saw the geyser Old Faithful and much more beautiful scenery. We saw buffalo, a bear and at one point what looked like a fox shot across the road in back of Nick and in front of Kelly as we were riding. It was moving so fast it seemed like a blur.
That evening as we were exiting Yellowstone, we came upon a little wide spot in the road called Silvergate, Montana. We debated whether we should stop for the night or move on to Red Lodge. The owner of the store there informed us “You won’t make it to Red Lodge tonight.” Evidently they close down the road in the evenings for construction. He and a resident of the town seemed to be selling hard that we should stay there.
At the Tetons
Thoughts of horror movies where people have no choice but to stay and then are murdered in their sleep crossed my mind. I wondered if we would end up as feed for the pigs. They proceeded to tell us they had a great place for us to stay. An old building that used to be a brothel! Each room had a woman’s name on the door. I stayed in Pearl’s room and Kelly stayed in Kitty’s room. We had a great dinner at a hole in the wall place that featured hot blueberry pie ala mode. We made it out alive the next morning.
The rest of the trip included Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, The Badlands and an all day walleye fishing trip with Kelly’s brother in South Dakota. We also stopped at the famous Sturgis motorcycle rally and actually witnessed Steven Tyler of the rock group Aerosmith, fall off the stage. This made the national news and I was there!
Whether you are retired or not, it is never too early to make it a point to enjoy life. I certainly did on this trip and we “The Retirement Guys hope that you get to experience life in an exciting way. We hope to talk with you soon and until then, keep living life to the full.
