Sunday June 21st
West Entrance toYellowstone at West Yellowstone, Montana.



These signs are all over thepark, and should be believed!


We saw these bison on our way out of the park at the end of the day Sunday. There were two adults and two calves. One of the adults is out of frame in the river.

We saw a small black bear on Saturday that was causing quite a stir as people stopped and got out of their cars creating a traffic jam while they took pictures. The young bear didnt give much cause to be afraid, but the Mama bear that no doubt was closeby was another story.

Monday morning June 22nd

Leaving Montana, heading for Pocatello Idaho. Yes, that is a scarf, and yes, at ~50 degrees with a good headwind and 75 mph it was quite "brisk" while dodging rainfall on I-15 southbound.

I picked up a "D" for my Grand Tour attempt in Dubois, Clark County Idaho.

Solo riderin the shimmer of new asphalt Southboundon I-15 Headed for Pocatello.

Cody Wyoming to Yellowstone

Saturday June 20th




Buffalo Bill State Park, Cody Wyoming.

A series of three tunnels takes you out along the reservoir.








We didn't stay around long enough to find out if the bears were hungry or not.













Malibu Laguna. . .

I always wanted one.













The world's first National Park.













In spite of the rain, the scenery was of "postcard quality".











The sheer size of the park was the biggest surprise. What other parks cover literally hundreds of square miles?








The drive from the Southeast entrance to the North entrance took several hours due to the rain and low speed limits. Livingston,MT was another hour+ away via state highway. In spite of that, it was a terrific day.

Rally Concluded, the vacation begins!

June 19th 2009

The parking lot was an awfully lonely place this morning after the Rally attendees departed for home. After rousting the girls out of bed and packing up we hit the road headed west.

We hopped on 16 and stopped in Newcastle Wyoming for fuel, lunch, and to get an "N" picture of Lucille and me in front of the fire station for my "RedKnights" Grand Tour.

After capturing the occasion, Lucille was given the rest of the day off; more to keep peace in the family than because she needed any rest. Nomads are capable of and enjoy eating up the miles day after day.

From Newcastle we continued west on 16 through Moorcroft, Gillette, and Buffalo where the Chamber of Commerce loaded me up with "what to doin the area" literature.

Leaving Bufalo, 16 becomes the Bighorn Skyway, and the scenery lived up to theNational Scenic Byway designation; with fabulous views, and plenty of sweepers and twisties, while running up and over the Rockies toward Ten Sleep,Wy.

My rearview mirror was filled with a very disappointed Lucille, strapped to a trailer in such awesome riding geography.

Reaching the top of the pass, we stopped to play in the snow on what a local lady said was called the "4th of July Snowbank" because it usually is present at least that long.

Coming down the west side of the pass it was fortunate that I chose to drive (yes, chose), as the brakes on the truck heated up with ten miles to goin our descent. After the brakes cooled we continued down using more tranny for decelleration than brakes. After a fairly long drive through a lot of countryside, we arrived at Cody Wyoming, and set up camp at the Super 8.

According to the desk manager, Yellowstone NP entry is free this weekend. Free or not,we'll join the masses going through the park designated as our first National Park (and in fact the World's first national park).

To borrow from Jimmy Durante: "goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are"

Nomads in the Badlands

June 18th 2009
Forecasts of threatening weather were fortunately inaccurate as the Waterman-led Badlands ride departed from The Bavarian Inn Thursday morning. After a short run through a portion of the Custer State Park, the riders fueled for the Slab run to the Badlands National Park. The Route was heavy on super slab time in order to make it back in time to clean up and head for the closing group meal at the State Game Lodge facility in the state park.
Entering the park we stopped at the first viewing point where after looking at the stark landscapes I couldnt help but listen for the theme for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and strained to see Clint Eastwood riding amid the heat shimmer. The park is aptly named with vast expanses of towering rock formations. Riding through the park we were careful to avoid tar snakes which were too common for my tastes, but otherwise the road was smooth and well maintained.

The ride group assembled for the obligatory "mugshot" at the first viewing point.

I took a goodly number of pics during this ride and they can all be viewed at webshots dot com, and looking for the albums of FDTrainer23 - and selecting Nomads inthe Badlands.

The closing meal was a success, with seventy-one attending for good food and fellowship.

Whenthe group assembled for photos after dinner, the flashes of multiple cameras could have caused the casual observers to think the paperazzi had descended; but it was just a bunch of Nomad Owners who had enjoyed a very succesful Inaugural National Rally.

Mount Rushmore

Sorry to have been tardy in posting up, but hopefully you'll understand. I didn't get back to the Bavarian last night until 11pm after returning to Rushmore for the lighting ceremony.

Wednesday June 17th 2009
I was fortunate to have ridden with a group led by Trip Hilliard for a trip to Mount Rushmore and then on to and through Custer State Park. It was a great day, with terrific scenery, and absolute "must ride before you die" roads. Here is a sampling of the shots taken by my Dear Baby Daughter. Additional shots from this ride are availableon my webshots album under user FDTrainer23.




Scott (Cactus Jack) riding tailgunner

Dan Lund coming out of One-lane tunnel between Rushmore and Custer State Park

The KawaNOW Posse strike a pose

June 15th 2009 Denver to Custer

OK, so Denver traffic may not be anything enjoyable, but I sure can't complain about this view. Sarah snapped this shot on our way to Meet up with Audio and the Colorado coalition for the jaunt to Wheatland Wyoming.

Some of the rock formations along the road

Buffalo sillhouette keeping watch on the highway outside of Cheyenne Wyoming.

Meetup with AG North of Denver

After a rapid transit toWheatland Wy. we were treated to a scenic route around the Greystone Reservoir. Plenty of sweeps and certainly not a route that anybody but a local would know of.
Thanks Landman!!

The day's ride was a good one, and it ended with the group's arrival at the Rally HQ Hotel in Custer. It was great to pull into the parking lot to find it nearly full of Nomads of all colors.

Day Three June 14th 2009

The morning dawned cool and clear in the TexasPanhandle. Fortunately the storm activity of the night before stayed clear of Dalhart.
The Nomad Caravan rolled into the morning air one member larger, as Wanderer and his Red '07 had been waiting for us at the hotel Saturday night. Red outnumbered the Black on today's journey, and we made good time finally exiting the lone star state and entering New Mexico with the sun climbing inthe sky behind us as we headed West Northwest on 87.

Finally made it to non-flat land!!

Fueled up in Raton NM and took a short break before traveling through Raton Pass.

Definite scenery change, as we enjoyed sweepers through the pass, and made note of the falling rock signs, and the Elk & Deer signs.

Raton to Pueblo, to Colorado Springs sections were fairly uneventful, but after a lunch break within sight of a snow-capped Pikes Peak the caravan pushed on.

We hadn't made it to the exit for the US Air Force Academy when a strip of plastic jumped up and attached itself to Jeff's pipes and started flailing around. The Nomad train made a hasty exit to the shoulder where the offending plastic snake was cast off. The skies ahead were looking threatening and we pulled off at the next exit and found a safe place to don rain gear. Riding in the rain is bad enough, but this storm offered an added hazard of hail to boot. Fortunately it was small stuff, and after a few minutes of painful strikes to the hands & face the hail was behind us, but the rain persisted for 25 miles or so.

We fared better hail-wise on the road than Westminster where we are staying tonight. Arriving in the parking lot we noted a large accumulation of white stuff near the cornersoftheroof and at the gutter downspouts. Reportedly the accumulation came on in about a 20 minute period.

Denver traffic has earned a dishonorable mention, as we sat in stop and power-walk traffic for almost a half hour before it finally broke loose.

As we were getting ready to head to dinner our group grew by three Nomads. The Southwest delegation of Scott (Cactus Jack) Brad (Blown Dodge) and Tom (TomK) made it to the end of their 1000+ miles to Denver.

We're meeting Daryl (Audioguru) and acouple more riders in the morning for the final leg of our journey to Custer