Day 18- July 9

Day 18: July 9th 32,981 miles on the odometer

We get a much better start than usual this morning. I did not unpack my bike at all last night so I don’t have to spend all that time arranging and bunjiing things just right. There is no place for breakfast in the immediate area; we go about 30 miles or so to Elkhorn? and stop for an excellent breakfast there.
Hwy 89 leaving the park (Blackfoot Indian reservation) has lots of nice curves, but the pavement is a little rough. Just as the pavement smoothes out, so do the curves. We will be taking 89 all the way to Yellowstone today. My map shows it to be a scenic route, but were seeing mostly high plains farmland – not particularly scenic. We do see some Pronghorn in some of the fields. There are some stretches through small mountain areas, and it cools off nicely there. A bit more scenic as well. I see two bald eagles. One is in flight; the other is perched on some deadfall in a river. This is picturesque, big birds – very pretty.
As we get further south the road gets nicer, except for some patches of road construction. Ceci has begun to notice that our mileage totals don’t match up. Her bike seems to have gone quite a few more miles on this trip than mine has. I check the speedometer and odometer with the mileage markers on the road. My speedometer is spot on, odd. It used to be pretty optimistic. My odometer, however, IS off. I’m shorting us almost a tenth of a mile for each one we travel. Her odometer is spot on, but her speedometer is at least 5 mph high. So my mileage totals are about 6-7% off every day, making it seem like we’re not going as far as we really have. Ceci is getting a little upset about that, as if she is being robbed of our achievements. Still, I stubbornly refuse to change any of the miles I record. I started this way; I’ll keep it this way. It gives her something to complain about, to get back at me for yelling “Don’t hit me!” every time we stop. She still can’t match my constant gripes about my sore butt and numb hands though. On top of that, my crotch rot is not going away and is beginning to smell foul, and I think I’m starting to come down with that crud Ceci has been fighting all week. Even better, my new itinerary has once again blown out of the map pocket on the tank bag so it’s back to square one there again. Ceci’s newer bag (same model) has a better Velcro design that keeps this from happening on hers, but I am convinced I can make mine work so we continue to suffer the consequences of lost maps and directions.
We camp at Mammoth Hot Springs, just inside Yellowstone National Park and the Wyoming state line. There is a decent amount of daylight left when we set up camp, and we eat dinner at the park grill. It is edible, but I think McDonald’s has better food. So far I have been very disappointed with the private vendors doing business in the national parks. We check out the gift shop, which is filled with Chinese made trinkets we won’t buy. We do find a couple of things and head back to camp. Well, almost. We stop in the parking lot first to take pictures of a cow elk relaxing there. We were warned about the bad smells coming from the springs, but we find it only infrequently noticeable.
The park road is right next to the camping area, which is a drawback, but there are still nice views. I could really use a shower since we didn’t get one in Glacier, but there aren’t any here either. There is a curious robin at our campsite. I carry on quite the conversation with it for a good 5 – 10 minutes. I don’t think either of us really understood each other, but it was pleasant nonetheless. We soak in the view until it gets dark and hit the sack. We have lots of sightseeing to do tomorrow.
By my odometer, we cover 375 miles today, our longest so far. Almost a year later Ceci is still bugging me to add 5% to that total so as not to shortchange our accomplishments.