what a laugh, a great visit, mountains
of food, the movies Mad Max and
sleeping in the basement. That’s the
beauty of Couchsurfing you have no
idea what to expect you can be in
your sleeping bag on the floor, a sofa,
a caravan, a boat, a bed or even one’s
own apartment.
Decision time, I had been
prevaricating for a while as to which
way to go, the choice to carry on
across the American Plains or head
north to Winnipeg and cross the
Canadian Plains. Having previously
crossed Canada on a train, The
Canadian, I decided to stay south of
the border, in retrospect for once a
wise decision.
Pennsylvania known as the rust
belt, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and
Nebraska were behind me, keeping
west through South Dakota I was
heading for the Badlands and Mount
Rushmore, whichever way I went
there was something awesome to
see. In Custer Park I was charged by
a bison, in retrospect photographing
a bison from atop a stationary
motorbike is not the wisest move.
Into Wyoming and Megan in
Sheridan. Megan worked on a ranch
so “have some time off the bike”, she
said, “come out to the ranch and let’s
go riding”.
The hospitality and generosity of
people is overwhelming and when
asked which is your favourite place it
must be the people that I meet. My
ride through the plains was tinged
with a little disappointment it was
tornado season, yet I never saw one.
Bummer!
Montana and Yellowstone, a
stunning place to visit. There are
many things about The States that I
am not enamoured with, but their
National Parks are beautiful. I
stayed with Julie and her two boys in
Bozeman, another new experience as
she home schooled the boys showing
me a very different way of life, the
boys hammering me at Rummy.
On the road to Bozeman I saw a
sign to Little Bighorn, I had to see
this, so turned off to go and tour the
battlefield. I sat down to listen to a
lecture by one of the rangers waxing
lyrical about how awesome Custer
was, unfortunately I had the temerity
to point out the ethnic cleansing of
the Indians and almost got escorted
off the battlefield.
Missoula, still in Montana, a
Triumph dealership, and a muchneeded
service for my Tiger, staying
with Swingcadillac, who ran a
commune. Quite an eye opener and
another new experience.
With the Tiger going well it was
time to turn North towards Canada
and to visit with Shelley Jo and her
family in Kalispell.
Before leaving the UK, I had
been lucky enough to get tickets for
Burning Man, ten days of sex, drugs
and art in the Black Rock Desert,
Nevada.
This was a substitute for
Glastonbury as I would have to give
up that year’s ticket. I needed to find
a camp at Burning Man so was on the
lookout for a burner, this is someone
who goes regularly to Burning Man
and Shelley Jo was a burner. What
a fabulous family I had an amazing
stay; BBQ’s, hiking, canoeing on
the Flathead River surrounded by
Bald Eagles and best of all Shelley Jo
sorted out a camp for me, Orphans &
Endorphins.
Now going north up through
Glacier Park, oh so beautiful, into
Canada and Karen in Lethbridge,
she had a cabin down on the lake, so
water skiing was the order of the day.
North towards Calgary and a sign
‘Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump’. This
I had to see.
The indigenous people of the
plains would drive the buffalo over
the cliff edge to kill them. A young
Blackfoot wanted to watch the buffalo
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