Day 4 - Billings to Cody, WY

Great day all around. Kickstands up at 6:35 a.m. and off to Red Lodge, MT where we all enjoyed a pancake and sausage breakfast hosted by the Red Lodge Lions. A bite in the air with some early morning fog coming off the farmlands I passed through on the way to breakfast. I had to dig out the full gauntlet gloves to keep the fingers warm. It was already very warm by the time breakfast was finished and climbed into the 90's by the end of the day.

From Red Lodge, I was off to the Beartooth Highway (The Most Beautiful Roadway in America), that goes into Wyoming and down into Cody, WY and the entrance to Yellowstone. Do a search on the Internet and you'll find that the late CBS television correspondent Charles Kuralt once declared the Beartooth Highway to be the "most beautiful road in America." Or the "most scenic drive in America." Or "America's most beautiful roadway." Or a variation thereof. (So much for the Internet being an absolutely reliable source of concrete information!)

Whatever his exact words, it's clear that the well-traveled host of the "On the Road" series held Montana's U.S. 212 in high esteem – as do countless motorcyclists. Full of twisting, turning switchbacks that lead through steep, mountainous terrain to the 10,947-foot Beartooth Pass, riders travel from around the globe to get a taste of the Beartooth.

The photo opportunities were around every hairpin curve, and the sky was blue and the sun highlighting it all for us. As you move over the highway, you enter into Wyoming and start down the other side of the pass. The Montana side was heavily forested and as soon as you hit the Wyoming side it goes treeless and very rocky. Makes you wonder how the divided the states up and how the boundaries were set. I spent 15 minutes taking photos for everyone else and forgot to have someone take one of me. Oh well, I got the stare of the show anyway with "Sanity". She has performed flawlessly the entire trip and could not be happier with the bike.

Once I arrived in Cody, I checked into the hotel and dumped some of my gear, then headed off to explore Cody a bit. Driving through town and approaching the end of the road, a familiar smell hit my nose. Made a u-turn and headed back and found "Bubba's Bar-B-Que. Best BBQ I have had since I left Texas. I was the only biker there at first, but by the time I left there were over a dozen bikes in the parking lot. Cody is definitely a tourist town with every t-shirt, cotton-candy and restaurant you could think of...except Thai. Having a real craving for Thai.

Cody Chamber of Commerce sponsored a special evening at the Bufalo Bill Cody Museum tonight. Interesting stuff, but not for 3 hours so took off and headed back to the motel.

Yellowstone and the Old Faithful Loop is on the agenda for tomorrow. Should be a memorable experience.