June 26 – Day 5 of Alaska Trip

People are inherently fascinated with the motorcycle. Yesterday, a young lady offered to be my “Pretend Girlfriend” if I would take her for a ride on the Wing. Holy Jeezus! She said she had her own helmet and everything... Same thing with Leroy – Some German tourists at a scenic overlook where we had stopped came over to admire Leroy’s BMW Dual Sport 650, which admittedly is one dandy machine. All of the sudden like, Leroy is their long lost buddy, brother, father, (just fill in the blank here). Even if you don’t crave attention, it is attention you will get. Showing up anywhere on a motorcycle is the catalyst for conversation that runs true everywhere in the cosmos. …Pretty cool, really. The hotel we stayed at last night had a wonderful complimentary breakfast, which always gets me in a good mood. Their waffle mix was a huge improvement over the slop they served at the previous hotel. I wanted to tell somebody so I told Leroy. After washing down breakfast with plenty of java, we hopped on our bikes and down we went into a 50 mile long canyon, racing the Salmon River as it snaked its way to the valley floor below. We stopped for our picnic lunch at the National Bison Range – and you guessed it… a couple of ladies from a tour group felt the strong compulsion to come over and sniff on Leroy’s BMW. It is almost like some kind of Klingon Tractor Beam that just pulls ‘em in… One lady said she rode on a Victory motorcycle all the way to Alaska... For all ya’ll muggels out there, a Victory is a motorcycle built by the Polaris jet ski folks. We liked to have never gotten away, but we did and on we went into what was once the ancestral home lands of the Flat Head Indian people. There are a lot of things with Indian names here… Flat Head Lake, Big Arm Creek, Two Smokes Trail, Kicking Bear Road, even road signs have two names - one in English and one in Injun… I would love to attend a “Gathering of the Tribes” Hootenany sometime. Mebbe enter the Knife Scalping Competition or the Buffalo Burger Burn off. BTW, those shaggy, fleet-footed, dim-witted bovines of yesteryear were considered “Fast Food” to these indigenous folk back in their day. We blew through Missoula while on a mission to pickup Leroy’s jacket liner thermostat at the UPS office in Kalispell south of Glacier National Park. It was there as Rufus had promised and Boy, was Leroy One Happy Camper! Final destination tonight -- Hungry Horse, Montana, just outside the Park. BTW, Leroy made an astute observation - sunrise here is identical to Austin, yet sunset here is two hours after Austin, hence the time between sunrise and sunset here is 16 hours. As we proceed further north, the days will get Much Longer! Actual distance traveled today was 294 miles.