Cody Trip - Rexburg, ID to Cody, WY

We left Rexburg this morning before 8 AM and boy was it chilly. Bundled up in as many layers as possible to stay warm. The temp was about 56 when we hit the road. Fortunately for us most of the traffic was headed away from Yellowstone so the traffic to get in at the west entrance was not bad. Just before entering the park we spotted a couple of Motor Maids stopped for gas. Turned out they were in Rexburg last night also at another hotel. We agreed to ride into the park together. After stopping for some pictures we agreed to meet up with them again at Old Faithful.

The speed limit in most places is 45 so it was a nice sedate ride with big sweeping curves. We were along the water almost the entire time. As we entered the geyser area we got to see a couple different geysers go off from the road. It was pretty spectacular and a bit smelly due to the sulfur. The scenery was breathtaking. We made it to Old Faithful and I walked up to the viewing area. It wasn't scheduled to go off for quite some time and clouds were rolling in so I headed back to the bikes where Deb was studying the map to get us out of the park and on to Cody. While we saw the bikes of the other Motor Maids we had intended to meet there, we didn't see them.

As I approached the bikes, who do I see parked in a group on the row behind us but the Conga Crew! A group of riders, all decked out in pink who started in British Columbia and are traveling around the states to raise money for breast cancer research. Deb & I had been following them on Facebook, so we went over to say hello. Ended up having a great chat with them, got our pictures taken with them and wished them a safe trip as we parted ways.

Continuing throughYellowstone we were enjoying the ride even if we were a tad cold and hungry by now. We hadn't had much luck finding breakfast on our way into the park. At the next gas top we picked up something to tide us over and continued on. A few miles down the road what do we see? Several buffalo grazing in the field off to our left. Of course we stopped for the photo op, then moved on.

The last 50 miles or so in the park were nice easy S curves along the lake or river. We went up in elevation, we went down in elevation. The ride was quite lovely with very little traffic in our direction. However, having started early and had poor luck finding decent food along the way neither of us were feeling at the top of our game. So we started singing silly songs and making up even worse ones. The town where we thought we might be able to get coffee was all of 5 buildings, none of which served coffee, so we pressed on the final 20 miles to Cody.

In the middle of Cody, on a main street as we were waiting for a light, I looked to my right and there were three deer grazing in the yard next to me. I could have almost reached out and touched them they were that close. I'm saying "deer...deer....deer" Deb's saying "where? where?" I think she thought I was kidding, after all this was a main thoroughfare with heavy traffic.

Finally we found the hotel, cold and hungry. Checked in and found out that we had a brief district meeting at 5, so we decided to wait until after that to eat. We visited with some friends, picked up our registration packets, did a bit of shopping at the MM store then off to dinner.

Now we are settled in our room, relaxing. We didn't ride terribly far today but the temperatures took a bit out of us. Oh and the dead skunk count for today - 1.