0726 - Day off - Rejuvenation? Or Last Hurrah?

July 26, 2022

0726 - Day off

BY DESIGN, today was a day for rest and "life activities", in this case mostly just laundry and general recuperation. I'm still pretty well stocked for food so no grocery shopping needed to happen, there's nothing that I know of that ails Odysseus, etc.

When planning my trip I had decided West Yellowstone would be a good place to pause for a couple days. I'll take a bus tour through the most popular sites tomorrow, rather than try to negotiate the stream of gigantic RVs and motor homes driven by people who've never operated such a vehicle before. That also places me in a position of zero responsibility for the agenda; while I generally dislike that, in this case it's just what I think I want.

My home for the next few days is the Historic Madison Hotel, opened in 1912. It's got a lot of the feel of an old-time lodge: comfortable pine-wood furnishings, floral design carpet, and of course all manner of suitable decor strewn about.

The elk and moose heads over the check in desk are de reigeur.

All guest rooms are on the level above the ground floor. This is the "grand staircase" that leads up to them.

The common area has what looks like an old-fashioned wood stove, but I think it's a modern replica.

Of course there's a stuffed bison and a grizzly bear skin at the far end of the common area.

The guest rooms are smallish and furnished in decor reminiscent of what might have been here 110 years ago. The walls are peeled pine logs and rough-sawn pine planks, and are not hollow. (The planks of one room abut those of the adjoining rooms with no hollow space between.) This limits, for example, where and how many electric outlets are available.

Not my room (mine's a mess) but similar.

Basic but entirely sufficient amenities. Showers and restrooms are at the end of the hall, shared by the guests. The wifi is nice and fast.

I chose a single room rather than a shared "hostel" type room. In either case, however, the washroom and showers are at the end of the hall and are shared by all guests.

After sleeping in (all the way until 0700!) and having breakfast with Mary Ann, the woman I met a week ago in Kooskia ID, I set about getting the journal up to date, which took most of the morning.

While I was doing that, some visitors to the gift-and-trinket shop that dominates the ground floor saw my ACA map and struck up a conversation. The husband of one of them is also out touring, and one of the others will join him soon for the final leg after having ridden the first couple of weeks with him. We had a nice chat before they moved on.

I've also enjoyed overhearing the conversations among the hotel and gift shop staff. I'm not listening closely but it's nice background chatter.

A visit to the Visitor's Center, in the next block down from the hotel, netted me the annual pass that will get me in to Yellowstone as well as all other NPS and related fee-required-for-entry places until the end of next July.

I had a great nap, followed by a tolerable dinner. Someone else paid the check, but it wasn't clear to either me or the bartender whether that was deliberate or by mistake.

So tomorrow it'll be off to the park, and Thursday is completely free and open. You'll read why that is in Thursday's entry.

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Kelly IniguezWhere did your bike go, here? We had good luck this trip. Almost always our bikes were allowed in the room. Last year, in Wisconsin/Michigan, that was not the case.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsHe's locked up to the hitchin' post out back.
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2 years ago

Mike AylingHi Keith
Braking and over heating rims.
The conventional wisdom is to let the bike run and brake hard before entering a corner the rinse and repeat rather than feathering the brakes all the the way down. With panniers in the air stream and sitting upright you should not exceed 40 mph. The small diameter wheels on your BF do increase the risk compared to larger rims.
Finally you can cook a disc rotor and end up with no brakes but not lose your tyre.
When you blew a tyre off your rim a long time ago what was the tyre width?
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsTo Mike AylingHi Mike

The blown tire was a 700c x 28 on my tandem.

I'm very leery of building up a big head of speed. The handlebar bag affects steering stability, for one thing, and I have a horror vision of what would happen lest *anything* go wrong at high speed. I don't even like 25 mph unless there's absolutely straight line of sight, clean road surface, and a visible reduction in slope coming up.

Emergency braking from 40 mph just isn't going to happen.
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2 years ago

Mike AylingTo Keith AdamsHi Keith
I guess that we have different appetites for risk although I get the point that the bar bag on a Bike Friday is a greater distance from the axle than on a large wheel bike and this would affect stability and steering.
My single frewheels at 60 km/h and our touring tandem on 26 X 1.75 being heavier can get to 70 Km/h (43.7 mph )and as long as I have a good line of sight I am comfortable at those speeds.
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2 years ago

June EakinI hope you get to see a moose up close but not personal. That’s a favorite memory of mine from ‘99. The bus is definitely the way to go in the park.
I can relate to speeding down hills. I would begin to whimper in the stoker seat when we exceeded 35 mph.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsTo June EakinI've yet to see a moose, here or anywhere else. But I hope to.

The two guys I overlapped with for a fe days were an hour or two behind me the day we went over Lolo Pass. I saw nothing; one of them would have collided with a moose had the other one not hollered out to STOP! and look up.

So it goes: you see what you see when you're there, not what someone else sees at another time.
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2 years ago

Big Al HerndonTo Keith AdamsAmy and I have seen mooses(?) on several occasions. First was from a train heading north to Anchorage we saw a big daddy moose not far from the tracks. More interestingly we saw a mommy moose with moose children about 20 feet from our car on a road in Nova Scotia. We and two other cars stopped and took pictures. A couple in one of the cars got out to take their pictures. That seemed a bit crazy to us, but the moose eventually just left without taking offense.
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2 years ago

Keith AdamsTo Big Al HerndonStay in the car!!! Moose are big and not afraid of much and I'm told they're ornery to boot. Same with bison, which I am nearly certain to encounter on Sunday. I just hope they are not close to the road.
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2 years ago