Cleveland and the End of our Journey!

On my way to Minnesota I decided to visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I have seen the carved faces in the Mountains many times on pictures but actually experiencing the rock formation in short distance was just grandiose. I kept asking myself the question " How did Gutzon Borglum the sculptor know how the faces would look in the distance?" He either was a fantastic runner or a great visionary artist. His plan was to carve out the hole body's of the four US Presidents but before finishing he died and his son started to continue but insufficient funding forced the sculpturing to end. The whole idea of 60 foot (18m) faces of US Presidents looking down the valley was not really accepted and appreciated by Lakota and Sioux Native Americans. So I had mixed feelings about the scenery and just focused on the artistic value.
Not far from Mount Rushmore is another sculpture of Chief Crazy Horse who fought for his land.
His answer after being asked by a white man. "Where are your lands now" he replied. "My lands are where my dead lie buried."
I left Mount Rushmore and followed my nose towards Minnesota / St. Peter where I decided to visit friends from Cleveland.
After saying good bye I kind of planned to ride from St. Peter to Chicago and maybe soak up some art and architecture but I was brutally caught like a fly in a spiderweb in Chicago's traffic jams.
And since it was again Friday and everyone wanted to get home...... I decided to stay legal and not to try to squeeze myself between cars. So I easily inhaled smoke worth of one pack of cigarettes by just waiting and the orangy brown color picked to show the surrounding of Chicago on my map was just realistic. It was already way to late to explore the art scene and I decided to find a quiet Motel outside of Chicago.
In the morning freshly recovered and in perfect weather conditions I hopped on my bike for the last 4, 5 hours of the voyage and I missed the remoteness of the west as I was riding towards east and getting annoyed by the lack of driving skills. And please can someone explain to me the strong urge and need to drive slow on the left lane!!!???? Is there maybe some kind of hierarchy power associated with the lanes which may go way back to our ancestors ??? It is a mystery and it will never be solved.

I am in Cleveland now and our almost three month traveling on the bike tour has reached the end. I will miss the easily accessible connection and way of communication on the blog.
I want to THANK EVERY ONE who followed our path and supported us through our travels. It was a wonderful experience and the memories will live a long time.

And now my dear friends it is again time ..........

....to say good bye

Zennure

Yellowstone National Park

We are currently in Yellowstone National Park still enjoying the wonders of nature. Our good friend Jeffrey from Cleveland decided to spend one week with us in the Park and since he shares the same fascination of outdoor activities and wild life we are The PerfectTeam together.
We are staying in a cozy hostel/motel located just half a mile outside the west entrance to the park. Great location. And every time we enter the park we enjoy the bald eagles nest which is build in a dead tree just 20 yards of the street. The chicks are almost grown up but don't have the distinct white head yet. The last couple of days we spend most of our time in the park just riding, hiking and enjoying wild animals.
Yesterday we decided to go on our second hiking trip and of course it had to be Avalanche Peak the most strenuous hike in the park. The trail begins with steep uphill climbs and continues to climb steeply for its entire length. That is the description. We rode to the other side of the park and the ride provided again some sweating caused by panic attacks. I just can not get used to riding next to Bisons. Bisons are the most beautiful and ancient animals I have ever seen but please can someone send me the Pope Mobil !!!!!
The Avalanche Peak is one of the few areas in the park that escaped the massive fires of 1988 and passing the treeline and enjoying beneath the fertile forest was rewarding enough.
Couple of days ago we entered some of the many Geyser basin landscapes. Incredible how water is heated by deep sources of magma than the pressure is increased and by sometimes 40 m high eruptions the pressure is released. Just spectacular!!

My favorite experience was a couple days ago when we had the chance to see Wolfe puppies on the other side of the Yellowstone river. We approached the area and discovered that people with huge objectives and professional camera gear were blocking the road. So we joined and had the once in a life time chance to see five frolicking Wolfe puppies in the wilderness. Neither the pack nor the mother was visible but I am sure the protective eyes weren't far.

So my dear friends, I think my travel buddies are getting hungry.
Zennure

Great Falls, Bozeman / Montana

They left us back in again and all the smuggled Goods from Cuba. The ride from Great Falls to Bozeman was again miles and miles flatland and now the Rocky's appeared in the distance. I was very surprised by the dry fields and after talking to a local it makes sense because the land experienced 11 years of drought. So everyone out here is praying for rain.

We are now very close to Yellowstone National Park and our obsession with wild animals can be continued. I can not believe it but Till saw a Grizzly bear in Waterton in 50 m distance. I gave up after riding around for hours and focusing on bushes and the surrounding and not on the street, so the chance riding into a bear was actually bigger than seeing one. I found out later that the best time to see wildlife is Dawn or Dusk. I guess Till was meant to see a Grizzly and I can just watch the video he took.

Now spending some time in Canada and experiencing cultural differences between the US and Europa I think Canadians are very close to Europeans, generally saying. One example made it pretty clear for me. We met an interesting Canadian in Banff and decided to hit the local bars together and our last destination was an Irish Pub. We were sitting close to an empty table with just three empty glasses on the table and next was a big group of maybe seven to nine people sitting and enjoying also music and drinks. Now all of a sudden one of the empty glasses burst in thousand peaces. We felt interrupted, stared a couple seconds at the peaces and were already with loud thoughts on our way to solve the mystery.

The big group stared a moment at the sealing than at each other and than at there beer. Basically just continued like nothing happened. Alex our new friend from Canada pointed out that this distanced and quiet behavior is very common in Canada. Now in the US this incident would have been discussed much louder and in a bigger group and of course with CNN and big cameras interviewing traumatised and bleeding victims.

I also experienced differences in the bike to bike waving culture. In Canada it is not really common to wave at each other, so after riding for so long I kind of wave automatically like using my signal light. So some bikers were overwhelmed, some looked around and didn't know what to do. And here in Montana it is more a waving with the index finger. I have to practice that in front of the mirror. Now I am going to stop boring you with the cultural differences from the view of a biker.
There is something else I wanted to share, every were out in the pampas are signs with " historic sites "next to the street. And when you follow the signs you will find yourself way off the main street and specially here in Montana you can maybe read that 1962 was a Cow born with three legs and than 1964 she broke unfortunately the wrong leg. And right next you can maybe buy stuffed Cows with three legs.. .....Or something like that.

And something else actually Till wanted to get out. We are staying in a hostel in Bozeman which was once the childhood home of the late actor Gary Cooper. He took drama classes here and his career also started here. So that was the historic part to it.
My dear friends....

Zennure

Still in Canada - Glacier Parkway - Waterton

We stayed in Banff for a couple of days to enjoy the wilderness and to hike up mountain Norquay. In the summertime the little ski village is just penetrated by a couple of lost tourists but since it was Canada Day, a national Holiday and close to 4th of July weekend it was kind of busy. So the idea to hike up Norquay mountain to escape the crowds was just perfect. The physical challenge hiking up the mountain was pushed a side by planning escape roads every minute and what to do if crossing the way of a hungry grizzly. Perfect method of distraction!!
But we saw just plenty of deer and Rocky Mountain sheep. Now sheep sounds very cute but these mountain sheep have quite a weapon on there heats, specially the male. The other time we had a chance of a close up was on the road. From the distance we discovered four male sheep walking very elegantly on the street. We approached them slowly and as I was just passing them I thought a framed portrait of a big horn sheep would be a great idea. But the moment I pulled out my camera one animal stoped walking, stared at me and decided to approach me. With shaking hands and full throttle I left his territory.

We left Banff and rode towards Jasper. I am so glad we rode further north. The Glacier Parkway should be on every ones to do list before biting the dust. The experience topped everything I saw before. Just overwhelming beauty and with the help of Pink Floyd playing in the background I was lifted up onto a different dimension.
I also felt very fortunate to have seen the remaining Glaciers. It is very sad like almost extinct creatures they are leaving us without saying good bye. Because of the high density of minerals melting glaciers create these incredible deep turquoise colored lakes and rivers. Almost artificially looking.
Right now I am resting next to the main road in Waterton and deer are crossing the street like pedestrians, every where I look deer grazing on peoples back yard, mother deer with there calfs, just great. I am thinking about a new pet. Maybe a domesticated deer to mow my grass?? But how do I get it to sit still on my bike???
So my deer friends it is again time.......
Zennure