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| The next day after Rapid City I headed out for Billings, MT. Along the way is Devil's Tower. If you've seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, this is the place where the aliens made contact with us lowly terrestrial dwellers (of course, after Richard Dreyfuss made a replica of it out of mashed potatoes at dinner). It's one of those things I've always wanted to see, so I did. It's a little weird, though. You're driving along the fairly unassuming road then you come over a rise and - Boom! - there it is sticking up out of the landscape. I'm glad I went to see it, definitely worth the side trip. Back to my earlier comments on being alone and meeting other folks on the road and sharing stories. I met a couple of older ladies in Rapid City who were headed for Seattle. The were coming from Minnesota, and one was an English woman who now lives there and works as an artist. We were chatting in the parking lot and she commented, "What a lovely motorbike you have there. It must be thrilling to travel around on that seeing the country. It must be so different than in a car." I thanked her and she started asking about the bike, how big the motor was, what's that box do (the GPS), what are all of these buttons for, etc. I guess my passion for the bike took over because I went through all of the features and accessories on it, how I use them on the road and how nice they make the trip. She said, " Well I can tell you really love your motorbike and must just be having a wonderful time traveling around!" Apparently she has a bit of the motoring passion in her as well, because she proceeded to tell me with great excitement about her favorite vehicle - a classic Jaguar convertible (they were driving a Buick this trip, too bad). She told me all about it, "Well, my Jaguar (pronounced Jag-u-war, she is English, remember?) is British Racing Green with tan English leather interior. I even have matching leather luggage to take with me when I travel. Oh! I just love to take it out on lovely days and drive around the countryside or off for a long weekend with my friend. It's such a wonderful little car and I love driving it So much!" I knew I had found a kindred spirit, maybe not the same type of machine, but the passion for it I got 100%. I ran into them again at Devil's Tower near the prairie dog town and we had another fun chat, and they even took a bunch of pictures with me and the bike. Funny, after I met them I never really felt alone again. |
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