Well, here are four of the seven of us that went on this 7 States in 7 Days motorcycle ride. This is Thursday afternoon just before we headed out to Rawlin's, WY. From left to right we have Jonny Ray, myself (Mark), my mom, and my Dad. On our first leg of the trip from Salt Lake to Evanston, WY which is about 80 miles we had to stop for some road construction. While were at a dead stop on the freeway we decided to get off the bike and stretch our legs and relax our bottoms. When waiting we opened the roll bag on the back of the bike and pulled out the water bottle to get a drink. As the traffic moved 20 feet every couple of minutes the guys jumped on the bikes to move them forward and the gals just walked along the road. The traffic then began to pick up so the girls ran to get on the bikes and we took off to Evanston. When we got to Evanston and were getting gas I noticed that we left the roll bag unstrapped and our tent poles had fallen off along the road somewhere. It was really depressing because we had only used that tent twice. That is why I wrote 700 Wal-Mats in parenthesis because we spent the rest of our trip running to every Wal-Mart in each major town to find a solution to our problem. 
The next morning we made an early yet long stop at Martin's Cove. What a beautiful but heart wrenching site to see. As usual when we arrived we noticed that the church had taken immaculate care of their grounds. Martin's Cove was similar to other church sites where you come and walk through the visitor center and see some wax figures that portray what it might have been like.
There was a little Fort or trading post that someone had set up many years ago before the Handcart company had even ventured into the the area. When the rescue teams had arrived they told the people that they had to leave all of their stuff at the fort and that they themselves were the only thing that could be brought with them. There were about 20 some men that stayed behind all winter long at the fort to watch the valuables of the handcart travelers. These men survived on boiled animal skins that they could barely choke down for a meal. Not one of these men died from this experience.
We also got to see some statues that were erected in honor of those men that carried the entire handcart company across the icy cold Sweetwater river. These men had more courage and faith then I think I could ever muster in a lifetime.
The next morning we woke up and went to see Little Bighorn Battlefield. This was interesting to see, but we had spent so much time at Martin's Cove the previous day that we were really pinched on time so at this National Monument we did not spend much time. Although it was interesting to walk through the visitor center and see all the artifacts they had on display. In addition, we walked through all the head stones of recognition for those that died in the battle.
After Little Bighorn National Monument we traveled across Montana which felt like we were in the Devil's house himself; I believe the temperature that day was 110 degrees. We finally crossed the boarder into North Dakota and arrived at Teddy Roosevelt National Park one hour before the visitor center closed. The picture above is of (left to right) Wendy, Ashlee and Mom with the national park in the background. That was a pretty interesting place to visit. I believe that the only reason this was made into a national park was because T. Roosevelt was so in love with the countryside. I do have to admit that this place is the first time I have ever seen a Prairie Dog. They were the cutest little things running around to all their holes they had created. It looked like a bunch of gofer's mining the land.
We left there only in time to drive into Belle Fourche, SD at 11:00 pm-- yeah tell me about it! None of us were happy about that one! At that point in the trip everyone gave me a hard time about planning too much, yet in the end they then were thanking me for such a wonderful trip. On Sunday we took a leisurely drive out to Devils Tower National Monument. 
This was neat to see- it is that huge rock mountain that jets up out of the earth's surface with no other mountains around.
In the above picture we have finally made it to Sturgis, SD where all the wild magic happens. Sturgis is a ghost town and the vendors say that they make 90% of their earnings for the year during the week of Sturgis Bike Rally. I personally thought that Ashlee looked especially hot in this picture.
Next we moved onto Mt Rushmore. One of the more interesting things about this is that the man with the idea to carve this did not think of it until he was 56 years old, it then took 13 years to sculpt. Originally President Jefferson was going to be on the left hand of President Washington but the rock was too weak to sculpt so it was blasted away and he was put on the right hand.
After checking out Mt Rushmore we made our way south to the Wind Cave National Park. It is the 3rd largest known cave in the world and in the last 2-3 months they just explored 125 miles of more cave. They call it wind cave because there where the entrance is wind rushes in and out sometimes up to 70 mph due to the barometric pressure.
Lastly we rode through Rocky Mountain National Park. I believe this is the biggest elk I have ever seen. Here we rode on the top of the continental divide, we were also above the tree line. At this time in our trip it was about 35 degrees which is a huge change from 110. It was some of the most beautiful country that we saw.
--Mark
Thanks to all our friends for the good times- craft night with the gals, B-ball for the boys, chatting, playing and just hanging out!
'Wicked' was our favorite ride--we rode it three times in a row and probably would have gone once more except they were closing the park!
Whew- 30 minutes later and we are only caught up through September. Maybe I can get to October this weekend. Stay tuned for the best Halloween costumes ever...
This is just us at a Blaze game- I thought we looked like a smokin' hot couple, but really didn't think you would scroll this far down...
