After dumping my FLH on a sheep trail of a road and gouging my leg, I headed up into the Big Horn Mountains. It was a fantastic ride up US Alt. 14 into the heart of the mountains. Wasn’t much traffic and I kept finding side roads to explore. Most of the time I was totally alone and it did wonders for my feeble mind.

One evening I found a cabin along a small creek. There was a drive right up to the gate that appeared fairly well-used. The creek ran right alongside the cabin wall and a portion of it could be diverted into a pipe that ran into the cabin’s kitchen sink.

Since there was a good source of water I decided to camp near the cabin, but outside the fence in case the owner arrived. I found a small group of five or six pine trees with an opening big enough to throw my bag down and hide my bike. It was late so I made a cold supper and turned in for the night.

Sometime during the night I heard a car coming up the road to the cabin. They didn’t make much more noise so I fell right back asleep. When the morning fog rolled in I got up and started to gather my stuff. I’d learned if I laid around while the mist rolled in I’d have to hang around to nearly noon waiting for my sleeping bag to dry.

As soon as I was moving around, the odor of frying bacon and coffee nailed me right in the pit of my stomach. I followed my nose through the mist and saw a station wagon parked outside the gate to the cabin. An older man and woman were up and making breakfast. Once I saw them I started to turn and head back to my pine grove, but they yelled at me to come on up to the camp.

I went, intros were made, and I ate the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten. The couple were from Germany and flew to the states every year. They swapped houses with a family in Washington state. The Washington folks drove across the states and left their car at the airport in New York. Then they flew to Germany and went adventuring in Europe. The German couple flew into New York, picked up the car and hit the road to Washington. At the end of the vacations the two families alternated meeting in Washington or somewhere in Europe. Sounded like a good deal to me.

I told them I had quit work about six or so months earlier and was just traveling around, going wherever my front wheel pointed. They couldn’t quite grasp the concept of someone 28 years old not working. I tried to explain that I had slaved for two years, living as a pauper, in order to take the year off and just ride. I think their lack of understanding was Teutonic as I’d run into the same thing at a friend’s house in New City, NY. My friend’s parents had immigrated in 1946 and had a successful business just outside NYC. To them, if you weren’t working, you must be a hippie!

I helped them clean up, thanked them for their hospitality and we parted company. I walked back to my pine grove, got my ground cloth back out, laid it on the ground, and flopped onto it to let my breakfast digest. I ended up setting up a sort of semi-permanent camp as a base and stayed in the mountains for nearly two weeks. The solitude finally got to me and I decided I’d better get back to some people-places. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t have a dog or I might’ve never come down.

 

PocoCJ,

Great story. Goes to show you the differences in people everywhere. How do you suppose they found the other couple that was using their house?

Mac

 

Just happened to have asked that! They met at the end of WWII when the U.S. dude was stationed in Germany doing something with the Marshall Plan.

 

Cool story...sounds like you took a lot of time travelling to clear your mind. Sometimes I wish I could do that...

 

Interesting when you stop to think about it, something as tragic as war bringing these two families together...

Mac

 

That is quite a story.

So interesting, it makes me want to dissappear. Just pack up and hit the road.

 

I'm with you Ironhead...let's go.

 

And then reality hits...13 year old daughter, wife, mortgage...you know, all that "stuff".

I'm keeping my girls! Maybe in a few years when my 13 year old is in college and I'm retired from the Corps, the wifey and I can set out...by then we'll want an RV.

(WHO SAID THAT? SHOOT THAT GUY!)



Mac