Lincoln, Montana

If you recall the Fourth of July adventure we had in Lincoln, Montana, you might remember the rodeo that we went to on Saturday.  The main event was the Ring of Fire, a gladiator competition of sorts, that involved about eight men standing in a ring in the middle of the arena as a pissed off bull tried to destroy each of them.  The last man standing in the white ring was declared the winner and split the pot of money with the equally deranged person from the audience who bid on them to be the winner.

Nate captured this video of what might be the closest thing our society will ever witness that mimics what the Romans did 2,000 years ago with gladiators and wild animals:


The Ring of Fire from Nathan Currier-Groh on Vimeo.

At the beginning of the rodeo, Jerry released his racing pigeons to the Star-Spangled Banner:

Rodeo Opening Ceremony from Nathan Currier-Groh on Vimeo.


The kids of Lincoln had to get involved, too, so here's a sequence of the Chicken Scramble (6 chickens, 50 kids...catch a chicken and you get to keep it):

On your mark, get set...

Go!

Aspen Alley

After the high desert of Wyoming, riding through Aspen Alley was one of the most refreshing parts of the last section of the ride.  This is a video of Brian and I riding through the canopy of trees in the early morning.  The sound of aspen leaves quaking is quite peaceful and also something I enjoy about being out west.  We certainly don't have aspens in abundance like Colorado does.


Aspen Alley from Nathan Currier-Groh on Vimeo.

Great Basin Cow Jam

Of all the animals that we encountered on the Great Divide Route, the cows were the most baffling.  They're giant beasts with seemingly no interest in anything other than eating, pooping, and sleeping.  They were fun to talk/yell to while riding, and I mentioned before that there was a somewhat false sense of security when they were around because we believed that there were no bears nearby.  This, of course, is completely erroneous considering there were accounts of some grizzly bear "Cow Killer" in McCoy's book.  I can't remember where this was, but this griz was responsible for the slaying of numerous cows during its reign.

Anyway, this video was taken on the day we did the near 70 miles through the Great Basin in Wyoming.  The best part is that there is a bull in the front of the herd, but it, too, was frightened off by Brian's trailer and our bells.  FYI: Nate isn't flipping off the cows; he's flashing his "bull horns" in an attempt to let the cows know who was boss.

Cowboy Spiderman

Moove Along from Nathan Currier-Groh on Vimeo.

Forgotten Posts

It's been about seven months since our trip ended, and I still find myself remembering various parts of the GDR.  I actually read through this whole blog last weekend, smiling the whole time as I recalled the epic adventures that we had.  I often will say something to Nate like, "Remember when we rode through the Basin during the night?" or "What was the name of that town where we had that ridiculous burger served by the tweakers?"

We must be in some sort of a reminiscing mood tonight because Nate and I were talking about all the incredible music that we listened to while we were in high school (Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam).  We even put in Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins as we went out for ice cream and drove around West Allis in the snow.  That somehow turned into watching all the videos that we took on the Great Divide Route, and I've decided that there are lots of snippets of the trip that never made it into this blog.  So, I'm going to do a number of posts that are from the vault...  Enjoy.