So Much Fun To Have In So Little Time

With the colder months coming on I thought I'd share a little about the wonderful summer I had crossing the USA, partly on a motorcycle and partly hitching rides to prospect for gold in Montana and Oregon - with some pictures.

It began in NJ and I rode my motorcycle across Pennsylvania, Ohio and up to Michigan to see my aunt and uncle (who will tell you I didn't stay long enough.)

Then I headed out to Wisconsin to do some charter fishing with my buddy Mike, who owns A1 Big Fish Charters in Racine Wi. You don't have to visit his website at http://a1bigfishcharters.com, but if you do and you want a charter then make sure you tell Mike that Fred Acker sent you and Fred says, "give you a good price." He might.

Unfortunately, I only had my paper license from Tennessee and it got washed. This little detail cost me time, money and a charter trip because I couldn't get a fishing license.

Off to Tennessee

I did the ride from Wi. to Tn. in a day and had the gov't stuff straightened out in a couple more. Long distances on a bike is nothing new to me. Lived on one for the last couple of years now.

I had made previous plans to meet up with my buddy Doug in Wi. but obviously that now changed and a good thing too. Seems his wife didn't want him riding his bike to Montana. Pffffttt!

In the meantime, my buddy Tommy (the fella who's going to show us how to prospect) puts his house on the market and it sold by that afternoon. We now have about 30 days to get gold. I had planned on spending the summer in the woods.

So Doug brings his van up to Tn. I grab my pack. Off we go!

The Van To Montana

We had gotten a late start but it was a beautiful day

We drove straight through and made it to Montana by the next morning. Now, we just had to make it another million miles or so across that big @ss state to Livingston.

And yes, we did make it to Livingston Montana. In fact, we stayed there for the night in some cheesy motel. Our destination was Gardiner Montana which was still an hour away.

Livingston is a cool 'old west' style town. But if you stop by their police station you'll see they have an entire wall devoted to pedophiles who live there. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Why aren't these creatures locked up!!!

My first panning expedition - into the woods we go.

Doug and I were so excited to be panning for gold we never even made it to Tommy's house. Tommy met us and we headed out for our first lesson.

Well, thank you Mr. Gov't official for telling me where I am

Hiked nearly a mile up after this view

The hell with Kansas Toto!

Gold Prospecting Legal Stuff

The views are amazing

I was so into the prospecting thing that I'd forgotten to take pictures. However, on the way out I did get some shots of this old mine. The miners would dump their debris off the mountain through that tube. From there, the long process of getting the gold into your pan begins.

Gardiner Montana

In Gardiner Montana, you don't really feel welcomed. It's a tourist trap. Even the birds look at you like, "You're not from around here are you!"

The locals are also a curious lot though...

But when you live in a place like this a good part of the year...

You tend to meet the ones who don't really fit in anywhere.

Sort of like this young lady...

But you also get to do cool stuff like this...

And get to find Gold Out Of The Ground like this

The Yellowstone National Forest (right next to Gardiner)

My buddy Doug and I headed down to see the Yellowstone National Forest.

Doug wanted to do some camping and hiking in the park so we spent the day wandering around and gathering information. On our way to one of the many gov't buildings, I spot this beastly beauty...

The bike (How I prefer to travel)

The fella that owned the bike and his dad were from Texas and just rambling around the country for a while - enjoying the good life.

More of the locals...

And then, there are these creatures...

Never was a big fan of the human race :0)

However, these public servants do deserve a round of cake just for having to wear those silly hats.

Now, I could ramble on about the beauty of this place all day long, but here.....

Whoa with thee... We have to eventually come down from our little cloud and head back to Gardiner.

Doug ended up heading back to Florida because it wasn't really worth the money to travel to Oregon to do more prospecting in an unknown territory. Plus, the weather was looking kind of shady so his little hiking and camping adventure was canceled.

I on the other hand, had no reason to go home so, Oregon - here I come!

Heading to Oregon

Again we get a late start. It happens.

Of course, rush hour traffic is a little different here

And then, of course, there are these hoodlums

And a good portion of the trip was spent doing this

I want nothing to do with your civilized world and head off into the woods for this

I set up my home for the next 14 days and begin scouting for what I believe will be the Mother Load.

The area around me looks prehistoric

And as you can see, there's not much sky

But somewhere on this creekbed...

is the gold I'm looking for. So I get to work. It took three days but I found a nice little spot that was going to make me rich :0)

Tommy and I had actually found gold on day one but the spot was short lived. I found gold on days two and three as well but again it didn't 'pan out' as I wanted.

But then...

"I Found Gold!

Well, really it was beginners luck. I'd been eyeballing a particular spot from the bridge in the previous picture. I was at the wrong end of the bend though.

Someone had dug a small hole in the bank above where I was looking and I figured, "what the hell, I'll check it out."

Tommys' advice, "Dig Deep" was golden!

The hole was well above the waterline so I just dug below it and down to the water. BINGO!!!!

I'd found my first decent flakes in Oregon, on my own. And then I kept finding more, so I set up for business...

I was in heaven!...

I was prospecting for gold, camping and hiking twenty miles from civilians and was living like this for two solid weeks.

Even though I'd pulled a lot of the gold out in camp, I'd kept all my tailings because I knew I'd gotten lazy. And why shouldn't I when Tommy has the Blue Bowl at his house...

And on the eigth day, God created gold...

Oregon was magical for me...

I ended up spending a total of 28 days total, just enjoying life with Mother Nature.

However, civi life wasn't all that bad either. I met a real live England person. Several of them actually. Tommys gal is from England and so are her kids. They're a pretty solid bunch and I'm hoping to get them here on SteemIt pretty soon.

Maybe they'll see this :0)

Anyway, I got to play chef

Watch a rookie learn throttle control

And even Fly a Sign (short story is, I was looking for work. That sign just happened to be there when I arrived.)

Good Die Young

Then a tragedy occurred in NJ. One of the young men in my family had passed and I had to hop a flight out.

Some good came of it though. I got to see family (who will tell you I never stop by or never stay long enough,) and eat pizza

I also borrowed my brothers' motorcycle and did some sightseeing around New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pensylvania in a day.

Even that fun was cut short. My dad had come up from Tennessee for the funeral and I hitched a ride back to Tn. with him.

The adventure continued though when we found out some crazy fellas brought this boat back from overseas and now it was here in Tennessee.

And with the closing of the warmer months, you're still going to want to keep your eyes open for motorcycles and little guys like this

Well, that was my summer.

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