[Terrytaylor] Yellowstone park

[Terry Taylor]

I left the campground and joined the parade of vehicles heading toward Old Faithful the speed limit is 45 so that helps keep the danger of being hit down. It is beautiful here and the air is very clear. I arrived at old faithful and joined the thousands waiting for it to be faithful   It was and the people oooed and awed and like myself took pictures I met a young bike traveler at camp and again at the geyser he is riding from Seattle to Buffalo NY his home. He is carrying a guitar in it's case. Good thing he is young and can haul all the extra weight up  hill. I asked when he played it last, he said about two weeks ago. I stayed there a couple of hours knowing I had a couple of passes ahead. Finally left and on the road I meet Tom and Pam they were resting on the first climb Pam has much difficulty on the climbs
She likes her beer and cigarettes, which of course works against climbing. We would pass each other not stopping at the same places on the climbs. We were riding together on the second climb at about 8200 feet we came to a disabled tent trailer back corner sticking out in the traffic up hill in a curve. I stopped to see if I could help Tom and Pam continued on. The man was there his wife had taken the SUV and went to their camp to get tools from her brother. He had gotten the right tire off the trailer but was unable to remove the spare. There were two studs to hold it only one had a lug nut on it but was on backwards with the cone part out. His jack handle/lug wrench was not deep enough to grip the but I tried and could just touch the flats of the nut but would slip off when trying to turn it
I looked at the second stud above the one with the nut the hole in the wheel left about an eighth of an inch I suggested he put the wrench on the nut with pressure toward removal but not enough to slip the wrench. I took a hold of the wheel and rocked it in the small amount of space in the hole the empty stud. We were able to loosen the nut and remove the spare. He said that the lug nuts had been hard to remove and we're now hard to put on I got my chain lube oil and oiled the studs and the nuts went on easily. When his wif got back we were all done. A Park Ranger had come along and sat behind the trailer with his warning lights on but did not get out. She hugged me and thanked me for helping her husband. The ranger got out and suggested they hook up and get going. I said goodbye and got my bike as it was in the way. Soon I reached the top my far I said 8400 feet. I met Tom and Pat at the campground. I know the people with the camper would have gotten it fixed anyway but sometimes it is fun to solve a problem
Time to get on the road
TerryT











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