Vroooom!

It's funny, but there is one recurring theme in this trip that neither of us has mentioned: motorcycles.

As many RVs as we have seen on the road - and there have been a lot - the number of motorcycles has been astounding! I would guess that the motorcycles have outnumbered the RVs by at least 5 to 1.

I'm not talking just any motorcycles here. They are about 90% Harley-Davidsons. Not bad for a company that was almost bankrupt a few years back.

These are not the Hell's Angels type of Harleys nor are the riders of that ilk. They are mostly middle-aged men (and women) who like to see the world with their body wrapped around a big, thumping engine. There were some traveling alone. There were many traveling in groups of 2-5 bikes. There were a few rallies (a big one in Grand Teton/Yellowstone) that had 20 or more bikes traveling together. (I understand we missed the REALLY big one that happens later this summer.)

Of course, you think that a motorcycle has 2 wheels, right? Yes - and no. We saw lots of 2 wheelers and a few trikes as well. The one I still don't get is the one I saw that had 4 wheels - the two regular wheels and 2 wheels that looked like training wheels. (I suspect that is not a term you use around the owner more than once!) It had the effect of making a regular 2-wheeler into sort of a trike. It seemed to pick up a bunch of storage capacity, but it was pretty funny-looking.

There were also a fair number of bikes pulling trailers. They are kind of cute little affairs that add a lot of storage that wouldn't otherwise be available.

A large minority of the bikes carried 2 people usually a man driving and a woman in the rear. It seems to me that you have to REALLY get along or this becomes old real quick.

I think the smartest of the bunch, though, were the people who were driving motorhomes - sometimes very expensive ones - and towing a trailer with a couple of Harleys on it. Not a bad way to see the world.