Back in '81 when I was toolin' around the country, I went into Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. Didn't go into the cave 'cause there were too dang many people and I hadn't been around more'n 3 or 4 at a time for nigh on a month.
After I saw the crowds I lit out and headed towards Custer State Park just to the north. Saw a lookout tower, Rankin Ridge, and stopped to climb the hill and see the view. Wasn't anybody around, except the fire watch in the tower. I climbed the tower and spent a couple pleasant hours learning the history of the area, how the fires are spotted and triangulated, and just stuff in general.
When I decided to leave the nice lady in the tower told me to go down the opposite trail I came up. Seems there was a nosy ol' bear rootin' around. I had no desire to meet the bear so I followed the fire watch's instructions.
Unfortunately, the stupid bear decided there wasn't anything on his trail, so he padded around the ridge and onto my trail. I suddenly heard two sounds; the fire watch yellin' at me the bear was followin' me, and the bear snufflin' along as he caught my spoor. I moved along right smart after that! I got to the parking lot, fired up the Shovel, and left.
I have no idea if the bear was lookin' at me as a pleasant departure from his diet of scraggly berries and prairie dogs, and I didn't care. I did know that I really wanted to see my Momma again, so her boy picked 'em up and set 'em down!
It was destined to be a wildlife kinda day, though. I'd gone several miles looking for a creek I'd seen from the tower. It was once trapped for beaver back "in the day." The creek level was considerably lower than in past times because the Forest Service used to put out all the fires. That caused trees to start invading the prairie, and since they use more water than prairie grasses, the creek levels dropped.
Anyway, I rounded a curve expecting to see the creek. I saw a bridge. The bridge was blocked by the biggest buffalo I'd ever laid eyes on! He wasn't moving, either. There was easily room enough to get by alongside him, but thinkin' 'bout my Momma stopped that thought even before it had a chance to sprout.
We sat there eyeballin' each other for about five days. (Well, maybe it was a couple minutes.) I decided to turn around and wait for him to do something, anything! When I started my turn he faced me and made a move in my direction. I thought he probably really couldn't see me well enough to figure out just what the heck I was. Didn't want him to know I was a scrawny blozo on a bike, so I just moseyed on back around the corner.
I parked the bike and climbed the bank to get above him. Watched while he shuffled around and kept lookin' back over his shoulder. In a couple minutes a scraggly lookin' band of his buddies came out and they stood around jawin' in buffler. They finally figured out whatever it was they were cipherin' on, and walked off the road, down the bank, back up the other side, and back across the road.
Then it dawned on me! They were debating whether to cross the bridge, but didn't know whether it'd hold 'em. Now I was worried 'cause I had my bike loaded up with everything I owned, including a couple kitchen sinks. Maybe the bridge wouldn't hold me?

__________________
Chrome sucks.
Barges are for chopping. Otherwise, they might as well be Gold Wings!
Ride it! Beat it! Break it! Fix it! Ride it some more!

ROFL

__________________
www.cigarcommand.com