It’s hard to believe we have been rallying for 19 years! When we began the Boise Thing Group rallies, we (Mike and Mare) just thought it would be great to travel with other Thing owners to see our beautiful country and to see it in our unique cars. So, somebody had to organize the trips. Over the years we have seen some amazing places and made strong friendships. We had the help of Al and Liz Farmery with Don and Ginger Eddy to plan and lead a rally to the Olympic Peninsula, and Bill and Susie Galvin took the reins and led us on the Capital Reef rally.
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The Departure Dinner the night before departure for Rushmore.
This year Andrew and Karan Lockhart, co-leaders, took a greater role in the planning and organizing the trip, and their orange Thing (Thor) set the pace and route for the Dead Presidents Tour. They did a great job!
We left Boise from the Lockhart’s house with 11 Things heading for Ashton, Idaho on Saturday July 16th. At Picabo, Idaho we were joined by Bill & Susie Galvin who traveled from Elko, Nevada. We made our way across the high desert of southern Idaho and reached Ashton where we stayed at the Rankin Motel. Nice place….very clean and right on the highway. Just enough old time motel to make it a nice stay.
Halfway to Ashton.
Arrival at Rankin Motel in Ashton, Id.
Ist stop on the west side of Yellowstone Park.
We left the next morning with 12 Things and 28 people strong. Went through Yellowstone Park and saw the requisite geysers but very little wildlife with the exception of the Thing drivers. Yellowstone Lake was impressive as well. This day was a long one because there was so much to see in Yellowstone, and we got to Cody, Wyoming in time for dinner. The accommodations there were the same as our rally to Rushmore back in 2003, the Carter Mountain Motel. Same owners as the first trip – the home of Peekaboo, the coolest bird in the west. I really think the bird remembered us!!
Carter Mountain Motel. Same place we stayed on the 2003 Rallye.
Peekaboo didn’t care much for my hat. Same bird as 2003.
We had dinner the first night at Wyoming’s Rib & Chop House. The food was top drawer, but we were packed in nose to elbow and felt like we were cattle in a stockyard. Anyway….. Next day we had the day off from travel and did shopping as well as some sightseeing in the town. We stayed one full day in Cody and visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Complex, including the Cody Firearms Museum as well as taking in the rodeo that evening. That evening we had dinner at the historic Irma Hotel, once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody and named after his daughter Irma.
The fourth day found us leaving Cody by 7 AM to make the long drive to Custer, South Dakota. This was a 366 mile day jaunt. We got to Custer and found the Chief Motel, where we stayed in good time, around 4PM and sought food asap. We went to the Dark Horse Tavern. Huge mistake. The place was hot as an oven, the food was bad. They put unrecognizable slop on my wife’s plate and by the time they offered to replace it 45 minutes later, dinner was over for the group. Wife ate carrots & crackers in our room later.
At our place in Custer,SD. The rally shirts were a standout.
Gotta say here that our hosts at the Chief Motel were really great, and we enjoyed their help and hospitality. The rooms were clean and had plenty of space. The pool was very good spot for the ‘Push Crew’ (kids).
Day 5 we went to Mt. Rushmore, the President’s Slide, and the Cosmos Mystery Area. At Keystone just down the road from Custer, that afternoon we took the ski lift up to the Alpine Slide & Grill with a terrific view of Custer and the presidents at Rushmore. The burger they served up there was very good. We opted to go back down on the President’s Slide.
Susie & Liz up the mountain on the ski lift.
Doug & Sherry dismounting the lift at the top.
This is where the fun began . Al Farmery decided he wanted to take the fastest tube down to the bottom instead of the slow one. These are basically just a roller-skate with 6 wheels on it and doesn’t look much more than a graham cracker with wheels on it. Halfway down we watched as Al left the tracks became airborne and crashed head over heels in the dirt. You need to know …Al is one of the senior members of the Boise Thing Group at 77 years of age. AL….. just got up on his feet and threw the sled back onto the tube climbed back on, wiped the blood, and pushed the handle as far forward as possible for the maximum speed. He sailed down the rest of the mountain and arrived at the bottom grinning from ear to ear. Of course there were nurses on hand to patch Al up and treat his wounds.
Al & his wounds being attended to.
We took the Needles Highway through Custer State Park and really enjoyed a terrific cruise through impressive granite formations. However, it was very, very crowded – unbelievably crowded as a matter of fact!
Larry Green was our ‘back door’ for this rallye. Bet the truckers loved seeing that sign
when they came up on our group from behind.
That evening we went to the night lighting of the sculpture at Mount Rushmore, where they honored past and present US service men and women, and ceremonially retired the flag. Afterward we headed back to our place in Custer to end a late day. A few miles down from Mount Rushmore I heard a loud bang under the rear of my Thing. It’s almost 11:00, and all of a sudden I have no gears in the trans-axle that want to do anything. Traffic was heavy with all the visitors leaving the night lighting, and they were also in a hurry for bedtime. It was very dark and the road was narrow. I radioed the rest of the Thingers on my CB and told them I had lost all gears and there was a loud pounding coming from the rear of my Thing. I coasted for some distance to get a better spot to pull off. I got out and started to check out the situation. The other Things that were behind me stopped and set up a safety zone for the traffic still coming by. Duke lead the way back to the motel for the ones who were ahead of me when the problem happened. Andrew had returned and parked on the other side of the road with flashers going. Gary and Doug got under the Thing right away and started checking out the situation. Evidently what happened was the inboard driver’s side CV joint bolts backed out and dropped the axle on the frame horn. None of the balls had fallen out, so we cleaned the exposed joint off and Gary bolted it back on the transaxle. I had replaced the entire axle setup on both sides before I left on the trip. It may have been the new bolts I used………..they are a little off pitch on the threads.
Day 6 we took the morning off to do repairs and preventive maintenance, in case other cars had the same issue in the wings . We went through all the CVs in the group and found some that needed to be tightened. And the ladies shopped… After lunch, we went to Custer State Park hoping to see some wildlife since we missed out at Yellowstone. We took a couple gravel roads in search of the bison, and decided to check out the visitors center to see if they knew where they were hanging out. A funny thing happened on the way to the visitors center – buffalo were crossing the road in numbers and we were stopped for the better part of an hour. Got some real close-up shots with the camera.
Searching for Bison.
Al & Liz driving Big Juan looking for Bison.
Bison Jam.
Day 7 was a long day’s travel to Lander, Wyoming. We stayed at the Holiday Lodge, and it was great. Old time 1950s motel with large clean rooms and great hosts. This place is a must stop if you are near Lander for a nights stay. We ate at the CowFish Restaurant in the Coalter Block, who operates Lander Brewing Company. Super good draft beers were on hand – extra big smiley face…
Day 8 we left Lander for Kemmerer, and stopped at JC Penny’s Mother Store. Who knew that John Cash Penney was from Kemmerer, Wyoming? After lunch we spent an hour at Fossil Butte National Monument, seeing some very impressive fossils and beautiful multi-colored surrounding hills. We headed south to take the southern road along Bear Lake’s swollen shore to Montpelier, ID.
That evening, we had some pretty high temperatures, and found out the following day was forecast to have 100+ degree temps. Bill and Susie took off for Elko, and after our goodbyes, Andrew decided to get on the road early so we could avoid the major heat and get home relatively unscathed. You know how well-made plans get busted to heck…
We were strolling right along making good time, and as we went through Pocatello we noticed some serious bad noises coming from Doug and Sherry Mann’s car. About 20 miles west of Chubbuck, it got so bad that Doug pulled over onto the shoulder of I-84. Here we are, 11 Things on the side of the Interstate. We quickly ascertained the problem was not timing or carburetion. We dropped the valve covers to discover the rocker arm shaft on the 3/4 cylinder head had pulled its studs out. We tried to remove the rocker arm to pull the stud, and the second stud snapped off –yep, snapped off. Fun and games were about to begin.
This was just past exit 44, so we had to tow Hugo (Doug’s car) with Gangrene, (my green thing) using a tow strap 4 miles to exit 40. We found a wide area to get all the vehicles in a relatively safe spot at one time. We called Triple A, and lonely Hugo rode home on a flatbed truck. Although it didn’t turn out so great for Hugo, it was awesome that it at least waited until the last day to barf…
Andrew hooking up Hugo to Gangrene for a 4 mile tow.
Doug loading Hugo for the last 210 miles home.
So, next year we will celebrate our 20th Thing Rally. Our philosophy of a cohesive group that can function together without a President, newsletter, dues, and parliamentary procedure has proven successful. We love our big Thing Family, whose members are as diverse as people can be, as the wonderful, respectful people we always want to have a great trip with.
