{"id":25024,"date":"2024-01-19T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=25024"},"modified":"2024-01-14T17:05:19","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T01:05:19","slug":"medicine-bow-wyoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/01\/19\/medicine-bow-wyoming\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine Bow, Wyoming"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

We were a swarm of 250cc bees bound for Medicine Bow, Wyoming.\u00a0 \u00a0I didn’t know why that excited me and I didn’t know what to expect, but the place sounded romantic.\u00a0 Not romantic in the sense of female companionship; it was instead the romance of the Old West.\u00a0 Medicine Bow, Wyoming, and we were headed there on our single-cylinder Zongshen motorcycles.\u00a0 \u00a0We had been on the road for a week, showing the American West to our Chinese and Colombian visitors.\u00a0 It all started on the other side of the world in Chongqing when Zongshen asked if I could take them on a ride though America.<\/p>\n

Wow, could I ever.<\/p>\n

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Susie took this photo as I was showing the Zongshen execs where we might ride in America. The guy on my immediate right is good buddy Fan, who follows the ExNotes blog.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Medicine Bow.\u00a0 \u00a0It had a nice ring to it.\u00a0 I was thinking maybe they had a McDonald’s and we could have lunch there.\u00a0 \u00a0I think the reason Medicine Bow sounded so intriguing is I had heard it maybe dozens of times in western movies and television shows.\u00a0 Medicine Bow was one of the major destinations for cattle drives in the 1800s, where cows boarded trains for their one-way trip east, where they would stop being cows and become steaks.\u00a0 An average of 2,000 cows shipped out of Medicine Bow every day back then.\u00a0 \u00a0That would keep McDonald’s going for a day or two (except there were no McDonald’s in the 1800s).<\/p>\n

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The very first western novel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was surprised when we buzzed in.\u00a0\u00a0Medicine Bow is about five buildings, total, none of them was a McDonald’s, but one was the Virginian Hotel.\u00a0 It’s the hotel you see in the photo at the top of this blog and as you might imagine there’s a story to it.\u00a0 You see, back in the day, the first western novel ever was written by a dude named Owen Wister, and the title of his book was The Virginian<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 It was later made into a movie.\u00a0 The story is about a young female schoolteacher who settled in Medicine Bow and two cowboys who vied for her attention.\u00a0 When the historic hotel was later built in Medicine Bow, what other name could be more appropriate than The Virginian?\u00a0 And about the name of the town, Medicine Bow?\u00a0 Legend has it that Native Americans found the best mahogany for making bows (as in bows and arrows) in a bend (a bow) along the Medicine River, which runs through the area.\u00a0 \u00a0 I can’t make up stuff this good.<\/p>\n

I was the designated leader of the Zongshen swarm on this ride. My job was easy.\u00a0 All the mental heavy lifting and deep thinking fell to good buddy and long-time riding compa\u00f1ero Baja John, who planned our entire 5,000-mile journey through the American West.\u00a0 John did a hell of a job.\u00a0 The roads he selected were magnificent and the destinations superb.\u00a0 It’s also when I first met Joe Gresh, who was on assignment from Motorcyclist<\/em> magazine to cover our story (more on that in a bit).<\/p>\n

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Big Joe Gresh, or “Arjiu” as the Chinese called him, on our 5000-mile ride through the American West.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back to Medicine Bow, the Virginian Hotel, and a few of the photos I grabbed on that ride.\u00a0\u00a0The place is awesome, and the Virginian is where we had lunch.<\/p>\n

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Lunch at the Virginian. That’s Gresh on the right, and Juan and Gabe (two dudes from AKT Motos in Colombia) on the left. A few months later I rode with Juan in Colombia, another grand adventure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After lunch, we wandered around the hotel for a bit. It would be fun to spend the night in Medicine Bow, I thought.\u00a0 Dinner at the hotel and drinks in the bar (as I type this, I can almost hear someone on the piano belting out Buffalo Gal<\/em>).\u00a0 \u00a0 I will return some day to check that box.<\/p>\n

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The lighting isn’t great in this selfie (of sorts). Yours truly on the old D200, Lester, and Mr. Zuo. Lester is a teacher in China. Mr. Zuo owns a motorcycle jacket company in China.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bison.\u00a0\u00a0 We saw a few live ones in the next couple of days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Who’s a good boy? That’s Baja John and Lester, taking a break after a great lunch at the Virginian Hotel.\u00a0 Lester came to America as a vegetarian.\u00a0\u00a0 That lasted about two days.\u00a0\u00a0 He sure enjoyed his hamburger at the Virginian.\u00a0 He told us he wants to be like Baja John when he grows up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yes, there are moose in Medicine Bow, along with mountain lion, bear, elk, deer, and a host of other animals.\u00a0 Theodore Roosevelt hunted this part of the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Virginian Hotel hallway. I think you can still stay here overnight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hotel hallway art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Even a public telephone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Virginian Hotel bar was indeed inviting and I could have spent more time there, but we were on the bikes and my rule is always no booze on the bikes.\u00a0 I grabbed a few photos.\u00a0 We had more miles to make that afternoon and more of Wyoming awaited.<\/p>\n

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The Virginian Hotel bar. It looks like it would be a fun spot to have a beer or three at the end of the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photos and artifacts on one of the Virginian Bar walls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A mural in the Virginian Hotel bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Virginian Hotel owner (who looked like he could have been someone right out of Central Casting) saw our interest in photography and showed us this photograph.\u00a0\u00a0 He told me only six or seven copies of it exist.\u00a0 Spend a minute reading the writing\u2026it is amazing.<\/p>\n

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There are more than a few interesting characters depicted in this photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Medicine Bow was a fun visit, it is a place I would like to see again, and it has a palpable feel of the Old West.\u00a0 It was a place where we could have stayed longer, but after lunch it was time for Happy Trails and we were on the road again.\u00a0 \u00a0I felt like a cowboy, I suppose, swinging my leg over my motorcycle.\u00a0 Instead of “giddy up” it was a twist of the key and a touch on the starter button; the result was the same as we continued our trek west with Frankie Lane’s Rawhide<\/em> on repeat in my mind:\u00a0 Keep rollin’, rollin’ rollin’, keep those motos rollin’…<\/em><\/p>\n

In a few hours, we’d be riding into the sunset.\u00a0 Lord, this was a fantastic ride.<\/p>\n

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Here are a couple of videos you might like.\u00a0 The first is about Medicine Bow, the second is Joe Gresh’s video covering the ride.\u00a0 And one more thing…don’t miss Joe Gresh’s magnificent story about our ride in Motorcyclist<\/em><\/a> magazine.<\/p>\n