Wed Aug 22 - Billings MT to Fort Collins CO (and more Bear Tooth video)

Just to rub it in some more...

I  had more helmet cam so I downloaded Movie Maker and sort of figured out how to make a movie, with music even (I hope). Enjoy..

Oh yea, and I rode from Billings MT to Fort Collins mostly on the interstate (I will explain) but took a couple little side roads and discovered there is not much to see on the little 2 laners. I got my morning Joe around 6:15 this morning, filled the beemer with gas, and headed south with the speedo reading a nice quiet smooth 65 all day (which is really 60 as I discovered). I don't normally like the interstate but there was something really relaxing about listening to tunes and idling down the interstate. I feel I am slipping down the slope toward Gold Wing karma but it was just this once, honest. It is certainly easier to zone out on these roads with this scenery. So todays project was to get south as far as I could. If I could get within striking distance of Jake and Albuquerque or Arches National Park, I had my choice and could let the weather decide which one tomorrow.
Billings is nothing to write home about (apologies) but the towns here begin and end on a dime so once you leave town, it's just you and the nothingness of the prairie, where pretty much nothing grows except here and there where someone irrigates something. Traffic was light with a few trucks and the road was in nice shape (their congressmen are obviously bringing home the bacon, hint, hint). Lots of expired (squished) antelope beside the road and I saw quite a few future squished ones munching along the sides of the road (outside the fence thank you). A few beef cattle here and there where there was water either naturally or from one of the old classic wind powered pumpers. There are lots of those pumpers still cranking out the water. I saw lots more wind turbines, lots of oil wells, several long coal trains, full and empty, and a few gigundo coal plants. Several oddball oversize loads went by (combines, giant coal trucks and other farm implements) and I even saw another long distance bicycle rider in the emergency breakdown lane.
Big excitement was seeing a 60 meter NRG tower with the telltale Symphonie shelter box at the base and conspicuity balls all over it (that is what those orange balls on guy wires are called). I also counted 7 SouthWest turbines all on 30' mono-towers. Must be a good dealer around here. No solar to be seen anywhere..
I did about 300 miles without a stop and then the fuel light reminded me to look for more dino juice. I filled up and got coffee and chatted a long time with a guy on a BMW 1200LT from Oregon. He had retired last year and spent 4 months on his BMW riding all over North America with his wife on the back. She burned out on it, and now he rides without her. He was supposed to meet his "flakey" brother who forgot which day and/or which city they were going to meet in. He seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing and reinforced the fact that he never met anyone who wouldn't help you out in all his travels. I did another 230 and got into Fort Collins just as some rain drops starting coming down so looks like this is where I stop. The beemer is doubling as my personal gym with all the standing and stretching I do. It works wonders and at the end of the day, I am not stiff or sore at all. Maybe time to do the Iron butt thing (1000 miles in 24 hours).
Looks like rain tomorrow so not sure where to go from here. I'll figure it out in the morning.