July 8 - Sunday - Billings MT to Williston ND - 369 miles

Very meditative day today. A Muffler Man holding a tire wished me goodbye as I left Billings. Eastern Montana took the entire day to get across (at my speeds), but it was actually pretty pleasant. After the turn-turn-turn of Bear Tooth yesterday, today felt like a day off.
The temperatures started in the mid 60's and didn't get above mid-80's until I got to the end of the day in Williston. And it was sunny all day with no clouds to speak of.

I stuck the bike at 55 pretty much all day which gave me plenty of time to daydream about those crazy people who shuffled along day after day in the 1800's across all this grass land.
Rout 200 is the road a Harley guy from North Dakota gave me and it is an interesting road. There is enough traffic (Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota plates) to make you feel like you don't have to worry if you have a problem, but the gas stops are few and far between. Same rule, less than 1/2 full, fill it. There are also several 24hr self serve gas "stations" that are just big tanks with a pump sitting beside the road. I ran into these a few years back in some remote place I had traveled with the BMW.

The X300 has been getting 70-73 mpg, I assume since I am not hauling ass. When I was travelling with Jeff I was getting 62 mpg with the higher speeds. So my 4.5 gal tank will get me 300 miles if I take it easy.
And the bugs are back. I stopped for gas in Jordan which I assume exists so all those cars, campers, truck pulling boats (where are they going out here??) can fill up half way between Billings and wherever they are coming from. I soaked the windhshield, helmet shield and safety glasses I wear and did a bug scrape so I could see again.
A bee stung me this morning which caused the usual frantic "slapping your jacket" to kill it as it crawled around under my shirt. I pulled over and shook it's remains out from under my short and tried to find the bites. I just had a conversation yesterday with a guy and he talked about getting stung by bees on a motorcycle. And I was near one of the bee hives they keep around the various crops here.

Traffic was so light that I always had an open road in front of me and the few folks that came up behind passed easily, no drama.
I kept expecting the North Dakota border to come up, but it only appeared late in the day.
I crossed the Missouri and all the Lewis & Clark signs returned.

An hour before I pulled into Williston, I started seeing a lot of oil pumpers and then tons of "man camps" which is temporary housing for all the workers out here cashing in on the gass and oil drilling. Stockpiles of steel pipe and tons of service companies drilling, or installing pipe, or maintaining the above.
Williston feels like a "man's town" where most of the vehicles are big American pickups or work trucks. Looks like no planning so all kinds of places just plopped beside the road. They must still be booming here.
Walked next door to a Mexican place and had the usual taco salad. Nice quiet day..

Odometer = 27,843

July 7 - Saturday - Bear Tooth Pass (twice) - 260 miles

One last final kiss goodbye to the Rocky Mountains before I head back home across the plains. Originally I was going to go west up over Bear Tooth Pass and then back via Chief Joseph Pass, which did not pan out. I made a reservation back here in Billings so I wouldn't have that to worry about, wherever I ended up going. Billings is pretty confusing so I need the Google Maps app to get in and out. Overpasses, underpasses, frontage roads, yikes.

I filled with gas before going and 45 minutes later i was rolling through Red Lodge. Jeff and I tried to go through Bear Tooth a few weeks back but we were shut out because of snow. I saw plenty of snow today, but not as much as I expected. Must have been pretty warm that last few weeks.

Thankfully the weather forecast was for only 90 degrees here in Billings today as apposed to 100 yesterday. Temperature over the pass was a very pleasant 60-70 degrees.
There was actually very little traffic today, both west and then east. This is sort of a hidden entrance to Yellowstone, but it certainly was not as busy as I expected.

So perfect weather (oh yeah, sunny all day too), no traffic, oh and new pavement. There was one short stretch up on top where the road had been removed and it was single lane gravel with a traffic light.

I putted along 40-50 all day, stopping dozens of times to take pictures. Chatted with a woman from LA, who took my picture and she felt like she just discovered the big secret of Yellowstone, by driving in to the park from this entrance. I never did actually enter the park, that was further west.

I rode to Cook City, which is almost the last town to fill up (no chances) and had a long talk with a guy from North Dakota who told me the best route across North Dakota. He had a Harley trike which he converted when he hit 65 (only three years for me..)
He was the one who talked me out of Chief Joseph Pass. He said compared to Bear Tooth, it is not so great, and when you go the other way, you see a completely different road and sites.
Going back I did not stop as much (I did find one or two new shots, but I shot most of them on the first pass (pun intended). And still no traffic. A few cows in the middle of the road I had to stop for, but no wildlife other than that.

When I got back to Red Lodge, I stopped at one of those coffee kiosk things for some pretty good coffee, and checked the map to see if there was a different way back.

Did a little diversion back out in no mans land to the south, which gave me a warm up for the flat days ahead.
I rode to a motorcycle shop back in Billings to buy a cruise control thingie a guy showed me a few days back, but the shop closed 10 mins before I got there. The other shop in town did not have the thingie but the nice lady there said the pain from holding the trottle open would keep me awake. I have a plastic "throttle rocker" thing which works pretty well so I don't have any issues with pain on long days.

So back to the motel and 10 degrees cooler than yesterday.
Odometer = 27,474

July 6 - Friday - Casper WY to Billings MT - 296 miles

Had a nice long chat about western history, genealogy, the usual, with a woman driving from Texas to Montana to see her father and brother (annual trip) in the motel coffee room (well brownish stuff anyway).
The sun this morning is brilliant as usual, high 60's, but the forecast is for really warm temps. I picked a roue that takes me through some remote areas and then near enough the interstate for there to be towns. The old road is open on and off next to Rt 25 so I'll try to stay off the 4-laner as much as possible.
I filled up across the street and started west for 15-20 miles and found the turnoff. Looked good, paved, but the sign said BLM road so not sure what that meant, but ok. The pavement was really rough for about 15 miles, and then the "Pavement Ends" signs pops up, so ok, nice 2 lane gravel road. Another 15 miles and the road turns into what looks like a previously muddy road that had mostly dried into wheel tracks, aka ruts. If I had not committed so much time so far in this road, I would have turned around. It is a little spooky to be this far out with 100 deg temp in the forecast, alone, and having seen zero cars going either way for the last hour.

I tried some Google Map thing (still had a little cell service) to send my location to Deb & Dave and it seemed like it worked but not sure. Hopefully Deb would get this and if she did not hear from me tonight (I always check in), she would know where to send the ambulance.
The cool thing about this road is how many antelope I saw. At least 100 just this morning, wandering around in little packs between 3 and 8. Beautiful animals. They usually took one look at me and ran off.
I spent half the time standing on the pegs and half in the seat. This little bike is super stable on this gravel and rutty stuff, but one big rut and..

So about another 15 miles or so on this one lane rut-fest and I saw a power pole with wires. This hopefully meant civilization, and over the next 10 miles, a few houses showed up and the road went back to gravel and then it widened and then a ranch or two and finally I hit Rt 25.
I called Deb & Dave and said never mind (they never got any location thing anyway) and spent the rest of the day alternating between the interstate (at 65) and the old 2-laner (55).
The temperature rose all day and by the time I got to Billings it was 100 degrees. I dove into the motel, took all the bike stuff off and drank n the cool air conditioning.
Odometer = 27214

July 5 - Thurs - Boulder CO to Casper WY - 266 miles

Last night Laura and I decided to check out the fireworks in Boulder (Ben was napping, well deserved) and drove within a mile of the CU Boulder (Colorado university) stadium and then waited for the bus. She had laryngitis and I had no idea where we were going so it was a lite comedy at the bus stop figuring out which bus, then which stop but everyone was very helpful and we followed a small group through their "shortcuts" and got to the stadium. Security said we could not take my tiny pocket knife and the umbrella, but somehow in the confusion they said never mind.
We thought we would be late but there was still a band playing and the stadium was 1/2 full, so good crowd. After the band stops some Boulder city mucky mucks talked briefly and the a an announcement was shown on the big screen along with voice that said, evacuate the stadium now due to an incoming storm. Everyone though that was pretty comical since it was a nice warn clear night, but I checked the weather radar and sure enough a nasty little cell was parked just south of the stadium with lightning and thunder and everything. So after 5 minutes, everybody calmly filed out. We waited around outside the stadium for 45 minutes and then the storm dissipated and everybody (minus about 1/4 of the crowd who left). And it was worth the wait with huge fireworks right over our heads.
After we found the bus stop and got a ride back to the car and back to Lara's place. It was late and between the fireworks and the all day kids event, everyone was beat.

This morning I packed up and Laura, Ben and I went down to the same place my brother and I met Laura last summer for breakfast. It was 10 by the time we said goodbye and I had the nice Google lady guide me through the busy Boulder - Fort Collins corridor. She took me up a bunch of not busy back streets and just before I hit the remote parts, I filled with gas. And it was remote all day. The temps dropped from 85 to 65 by the time I got too far out of town since there were nasty black clouds to the west of me all day. They kept the temps down, but it was like tickling the rain dragon's tail all day. It got really dark and lightning a thunder kicked up, and then it started to sprinkle so I cranked it up to 70 for 1/2 and hour and beat the storm.

I must have seen a couple dozen antelope today nibbling grass next to the road, but non got spooked and jumped out (thanks!). I also say a large wind turbine farm (about 100 turbines) in the middle of nowhere with a single power  line running to it from the north. I also say 4 different NRG TallTowers out here, so I assume they are measuring the ind for even more turbines.
I had a tailwind for part of the day and a cross wind for the rest.
I pulled into Casper just as the ugly black clouds caught up and I ducked into the motel just as the storm hit. Rain tonight and clear tomorrow so good timing.

Also good luck was a pub with happy hour going on and some decent BBQ. A guy from Nebraska chatted me up about his travels 30 years ago across country with a 750 Honda. He was in town visiting his kids and grand kids.
Walk back to the hotel between raindrops.
Odometer tonight = 26918 miles

July 4 - Weds - Boulder Co to Boulder CO - 0 miles

Yup, my first zero day. Zero miles. My long lost cousin Laura and her two boys, Ben & Adam have been organizing and participating in an annual July 4 day neighborhood party for many years. Laura is tireless and despite a bad case of laryngitis, she put us all to work setting up. It goes from 11 to 1 and the first event is the kids parade. These guys live in an older neighborhood, right in Boulder and they this beautiful park with walking paths, exercise stations, a gazebo, barbecue grills and it gets used a lot.

It starts off with the kids parade around the park, over the bridge over the lake, then loops back to where the all share a pot luck. Lots of benches, picnic tables and nice sunny day to meet and catch up with your neighbors. We started haulin stuff over around 9 this morning. Stereo for the music, kiddie pools bean bag toss stations, ropes for the rope pull, burlap bags for the bag race. The parade, and all the games are for the kids. So we spent a couple hours with a ton of other volunteers, hanging flags and banners, setting up tents (shade required out here), tables, garden hose (for the balloon toss), etc. The kids started rolling in just before 11 with their bikes fixed up with flags and flowers, and started the lineup down the bike / running path, the music started and the Uncle Sam woman lead it all off. The boys jumped ahead and lapped the whole procession (of course).

Great pot luck followed by the rope pull, the three legged race, potato sack race, then the water balloon toss which devolved of course into a water balloon / splash fight. You could see naps in everybody's afternoon with rosy tired cheeks. At 1:30 or so, everybody headed home, we did the cleanup with lots of help, then a couple of us napped (not saying who). Met lots o great folks today. Larry and I spent a long time discussing everything under the moon. Wonderful guy, one of Laura's best friends and I can see why.
I did a quick oil change, checked the tires (perfect) so I can head out in the morning.
Fireworks tonight (if we are not too tired)..

July 3 - Tuesday - Grand Junction CO to Boulder CO - 326 miles

Brilliant sunshine, like every other morning the last week or two, looks like not as hot as yesterday and I will be up high so cooler today (yeah!). Pretty quite in the coffee room (maybe the bad coffee scared them away). The plan today is to get to Boulder in time to catch one of the Kawasaki shops to talk about service, or at the least and oil filter. The bike sounds and acts perfect so I'm not too worried. I am using full synthetic oil so not too worried about that either. I ran full synthetic in the BMW the last 10 years of it's life ("I'm not dead yet..") and also use it in my cars which lets you stretch things out, oil change wise. Even Toyota stretches oil changes with synthetic.
There was a route that wiggled north up over a pass, but after looking at the satellite pics, it looked like gravel and my luck with Google maps and dead end roads made me decide aggainst i. So the only way to make it to Boulder in time was Rt70, the interstate (yuck).
So fill with gas in Grand Junction and on the entrance ramp and set the speed to 65.
The long and short of it today was that this section of Rt 70 is not bad at all. There are not a lot of people up here so not a lot of exits so not a lot of Motel 6 (none), McDonalds (1 or 2), Taco Bell (none) signs on the exits (not too many of those either).
I must have never actually ridden on this stretch because I don't remember how much of it winds through canyons with 50 mph speed limits. So actually a pretty darn pleasant ride on the interstate (never thought I'd hear my self say that!).

The temps were in the 70's, until, I started the decent down into Denver. I stopped for gas before the final drop and let Google take me the back way through Golden and on to the Kawasaki shop in Boulder. The shop was closed. Crap. I called the other shop up in Longmont and it was closed today and tomorrow for the Jul 4th holiday. OK, plan B. I'll just do an oil change and let it go at that. Oddly, the oil I use, 10-40 full synthetic motorcycle oil, is sold in Walmart. And there is a Walmart in every town so I struck out on the first one, but found it at the second one. Also got a disposable drip pan.
It was still early so I decided to head up the Boulder canyon to cool off. It was mid-90's but not too bad and by the time I climbed the canyon to Nederland, it was 75. Stopped at the local bakery, but no coffee??, so a Diet Coke and long chat with a local woman about how much Nedeland has changed. It used to be a one gas station town an now it's pretty big with all kinds of shops.
The black clouds soon started dropping great big slot sized drops so I bolted. I got a damp, not wet zooming down the canyon ahead of the cloud and finally beat it out half way down. It quickly evaporated, which cooled me off and I was completely dry by the time I got back to Boulder.
I messaged Laura that i was headed her way, picked up some beer and got to her place around 5:30. My brother and I stopped last summer so it was good to catch up again.
They have a July 4th neighborhood event which she organizes so her son Ben is my boss tonight and tomorrow to help set everything up. I'll report back.


Odometer = 26652

July 2 - Monday - Lehi UT to Grand Junction CO - 325 miles

I checked my weather forecast site mostly to see how hot it was going to be back home, but also to see how smug I could be, and uh-oh, looks like I am going to see some high temps, unless I stay up in elevation.
There are several non-interstate ways to get to Grand Junction and one backtracked where I came in last night, and the other looked too flat (and hot). I told the nice Google Maps lady the route I wanted to take, but as she has done before, once on the road she says she has found a quicker way, please tap "no thanks" if you want to continue on the original route. Well it takes all of my limbs to operate this motorcycle so there is no way I can tap anything. So for the next 20 minutes she tells me (politely) to turn around. I finally just turn her off and go with my hand scribbled notes in the tank bag. She is extremely helpful find the last few tricky turns in a city, but can't do big picture.

The main drag that connects Lehi to Orem and Provo is pretty busy, but I just take my time and double check all the signs. I had to loop around a block or two while and accident cleared but then I was on my way out of town. I saw 10 or so small wind turbines only about 150 ft off the ground all pointed into a canyon, all spinning, and sure enough, it was the canyon I was going through which meant a heavy headwind. Other than the wind, this road was great and wisked me out of the Salt Lake valley and into the dry rolling hills of central Utah.

The temperature was great, 60-70 all morning and did not get hot until the afternoon.
Coffee stop at a big gas station on an Indian reservation. An older native American guy saw the plate and chatted me up about where I was going, how dry it had been (which I thanked him for) and the upcoming July 4th day. Lots of American flags everywhere, reservation or not.
Then it got dryer and more sparse, but there is still something peaceful about sparse.
I filled the tank every time I had less than half a tank and a station presented itself.

Then it got really really sparse. No water, no cattle, no nothing. I turned Google back on when it was pretty obvious there was only one way (I know, then why use it), but she found a few interesting twisty roads up canyons where you can still see veins of coal exposed in the rock walls. There were coal mines up where starting in the late 1800's right up until oil took over. Same formula, discover coal, convince the railroad to come, extract the coal for 50 years, close the mine when trains convert to diesel.
It started getting hot as I crossed over into Colorado. Wester Colorado has surprised me a few times because it is very different than the Rocky Mountain stereotype. Last year my brother and I found Utah-like red rocks and canyons in mid-western Colorado. I just entered north western Colorado, and it if desolate like Utah.

The temperature got up the mid-90's and I finally started climbing into mountain passes with a lot more grass and trees growing. The temps dropped to the mid-802 and the road got really twisty and pretty again. Goodbye desert.
They had just re-paved the lower 80% of the road in this twisty pass which was a blast to ride down through, but the top part was really rough so you had to keep your speed down.
As I came down off this mountain range into the valley just west of Grand Junction, the temperature really rose. I saw it kiss 100 degF at one point but it settled in at 98 or 99 degrees. I was supposed to cross the railroad tracks somewhere near the motel, but The railroad guy stopped me and said the signaling stuff was "all messed up" and I couldn't cross the tracks. I told him I could weave through the gates, but that sounded iffy to him. He said there was another place a mile down the tracks.

It was 99 in the shade at the motel but the AC (thanks you engineers) worked great. Hannah called and we caught up on her boat adventure.
I walked down the street and had a light supper and met a wonderful couple travelling from Washington DC, loving retirement. Very pleasant evening chatting with them.
Hopefully it will cool off tonight. I should finish this up so I can get up early and get going. Boulder valley tomorrow to talk to the motorcycle shop guys about getting the X300 checked out so I can get back home. Also check in with my cousin Laura and catch up on family genealogy stuff.

Odometer = 26,326