June 19 - Tuesday - Billings MT to Missoula MT - 357 miles

So the plug in Jeffs rear tire (the new one) is holding. The plan is to ride to the nearest BMW shop which is in Missoula a day away, and the only way to get there on time is through a nasty rainy radar map image. So we had the conti breaksfast (so-so) along with a family of 8 kids and mom and dad. The oldest was 13 and the youngest looked to be 2, 5 girls and 3 boys, so they wasted no time having their kids. Adorable kids, well behaved with the oldest boy riding herd on the youngers. (No sign of a 9th so maybe they figured out what caused it..)
It did not look rainy out yet, but the radar said dont hold your breath so we suited up and an hour later the rain started. We did see (through the fog and rain) some nice scenery and at one point got to assist in a cattle herding operation. They use the county roads to herd cattle from grazing places and we just hung back and waited, but the truck behind us showed us how it's done. He passed us and just started pushing his way through the herd. It's a little different proposition for motorcycles so we looked for expressions on the faces of the guys on their 4-wheeler "horses" to see if we should or not. they looked ok with it so we nudged our way through a couple hundred cows and calves. Picture big black mother cows giving us the stink eye while their calves were jumping around in response to either the BMW exhaust blat or our bright green jackets (are cows color blind), cow manure all over the road, and don't forget it is raining.

We stopped at "some town" and warmed and dried ourselves with hot drinks and then booked it to Missoula in time to get new tires on Jeff's bike (the back one had the plug and the front one was not going to make it back to Vermont). We got there around 3:30 and Jeff picked out some more pavement friendly tires. They also found the rear brake pads worn out (after 14K miles?) and one of the panniers could not be removed. The finished it up around 5:00. A guy (Keith) arriving for a service on his 800GS chatted us up in the parking lot and said he found a cheap motel in town. We followed him in but they were booked. The motel next to it had rooms and was cheaper anyway. Keith and his friend Patrick invited us out for a beer (they had both lived in Missola and knew the toen well), so we did and got some great tips on good roads up through the mountains to the Canadian border. Patrick took off and Keith joined us for dinner. He worked for the railroad and then went back to college to get a geography degree and then did GIS work for the state of Montana.
The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow!!!

June 18 - Monday - Miles City MT to Billings MT - 227 miles

So goodbye to my new best friend Khan at the Super 8. Breakfast with a guy from Hawaii who comes to Miles City each year with a couple buddies to shot prairie dogs. Yup, prairie dogs. One of his buddies has been coming each year for 15 or so years. A local farmer told them they could shoot ll they wanted because the holes they dig do two things, 1) breaks the legs of the grazing cattle when they step in them, and 2) the prairie dogs dig the earth underneath which contains salt from the ancient ocean floor this used to be and the salt kills all the grass. He was born in Colorado but has lived in HI all his life.
So the forecast was for rain, again today, but ti was just overcast so I started with no rain gear. Jeff set the GPS for Red Lodge, no highways (thank you!) and we spent the first 40-50 miles on a gravel road with no nothing in between. I got nervous about gas, but it turned out ok, but we agreed we would fill up anytime we could after the close call a couple days ago.
Jeff had one wild ride in the gravel but he figured it all out. We got back on pavement in Ashland MT, which is in the Cheyenne Indian Reservation, and filled up with gas and had coffee.

We got up the road a mile or so and Jeff's new rear tire was leaking air. So back to the gas station (slowly) and we could not find anything obvious sticking out (nail, sheet rock screw, mastodon rib, etc ). So he got on the phone and tried to use his platinum MOA (Motorcycle Owners of America) thingie, but it soon turned to the Lead MOA thingie as no bike shops are very close, and being Monday, they were all closed.
While he spend a good part of the morning on the phone, i was quizzing the gas station owners about all the nice Native American art on the walls. The owner came in and she and I spent 45 minutes going over Native American affairs, American history, neurochemistry, conflict, Dunbars number, etc, etc. Turns out she was educated back east somewhere and her dad was German but her mom was Cheyenne, and she decided to live back on the reservation. I could have spent half the day talking to her, but she had to get back to her other shop,and I had to help Jeff with the tire.
So plan B was a can of "Fix-O-Flat" which we put in and then went the few blocks down to Fred's Hardware, who has the only air compressor in town. We pumped it up, but it started leaking again. So back to Fred's and we got a "plug kit" (by the way, Fred has just about anything you could possible want hanging on the wall somewhere). So I gave Jeff a quick tutorial on plugging tires and he done good. Back to Fred for more air, and we decided to let it sit near Fred's and went to the diner next door. There we spent a lovely hour talking with the folks in there. Two of them were coal miners, another was a woman who seemed to know everything about crops, animals, or anything else you could imagine (and she was roping cattle yesterday) and the diner owner who ran the place all by herself. This is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone. I'm sure these two guys with the flat tire will be talk around town for a few days. (Gotta send Fred some Maple Syrup..)
So the coal miner guys reminded us we would be riding right by Little Bighorn Battlefield, where Custer got creamed by the LaKota, Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne Indians. And to my delight, I got to use my Senior Park Pass again ($20 bucks, cha-ching!)
One last leg to Billings for the night.

June 17 - Tuesday - Mobridge SD to Miles City MT - 440 miles

 The motel in Mobridge did not have conti breakfast but they do have a restaurant but we opted to just head out. The woman that checked us in was a big motorcycle nut who started riding a 650 BMW when she was 50 and got a Suzuki 1300 after a couple years and very excited to talk to us about motorcycles. She toured all over until her husband died, and she re-married and is hoping to ride some more with her new husband. Good for her!
We left in the rain, light rain, so fully suited up, so no biggie. We rode at a nice 60mph for a few hours and came close to running out of gas since the part of South Dakota we are in has no people. Our last hope was Lemmon SD and they had two stations open. I put 4.3 gallons in my 4.5 gallon tank. Yikes!!

They had a diner across the street with a good crowd (which means a good place) and lots of locals in there taking dad out for fathers day. The woman running it moved to Alaska for 30 years and then moved back to Lemmon and opened this place. Lots of gorgeous Alaska photos on the walls. A few 2-5 year olds entertained the whole place the whole time we were there. Nice to see close families.

A minister chatted us up about our trip. He was coming don from Sturgus to "pinch hit" for the local minister. He rents his house each year to a motorcycle magazine for the annual bike week. He says it pays his taxes.
We went north and into the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and did the 30 mile loop inside the park. Lots of buffalo in there which were almost as popular as the prairie dogs to watch. Best part was flashing that Senior pass and getting in for free!!. Another $25 bucks!!
Google took us down afew gravel roads today that were really fun on the X300 since it is made for doing those. The Beemer would be twitching all over the road on those, so the X300 is a winner there.
The last couple hours were on Rt7 and Rt12. Rt7 is pretty much not used but in good shape with really nice views. Saw a pronghorn deer (Antelope?), really beauty, and we also say some other deer (Black-tail?).
We ended at Miles City which is an interstate exit so lots of places to stay. I chatted with the owner for a long time and he said the nice smelling stuff I kept whiffing today was sagebrush.
More rain tomorrow by the looks. Jeez..

And my brother (guess which one) passed this along today. Hope they have a good recipe for Prarie Dog as I have an ample supply out here..

June 16 - Saturday - Richfield MN to Mobridge SD - 289 miles

 Pretty dicey day. Radar shows rain all over, beginning with Minneapolis, like starting at 7am! So quick pack up, coffee, conti and full rain gear, locked and loaded. It started raining before we hit the starters and it poured for the next 2-3 hours as we headed due west to duck under the storm. It did finally let up and it was just overcast and threatening, so I left my rain gear on most of the day. It did sprinkle mid afternoon but it was a poor showing. We slowed down a lot today, sticking to the speed limits so it was enourmously more enjoyable with less wind noise. We stopped at Ortonville, which is the perfect small town you hope to find. Nice brick downtown with lots of shops and no chain franchise places. So I say a woman walking down the sidewalk and asked where the coffee shop was and she pointed to the place down the block, coffee and bakery, PERFECT!
The nice lady behind the counter took my order, asked about all the rain gear and I gave her all the gory details. I just got coffee and chatted up a woman about crops, local history, etc and sure enough we ended up talking for a half hour. She grew up on a farm that grew barley, flax, corn, hay as well as pigs, sheep, etc so she was the perfect resurce for what all this stuff was we were driving by.

Meanwhile the woman behind the counter got a break and looked up the weather radar for me on her iPad and it looked clear the rest of the day. This is the magic of stopping in little towns. People love to help you out and they love to share their little towns and stories.
The rest of the afternoon we spent going 58-60 mph on Rt 12 with almost no traffic, 70-80 degF temps and lots of open grasslands, corn and soy. I did see what looked like a wheat attachment at one point but no wheat (assuming I knew what it looks like). he ladies this morning talked about wheat so there must be some here somewhere.
Nice little tail wind all day so very Zen afternoon..
Ended the day in Mobridge SD, right on the Missouri River. There is a Lewis & Clark walk along the river with all the history of he and his men stopping here in 1804 on their way to the Pacific. There was reference to Sitting Bull being burried here somewhere but I couldn't find it, maybe in the morning.

June 15 - Friday - Gladstone MI to Richfield MN (399 miles)

Another fast long day. We stopped somewhere after a couple hours as the rain came in. Breakfast fo an hour or so, but we still had few hours of rain to go so we suited up and hammered through it. We had to get to Minneapolis by tonight so we could get Jeff's bike to the BMW dealer for Saturday. We ended up on the thruway and Jeff realized he could make it in enough time so they could do the tire this afternoon. We split up so he could crank the highway speeds (I refuse) and I took a long back way with some nice farms and pulled into the BMW dealer just as the mechanic was taking Jeff's bike and brand new knobby for a test ride, so perfect timing. It was really hit and rush hour traffic so got a hotel around the corner (with AC).

Not much fun today..

June 14 - Thursday - North Bay ON to Gladstone MI (451 miles)

 Long fast sunny day. Jeff needs a new back tire and the closest BMW shop is in Minneapolis 900 miles away. We left the hotel about 7:15 and did not get wet at all (unlike yesterday). Not much to report since it was ride and stop for gas, ride and stop for gas. Pretty easy border crossing (no hassles) at Sault St Marie.
Weather was really pleasant so I suggested camping and found a beautiful campground in Gladstone. Camping stuff all worked (did not forget anything). Boiled a cup of Joe and bed at 9.

June 13 - Weds - Oswego NY to North Bay ON (421 miles)

Sandy whipped up some goose eggs for breakfast and any day that starts with goose eggs has to be special. Thanks again Sandy!!
Jeff researched everything and we decided to go back around the bend and up through the middle of Ontario. He punched Sudbury ON into Google Maps and told it no highways (yea!) and no ferries. I rolled my bike out of the garage and it was overcast and warm, and sure enough it rained on the bike just long enough to soak it. Oh well, it softened the dead bugs up and the fancy Israeli seat cover doesn't retain water so no biggie. I wore shorts under my motorcycle pants and then did the full rain job (boots, pants, jacket, lobster claws, the whole thing because if I didn't it would pour before I got the stuff on and if I did, it wouldn't rain.
We ended up on the scenic lake shore route (or whatever all those signs said, which was scenic and did go along the lake shore. Lots of farms mostly just cutting hay but you can see they had some pretty grand farms way back when. Lots of boat people stuff since they live boating up here. We gased up in Ogdensburg just before the bridge (to $5 a gallon gas) and a couple on bikes chatted us up. They owned 19 motorcycles and lived in Pittsburgh PA and just bought an X300 and were so excited to see one with a lot of miles on it and good reports. They had two Honda's today but had BMWs at home and who knows what else (remember 19 motorcycles).
So the Ogdensburg Bridge on a motorcycle is an exercise in confusion. First you pay a toll, which on a bike is a pain (stop, remove rain over gloves, remove gloves (don't drop them on the ground..), unzip rain jacket, pull down rain pants, find rear pocket (not the side pocket), fiddle with the velcro, remove the wallet, find a bill (any bill at this point), hand it over, get the change, give finger to guy behind you honking his horn (that did not happen, either one), put the bills back in the wallet (don't drop the coins and if you do, screw it), pull rain pants down again, fiddle with velcro in back pocket again (not the side pocket), put the wallet back, catch the gloves as they fall to the ground, zip the jacket back up, put on the gloves, put on the over-gloves, throw the change across the parking lot (not really), start the bike, say something pleasant to the toll guy, another finger to the guy behind you, put it in gear and now cross the bridge doing 25 mph because it's one of those steel mesh things that makes you feel like you are going to crash into the tractor trailer coming the other way, and then guess what, customs is on the other side and you do everything you just did on the east side of the bridge, but this time, dig through the tank bag and find that @#$% passport you buried in a secret place.
The custom guy gave me the usual "Canadian Customs grilling. "Where ya headed, eh?, Have a nice trip, eh?", and that was it. He did not even mention Trump like every other Canadian we ran into all day. "You poor bastards,eh?" kinda summed it up.
So thank goodness for the on-dash dancing compass ball. Jeff had Google Maps telling him where to go, but sometimes it doesn't say anything for a long time nd get to thinking, is it still working or?? I had a dancing compass ball on the BMW for years and it saved my bacon many times when would miss a turn. So N-NW pretty much all day going pretty much 10kph over the speed limit all day on little 2 lane roads. Very pleasant day.
We stopped for lunch somewhere and the women working there were very chatty (as was I) and thought Vermont was beautiful of course. Another Trump question in the parking lot and then on our way. And then the deluge...
We saw the big ugly black clouds and then the lightning and then a little rain and then buckets of rain. All the rain gear worked flawlessly so we kept going, but then finally saw a tiny gas station / mini-mart and pulled in under the awning and decided this would be a good time for a cup of coffee and wait it out. We did and 20-30 minutes later the really heavy rain turned into just normal rain, so we apologized for soaking her floors (she had the mop out before we came in so we were not the first ones). So the rain did taper off and the next excitment was seeing a sign out of the blue for "Champlain's Astrolabe", which I had just read about in a book about Samuel Champlain. So he was on an expedition in 1613 and lost the astrolabe (used for determining latitude). A 14 year old farm boy found it in 1867 and it is now in the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Very cool.
We crossed the Mississippi River and Snake River today, but they are in no way related to the famous ones. Weird.
So Sudbury was going to be too late and we stopped at North Bay, which is big town (51K people) so plenty of options to stay. Mexican food, oil the chain and bed.
Jeff's rear tire is looking like it will need to be replaced so we may swing back into Minnesota to get it replaced. Figure it out in the morning.