Saturday, August 26, 2006

Ta Da! (Ouch) Days 1, 2, and 3

Well, we did it! Pipe Creek, Texas to Pueblo, Colorado, (1005 miles) in about 17 ½ hours. It’s not official until we send all our paperwork to the IronButt association, but I’m pretty sure we’re not “CottonButts” anymore.

Just before departure, at 4:00 a.m.





Windmill farm in West Texas ...



Don, just North of Van Horn, Texas... From all the greenery, it appears that West Texas has been getting the rain we haven't!



Almost halfway, in the Guadalupe Mountains...



And finally, the Pueblo Econolodge! And our End Witness!



Do we look like we just rode a thousand miles at one sitting?




Day two, we added about 570 miles more to the total. We rode to Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota, and then spent the night at Bear Butte campground outside Sturgis.







Trip computer at end of day two. Pay no attention to that "max speed" number, it was a momentary abberation, due to passing a troublemaking semi-truck...




Day three, we hurried the 350 miles to the airport in Billings, Montana, to pick up Amy, arriving at 12:45. Just as we arrived at the airport, Don’s R1150RT’s rear tire went flat. A phone call to a savior in the BMW owner’s “anonymous” book got us the number of a shop that cam to pick Don’s bike up and trailer it the shop for new shoes…





"Dang, we're hitting a high spot on the ramp...



Note the highly technical "get the bike over the high spot in ramp method" ...



At last we are encamped at the Super8 motel in Billings, and headed to Red Lodge and the Beartooth tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Appears to be a little "helmet hair" action in your 1K in 1 day photo! Glad this wasn't one of those pics that was scratch and sniff... whew!

Anonymous said...

Way to go. Now we'll have to call you Ironbutt Tim. :-) And as for your question about looking like you just rode a thousand miles -- the answer is yes. You look rode hard and put away wet. Congragulations on the achievement of your goal.
Leanne

Anonymous said...

So what did you see along the way up there? We'll need more pics of singing waitresses. I guess there wasn't a lot of extra time the first day, but now you can slow down a little and enjoy the scenery!
Cheers,

Tim said...

More pics to come soon! Don and I are encamped at the wonderful and remote casa de Jerry and Deb in Montana, hope to upload photos and stories tomorrow! Lots of stories including bears, hail, and mechanical woes!