Day 5 – Don’s off-road practice, Red Lodge.

Dang Garmin and that “avoid unpaved roads” setting! We debated about doing a long day and doing a 300-400 mile day through Bighorn Canyon and Lovell, but decided against it since we needed to take Amy to the airport by 630 the next day. Instead, we took some scenic back roads to Red Lodge. Just how scenic, we were soon to find out.

We turned off 212 towards the Cooney Reservoir and Fishtail. The roads were twisty, scenic, and paved … for a bit. The road turned into dirt without warning, and the GPS made no mention of that fact. Hmmmm. Don said, “Well, let’s push on—how far can this continue to be dirt?” Good question, and the answer was, “Quite a while.” Don and his RT were not too comfortable, especially when the dirt got loose and rocky. As he worked on his dirt skills, we saw an eagle next to the reservoir.



By the end of the off-road training section, (about 17 miles and one hour), Don was an old hand and buzzing right along.


Very out of the way church…



Leaning tower of … Fishtail?


House up on jacks, getting the oil changed, and transmission checked.


THE satellite TV hub of Red Lodge, MT.


Is this better than child labor?



Look! Another Eagle!


Later that day I checked the GPS defaults, and "Avoid unpaved roads" is NOT a default setting. Silly me. Anyway, those offroad skills were to come in handy for Don later...

Day 4 – Red Lodge, Beartooth, Chief Joseph, and France.

Amy, Don, and I got up early, met at the bikes at 7, and headed off to Red Lodge and the infamous Beartooth highway. The reason for going to Red Lodge, besides its obvious proximity to the Beartooth, is that a nice old couple we met in the Grand Tetons a few years ago were from Red Lodge and just raved about what a nice place it is. We have to agree.

Funny newspaper headlines though:

We got there and had breakfast at the “World Famous Red Lodge Café.” The food was tasty, and the waitress sassy.



Afterwards, we wandered the town to buy trinkets. The proprietor of one store told to be careful not to “hook a peg” on any turns, as it would cause us to go off a cliff, and three people had recently died doing just such a thing. Now I’m not the most knowledgeable motorcyclist in the world, but I do know that scraping a footpeg on a bike won’t “hook” or cause any sort of a crash, but will cause some riders to loose composure, straighten up early, and go wide in a turn. I suspect that it was that, and not “hooking a peg,” that caused the crashes.

Anyway, the Beartooth was pretty spectacular. The road itself wasn’t much to write home about, just eleven switchback (hairpin) turns climbing to almost eleven thousand feet. But the views! It’s a loooong way down.











The “Beartooth”



Funny how you can find Texas, no matter where you go:




The animules were very cool too:


We kept hearing some fierce scolding coming from up in a tree, and I couldn’t find the bird doing it … until:



After the Beartooth, we continued to Cooke City for lunch. We met a nice ex-pat Brit named Gareth on a BMW sportbike, and chatted with him while waiting for lunch…



After lunch, we returned to Billings via the Chief Joseph highway; a beautiful piece of road with some excellent scenery as well.




While stopped at a bridge/overlook, I heard a familiar voice nearby. It turned out to be the nice couple from Montreal that we camped next to back at the Bear Butte campground in Sturgis! Small world! Anyway, France and Stan were happy to see that we’d found Amy in Billings, and were enjoying the ride.


On the way home, we passed through “Belfry,” home of the Bats…

School Mascot:

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!

Off to Beartooth Pass, Glacier NP, and parts unknown...

At 4 a.m. tomorrow, Don and I head out on the first leg of this two week trip. We hope to make it from SA to Pueblo, Co, on the first day...thereby earning our "IronButt" SS1000 spurs...

 

Don and me during a very rainy trip to Eureka Springs a couple of years ago...

 

On Saturday, this lovely young lady will fly up to join us to ride the Beartooth Pass.