Day 25 - Back on the road again

Today I lounged around the motel room until about noon then it was time to get out. I called the Harley dealer to make sure my parts were in and my bike would be done today. They said it would be ready before closing. I went over to the dealer where I killed some time. The bike was up and running about 4:00.

For you gear heads out there who want to know that happened: The main parts that were replaced were the "clutch hub", "transmission compensating sprocket" and the "cam slider, chain" (that is the way it's listed on the parts sheet- I have no idea what it is). There were also some seals, bolts,gaskets and stuff like that. They also discovered one of my front wheel bearings was a bit rough so they fixed that too.

I jumped on the bugger and hit the launch button. The motor sounded strong and rattle free (it sounded like a Harley again). I am sure the motor appreciated the fresh oil.

I hadn't eaten all day so I headed over to the first place I saw:

It was finger lick'n good.

I found I-15, pointed my front fender north and twisted my right wrist. I passed the copper mine as I left the city.

Not far out on the road I ran into some road construction. Chip seal (oh goodie). Lose gravel and hot tar. Just what I wanted to ride through today.
I passed a bunch of places with more dead trees along the way. Glad my house isn't surrounded by dry tinder...

I started to get into more rocky stuff and i was climbing a bit. These pictures look washed out compared to the read deal. There is a lot of color in those rocks.

It was late in the day and I wanted to make headway, but I also wanted to get a room before they were all gone. So I stopped in Great Falls.

I saw this guy wearing camo as I rode into town. Guess he is getting ready for hunting season.

I checked into the Super 8 motel here and went looking for dinner. I found this place:

I got the steak and all you can eat shrimp deal. I didn't pig out (really) I just felt like a steak.

While I was travelling through Great Falls, I saw a road sign for the turn off to Haver, MT. It made me think of my cousin Pam. She lives there. "Hi Kid" (if you're reading this). This is as close as I will get to your house this trip.


Tomorrow (finally) I will hit the "Going to the sun Highway." I am about 3 1/2 hours away from it tonight. I plan to just follow hwy 2 through Idaho into Washington. That will take me across the central part of the state. I haven't taken the time to figure out where I will end up tomorrow. I am just going to enjoy the ride and stop when I get tired.

Day 24 - Stuck in Butte, MT

I started out late this morning due to my staying up too late working on the blog until midnight. That thing takes a lot of time.... I woke up at 6:45 - late for me.



Anyway I was on the road by 7:45 and headed North on I-15. I checked my oil this morning and found it just a tad low, and pretty dirty. I had about 11,000 miles on this batch of oil. The stuff I use (Amsoil synthetic) says it is good for 10. I decided to get it changed this morning at Butte, MT. I had ridden my bike hard for the last three weeks and I am a picky when it comes to changing oil. I have had enough motors apart over the years to know the difference.

This is a brand new dealership they told me. Or at lest a new building.

They said they had not erected their big outside sign yet. They just had this banner for a sign.



I told them I needed to have the engine oil changed and I would do the transmission and clutch myself in another 900 miles (the distance home from here). I asked them to ride the bike around the block and listen to the motor. I said I thought I heard something that wasn't just right, but had no idea what it was. Good thing I did that. Remember day 8: Annapolis? Same noise only worse now.


The service writer said he thought the noise was a lose "compensator rotor" - what ever that was. Turns out that wasn't all of it.... The rotor was lose, alright but the clutch hub splines and some other things were worn out... all stuff that had to be done at initial assembly they told me - he said this was not considered normal wear. It would take way too much technical explaining here, but the bottom line is, it needed fixing now. All of this is covered under my warranty... except the "next day" shipping part. I figured paying a little shipping would be cheaper than hanging around here for several days.


This is the first surgery my bike has ever had.

At any rate I was stuck here in Butte for a day or two waiting for the parts to arrive (there is nothing worse in Hell then being stuck in Butt(e) Montana). Installing the parts only takes an hour or two they said.

As long as I was stuck here, I had them look at my heated grips. They quit working (again- third time). I sure didn't need them in the hot mid-west but up in the mountains, it's a nice option to have. I wasn't going to fiddle with the grips or the front light that had come off (see day 15) until I got home. I didn't want to spend the time to get them fixed while on this trip. Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men....

While they were working on my bike, I had them take me someplace where I could get some breakfast.

The guy that washes the bikes (the lot boy) took me to "Club Montana," which is a casino and restaurant. I got a free news paper with my pancakes. I read all about Lew Piniella's last day and the grizzly bears
being hungry enough to eat people because of the lack of pine cones this year (watch out campers). It was fascinating. After I thought I had killed enough time, I caught a ride back to the dealer to see where they were with my bike.



After I got the unexpected bad news, that same guy (Jerry) took me to the Super 8 where I cooled my heels a bit.

Today turned into laundry day. I also walked down the block and found myself a hair cut. My cell phone doesn't work here (Sprint) so they will not be able to call me easily should they find more stuff to deal with. I guess all they have in Butt(e) is Verizon. Just my luck.

So.... I am stuck here in my room watching the TV.

I will post this entry now (3:45 PM). If anything exciting happens here I will update it (don't hold your breath).


I took a walk around Butt(e) today. I guess they have their share of dip shi** too.
I want to dinner at this place. Its the Grand Casino and its right across the street from my motel. I thought I would have a good dinner and a martini. The drink was filled with ice. Who ever heard of a martini with ice cubes? I told them the bartender had no idea how to make a martini. They charged me $8 anyway. "Put an X on that place" my dad would have said.

I went back to my room and watched more TV.

Day 23 - Part 1 Wyoming, Idaho, Montana

I left the motel this morning at 6:40 and headed out to Ranchester ( a very small town) and got onto Hwy 14. This road took me over Granite Pass. This was 10,162 ft high and is probably the most awesome scenery I have ever seen. I have no idea why I didn't take pictures of it. I guess I was to busy looking at it to grab the camera and stop. I WAS trying to make up time from my early stop last night. I wanted to get to Cody for breakfast. If you have never been on Why 14 between Ranchester and Grey Bull, put it on your bucket list.

After I came down the road flattened right out and I could see haze in front of me. I was hoping it wasn't a dust storm. It turned out to be ultra-violet haze from the sun. No worries.

I ate at The Irma Grill in Cody. They had a breakfast Buffet the likes of which I have never seen before. Put THAT on your list too. It was only $9.95.

After I stuffed myself, I went to the Buffalo Bill Museum. " Wow" about sums it up.
There are many parts to this place, but I wanted to see the guns. There are thousands of them.

The 8th rifle from the left was once owned by Jeremiah Johnson. There was a plaque on the wall telling about it but I have space limitations here and I cut that picture out (dammit).

There are lots of famous peoples guns here. This one was used in the Bonanza TV series. There were many like that from other shows too.

There were lots of "proper" rifles here too.

These are single shot Spencer Rifles. Custer's boys had those.


This is what Sitting Bull's guys had. Repeating Henry Rifles: "Load them on Sunday, shoot all week" they used to say. No problem figuring that one out....


This is an air rifle. It has a crank on it! I have never even heard of such a thing before.

How about one of the first "revolvers?" I had never heard of a revolving rifle before either.

This is the first half of day 23. You will have to go to another blog page to see the second part. (Too many pictures today)

Day 23 - part 2

This is part 2 of Day 23. If you are starting here, back up one entry first to the beginning. I had 75 pictures today and I had trouble paring them down so they would fit on here. I didn't do a good job so there are still two blog pages today.


This was one of my favorite parts... shotguns. This is only one rack of them. There were many racks.

Bison (often incorrectly called Buffalo).

After leaving the museum I started for Yellowstone.

Any idea why these mountains are called the Rockies?

When I got to Yellowstone I could see a fire, not far from the East Entrance.

From the East Entrance I followed Lake Yellowstone (huge) around to the South Entrance. I passed millions of dead trees. The left overs of an old fire. The bases were all scorched. The Ranger told me with the foliage gone from the trees the grasses grow better and that is what feeds the critters.

Here are some of them eating grass now.

A nice Bull.

I left Yellowstone and made my way to Teton National Park (just to the south). Here are the Great Teton Mts.

At Jackson Hole I found an arch made of Elk antlers. There are four arches like this. One at each corner of the city square (that's a lot of bull).

Just as I was leaving the city, I spotted this moose taking a drink from the river.

I saw this sign as I was starting up over Teton Pass on Hwy 22. I guess they mean business.

Just up over the pass, I hit Idaho again. I was in it long enough to make my way to I-15 and go into Montana. About 150 miles or so.

Montana is another state I have made it to on this trip. I have lost count of them all now. 25 or 26 maybe?

I ran through some rain off and on today. Nothing really bad but just enough to make the riding less than fun. I got up over 9,000 ft today a couple of times. It was cold up there without my leather jacket. I sent that home with the wife when I was with her in Minnesota to save space. My bike is packed to the max.

I stopped for the night in Dillon, Mt. I tried to make it to Butte, but there was a huge rain storm between me and Butte. I decided to duck in and hide for the night.

Tomorrow I will go up to Glacier Natl Park and take the "Going to the Sun Highway" as it is called. I tried to take a run at that last year, but it was closed to traffic due to snow and heavy rain.

Hope you enjoyed today.

Miles on my trip so far are 7,244.8. There are about 900 more to go before I get home (I have 34,919 total miles on my bike now).

Day 22 - Wyoming

Today I rolled by a car wash first thing. The bike needed it.

I headed out for Mt Rushmore. The road out of Rapid City was pretty scenic. I came through Keystone. They have it all fixed up. When I was a kid this was nothing like this.

I was getting close....

There's the boys right there! George, Tom, Abe and Ted. All four of those guys made pretty good bosses.

After Mt Rushmore I went along the Needles Highway.

I bet it took awhile to chisel through that.

There were rocks sticking up all over. There were hundreds of them.

The road through the Needles Highway is twisty as heck. Fun on a bike.

Then I came past Chief Crazy Horse. I had to admit there was some change in the monument since I saw it last- about 35 years ago.

Maybe in another 35 it will be done??


I made my way to Deadwood.

Deadwood is an old mining town. Not too many gunfights here now.

I found Wild Bill sitting out enjoying the sunshine.

After looking here and there, I continued on to Wyoming.

I turned off the main highway and went to see the Devil's Tower.

Here is a closer shot.

According to the handout they gave me, The cone was formed under the earth, then the surrounding dirt eroded away leaving what we now see. But... I believe the Indians had it right: Three chiefs were surrounded by mountain lions at their camp site. They prayed to the Great Spirit to be saved. The ground they were on rose up taking them out of the loins reach. The lions scratched at the sides as the land rose up causing the rough exterior (it could happen).

I had spend a lot of time looking at things today so I headed out trying to make some mileage. I could see the Rockies off to my left. I will be all up in them tomorrow.

I hoped to make Cody tonight, but it was getting late. I stopped in at the Motel 6 at Sheridan, WY to make a reservation at Cody. I know it would be pretty late when I got there and I wanted to get a room before they filled up.

Surprise, there is no motel 6 at Cody. I did not have my computer handy and I couldn't remember what motels there were in Cody, so I just stayed here. The guy here said Cody was still 4 hours away (more like 2 I found out later). I only made about 370 miles today. I didn't feel too bad, I got to see a lot of things today (a good vacation).

Tomorrow I will get up early and go see the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. I have heard about it all my life. Can't wait to see it.