I check the weather and there are afternoon thunder storms forecast and chance of rain the whole day. It is not raining now so I pack up tie my rain gear on top of my duffel bag so I can get to it easily and head toward Glendo Wyoming and my parents house. It is 579 miles so I will need to stay with the program as I woke up a little early and then when back to sleep and was an hour and a half later than I planed on when I got out of bed. The riding in Montana is wonderful, even the two lane roads that are a bit narrow have 70 mph speed limits and the slabs have 75 mph limit. With the GPS giving me an accurate speed I add 4 or 5 mph and the miles click off rapidly. The area before and after Great Falls is more like wheat land, not sure what they are growing but that is my guess. I am on 87 a two lane to Billings then will pick up 25 south. The country goes from the rolling hills with cultivated grain of some kind to cattle country again, some places we get into more hills and there are pine trees on the upper portions. There is a construction delay and we are bunched up like a commuter on the freeway in rush hours, I get by lots of the cars and trucks, must have been 30 altogether, didn't pass all at one time and I am enjoying the ride, still dry. Catch up with another bunch of cars, actually 4 national guard trucks and then three cars that couldn't get past them. I put them behind me and have clear sailing again. Next bunch and I am screwed, It is a national guard convoy, taking up about a half mile of road. An Armored Personnel Carrier out in front of the convoy about a 1/4 of a mile then a pickup, another APC a truck and trailer, another APC another truck and trailer, another APC and a 1/4 mile back another pickup and an APC. Not a problem I can zap them all on some of the long straight sections as I can see several miles on a lot of he down hills. The problem is that the last APC moves out and block the lane that I need to pass, only moving over when a car is coming. I follow these guys for almost 40 miles before they turn off. They turn off on hyw 191 which my GPS tells me is the shortest way to Billings. At this point I would rather ride an extra hour that follow them so I stay on 87 and enjoy my ride to Billings(only a couple of mile farther). Part of the problem is that truck are limited to 60 mph on the secondary roads and 65 on the slabs. The convey was only going 50 -55 most of the time. I am through Billings and headed south on the slab. It is a great ride, not much traffic and the same rolling hills and cattle country that the last 100 miles have been. I stop in Sheridan Wyoming for fuel, give my folks a call and tell them I will be in about 7:30. I ride on wet roads and just when I think I will be riding in to a big black cloud with water falling out of it the road makes a little turn and I get wet pavement but stay dry. I think if I had been an hour earlier I would have been riding in the rain the last 200 miles. And yes, I was able to activate my phone when I got to Shelby last night for fuel. Lots of sage along the road so I get the fresh smell of nice clean open range. Lots of cattle, some horses and no critters. I expected to see a lot of antelope but not one. This is the weekend of the high school rodeos and the junior rodeos so there are lots of horse trailer on the road and as I passed the rodeo grounds at Buffalo and Sheridan there is lots of activity. A wonderful day of riding mostly open range, lots of bikes going the opposite direction and I am in Glendo in time for dinner. I will hang out for the weekend and head south Monday morning. Five hundred seventy nine mile is my greatest mileage for any one day but the ride was actually easier than many of the 420 mile days that John and I did going north. Good speed limits, little traffic and no rain makes life on a bike easy.
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