Don and the White Donkey aka BMW R1100GS

John and the Kawasaki,

June 28, 2011 Day 24 Albuquerque New Mexico to Tempe Arizona

My 24 hours are used up before the dealer opens, they have the tire I want and can get it on in the next couple of hours. $251 dollars later and about noon time I am loaded and headed south. I have time to burn and as it is really hot in Phoenix I had thoughts of staying at our place in Vernon (just outside of Show Low) and leaving really early and riding home Wed morning and beating the heat. So with that in mind I decide to ride I 25 south to Socorro and pick up 60 to Vernon. I haven't decided what was the prettiest place I saw on this trip but it took only a few minuets to figure out that Socorro was the ugliest, hands down. It has a perfect speed trap for people coming in to town. The speed limit stays 35 out side of the main part of town going west on 60 and the few businesses out there are well off the road. There is a little curve in the road and a sign there just the right size for the local fuzz to hide behind and he was.  I was going out of town so had my speed in check but that made an ugly town even uglier. I saw two antelope in the god forsaken country west of Socorro. In fact that was the closest I got to any  as one of them was in the road and I almost had to come to a complete stop for him. I expected him to jump the fence but he went under it like a dog. I wish I had a picture of them, one had a water bottle and the other a lunch box. Rough Country out there. With the rain clouds coming and going and looking really threating riding through the showers and little cloud bursts made the ride interesting, Even though the surrounding were ugly as I rode a little farther west the mountains with the changing light from the cluds and rain was very nice. It was warm even at 8000 feet so I just rode through the wet and enjoyed the cooling off. I got to Vernon and looked every thing over, no one has been there for over a month, all is well. It is still trying to rain and I don''t want to load up at dark thirty in the rain and ride out in the nasty clay that gets like glue when it is wet. It is about a mile to the asphalt so I locked up and headed home. Fueled up in Show Low and came home on 60 through the Salt River Canyon. That road is a lot more fun to ride on a motorcycle than it is in the Expedition pulling the horses. . Three hours and ten minuets after fueling up at the Maverick I am home, a little sweaty but home sweet home.  I believe in ATGATT  all the gear all the time. So I always wear my helmet, my jacket has armor in the elbows, shoulders and lower back for protection in case of a fall. I also have a knit shirt with the same armor in it but didn't take it due to lack of room and knew the only day I would need it was the last day coming home. The jacket has zippers at the wrist, upper arms and shoulders to let air through and zippers in the back to let the air out, it helps but it was still hot. I was wearing Levis but I wear Bon Armor under them, like a pair of tights with shin, knee, thigh and hip pads. A little warm but worth the extra warmth if a problem ever causes one to roll or bounce down the road.. I didn't race through the canyon but stayed within about 5 mph of the speed limit, just that I didn't have to slow down much for the corners and going up it is easy to keep up to the speed limit even in the curvy sections.  . The bike shows a little over 9800 more miles on the odometer than when I left. Knowing what I do now would I do it again. YES

June 27, 2011 Day 24 Glendo Wyomng to Albuquerque New Mexico

Well I have goofed off in Wyoming over the weekend and am ready to head south again. Glendo has a population of about 200. A quarter of them are related to me some way, both my parents were raised in Glendo and I have numerous aunts, uncles and cousins living there. I have designs of being back in Tempe in a little less than 24 hours. There is an organization called The Iron Butt Riders. They have a lot of interesting ride to do that qualify for placks and license plate frames. To become a member one needs to do a Saddle Sore 1000, a thousand miles in 24 hours. You get someone at the beginning of your ride to sign a witness form, fuel up and keep the receipt with a time and date stamp, that is your start time, stop for fuel at least every 300 miles and/or where your course makes a major turn, keep your receipt with time and date,  log all your fuel stops with the bike odometer reading and the time, list any rest stops or sleep stops and when you get to your destination the last fuel receipt is the ending time and date. Leaving Glendo it would be I 25 to I 40 to Holbrook and home through Payson or I 40 to Flagstaff and home on 17. That would put me between 1050 and 1100 miles. 16 hours plus fuel stops and there are 7 hours to goof off or sleep. I had a time and date stamp of 8:00 at the station in down town Glendo, figured I would ride till I was really tired and then get a room for a few hours and finish up, if I didn't get tired I would be home a little after midnight. All went well till I was coming out of the station in Raton NM to get on the bike and I see something shinny on my rear tire. It is a bit of steel belt showing. There is one bike shop in Raton and it is closed on Sunday and Monday, I head south at a much slower pace and stop in Las Vegas NM and talk to a couple of sheriffs at a gas station and there are no bike shops there, need to go to Santa Fe. The tire has more belt showing but the belt hasn't worn through any where and there is another layer under that one so I head south again, At Santa Fe every thing is well off the road and it is getting late enough that I won't get a tire today so ride on another 60 miles to Albuquerque, find a hotel and wait for the BMW dealer to open Tue morning, most bike shops like to be closed on Monday.  My longest day so far 650 miles and I feel great, too bad I will have to wait for the Saddle Sore ride. I had been watching the rear tire, it had about 1800 miles on it before I left home, looked almost like new. Every where but the spot where the steel belt was showing the tire still looked great and you wouldn't think there was a problem. I am glad it just happen to be in sight when I came out to get on the bike.  Critters today were the antelope that were hiding Friday when I rode into Glendo. I saw antelope in Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

June 24, 2011 Day 21 Great Falls Montana to Glendo Wyoming

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.

June 23, 2011 Day 20 Trout Creek to Geat Falls Montana

It is just getting to noon and I am on the road again. Stayed an extra day in Trout Creek as a cousin was returning home this morning and I wanted to see him.  It was a good time and  they just live a mile down the road and he has been fighting some cancer so it was great to see him. There is the typical light rain, I guess I should have picked "Rain Maker" for my name instead of Traveler. The last two day have been beautiful,  Toured down town Trout Creek and went to Thomson Falls and had Huckleberry ice cream. My cell phone had given up, it worked on that for several days but finally managed to quit completely. A couple of hours with Tec support and when they gave up a new phone was sent to the Verizon dealer in Couer d Alene. Picked that up yesterday and spent another hour and a half with tec support and it still isn't working. When I get to civilization I am suppose to try and activate it again.. I am headed for Glacier National Park and hope to do the ride to the sun. The road that goes through the middle of the park is one of the best motorcycle rides in the west. I go south out of Trout Creek and the turn north again to Kalispell, Columbia Falls and into the park. The ride is a potpourri of scenery, leaving mountains and lots of trees, riding along a river and rail road tracks. Lumber is a big player here and as I pass a saw mill with the fresh rain it smelled so very good. the canyon narrows and the river crowds the railroad closer to the road and as I pass a passenger train (going my direction) with an engine and three cars it is only 20 feet away and the windows are just below the road level. If it wasn't for being busy riding I could have looked into the train cars and waved to the people.  At Plains the area is open, the canyon widens out and most of the trees are gone. as I turn north the area is range land with some rolling hills, not as green but again the rain brings the smell of fresh sage out and it is a great ride. The road is curvy and up and down hills, I would classify it as cattle country. As I come to the top of a hill I slow a little as the curve signs and arrows get my attention. Over the top of the hill and I see Flathead lake. It is huge. I am impressed. As we go father north we have the trees again and the rain is a bit more serious as I turn to enter the park. Out with my senior pass I purchased in Teton and I am in. Except the lady tells me the road is closed in 12 miles. the middle 30 miles of the road still has too much snow to open. I turn around and head south through the park that way, a beautiful ride  with the river and a little snow along the road and when we get into a little open area I can see lots of the smaller glaciers. The trip to the park has put me farther north than if I had headed towards Wyoming but even with the ride to the sun road closed it was a beautiful ride and I am glad I came that way. The rain had stopped for the last hour. I ride through Browning and as I get close to Shelby, a fuel stop, it is raining again and I decide to head on down to Great Falls to find a hotel. Twenty miles out of Shelby the rain stops and I have an enjoyable ride into Great Falls.  403 miles for today, not bad for a noon start.

Traveler

June 20, 2011 Day 17 Hinton Alberta to Trout Creek Montana

Breakfast in the Hotel, coffee and a bran muffin. Put on the rain gear and load the bike. I am on my way to see the parks. The rain is light and by the time I get to the entrance to the park to pay my $8.50  it has stopped for a while. Lots of elk this morning along the road, there is a lake on one side and a river on the other and lots of grass. The elk don't seem to mind people as there are lots of people taking pictures and the elk just keep eating. There are a total of around 30 elk scattered along a half mile of the road. Just as I get to Jasper to turn south there is a bit of a traffic jam, one bewildered looking deer that gave up and took off for the brush. I expect today to be the critter sighting day of the trip. Cruising south the mountains are beautiful and impressively high. After the first 30 miles it gets less green, still green but a bit more rocky along the road. The Ice Fields are a big tourist draw but failed to impress me, I guess all the glaciers I have been by in the last few weeks that it would have to green up a bit to compare with northern BC and Alaska. The roads are fun, the tour buses tend to clog things up a bit but on the up hill they are easy to pass with the bike.On the down hills they are not a problem. As I come into the area around Lake Louise there are two different cops writing tickets and they are finishing up 12 miles of freeway type 4 lane with the 6 or 7 foot high fences along the sides. What the heck?  Actually the freeway work was going on farther south too but I turned off to Radian Hot Springs for my park exit. This to me was the prettiest part of the park, lots of green, high mountains and rivers. So far there have been no critters other that the elk and deer at the entrance and up to Jasper. This changes and by the time I am leaving the Park at Raidan Hot Springs I have seen 6 bear, three adult bears, one with 2 cubs and one with a single cub. No moose today and I really want to get a picture of one.  I am headed south to Cameron, the US customs at Idaho and then on to my Sisters in Trout Creek Montana. This part of the ride is almost as pretty as the last part of the park ride and much nicer than the main part of the park.  Only a little rain, just enough to keep the roads wet and bring out all the fresh smells. I am through US Customs with no problems and into Idaho. The ride will be to highway 2, to 56 to 200 and Trout creek. I am into Montana just after hitting 2 and the rest of the ride is every bit as pretty as lower BC and Idaho. Our cell phones don't work very well but I find Kathe and Carl's place and park the bike. It is like a park here, 30 acres, lots of green grassy area and then trees. Funny thing about this area, the view from the house is north over the lake but the sun sets right in the middle of it. How they got the sun moved over that far north is beyond me. Ride today was 540 beautiful miles.

Traveler