Well not really, but not totally inaccurate either…
From the beginning…
We left home in the peak of rush hour through downtown Bellevue and
after a slow crawl we headed east towards Spokane with the risk of sprinkles
chasing in our wake. We managed to outrun them for the most part until we got
about 60 miles from Spokane and the dark and rain settled upon us at the same
time. It poured! I felt sorry for Lori as her bike does not have as much
protection as mine and her helmet kept fogging up. She cussing up a storm, and
when you add that to the existing storm, it was not a pleasant thing.
I tried to explain to her later that as long as you didn’t
hit the concrete barriers and don’t hit any cars it was all good. She not
amused… LOL
We got our room and relaxed for the evening. Lori was cold
and didn’t want to get into the shower so she stole all the bedding, covered up
and was asleep in 10 minutes. I did manage to get part of the sheet, so I was
good.
We got up in the morning and wandered down for a waffle and
juice. I got everything loaded onto the bike and because it was still raining
pretty hard, I sat down under the portico with Rose (the bike) and we had a
talk. I explained my side, that because
of a previous tire sliding on me and then with the new tire slipping once on
Hwy 20, I was a little uneasy with how she was taking care of me. I did tell
Rose that to be fair, It was right after the pass was open and there might have
been ice under the water on the particular corner. I tried to explain to Rose
that I needed her to take care of me and I don’t know if she understood or not,
but in the next 120 miles of pouring rain, I had no slippage and was totally
comfortable.
I had taken some hair shampoo and applied it to Lori’s face
shield and she later told me all the fogging was gone. She could see just fine.
The trip over 4th of July pass was a fun trip
even in the rain, but the elevation gain over Lookout Pass made it a little
chilly. It is good we both decided to wear our winter rain suits!
When we go to Missoula and had lunch, it started to clear a
little and as soon as we crossed the continental divide the weather cleared up
but it was cold! It got to 39 degree’s and even with all the heaters on my
bike, I was still a little cold.
All that soon changed as we started to descend out of the
mountains. In another 100 miles what was once a blessing was now a curse as the
winter suits are too hot for anything much over 50 degree’s. . With temps
getting in to the 70’s I was cooking. I opened up all the vents on the bike and
with hurricane force winds, I was able to cope with it.
We soon crossed the Missouri River… (ok, we crossed the
headwaters of the Missouri river. LOL) and it was just a pleasant ride.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We stopped in
Laurel, Mt for the evening where at least one of the locals remembers us. To us
it is an infamous place. On one of our previous rides from Yellowstone to
Glacier National parks we stopped here for the evening and about 2 blocks from
our hotel was a gas station where we topped off the bikes and Lori decided she
was hungry. Really Hungry!
We went inside to see what they had to eat and they had one
of those heated displays where they put all the fried foods. Lori ordered at
least one of everything in the case. We had 6 bags of food and nowhere to carry
it on the bikes. We ended up balancing it all on the gas tanks back to hotel,
where Lori had about ½ of a Burrito and decided she was full and tired. She
laid down and was out for the night…
Tomorrow we head to Rapid City and ride the Needles Hwy. The
Day after we head to Sioux City to meet up with Larry and Dixie. I am very much
looking forward to it!
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