Peenie Wallie

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July 22, 2014

Day 4 - Wapiti, WY to Great Falls, MT (Tue 7/22/14)

Above: Yellowstone Lake, in Yellowstone National Park.

Additional Photos in the Extended Entry.

7/22/14

I am alive and well and eating dinner with new biker friends in Great Falls, MT.

Starting Odometer: 15,720
Ending Odometer 16,086
Miles Driven Today 366.0
Miles Driven This Trip: 1,434.7

This is roughly the path that I took today. I believe met my new biker friends in Livingston, MT, if I'm not mistaken.

Max Speed: 126 mph
Times stopped by police: 1
Tickets Received: 1 - Wyoming pigs - Speeding - 65 in a 25.
Injuries: Managed to touch the exhaust with my left hand today. Clear water blister about the size of a quarter on my left palm/thumb area. Very painful at first. Now, just mainly uncomfortable, and unattractive.
Near accidents: Drifted across the enter line a few times, once when a car was coming.

Here's a video I shot with the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition. It came out OK. Gives you some idea of what my insane little adventure is all about.

In the morning, I wake up at something crazy like 9:00 a.m.

That's unusually early for me. But I wake up and see that check out time is 10:00 a.m. and I don't have the wifi id/password. She left me a note and let me in the room last night and the key was in the room. So, that was good. But no wifi id/password is not quite so good. Now, I walk into the office and ask her for the id/password which she reluctantly gives me. But she's ornery. She doesn't like me. She makes this clear. Check out time is 10:00 a.m. And I can't get a later checkout time. So, this sucks because it means that I only get about an hour before I have to hit the road, which doesn't really give me time to catch up on my notes, at all. Then, her husband comes out in the parking lot and confronts me, wanting to know what the problem is. Apparently, he wants to fight me. This is their idea of hospitality, I assume.

I clear out and head up the canyon to the east entrance to yellowstone. It's not raining or cloudy or anything. It's a gorgeous day out. And I'm shooting like mad, climbing up the canyon heading west into Yellowstone. We're following the Shoshone River. This is apparently the home of Buffalo Bill? I'm not clear. But everything here is named after him.

My First Ticket of the Trip

As I'm coming into the East entrance to the park, I notice that theres a pig behind me as I pull in to show the woman in the Yellowstone entrance box that I'd already paid yesterday. And, of course, the pig is there for me. And when I pull into the park, she pulls me over and promptly gives me a ticket. She said I was going 65 in a 25. Who knows what the truth is. I'm sure she sits in that little place where the speed limit changes and writes tickets all day long. It's her little honey hole. But I decide not to let it get me down.

You can't let the pigs get you down. They're just a nuisance like a bee sting. That's all they can do is sting you. You still have your life. Your time. Your day. Don't let the pigs ruin it. Don't give them that power.

Sitting in the shade

So, I pull over on the north end of Yellowstone somewhere to make an adjustment. I finally figured out how to use the GoPro. If you want to use the GoPro, then you need to plug in the USB cable. And then you can use it all you want. As soon as you unplug the USB cable, then the game is over. The thing runs out of juice and dies in two shakes of a sheep's tail.

Yesterday, I had convinced myself that this was not the case. That it couldn't be used with the USB cable plugged in. I was mistaken.

So, I decide to set up the iPhone to work with the GoPro app again, only this time, I'll hold the GoPro in my hand and keep the USB cable attached so it won't die on me every 3 minutes.

Get it all set up, and now the bike won't run again. And, my iPhone makes that alarming display where it just shows you an apple logo...instead of acting like a phone. I could smash this P.O.S. into a trillion pieces.

I've noticed this about it though. Additionally, the symptom is that it won't start while the bike is in gear, even if I have the clutch handle pulled in all the way. It should start in any gear at all, so long as the clutch is pulled in. But when it acts this way, it won't start at all unless I put it in neutral. Then, when I put it in neutral, it will start, but dies as soon as I put it in gear. Which sucks, really.

I happen to be just north of some little convenience store up on the north west side of Yellowstone. I decide to wait and see if letting the bike cool down for a minute will help. This seemed to work yesterday. However, my bike is in the scorching sun. I climb beneath the shade of a tree just off the parking lot. I'm reasonably sure that, if a ranger rick guy comes by, he will stop and chastise me for being on the hill beneath the shade of the tree.

I check the oil. It has plenty of oil. The engine is not overheating, according to the heat indicators. So, I'm not clear what is going on. Something is wrong, obviously.

Its' getting to the point where the motorcycle is holding me back, which sucks. Now, I'm afraid to turn of the engine for fear that it will do this again. I have no internet service. And, when I try to call or post on the internet, I see that I have no service. So, yeah. This pretty much sucks.

I swear if I ever get this bike running again I'll never turn it off if I'm not at a gas station again.

After about 30 minutes, I get on the bike, and it starts right up. I'm not clear what the issue is. Sam points out that it may be because I have my kickstand down. He may be right about that. That would explain it. And I have noticed that it dies when I put the kickstand down. So...

I'm blowing north through Yellowstone. I'm trying to remember how many times I've been to Yellowstone, and when I first came here. I think I've been here twice. Once was when I used to work in Idaho Falls. But I think I came once before that also. It's been so long since I was on this side of the park. Not much of it sticks, really.

I'm rolling through the park, shooting like crazy. Just beautiful. Spectacular. Yellowstone is truly a singular place. I'm glad now that I came here. Like, when you're sitting at home, you spend a lot of time second-guessing yourself. "Why did I really want to drive to Alaska? Why hit RMNP, Yellowstone, Glacier, etc.? Mainly, I copied Doug's route. Only, I reversed it. But when he and I were driving up the Skeena River in Alaska to Kitwanga a while back, he told me about how he was going back through Jasper, Banff, Glacier, Yellowstone, and RMNP...it just stuck. I was like..."sheer genius". And then, you start thinking "why don't I do that"?

Probably because no sane person would do that, of course. Mostly, I just ride and shoot from the saddle. I'm not stopping to get a lot of close ups in Yellowstone. But, understand, we have all of the same animals in Colorado. So, I don't get real excited when I see an elk, deer, or buffalo. My neighbor raises buffalo, and every time they escape (frequently), they put the elementary school on lockdown. So, I just tend to blow past the people in Yellowstone when they stop to shoot the deer.

At the north entrance, I'm hungry. Haven't eaten in so long I can't remember. But I just blow out of town, heading for Livingston, MT. Basically, my thought is this..."I need to go North to get to cooler weather, and that's basically where Glacier is".

So, I roll north, following Highway 89.

At times, it threatens to rain. At Livingston, it seems like I will be drowned. So I stop, gas up, and put on all of my rain gear. But then, I roll north on 89, and somehow I sort of outrun the rain by going 90 for a while.

Eventually, I come to another storm front, and see a few motorcyclists huddled beneath a gas station shelter, waiting out the storm. So I pull in and ask if they can make room for one more. My general plan for dealing with rain is more throttle. And if that doesn't work, then try to go faster still. But running 90 mph through a driving rain isn't fun or safe. These guys seem to have a plan, so I stop to talk to them.

They're very cool guys. 4 guys from St Louis. 3 on Harleys. One on a BMW 1200. I point out to the Harley guys "Hey...y'll realize his bike isn't made in the United States, right?"

They just laugh at me. And we sit under the awning for maybe 30 minutes while the storm passes. The one guy has a cell phone and shows me how the cell is supposed to move over head.

"What app is that?"

"Weather Underground."

It seems like, no matter how smart you are, if you're not out interacting with other people, you're going to miss these tricks. It seems everyone I talk to has tricks to share with me. lessons to be learned.

They're going the same place I am, as it turns to...to Great Falls. I picked it by throwing a dart at the map. They picked it by weeks of careful planning. Either way. And then they're going to Glacier.

So, I ask if I can ride with them, and they adopt me.

After the storm passes, we take off, hell bent for leather. North on 89. I'm riding last. Shooting like crazy. Glad to be alive. Glad to be on the road. Glad to have people to ride with, less anything go wrong with my bike. It's nice to have a few friends watching out for you when you're so far from home.

We pull over at some scenic turnout, and I ask if their hotel has any rooms left. Now, they're calling and handing me a cell phone. Now I have a reservation at their hotel in Great Falls. Now, rolling back north through gently rolling fields. Montana is so beautiful. I never knew. I'd sort of cut across a corner of Montana many years ago, so technically, I'd seen it. But now, I'm really driving through the heart of up...up by the Crazy Mountain Range (no joke). So stunning. Captivating. Not nearly as arid as Wyoming was. More verdant. Lush. Inviting.

Now, I ride by each of my new friends, shooting them with the GoPro. And we get into a little race of sorts. Now...it's only me and the BMW 1200. The Harley's have no chance. And we're running balls out. I know I am. I assume Mark is. I'm running 126 mph. He's doing about the same, but behind me. Cars are approaching us and passing us by (going the other direction). And, if they're cops...then I'll go to jail for sure. But I don't care, really. Right now, it's all about KTM vs BMW. And the cops can't take this race away from us.

We all roll into Great Falls. Find the hotel. Check in. Go to dinner in a local diner that Jim knows about somehow. Great company. Good dinner. Then back to the hotel. They tell me that we leave by 8:00 a.m. and I laugh because I thought they were joking.

They were not.

Photos in the Extended Entry.

Posted by Rob Kiser on July 22, 2014 at 9:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: The Medic on July 23, 2014 at 12:42 PM

Posted by: Molly on July 24, 2014 at 1:01 AM

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