A 2-Up Ride to Red Lodge

 September 5, 2022

After yesterday’s successful test ride with my wife, Sarah, on the back, we did a longer ride today to take in the art fair in Red Lodge, MT.  Today, she geared up in the full set of new, 1986, Bates leathers.  She’s got my old helmet and it’s time to get her a new one of her own.

We headed southwest through the West End of Billings and took River Road, a very nice winding route, to Laurel.  We got on Hwy 212 and cruised our way to Red Lodge.  For a holiday, traffic was really light and, except for going through Joliet and Roberts, the cruise control set at 72 worked just fine.

In Red Lodge I got a good parking spot right across from Lions Park where the art fair is being held.

Sarah got the leathers and we stowed them in the side cases.  It was getting pretty warm out.  I locked up helmets and my jacket and we strolled the fair.  Sarah found a few items to purchase and I ran into several people I knew so everything balanced out.

We got the gear back on and did a bit of a Red Lodge tour.  I’d never been up to all the new housing development around the gold course so we cruised that.  One could be Anywhere-USA with all the snout-houses up there.  We went back down into old Red Lodge and cruised by their aquatic center.  It’s a pretty nice 3-lane pool.

We headed back toward Billings and just before we got to Rockvale, Sarah said she wanted to go to Edgar.  We’d been there on 2 days ago on our way back from running the Red Lodge Fun Run 5K.  Our friend who was riding with us, Shelley, had mentioned that she’d never been to Edgar so we did the slight detour because I wanted to show them the Edgar Carhenge.  Sarah didn’t take pictures then so now made a good opportunity.

Me?  I have my eye on my odometer because I want to take a photo when the bike rolls over 16,000. 

It’s time for an oil change.

We turned into Edgar, went past the community center, past the Edgar Bar, and turned into a gravel lot next to the Carhenge.  I think that it’s an auto repair place or something like that but along side their building they are doing an art installation.

I took a photo of the bike, looking east.

The ride back was uneventful.  After Rockvale, we took the old road back to Laurel.  It’s a mile or so shorter than the new road.  To round our the experience, we took the freeway back to Billings.

A 139 mile day.