I got a whole day off after the last trip and used it to unpack, cleanup, and repack. This next trip I am doing isn’t entirely solo as my wife and I are traveling to Pittsburgh, she and the dog in her car and me on my FJR. We’ll likely be on different routes and meetup at a campground at the end of the day. A few more days at home might have been nice but we are on a schedule to be in Pittsburgh to look after my son and girlfriend’s dog while they go out of town. Two weeks later they are leaving again and we will be there for that as well. Our target return day is the end of June. During the two eels we are there my son and I will do a ride somewhere.
I did pretty well getting things packed and ready for today’s departure but things got sort of complicated at the last minute. The first night out, a Friday, is the only one where we do not have a campsite reservation and there was some concern that we’d have a problem finding a place to stay. The campground is Buffalo Gap in North Dakota and recreation.gov indicated that there were no reservations being taken and everything is first come, first served. Since everything in Medora area is booked solid, we were concerned that the overflow might hit this campground since it’s less than 10 miles away.
The plan is for me to leave early and get there between noon and 1pm to see if it’s possible grab a site and she’d follow behind me a ways since she has to stop and charge the car once or twice. Then, last night, a friend was over and spied a nail in one of the car’s tires. Uh-oh. So the plan was that we’d both leave at 7:30, me to North Dakota on the FJR and her in the car to a tire shop.
Since I was trying to make some time, I rode the freeway the whole way. I’d planned to ride the 2-lane route but the freeway was fine considering that it’s extremely windy, a cross wind, and so the ride wan’t all that enjoyable anyway. I stopped in Forsyth to change to my light gloves. Big photo opportunity.
Then it was on to Miles City for gas, after a rest stop or two I arrived at the campground. There are two loops with about 40 total sites and all but 5 or 6 are free. I selected site 33 and got my tent set up, stowed my gear in it, and her know we had a place.
Then I rode to Medora.
I’d been here before and except for being at the door of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, I’m not sure why this is such a tourist Mecca. It is full of gift shops, ice cream places, and the like, along with a couple museums. I stopped at the little store for some beer and then hustled back to the campground. It was pretty warm, in the upper 70s, so it felt good to shed the riding gear and don shorts and a t-shirt.
I sat down with the beer and a book I’m reading and waited for my camping partners to arrive.
While I waited, I watched some people try to back a trailer into the site next to me. That took them about 30 minutes. That brings up an issue I have with RV owners/drivers. IMO, they should have to get a CDL(Commercial Drivers License) since the some of the rigs they pilot are as large as the trucks and trailers that commercial drivers use. I’ve seen all sorts of crazy stuff by these clueless types, particularly passing me and letting their RV (motor home or trailer) encroach on my lane. I have to have a special license to ride a motorcycle, both a written test and performance test, but it seems that anyone with a regular license can legally drive these RVs, some of them as large as a small house, which, of course, they are.
They showed up a little after 3pm. All is well with the tire. The place she went to said they couldn’t get her in until the afternoon and suggested that she call their bigger place, mostly commercial tires, which she did. They said to come on over and they had her back on the road by 9:30.
We got our big tent set up, the one that attaches to the car and then sat down to a great feta salad she’d made from all our refrigerator leftovers.
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