Avoidance Behavior

June 11, 2023

There are those days when things have to get done but, especially when retired, one becomes quite adept at coming up with ways to put off reschedule the “have to” items to allow more spontaneity in one’s life.  I have lots of flexibility in my schedule but a few deadlines do loom on the road ahead.  The number one “loomer” is a drawing I need to complete for an upcoming exhibition.  

It’s the seventh, and final, drawing I am doing in this series and I am having trouble just sitting down and finishing it.  It’s sketched out and all I have to do is to “fill it in.”  The challenge is that the drawings in this series, all about 15” x 22”, are done by stippling in ink.  Each drawing has around 2-million dots which takes me about 60-hours to complete. I thought I was done when I finished the sixth one as the series felt complete and the last drawing makes the statement I am shooting for BUT, on my recent motorcycle trip, while sitting on the side of the road, I spied something that screamed out “Draw Me!!”  I shot a photo with my phone and that is what I am working from.

Here’s a teaser of it.

This morning I got up at 5:30 am, as I usually do, and put some time into it but was glad to head to the other house and spend over an hour trimming hedges and such.  I stopped to take a photo of a butterfly.

I did some more work on the drawing and then took a break to pull some weeds in the front yard.  Today’s weather is fantastic and I just can’t let it go to waste so the next Avoidance Behavior was to get the bike out a take a ride.  

I figured that I’d ride about an hour and looked on my map software and came up with a 60-ish mile loop.

It’s one I’ve done many, many times and it is always satisfying.  It’s about heading out Hwy 3, taking Shorey Road to Molt Road, Buffalo Trail to Laurel, and River Road back toward Billings.  After making the map I decided I’d add a bit and go out to Molt to check on the site of the old building that was removed, the remains of which figured into another drawing of this series.

I headed out and it immediately felt great with the thought of making ink dots on paper now totally behind me.  There was only a slight breeze and the temperature was perfect.  

I turned off Hwy 3 onto Shorey Road and stopped for the first photo of the ride.

A bit further ahead, more photos.

I got to Molt, turned around, and stopped next to the remains of the old building.

The old table is there but turned upside down and the chair, the other object featured in my drawing, was nowhere to be found.  I shot a few more pictures before heading out.

I stopped for a photo opportunity on Buffalo Trail and saw a wild turkey nearby.

It’s a really nice motorcycle road and the hills are so green this time of year.

After that it was a ride to Laurel and a turn on Theil/River Road.  This road is a nice cruising ride, about 6 miles long with a couple 35 MPH turns and lots of sweepers.  I was 5 miles into it when I saw what appeared to be some lights from emergency vehicles.  I slowed and saw that it was a motorcycle incident.  A couple guys were standing on the side of the road and they said a rider had gone down.  The sheriffs had the road blocked and I could see a few Harleys parked and some guys, and women, in black walking along the embankment.  There was a red Harley, full dresser-type, standing up in the weeds but I didn’t see who might be the rider.  This section of road is straight and the people walking along side the road, who were looking for something, said something like “he drifted off about here.”

Two trucks in front of me turned around and left.  Before long an AMR ambulance came in from the west and blocked the road.  Another bike, a Kawasaki Versys riding 2-up, pulled along side me just as a sheriff came up and told us that we’d better turn around as the road would be closed for a while.  I turned around, with the Kawa doing the same behind me, and headed back the way I’d come.  About 3 miles later I saw another ambulance headed toward the scene, this one coming from Laurel.  That looks like there were two people on that Harley.

Back in Laurel I grabbed the slab and headed back to Billings.  I have a meet up with the Billings Urban Sketchers at 4:15 and figure that if I ride back to home, grab my backpack with my drawing stuff, I’d be downtown right about 4:25 or so.

The stop at home was quick and I rode downtown to N. 29th and 1st Ave N and saw that a half dozen folks had already taken their places in front of the Zest kitchen supplies store and were sketching the buildings to the east of there.  I parked, got my stuff out, and spent the next two hours sketching.  This is a pure “flow” activity for me as about the time I laid in the last ink line, 2-hours had flown by.  Here what I was working on. 

Here’s a closer look at the sketch.

I’ll probably add watercolor to it later.

So, that was today’s ride and I still have lots of dots to make.

Update:

I added watercolors to the sketch.

The Group Ride

June 8, 2023

Getting a Group Ride Together

There were 5 of us, making it the largest group I’ve ridden with in decades.  So why did the introvert put such a thing together?  Well, it’s about fun and experience and doing something new.  

Over the past two years since I bought my FJR, I’ve met other folks who have motorcycles and the talk of riding together has come up a few times.  Bill and I have done quite a few day rides together and, most recently, a 10-day road trip.  Keith I’ve known for a few years and knew he had a Gold Wing but we hadn’t had the chance to ride together because of work being done on the bike.  Rob, who Keith brought into the group, I knew tangentially through my days teaching and it turns out he likes to ride.  Mick I know through my car club and he’d expressed an interest in a group ride.  I thought, why not bring this diverse group together and do a ride and see what happens.

Route Planning

We have quite a few options here for routes that range from long, straight rides over the prairies to routes with twisty mountain roads.  Some rides have destinations, such as a museum or a brewery, while others are simply about the road as is the case with the Beartooth and Chief Joseph scenic highways.  

I made up some possible routes on Google maps, looking at distances, times, and attractions.  I thought maybe an easy first ride might be from Billings to Lavina to Roundup and back.  It does define easy but is very high on the boring.  The Beartooth would be a good option but the technical nature of the ride, as a first ride, along with impending negative weather, put that on the back burner.  Yes, we have weather issues with daily thunderstorms predicted, not unusual for this time of year. After playing around with multiple options, I decided that a route that would allow us to bail out if the weather turned inclement would be the best option and chose a Billings to Columbus route would be a good first leg and from there we could choose wether to take the longer way toward the Beartooths and Red Lodge or cut it short and head to Joliet from there.  

The Ride

I’d sent out text messages to Bill, Mick, and Keith and Keith contacted Rob.  I explained the route and indicated that we’d meet up in my driveway at 9am and leave from there.  And that we did.  My wife came out and shot some photos of our departure.

Maybe we need a name: GOOGLE (Gang Of Old Guys Living Experiences). I don’t know.  Maybe that name is already taken.

We headed west on Rimrock Road and wound our way out of town on what has become a standard escape route from the city, to Buffalo Trail and took that to Laurel, MT.  From there we took the old highway that goes past Park City, through the short set of twisties east of Columbus, into Columbus where we pulled over for a discussion of the route.  The weather didn’t look too bad with some dark clouds ahead but they seemed to hover over the Beartooths and, hopefully, would stay there.

An even short perusing of this blog will show that I tend to stop and take lots of photos to document my rides but today I didn’t take many.  The route is rather short on safe places to pull over, even just a single bike, and when there are five of us we’d need as much room as an RV so I only took a few shots when we stopped for gas and such. As you read this, if you feel like you need some scenery, I’ve done this route before and there are some good photos on this entry: Belfry, Red Lodge, Columbus Loop.

The ride from Columbus through Absarokee, past Roscoe, to Red Lodge is a particularly nice ride.  It’s not got the twisties of other roads but, instead, has massive uphill and downhill sweepers that are fun to negotiate and give the bike a chance to really stretch its legs.  The first time I rode this, about two years ago, I was really intimidated as my skill set was still low on the learning curve and there were massive cross winds coming out of the nearby mountains.  On today’s ride, my skill set is greatly improved (I have added over 25,000 miles of riding since that first time) and there is virtually no wind..  The sky looked increasingly threatening and I wondered if we’d end up in a serious thunderstorm and have to abort the ride but things held steady and we arrived in Red Lodge dry and satisfied.  It was time for a few to gas up and we took a break at the Town Pump just off the roundabout.

We discussed the weather and decided we could continue on the planned route and would likely outrun the storm that appeared to be sticking close to the mountains.  We rode though Main Street and saw all the road construction that was repairing the flood damage from last year’s event that did lots of damage to that end of town.  I take part in an annual 10K run there around Labor Day and I remember that last year they had to alter the course a bit last year because the road was covered with river rocks and mud.  Repairs are still ongoing.

We made it to the bridge that crosses over Rock Creek, which is running high and fast, and headed up on Hwy 308 toward Bearcreek.  This is a nice curvy road that climbs up to a scenic lookout and then makes a quick descent before it winds across some nice green scenery (green this time of year) before coming to an end at Hwy 72 in Belfry.  Even though tourist season is upon us, traffic today is very light and we proceed north past farm and ranch land to the intersection with Hwy 310 a mile south of Bridger.

In Bridger we turn right on East Broadway to do the backroad to Fromberg.  This is a small county road that was paved/patched a few years ago and offers a nice 8-10 mile diversion from riding the main highway.  We were about a mile into this road when we started getting a few raid drops from a huge, gray cloud to our right. The drops became more steady but were still in the sprinkle category and not concerning enough to make me want to pull over and don my rain gear.  By the time we got to Fromberg, the rain was behind us and we sailed along the highway to the turnoff for the town of Edgar.

Edgar is really small, with a population of 110, and has a few businesses that serve the surrounding agricultural community but is locally known for the Edgar Bar and Restaurant, a place people rave about for their steaks and other menus items.  As a longtime vegetarian I’ll just have to take their word for it.  However, Edgar’s attraction for me is a display at the east end of town.  I know nothing about this other than I’ve watched it grown over the past two years with new elements added frequently.  I refer to it as a “Carhenge” and it’s a great example of “outsider” or “folk” art.

We continued on the highway to Rockvale where we got onto Hwy 212 for about a mile before diverting off to the old Hwy 212.  This 9-mile section of 2-lane was replaced by the 4-lane highway a few years ago but the old one is more interesting so I prefer to take it.  It eventually connects back to the new highway, just a mile south of Laurel where I made the turn and glanced back in my mirror to count that I still had four bikes behind me.  What I saw was surprising as one of the group had trouble negotiating the turn and ended up in the weeds in the center of the road.  I pulled over and watched the action in my mirror but when I saw the rider get back up on the highway and continue on I went ahead riding.

When I got to Theil Road I turned right and we rode that to the intersection with Duck Creek Road, a route that is a nice alternative that winds its way along the Yellowstone River.  As per the the plan for the day, we stopped at Canyon Creek School’s parking lots for a debriefing and to allow everyone to proceed on from there on their own.

There was some discussion about the off-roading that took place but was quickly replaced by the arrival of the Highway Patrol.  I thought “uh-oh” but it turned out that he was looking for a couple dogs that were running loose.  Evidently they had crossed the road in the middle of our group so, being lead, I’d missed that but had seen them when we had stopped.  The patrolman went on his way and a few minutes later a county sheriff showed up asking about the same dogs.  Wow, that’s a lot of law enforcement for a couple stray dogs so they must be on some “most wanted” list to have instigated the level of a dog hunt.

We chatted a bit and then headed out, all looking forward to doing this again.

It was a 173.7 mile day.

An Update

After the group went its separate ways, I proceeded along the Frontage Road and turned right *south_ on Wise Lane to get to the ramp that goes over the freeway and connects to Zoo Drive.  Here’s the intersection where I will make a left turn.

At the time, a northbound truck was at the stop sign.  Here is a view from where the truck was.

Note that I do not have a stop sign.  As I approached the intersection and was getting ready to start my turn, with my turn signal on, the truck proceeded north, causing me to grip the brakes.  The other driver must have assumed that this intersection is a 3-way stop, which it is not, and this is something I’ve noted in the past at this intersection which is why I was prepared for this.

I’ve written an email to the county road office and suggested that they could improve the safety of this intersection by adding signage to that northbound stop sign that indicates that “Oncoming Traffic Does Not Stop” or by adding a stop sign for the southbound traffic that makes this a 3-way stop.

I always assume the worse when approaching ANY intersection.

Some Philosophical Meanderings

June 8, 2023

Looking back over all my years of riding, and that goes back to the late-1960s to present, leaving out that gap from 1984 - 2021, I’ve covered lots of miles, many on long trips.  Most frequently I’ve ridden alone but have taken at least 3 long, multi-day rides with others.  In ‘82 I did a ride from Southern California to Fernie, British Columbia with my sister, who rode a Honda CB 550 while I was on my Honda CB 750.  We met up with biking friends and rode back to SoCal along the West Coast.  It was a great ride which I wrote about here.  In the summer of 2021 I rode my FJR from Montana to Maine, with the Pittsburgh to Maine portion riding with my son, him on his BMW, a trip I covered here.  Then the ride to San Diego with Bill just a few weeks ago written about here.  The long ride of 1979 was supposed to be a group ride but over time it turned out that I would be going solo and I did.  Last summer I did a 10-day solo trip to Blaine, Washington, written up here,

All that said, I have some experience with going both solo and riding with others and I’m not going to declare that I prefer one over the other as they each offer different experiences.  What I will declare is that if I plan a ride, I am going to go, whether or not others are involved as I have no problem doing things on my own.  As people who know me can attest, I have many hobbies, interests, and passions and very few, if any of them, require other people to be involved in order for me to engage in them.  Whether it’s drawing, doing film photography, fiddling with my old cars, running, or motorcycling, I’m motivated to do them for purely intrinsic reasons.  That is not to say that I don’t enjoy sharing with others who have the same interests, evidenced by the vintage foreign car club I started after I retired, the Urban Sketchers group I joined, the running club I’m in, or the online photography forum I’m active in.  

I think a lot of this comes down to keeping in touch with my inner-introvert.  I know that I am an introvert by nature but have I have learned a skill set that allows me to play the part of an extrovert when I need to.  This is something I had to learn in a previous career in the aggressive world of industrial design and contracting, and certainly well-employed it in the over 2-decades that I spent as a classroom teacher.  I can play the part but my recharging takes place in solo activities.  For more on this introvert/extrovert topic, check out the book “Quiet” by Susan Cain.  You can also see here TED Talk here.

Of course, one can Google lists of pros and cons for traveling solo versus going with others and many are quite obvious.  When solo, one can do whatever strikes the fancy of the moment, make changes on the fly, stay as long or short as one wants, and all the other freedoms associated with going it alone.  With others, there is the advantage of sharing the experience as it happens, sharing the expenses for lodging, and having someone to assist in the case of roadside problems.  Like most things in life, it’s about trade-offs and one has to weigh them to determine what provides the best experience for that endeavor.

2023 Adventure 1 - Table of Contents

2023 Adventure 1

Click on a link to go to that page

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 1 - Billings, MT to Farson, WY

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 2 - Farson, WY to Moab, UT

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 3 - Moab, UT to Winslow, AZ to Greer, AZ

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 4 - Greer, AZ to Mesa, AZ - Hwy 191!!!

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 5 - Mesa, AZ to Border Park to Julian, CA

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 6 - Julian, CA to Independence, CA

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 7 - Independence, CA, Tahoe, and Plumas Forest

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 8 - Plumas Forest, CA to Bates, OR

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 9 - Bates, OR to Wisdom, MT

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 10 - Wisdom, MT to Billings

2023 Adventure 1 - The Wrap Up

2023 Adventure 1 - The Wrap Up

May 29, 2023

This map shows the route pretty close to what we actually traveled.  The exception is in the lower right where we didn't go through Tucson but the map software limited the number of waypoints I could put in so we have that anomaly. Other than that, it's pretty close.

We did 21 miles short of 4,000 miles in 10 days, meaning we averaged 400 miles a day.  I get 54 miles to the gallon on my bike and while I did sort of keep track of gas on the trip, a quick calculation tells me that I used about 74 gallons and, at an average price of $4.50, that means I spent $331 on fuel.  Lodgings were inexpensive since camping was free some of the time and the fees totaled under $75 for the whole trip.  Other than food, which I'd have to eat anyway, the whole adventure cost less than $500.  That's lots of fun for not much money.

I always like to take some time after an adventure to reflect on it, see what bubbles to the top, and if anything happened that would change what I would do in the future.  Here it is for the 2023 Adventure 1.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I was colder than I anticipated.  Yes, it was 104 degrees F when crossing the desert but that wasn’t as bad as it sounds, especially when compared to the cold night spent at Bates State Park in Oregon.  That 30 degrees was something I wasn’t prepared for.  I had the same issue last year when I camped at the O’Brien campground on the Salmon River, again 30 degrees in the morning.  While my heavier, cold weather motorcycle gloves work, I’d like to have what I use for my running gloves, smaller and in 2 layers.  I will also never leave home without bringing my knit hat.  Keeping my bald head warm is a must and, other than my helmet, I only had a baseball cap, something difficult to sleep in.

And sleeping…I need to reevaluate my sleeping bag.  I bought it in 1979 for the cross country riding I was doing that summer and it’s the only bag I’ve used for traveling since then.  In better weather it works fine but I think that the insulation might have lost some of its lofting.  I have another bag but it’s a bit bulkier so I’m wondering if they make newer bags that have less bulk but higher insulation properties.  That’s something to look into.

Another issue that has come up is age-related.  I suppose it was inevitable but even though I work out to keep myself in reasonable good shape, the wear and tear on parts is coming to the forefront.  In particular, I was, long ago, diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand and instead of opting for surgery I did, and do, physical therapy by stretching and resting.  While it mainly impacts my drawing, when I do that it’s easy to take a break every 15 minutes, but on a motorcycle ride, that really isn’t an option.  Having cruise control helps a lot but this trip really hammered my right hand.  By the last morning I could barely make a fist when I first got up.  Perhaps surgery for that would remedy this but after 3 surgeries in the past 5 years it’s not something I want to do right now.  Plus, it’s something I’d only schedule for winter when riding season is over.

Maybe a change in angle on the grips would help.  My bars are adjustable, to a point, so maybe I’ll have to try that.  Some guys install bar risers so that could be an option as well.  It really is something that I need to address as the discomfort does impact the enjoyment, especially with the more technical requirements of riding the twisties.

Another physical issue came up for me on this trip as well.  After 2-3 days on the road, I started having massive leg cramps at night in one leg or the other.  At first I thought it might be a side-effect of a statin drug I’d just started taking but I cut my dose in half and even missed a day and still was on the verge of these cramps.  After returning home I resumed my normal dosage and I have no cramps.  At this point I am leaning toward a lack of physical activity as the culprit.  While piloting a motorcycle is certainly a physical activity, it really is sedentary and, considering that I workout by running or swimming on most days, going cold turkey from that on this trip and sitting in one position for hours at a time is the likely cause of the cramps.  Dr. Google even backs up that idea.

On previous rides it was not uncommon to get up after sunrise, don my running gear, and go out for a 3-5 miles run.  The only time I did anything close to that was the cold morning I woke up to at Bates State Park and I got out for a 45 minute hike at a very brisk pace.  No leg cramping that night.  I think I see the solution to the problem.

On this ride I averaged about 400 per day.  That’s fine but I think in future rides I want to intersperse that with some way shorter days.  When I see something interesting to draw, I want to stop, get out my stool, my sketchbook, pencils and pens, and watercolors, and sit for the 2 hours or so it takes to get an urban sketch done.  Combining riding and drawing is as attractive to me as the combining of my photography with drawing as I’ve done over the past couple years.  Last summer/fall I was riding to the nearby town of Fromberg, MT and doing some drawing, eventually completing the north side of their Main Street.  I really like the results.  I am guessing these might end up being 250 mile days on a long trip.

The dashcam was a revealing experience on the trip.  At first I wasn’t sure if I would do it, or would want to put up with the hassle, but after returning and going through the video clips I picked up, I’m sold.  I have some great footage of the scenery and all from the point of view of the bike.  

The problem with the cam I am using is that I don’t really understand its workings.  The instructions are rather vague.  I think it just records 3-5 minute clips before starting the next one.  Once the memory card is full it goes back and writes over the earlier files, limiting the number of video files it can record.  At times, when I know it was supposed to be recording, it sometimes wasn’t.  Files are named in a numbered sequence and I was missing a bunch within the sequence and have no idea what happened to them.

To make things more complicated, I would download the files from the camera's memory card to my iPad in the evening.  I had to get two adapters to make it happen but it worked fine until the iPad got full.  I suppose bringing along some high capacity flash drives would be a solution BUT I will look for a more complete fix.  On the motorcycle forums this is discussed and other riders have mentioned having a camera permanently mounted to the bike.  It records to a unit mounted under the seat whenever the ignition is on.  That sounds like a great solution and I’ll have to track down what they are using.

Other electronic issues were not really issues.  I have two USB charging ports in my tank bag.  One is usually dedicated to running the webcam and the other is hooked to my phone.  I have an Anker backup battery that I like to keep topped up so it has to take turns with the phone.  I have an extra port in my glovebox and I might have to run some wiring out of there to add an extra charging point.  I have my iPad with me and I had to charge it twice.  Once I used the Anker battery which took it to 75% and the other time I ran my extra-long USB cable to the iPad which I had placed in my satchel behind me so it could charge while I was riding.  This is all a necessity if I want to document my travels and I mostly have it working fine but it’s just something to keep on top of.

I didn’t take a paper map on this trip, figuring I could just rely on the map app on my phone.  That works until there is no cell service so, based on my experience this time, I’d bring a paper map as a backup as I’ve done on previous rides.

Food and cooking was fine this time out.  The backpacker meals are still the way to go due to their simplicity of only requiring boiling water.  I’d filled my main fuel bottle and only used about 2/3 of it, not needing the extra bottle I’d brought.  This was the same experience I had last year so the extra bottle might get left behind on the next 10-day ride.  The breakfast oatmeal mix really worked well.  It was filling and simple to do, again, just add water.  As I’ve done on past rides, I like to eat out for lunch.  I want to get a fresh salad and a piece of bread at least every other day so Subway sandwiches, found nearly everywhere, are fine for that.  As a vegetarian, I know that my options are limited and the last thing I want on the road is fried fast food.  I never eat it at home so I’m not going to eat it on the road.

On my last long rides, in this blog I mentioned the music I listen to while riding.  I have the same playlist on my phone but on this trip I listened way less than I have in the past.  I never listen while I am riding in a town of any size, nor do I listen when I am riding the twisty roads, because I find the music to be a distraction when I need to concentrate on what I am doing.  For whatever reason, on this trip, even on the long, straight roads, I generally did not have the music on as I enjoyed the solitude and the time to think.  Think about what?  Well, stuff I am trying to find the answers to and it takes some time to mull over the issues and attempt to draw some conclusions.  One topic I like to think on that I just can't while I am riding is about my artwork.  As a visual artist, I think in pictures, sometimes representational and other times abstract.  These images stream to me in full color as if they are right in front of me and that is a dangerous situation whether riding a motorcycle or driving a car so I avoid that topic until I'm off the road.

The bike did get a pretty good wash after I returned home but it still needs some touching up.  I did change the oil and filter today so it's ready for more riding.

That’s about all that comes to mind at the moment.  I’m getting pretty good at this motorcycle camping having now done, in the past 2 years, 3 trips totaling around 14,000 miles.  It’s loads of fun and I hope to continue doing it as long as I can throw my leg over the bike.  After all, I am hitting the 4 corners of the lower 48 states and I only have Key West in Florida to finish the set.

2023 Adventure 1 - Day 10

May 26, 2023

It was another chilly night but not as bad as the last one.  The Conservation Corps folks were taking down their tents and getting their breakfast together while we started our morning routines.  I made myself a cup of hot cocoa, the cup which made a good hand warmer.  Things were pretty damp and while I don’t like packing the tent up that way, it’s the last day and I’ll get it dried out when I get home.

Before getting too far, we gassed up in Wisdom and started the ride to Dillon, MT.  

It's quite beautiful out although we need to cross those mountains at some point.

As we got close to the small town of Jackson, the road was covered with something that made me concerned about slipping:  several miles of manure.  It looks like they had a cattle drive here very recently.  Down the road a ways, we stopped for a photo opportunity.

In that background are the mountains and clouds we need to go through and go through them we did.  The fog got so thick that I could barely see what was ahead and kept my speed at 35 MPH or slower to give me enough time to brake should I encounter something on the road.  

We left the cloud as we descended the other side of the mountain and it felt good get into the clear again.  In front of the college in Dillon we pulled over to wipe down our visors which had a heavy condensation from the fog.

We headed toward Twin Bridges and Whitehall with the plan to get gas.  We rode through a fair amount of rain along the way so when we stopped to gas up in Cardwell, MT, I got my rain gear on.  That is pretty much a guarantee that the rain will stop and, for the most part, it did.

As we went across Bozeman Pass, my odometer turned off to 25,000 miles.  That’s a lot of riding from when I picked the bike up, new, in April 2021.  Considering that there are 5 months per year where it doesn’t get ridden, due to our weather, that means that I’ve ridden it for 14-15 months since I’ve had it.  That works out to about 1,700 miles per month.

We grabbed the slab (AKA the Interstate) and rode that to Big Timber for another gas stop.  From there is was a quick ride to Laurel where we exited the freeway and took our tradition route between there and Billings via Buffalo Trail.  We honked our good-byes as we passed the turnoff to Bill’s and I arrived home a few minutes later to a welcoming wife and a happy dog.

It was a 335 mile day.  The trip total 3,979 miles.

What a GREAT trip!!!