Sorry, no I won't be In there. I made a detour. Full accounting tomorrow.

 

My good buddy says the difference between "a biker" and a "a Motorcyclist " is that a biker will ride across town for a beer ..... a Motorcyclist will ride across the country for the same beer.

You have just given me the greatest compliment you could have .... thank you.

 

Okay.... so here i am on my way to the next stop on the Nez Perce run, and I get to Big Hole National Battlefield, and start the tour. I go through the shop, find the book I was looking for, Beals "I will fight No More Forever" and feel pretty good about that. So I head down to the walking trails where the battle happens and I plan on spending a good few hours there walking them. ... but... i get a text from work, and there is something that the Prez needs to deal with, and I need to be in the office to do it.... crap ... well that took the wind out of my sails.

So I decide to head back to Cranny, and save the Big Hole experience for when I pick the route back up.

I jump on Darla and head towards Wisdom as there is only one bar at Big Hole and I want to use my iPhone Maps to sort out the route. I will formulate my plan there on how to get home. I am hoping there is cell service there so I can get a good plan happening.

Of course, there is NO cell service in Wisdom.... so I just started heading North and will sort out what I will do on the fly. I get into the Nav, and hit "Home" which is set for Kimberley... it sets the route, and the miles-to indicator says about 435. Now, that I can do standing on my head, but it is already 11 am, and I am wondering where a good lay over is, and will turn it into a two day ride.

But.... i remember there is a setting where I can change the "Distance To" to "Arrival Time". Now, I have never used it, as I don't care about the arrival time, and almost always use the Distance To setting as I will plot in gas stops and food when needed. So I punch it up.... and it says 7:06 pm.... OK then ... even if I add 2 hours to that, for fuel, food, border, construction and traffic, I will still be home before dark... now I don't mind riding in the dark, but only if I have a 20,000 Lb Semi under my *** that has a Roo Bar on the front to clean the deer out of the way....But, I will be home by 9, well before it gets dark.....

So I head home, and will be there before dark.... then It hits me... I wonder if I can beat the clock home..... I am sure the Algorithm they write for it is based on posted road speed, but even if I do the road speed, I will still have to deal with traffic, construction, the Kalispel/Whitefish corridor, the border, food and fuel.

....The Game Is Afoot....

Now Darla gives me the route, and it happens that the Shortest route, and the Twisty Route... is the same route. I will ride out through Anaconda to I-90, then run it for about 30 miles, then take the connectors up to 200 & 83 which will put me into the Kalispel valley on the East end. Then traverse it to Whitefish and straight up 93 to the border. Some of this is brand new road, some of it is road I have not been on in a while.

So I head out, and the arrival time drops down, a minute at a time. So, this gives me some time for some Pict's (I will do that part later) When I get out to I-90, I am ahead by about 2 minutes ..7:04.. And I know that if I run the Slab as fast as I can, then I will pick up more time. I also know that once I am on the back roads I will be able to run around 80 and will pick up more time, as they are posted at 70 in most places.

So I get up to 12 and run it to Avon, connect onto 141 and run it to 200, which has a gas station. By the time I get there, I am low on fuel. I know that fuel will be an issue later in the day, so I left it for as long as I could, hoping that maybe I can get it done with just one gas stop..... I cant in the end.... That is all very pretty country and great roads, and should be on your list.

I stop at the junction of 200/83 for fuel and food, get a Hoagie and some juice, and of course there are quite a few Harley's there, and some want to know about the new M8, and one asks me how many miles I have on it, and when he finds out, wants to know how I got that many in just a few months, so I had to do my duty and go over the Journeys a bit, and I finally get out of there. ... its about 7:09.. I am on track, I know I can make it, as long as I don't have a bunch of Construction...... and then I get to A bunch of Construction, and I stop.... and wait, and wait, and wait.... we finally get moving, and I am behind a bunch of cars and RV's... and have added 10 or so minutes to the clock.... crap ... and for the next while, it will be difficult to pass, as there is solid double yellow and it is fairly twisty... so I bide my time. Three HD's come up behind me and pass, I just let them by thinking maybe they are good at their chosen craft and I can feed off of them passing. There is also a Yellow Mustang that passes.... I watched him a bit, and this person knows how to "work" traffic both coming towards him and going in his direction. I will use him to "clear the way".

So we finally get to the straight stretches and the Mustang starts to work the traffic.... and the bikers wont go.... I let this happen twice, and then realize these guys are working above their pay grade, I decide to send the boys "To School" and the next time the Mustang passes, I make my move. I scoop up two cars, two of the bikers, and another two or three cars before I need to move back right, ... brake a bit, move into line... wait for the car to move by, and then scoop another four or five... I pull back in and the third biker was in front of me by a bit.... but he must have seen me in his rear view, pulls over to the right side of his lane and waves me by... I take him, another car or two, and end up right behind the Yellow Mustang.... I am back on track its about ...7:06... we are in the lead. He is running just over the limit so I stay behind him until I tire of Yellow and take him also.... then move the speed up to something comfortable, and start decreasing time on the clock. Now, when I ride in the States, I always slow down to the speed limit in town, and did not waver this time. To get home and beat the clock, the last thing I needed was to get stopped by The Man.

I get to the Kalispel/Whitefish corridor and need to make a decision. There are three routes up that valley, one to the East, one to the West, and one up the center. The slowest would be on 93 through Kalispel, as there are lots of lights, and you run right through town. Not happening.... the fastest one is up the East side, unless the traffic in busy in Columbia Falls, and then it can be miserably slow. The middle route, up 2 has traffic lights, but it is a 65 mph road, and if you are lucky with the lights, it can be a fast transit. I chose the middle route, and was reasonably lucky with the lights, and got up to Whitefish quite quickly, and reduced my time again.

I had to stop for two lights in Whitefish, but got through with little hassle. It was about ...7:09.. and I was on time, as I knew I could get it down below before I got to the border. But I had not eaten since breakfast.... I got behind a car that was not moving any faster than posted, so stopped at a side road..... got my food out, one of my juices and put it in the holder, dug my passport out as I would need it and got moving again... I lost one minute.... (and buy the way, a 6 inch hoagie will fit nicely into your shirt pocket, but I recommend, no mustard.....)

Now there was no traffic on the road, got up to clock reducing speed, and enjoyed my lunch. That's the nice thing about moving the cruise over to the left hand grip, you can eat your lunch and speed up and slow down at the same time. I got lunch dispatched, moved my water back up to my coffee holder and then looked at the fuel. I was about 15 miles short, and would have to stop..... I peddled pretty hard into Eureka... and got in with 7:00 on the clock (I actually saw 6:59 for a brief moment).... I was way ahead..... I had a plan where to get fuel, as there are two gas stations I use there. If the first one is full, I will go to the second one and take my chances.... the first one had pumps open, so I pulled in... as long as I don't have any issues with my cards, i will be OK.... but of course, I had an issue with my card.... It was asking me for a Zip code...ya, we don't have them in Canada... So I went in, gave her the last $8.00 I had in cash, luckily did not have to wait for someone buying lotto tickets, got my fuel and headed out. it was 7:09.... I lost 9 minutes, but I could make that up....

Now the border... I would have to pass everything in front of me for the next 8 miles, not only to pick up time, but I did not want them in front of me. The last thing I needed was the car in front of me to be all Eastern European nationals, that struggle with English....

But everyone was running 10 over and I did not want to take the chance of getting busted for speeding, so stayed put....

OK, now the problem.... how many cars would be in front of me, how many questions would I be asked, and God forbid, would I be searched.... And I had to act like I was NOT in a hurry, to keep the suspicion down.

There was only two cars in front of me, the border guard asked just a few questions, we chatted for a brief moment on how hot it was, and he let me go. Of course, when I got in, I turned the bike off & took my sun glasses off.... I put my glasses back on, fired her up, and headed out..... so it takes a few minutes for her "To Recalculate Route" and when she does, and I hit "Map".... up pops the arrival time.... 7:09... Its in the bag, as long as I watch my speed and there is no construction, I can cut that down easily.

I run about my usual speed and the time starts dropping.... and dropping... and I slow down a bit... but it keeps dropping.....

I pull into Kimberly, "Home" is City Center....

6:53 PM.

.... now that was fun.....

 

Quite the ride Rocky. Hey I found on this trip that if you enter the numbers from your postal code and then two zeros, the pumps will accept it as the zip code. My Postal code is V9W4W5 so I entered 94500 and low and behold I was in. Give it a try. It might work with your code.

 

Big Hole Battle Field, the Calvary was on the left, the Nez Perce on the right.

Montana Hwy 43

Montana Hwy 569 that connects 43 & 1... a bit rough at sections, but worth the view

The Stack at Anaconda

Montana 141

Ditto

 

A Rogues Gallery....


WhiskyJock stopped by for coffee before he went South East and I went South West

Living the Dream, two at a time. He was from Germany and was riding from Atlanta to Vancouver.

Two travlers I met at the lookout at the Top of Hells Canyon. They are from Texas.

We also met at the look out and rode down from there to Joseph together.

He came to rescue me.....

.. the mechanic and the service manager who got me back on the road in about 3 hours.

 

Ok, so that is it for a bit. I am not sure when I will be traveling again, and not to sure about Sturgis. I may need to stay close to home for a bit.

Thanks for tagging along.... when I started this out last May, wodathunk it would hit over 100,000 reads....go figure.

 

Oh ya ..... Darla clocked 16,000 miles just as I came into Kimberley....What a Babe!

 

Hey Rocky, regarding ZIP codes at the pumps in the US, I take the numbers in my Postal Code from left to right and add 2 zeros at the end. It has worked for me and saved me a trip inside to pay.
E.g if your postal code is T8M 1N6 use 81600.

 

Many thanks for the great story telling and all the time spent taking & posting the awesome pictures. I was a pleasure to follow your travels.