Sheridan is my Tucumcari
Day 3, Sheridan to Great Falls
I woke up today in such a good mood.
We got up early today, with the plan of getting an early start. We hoped to make it to Great Falls, MT by this evening, which would put us 200 miles ahead of schedule. We got up at 6:00 a.m. and thought we could get on the road by eight. Silly us.
The problem, you see, is that we spent the night in Sheridan. For those who may not remember, Sheridan is where we were hauled to on our last trip, so I could spend a morning fixing the throttle cable on the Triumph. In the parking lot of the same hotel. Which means, of course, that I got to spend several hours fixing the bike on this trip. In the parking lot of the same hotel. This time, the broken part was… Me. More precisely, in my non-coffeed, early morning haze, I managed to set the bike on its kickstand, sans kickstand. Don’t ask. Given that we had just loaded the bike, by the time I realized what was happening there was no catching it. The bike would have been fine, except that it was parked next to a low stucco wall by the hotel entrance. The end result was some scratches on the side case and a bent mirror mounting bracket. I then had to spend two hours taking the fairing apart to bend the mount back into place. So much for an early start.
The rest of the day was great! From Sheridan we took the highway across the mountains, through Bighorn National Forest. This was the road we didn’t get to do last year, and it was worth doing it this time. Lots of twisties, and some stunning views! We had a scary moment as we were descending through the pass–we were leaning over hard in one of the switchbacks, doing about 40-45mph in a yellow 20, when we hit the apex and -BOOM- hit a cattle grate. Hard. The pavement had puckered up on either side of the grate- as the front wheel bounced hard and the bars shook, so did my sphincter. Last thing we needed was the front end washing out! After getting through the turn, I slowed waaaay down- we hit hard enough, and the clunk was loud enough, that I was worried we damaged the rim or the tire. There was no place to pull over, so we had to keep riding–after about 10 minutes without any noticable change in handling, I figured we were okay, so I ripped it up again.
From there it was on to Cody, WY. Pretty flat and boring the whole way. Corning out of Cody, I did have a run in with Officer Friendly. I had earplugs in instead of headphones because my ears needed a break from having hard plastic bits in them for a while, so couldn’t hear the radar detector. I was being a good boy (for the most part) and keeping my speed to about 10mph over posted. But coming out of Cody I got a hair in my eye and was trying to fish it out when I saw cherries flip on as a cruiser went by. I pulled over right away, took my helmet off and put it over the radar detector, got my eye drops out of the tank bag, and was taking out my contact when the trooper walked up. I told him a hair had just gotten in my eye, etc etc, and he let me off with a warning. 83 in a 65! Whew! Lucky break!
Then it was on to the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, which took us to U.S. 212, a.k.a. the ”Top of the World Road”. Leslie and I agree- this is probably our favorite ride thus far, anywhere in the States; at least, any of the ones we’ve been to. We did most of it last year, but couldn’t make it all the way to Red Lodge because U.S. 212 had washed out last year at Bear Tooth Pass, where it enters Montana. The detour to do these roads again was well worth it. It was rainy and 55 deg F at 11k, but my only regret was that we hit Bear Tooth Pass on a Sunday, as it was chock full of asshats. The ride could have been more fun, but the scenery was amazing! Definitely a ”must see”.
Finally it was on to Great Falls. After Bear Tooth, Montana was hot, dry, and boring. We got to the hotel by 9:00pm, ordered in pizza, and watched TV. We’re happy to make it to Great Falls, since we didn’t think we would get this far when we planned the trip, as the past 2 days were 600 miles+ each. Did I mention that I love this frickin’ seat?
Tomorrow we’ll hit Banff, and some well earned time off the bike. Lesson leamed for today: Don’t stop in Sheridan. Don’t even look at it. And think very carefully before coming within 100 miles of it.