• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Montana 2015 - A different look at it

WoodButcher

0
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
12,823
Reaction score
650
Location
Austin, TX
First Name
Rusty
Last Name
Myers
Scott (M38A1) has a good ride report going and I may supplement that with pictures, but this one will probably be more words. Sorry about that, but I had lots of alone time in my helmet and want to capture some of the thoughts and emotions from the trip while they are fresh. Some of the more general ones I'd be interested if other travelers have notice them too.

So, I'm back in my office at work, 7:15am right now. A day early. I'll get to that later, but it was not because of problems, but just they way the schedule worked out. Getting home last night was great. Each time a friend peeled off along the way there was some sadness. I turned for home and waved goodbye to Snoopster about 7pm last night. The rest are still on the road, some will make it home tonight, others still wandering. This morning though, I woke up with a sense of melancholy. My rear end doesn't want another day on the bike nor dealing with the heat, but something inside wants to keep moving. I didn't get to the office with a feeling of despair, there is something comfortable about my desk and chair, but I already miss the group. Really miss the three guys that were chasing us. I kept thinking they'd catch up, but we got too far in front.

I finally understand comments I've heard from world travelers about adjusting to getting home. I wasn't gone that long this time, but am already regretting not making some route corrections and hitting more of Colorado on the way back. And second guessing some of the routing on the trip. Anyone else get home with that desire to still be wandering? Part of it was the people I was with, I think. No arguing, bickering. We fell comfortably into some roles. I did the initial routing, lead the riding for the first few days. Nadeem was excellent making calls and finding places for us to stay. Scott was the main camera guy and he and I hung together on scenic days. Debbie fit in well. I was a bit worried about having her along. I knew she could ride and knew she knew most of the guys, but I didn't know how one woman might change the dynamics of the group. From my opinion is was great. Lady like enough to keep the guys from totally devolving into a bunch of men in the woods, but still capable of some choice words when dropping her bike (sorry, had to mention that). Only happened once though. BTW, Erik, her right pannier bracket could use a little bending. :duck: Camilo was the rear guard. Those headlights on that K1600 are so easy to pick out way back there. Never worried about him making a pass, that this moves when you want it too. Donnie had the wildest trip. Headed up early for another rally, planned on meeting us enroute, which he did, but was having bike issues, headed home, realized the issue wasn't an issue so he manage to catch back up a day later. Thomas also met us enroute, after a client visit and a dirt road traversal of the Bridger National Forrest.

So out full group didn't get together until Jackson, WY on the third night. And we only rode together that morning for the first time. Then we split to 3 and 4. And we rode together a day later from Red Lodge to Billings. The rest of the time it was fragmented. Seems strange to say that and still feel like we were a good group, but it is true.

Okay. enough rambling for the morning. More this evening and I'll add pictures.
 
......Debbie fit in well. I was a bit worried about having her along. I knew she could ride and knew she knew most of the guys, but I didn't know how one woman might change the dynamics of the group. From my opinion is was great. Lady like enough to keep the guys from totally devolving into a bunch of men in the woods, but still capable of some choice words when dropping her bike (sorry, had to mention that). Only happened once though. BTW, Erik, her right pannier bracket could use a little bending. :duck: .


Bike drops and unimproved roads are the only time I hear Deb lose it. I know it's surprising but she could make a sailor blush :duck: As for dropping the bike I told her 3 things. Glad she wasn't hurt. Glad the bike wasn't broke so bad the trip ends and It's a good thing she bought an Adventure bike. They are made to be dropped. I'm sure I can have that bracket bent back straightish in no time. ;-)

Glad yall had a good time. Sorry I missed it.
 
Part of Debbie's problem was set up. We got her rear preload adjusted the next day and that made a big difference. Before we did that she had to lean it to the right to get the side stand down. Which didn't work out well in the Walgreen's parking lot that sloped away to the right...with predictable results when it is already hard to touch on the level surface. She pulled in behind all of us and all I heard was the d-word three times then crunch and a couple more d-words. I turned around fast enough to see her roll and start to get up so I hit her kill switch since I figured she was fine and she was. As far as I know, that was the only time a bike hit the ground.

Debbie and I rode the last two and half days of the trip together and she was wonderful to be with both off and on the bike. I'm jealous of all you guys that ride with her on a regular basis. On the afternoon of the first day it was the two of us, she told me to quit waiting for good passing opportunities for the both of us and just ride. Her words were something like "I ride with Dave (Ouroboros) a lot so I am used to keeping up" So I let my inner Dave out of its cage and twisted the throttle. Passed as soon as I caught up to a car and upped the speed. She stuck right behind me. Then I started to make an outside pass on the double yellow when I saw a left turn lane. At that point I put my inner Dave back in cage and rode like I do when I'm by myself. That worked out much better for both of us. :rofl:
 
Last edited:
Rusty, I echo the same sentiments.

When the initial hugs are hugged out with one's wife, the stories told to friends and posted on online communities like TWTEX ( or ADV), and the motorcycle trip is truly over, many of us find that coming back home isn’t really as easy some times.

Our true home is being surrounded by the unknown. For me, having a scenic return route instead of a straight, "fastest" route tends to make the transition a bit easier for me. Sport touring is also very enjoyable with good riding synergy among friends of which you partook abundantly.

:sun:

Let's face it, the road is where we belong....sometimes.

And because of that, our gaze will always be on the horizon, looking, dreaming, and wishing for another opportunity to get away again....

RB
 
"your inner Dave" :rofl::rofl:

better for all if you keep that on a short leash!

re: melancholy and infinite sadness upon returning to the "real world".
Upon our (M38A1 and me) return from New Mexico, most of the folks who asked about the trip were non-riders (and maybe non-travelers?). I got many comments to the tune of, 'boy, bet you were glad to get back home' etc. "No", I'd reply, "I wanted to keep going. It ended too soon."

I can't help but think that the wandering spirit we feel today is but a faint echo of what 'real' explorers in ages past felt. (I'm thinking of ancient sea-faring folk, Vikings, the Conquistadors, etc.) What wander-lust Christopher Columbus must have had!


Looking forward to your pix as well. and more inner rambling.
 
Okay, hit the wall at work about 1pm. Just couldn't focus anymore. So I finished the day working from home and the change in venue helped. I've just finish culling and editing all my pictures and now my brain is numb. However, next update will have pictures. Some mighty fine ones too. Others are just snapshots to remember the trip or funny things that happened.

Poor Debbie though, she goofed by staying with Scott and I in Yellowstone. She ended up in more pictures than she planned on. Scott and I were shooting pictures of a bison in Yellowstone and I turned and saw Debbie looking off towards the hills and thought that might be a good shot. I guess Scott agreed because as she turned back around we both still had our cameras aimed at her waiting for the right moment. We got a funny look as she said "Really?" Unfortunately I didn't get sharp focus on that one, but we got a good laugh about it.

Waiting for the moment...

IMD_0514-L.jpg


The reaction:

IMD_0515-L.jpg


The laugh:

IMD_0516-L.jpg


So enough teasing Debbie. She was a good sport about it though.

Okay, a Grand Teton panorama to hold you all over until tomorrow. Click on the link to go straight to the full sized view. It is 5 20mp photos stitched together.

https://woodbutcher.smugmug.com/Mot...y-in-Billings/i-2NmdCkW/0/O/IMD_0472-Pano.jpg

IMD_0472-Pano-L.jpg
 
And I thought the bike drop was not going to be mentioned...
Wander what other secrets will pop-up!
:popcorn:
 
And I thought the bike drop was not going to be mentioned...
Wander what other secrets will pop-up!
:popcorn:

I've got nothing left on anybody else. Oh wait, there was that guy that had us running all over Colorado for a prescription. Or maybe that guy who thought he had a rear engine seal leak and rode all over Colorado and Wyoming to keep finding us.

IMD_0320-L.jpg
 
And I thought the bike drop was not going to be mentioned...

Wander what other secrets will pop-up!

:popcorn:


Yeah Camilo, I thought if there was no pics than it didn't happen. Let's not forget to always put your wallet or keys in the same pocket every time.

I realized that you really need to set up your tent with poles when searching for your original bike keys that may have been packed up in the tent. In the middle of setting it up I had an epiphany, could my keys be in my blue jeans ..... sure enough that's where they were.
 
So, I was just lying in bed trying to go to sleep and think I finally put a finger on why I'm more affected by this trip than normal. I apologize for getting philosophical, but I have a degree from a large university that says I'm qualified.

I remember our priest many years ago talking about the peaks and valleys of life. Some high point and some low, but we as we move forward it continues to change. Kind of a rhythm like a heart beating. If you didn't have the highs and lows then you have no heart beat. That lesson stuck with me, but evidently I wasn't practicing it. I've had some emotional events lately and just shook them off and tried to let them go. Nothing major, but they accumulate. Add to that the stress of planning this trip and I was actually a bit wound up and didn't realize it. The trip itself brought many highs. The company was great and the places we went and the things we did all built me up. Hence the issue, as I responded to the highs, I became aware of the lows. Not a bad thing, but just a nagging awareness. So that is why this morning I felt a general sadness. It was there all along, but I wasn't alive enough to notice. The trip woke me up again.

I can't begin to thank my friends who were along enough. They have thanked me for leading them, but apparently I was a beneficiary of the journey too. This borders on an over share, but don't let suppressing the bad things keep you from the good things. Embrace it all and live a full life.

And tomorrow I'll get to the fun part of the ride. Thanks for putting up with that.
 
Great pictures Rusty. I feel like diving into this one...

RB
 

Attachments

  • wyoming-tetons.jpg
    wyoming-tetons.jpg
    35.1 KB · Views: 214
I've been on some 3-4 day rides over the years with groups. Those always ended with the git-home-itis braking up the group on the final leg. They were fun but ...
MY major rides were all solo- just turned out that way as I find breaks in my work when I'm least expecting them. In those times and on those rides, I've had great stretches of time to think in the ZEN of the ride. It is sobering to be such a distance from home and know the only person to depend on is yourself. I was not so much a loner as just doing my thing without consulting with the 'group'.
My last long-ride was 4 years back- 7,000 miles- 14 states. I'll take another one soon just to celebrate turning 65, I think.
Having gotten ALL the hard spots out of my ride, I never feel saddle sore. I stop for gas, swap foot positions, stand on the pegs and bounce, and use the throttle lock like a cruise control.
On that ride, I settled into the role of discrete observer, seated at a cafe counter, or my morning McD sausage biscuit, in the next town after breaking camp. Fly on the wall, sort of. I can talk to ANYONE, but mostly chose to fly under the radar.
I started the trip on a high note by attending a wedding, the only Texan to make the trip to Nebraska. All the ceremony was classic farm town stuff right down to the bonfire beer-bust between the guys, with a day long paint-ball war on 160 acres of corn field, ending with the girls crashing the party.
Out of Nebraska, I headed to the black hills and compared notes with some H-D riders on back roads in a slow drizzle. Finished off the day camping in a very remote campground with only 6 other people. Stayed up drinking coffee with a Washington D.C. Mom and her 3 young boys, headed for Denver to rendezvous with the Dad. Next day, I stopped on a lonely road that seemed to go straight to Canada, and thought of the Frost poem "Road not Taken". And took it. It dropped into the Missouri River valley and detoured here and there from the flooding that year. I more or less followed Lewis and Clark on into Montana, with a side run to Little Big Horn. Seeing that hillside and the markers of the bodies they chose not to move from where they fell in battle, I could almost hear the battle and the retreating cavalry scrambling up the hill only to be surrounded. The area is so stark and simple, just high grass and flowers- classic high plains, with the trees down along the Little Big Horn river. The flowers were ripe and the scent was overwhelming sweet.
I camped that night at a BLM site where Clarks contingent had camped in 1803. that's pretty much the way the ride progressed, a series of points in time that punctuated the solitude of three weeks on the road. High priced California campgrounds, a New York City traffic jamb (Yosemite), simple motels on roads going nowhere in particular (Nevada), a monsoon downpour huddled under the rainfly beside my bike in the Marconi cone of a high-power line (Kingman),and a final night listening to a niece questioning the demise of her 15-year marriage (Phoenix). And at roughly 11AM Mountain time, I gave a hug to her and pointed home. I doused myself with water to cool off at each gas stop, watched the sun go down this side of El Paso, took a bench rest of about 45 minutes in Fort Stockton at about 3 AM, or maybe it was Van Horn, and idled around the corner to my street at 9:45 AM that same day. I left the bike packed except for my canteen, and walked in the door. The SigOth sees me and says "Your Dog is missing you."
1034 miles in a day and I was feeling like I could have just kept going. But, what the ****, I'm in Austin. Might as well check the E-mails. The transition is sort of blurry. You know you're back at home. It's not jet-lag. It's just another faze of living. And my heart was somehow repaired, according to my cardiologist.
 
Last edited:
Well, I can tell I'm back to almost normal now. I found where I hid my watch before the trip and set the time and date and wound it up. I didn't speed excessively in the car coming in this morning, but was tempted to pass on the double yellow on my one curvy road. Still haven't ridden the bike yet, but I will tomorrow.

And the real sign is that I haven't gotten to the real ride report :rofl: I'm slow getting that up normally, so I'm really back on track. However, all the pictures are processed. Well, expect for the flower ones, but this really isn't a flower crowd.
 
My road trip this summer got an indefinite postponement for various reasons. Seeing Scott's thread and now yours brings back a flood of memories from my solo trip last summer. Y'all visited some of the same places with some that were different. Now I am yearning to find a dog sitter and go roaming.

Of course I still have to finish building my house first, and then there is the whole financial situation to improve upon. yada yada yada yada life goes on. Look forward to the rest of the story.
 
Oh good grief. Felt so normal today I took the wife to dinner. Down right domesticated again.

Time to start the real ride report. At the beginning. Camilo (CDC) and I were talking one day and I said I'm going to Montana to the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMWMOA) rally in Billings in July. This was many months ago. Christmas maybe. He says that is sounds interesting and he'd like to come. I've ridden with him before, so a small group sounds good. What could go wrong? Well, the curse of being an Admin/Moderator. That and I like to plan routes and know how to use a GPS fairly well. Somehow I end up leading big groups for just a local Pie Run. We did decide to keep it small though and until a month before we had it at four. Camilo, Nadeem (solorider), Donnie (dang it, what is his screen name?) and myself. I did some early route planning and we were going to take the long way there. Mix of camping and hotels. From Austin to Las Vegas, NM the first day to beat the heat. Then Colorado mountains, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. About 6 days to get to Billings. The route home was going to include Beartooth Highway, Chief Joseph Highway and a stop at Ten Sleep Brewery in Ten Sleep where former Austinite, Justin Smith (coolhand) and family live and he runs the brewery. Sounds perfect, eh?

Well, Then ThomasM pings me with some questions. He might be interested. NP, I've ridden with him a bunch and he fits in with this crowd just fine, but he isn't ready to commit. In fact, I figured it was 50/50 that he'd join. Then I get a text Debbie (snoopster) who says her group hasn't firmed up their plans and she'd like to join. The rest of the guys know her, except Thomas and he's on the fence anyway. My dad taught me to treat women right and besides she said "please". So I'm a sucker, she's in. And it was an easy decision and I'm glad she came. Debbie, read that with the sense of humor I hope I conveyed. Week before, my buddy and fellow TWT admin, Scott (m38a1) PM's me and says he could really use a get away from Austin. So now we are six, since Thomas still hasn't committed...and you guessed it, Thomas committed. Hmm, so much for a small group. However due to another rally and client commitments, Donnie was going to meet us in Colorado and Thomas in Yellowstone. So only five intrepid riders were going to launch from Austin and make the death march to Las Vegas the first day. Plans set, hotel reserved for the first night. Debbie, Camilo and Nadeem rode to Austin the Friday before we launched so we could leave early.

Dinner out the night before with the crew, my wife and two of Camilo's boys. Picture snagged from Camilo's Facebook.

150754_452918134887902_5419706852761202813_n.jpg


So, anybody want to guess when we hit the first snag?
 
I completely understand where you're coming from. And I think SpiritatBay said it well too.
I believe some of us have an "adventure spirit" in us, and had we been born centuries ago, we'd be warriors and explorers. I'm at home in the outdoors, well suited to being outside all day and sleeping on the ground doesn't bother me. Being detached from family and civilization also feels normal quickly for me, and getting back into "real life" takes me a day or so. :lol2:, but I guess eventually we gotta domesticate and pay the bills.
Good thoughts, and thanks for sharing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top