RTTMS June 23, 2011 Ride into The Heat

It was a good morning to go for a motorcycle ride. Some rain clouds, a little wind with the sun rising in the East. Temperature about 61 degrees.

We ate breakfast at the hotel, loaded the bikes and headed out. We checked to see if there are actually falls in Great Falls and there are three sets of falls. We were going to visit them but a little liquid sunshine started to fall and we decided to get the heck out of town before we ended up having to fight the rain. More than likely, the rain was just a small shower but we did not hang around to find out.

Runnin' from the rain.
We were quickly outside of Great Falls heading east. The rolling grasslands were covered with cattle ranches. Lots of acres of land and very few homes. I guess it takes a lot of land to raise cattle in Montana.

The mountains were on the horizon to the west and south but the grasslands were green, lush and aromatic. The road took us through a couple of small valleys that were scenic and seemed to be centers of businesses and homes.
We passed through a couple of towns that had become somewhat deserted and then again, we passed through a couple that were more prosperous and well kept.
Yes, that is my glove in the picture.
Found a wind farm in the middle of nowhere with about 40 huge wind generators.
The terrain stayed pretty much the same as we continued east as this is grasslands all the way to South Dakota.

We decided to stop at the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Monument. We did the tourist thing while there and enjoyed the time. It is a very picturesque place as it is on a high hill overlooking the river valley. It would have been very interesting to see this landscape before the white man moved in.
The wind started to pick up after we left the Monument....what a surprise in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, and this made the ride less enjoyable but the temperature we about 72 degrees so things were fine.

We hit road construction a couple of time on Highway 212. Our stimulus money at work I'm sure. We ended up stopping to wait for an escort vehicle but that is part of the season in the north. In the north, just like Canada, they have two seasons......Winter and Construction.

Today we traveled in 3 states......not mental states but US States.

The wind picked up as we crossed the northeast corner of Wyoming and entered South Dakota. At the end of the day, the wind was out of the east at about 15 mph so the riding interesting.

As I mentioned earlier, the terrain didn't change much so I will not bore you with more pictures of grasslands.

Tomorrow Jeff and I part ways as he will head more due south at I-29 at Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I will continue east to my brother's home in Wisconsin.

I have enjoyed riding with Jeff and we seemed to get along well. I will miss his company and sense of humor at the end of the day when we are winding down from riding.

I wish Jeff a safe and quick ride home to his wife Mary without any problems and dry, cool riding weather.

544 miles ridden today.

Done for now.

Mike