Day 2 - Montana

Camping overnight was good.  I has a good nights rest but slept a little later than I wanted.  I wanted to be on the road by 5:30 am but wound up sleeping in until 6:30.  So I hit the road at about 7:30.

It was a beautiful morning.  It was not too cold and warmed up nicely.  The drive through northern Wyoming was full of nice rolling hills.  I was able to drive through Kaycee, Wyoming.  Kaycee, Wyoming is a small town where one of my favorite singers is from, Chris LeDoux.  Chris LeDoux passed away in March of 2005.  While I was there, I stopped for gas.  The gas station was right near the Chris LeDoux  memorial park, so I ate lunch there.  When I got back on the bike to leave, the song This Cowboy's Hat by Chris LeDoux came on my ipod.  It kind of sent a shiver up my spine.

Later in the day, I stopped at the site of the Battle Of Little Big Horn in Montana.  It was a bit touristy, but I enjoyed it.  Montana is a beautiful state, I can sort of see why they call it the Big Sky state (the sky looks bigger here for some reason???)

The goal was to make it to Great Falls, MT today but I did not make it.  I wound up getting a motel room in Harlowton, MT.  The reason being I had an electrical failure with the bike that I needed to fix.  I had stopped to fill up with gas and when I turned the bike back on, some of the gauges were not working, I did not have tail lights on the trailer, and the reverse would not work.  I figured I better find the closest place to stay for the night as I was in the middle of nowhere so I could figure out what was wrong with the bike before the sun came up.  It turned out one of the relay's overheated and melted.  Luckily, I packed a spare so all is good in the world.  It did take me awhile to figure it out though.  I suspect something in the trailer shorted causing the failure as just before I stopped for gas, I ran over a sizable pothole with the trailer.  I suspect something was jarred loose, so I have disconnected the electric to the trailer.

I met up with a fellow named Mike at the motel, and we talked for a bit.  Mike just retired from the Air Force two days ago and is working in Harlowton on a large truck scale.  We talked about bikes and the military.  I enjoyed our conversation.

Tomorrow, the goal is to get into Canada and at least to Calgary.  It all depends on what time I can get out of here and how long it takes at the border.

Bear count for today:  0, but I did see 5 Antelope.

Here are some photos from today:

This is on I-25 just North of Cheyene

Northern Wyoming

More of Northern Wyoming

 

I stopped at a parking area to stretch my legs a little.  To my delight, there was some information about the area there. 

 

There were several really cool rock formations in Northern Wyoming.

 

Here is the statue of Chris LeDoux at the Chris LeDoux Memorial Park  in Kaycee, Wyoming.  It was a very nice and peaceful park.

I was able to stop and view the area where the Battle of Little Big Horn took place.  I enjoy history and thought this was pretty neat.  I wanted to spend some more time there, but I needed to get back on the road.

This tomb is located on the grounds of the Museum at the site of Sitting Bull's camp.

A bust of Custer

Here is Sitting Bull

My motel for the night

Ending mileage for day 2, only 550 miles today.