2012 Motorcycle Trip
Week 3
..............June 13-27 2012,
Day 17 was cloudy and cool and we headed for Glacier National Park. Riding through the
park was beautiful . We headed for the road called "Road to the Sun". This road took
us up to Logan's Pass. They were just able to open up the road on Tuesday 6/19/12 as they
had 30" of snow recently. Even though it was high up it was not as bad as some of the other
roads. Toward the top there was road construction. We lost the pavement and we were driving
on dirt. We also had waterfalls coming down the side of the mountain and making the road wet.
Going the way we were going was not too bad, only got dripped on. However, if you were going
the other way at one point it was like going through a car wash. Really spectacular sites up
there and I actually got some pictures up there. As I said, not as scary to me as some of the
other mountains. Once we came out of Glacier National Park we crossed over into Canada
and headed for Lethbridge, Alberta. We got in touch with our friends from out
motorcycle cruise and we will meet them tomorrow for breakfast. It will be
good to see them again.
Day 18 was still cloudy and cool. We met our friends for breakfast and we had a great time. It was
so good to see them again. We hope that they can come and visit us in South Carolina when we move
there. We cleaned the bike as it was full of bugs and dirt and spent the afternoon updating the web
site and chilling out.
We have decided to cut our trip short for a couple of reasons. We will not be
going up to Alaska. The road between Watson Lake and Teslin had been washed out because of snow
thaw and rain. It is supposed to be open to one lane traffic but we could be tied up for a long
time and that makes us a little nervous. Also there are medical reasons for canceling that
part of the journey.Instead of heading straight home we are going to take a chance and head for
Texas. We are really disappointed but we feel this is a better idea than taking a chance going
on the Alcan Highway and heading up to the Northwest Territory. We will get a good night sleep
and head South Tomorrow morning.
Day 19 was very cloudy and cool. They were predicting rain for Lethbridge, Alberta. We had gotten plenty
of rain during the night. We got packed up and headed for the border. Back in the good old USA. A lot more
checking to get back into the USA. We had to take off our helmets and sun glasses (I wear sunglasses even
if it is cloudy). There was a lot more questions. He then said welcome back to the USA and we were off headed
south. Not much to see except farm land or ranch land. Did not take many pictures today and it was a traveling
day. We stayed in Great Falls, Mt. for the night and will continue toward Texas tomorrow.
Day 20 was again cloudy and cool to start. Once we were on the road we even hit fog for a few miles and then the
sun came out and it started heating up. We hit a lot of road construction today. It was probably about 20 miles
of it in 3 sections. Dirt and gravel roads and pilot cars that you had to follow with one lane traffic. It was
rough going but we did okay. The scenery is again beautiful and very spacious. The closer we got to Billings, Mt.
the hotter it got. The temps were in the high 90's. We stopped at the Harley shop to find out that they are closed
on Monday's. Since we still don't have a pin for the state of Montana yet, we may get a little later start tomorrow
morning and stop back at the Harley shop in the morning. We went to Best Buy and got a new camera as I have just
about destroyed our other camera. Guess what - Montana has no sales tax. After that we went to the hotel and checked
in for the night. So here we are in Billings, Mt. until tomorrow and then on the road again.
Day 21 started out late as we wanted to stop by Beartooth Harley to get the dealer pin, as it was our last chance for Montana.
Once we left Billings, Mt. it would not be too many miles before we went into Wyoming. By the time we left the Harley dealer
it was in the low 90's at 9:30 AM. We probably went 70 miles and by the time we stopped for gas we had been fighting the wind
for miles and it was 105 degrees. It wind only got worse as we went along. We were fighting 40 MPH cross winds. Not real fun
on a bike. We decided to stop early and we were really beat. We stopped in Sheridan, WY., way short of our goal for the day
which was Casper, WY. Tomorrow we will start real early like 5:00 AM and see how far we get and how hot and windy it becomes.
Day 22. We were up at 4:30 AM and on the road by 6:00 AM to beat the heat. Guess what, no heat. It was 55 degrees. It was really
a lot better than the 105 degrees that we had yesterday. There was a haze in the air and we could smell smoke. Not sure where the
fire was but we knew there was a fire somewhere. After a while the air started to clear and it was clear sailing for us. We did 335
miles and it didn't get any warmer than the mid 80's. We were at the hotel by 12:30 PM. Tomorrow we will head for Denver and then go
East and then South to get around the fires in Colorado Springs, CO. They are really bad and we don't want to get to near them.
