and another travel day...

Townsend Montana has changed a lot in 42 years but it is still a noisy little town.

The motel I stayed in was, I believe, the only choice in town. They're trying but...

They are "expanding" and I ended up in a cabin (seems to be a pattern here) they had just opened to occupancy. How "just" you ask?

No curtains! Included in that is the front door which also, unlike the other windows, had no shades. So they came over with a towel and a roll of duct tape to cover it. 

The water heater would only work for about an hour before tripping off line. The solution? He brought over a paper clip, partially unwound, and showed me where to insert it into the metal cover over the heater so as to be able to reset it.

The a/c unit ran, but did not effectively lower room temperature. I turned it on full tilt, then went to eat and do laundry. When I returned the room was warmer than it was outside. I turned it off and opened the windows. Luckily it cooled off enough last night to bring the temperature down to a point where sweat was controllable as long as you lay on only a sheet, spread eagle, so that no body part touched another body part - you know, like living in Ohio!

The noise part? Apparently I had forgotten the lesson learned last year in Alpine, Texas, that is: determine your location relative to any active rail line. There was a (very) active line directly across the road that hosted at least a half dozen passing trains during the night, each one required to hold a solitairy note on its air horn from city limit to city limit. If you were wide awake you could hear the thing coming for several minutes before the walls began to shake, which in turn was just before the previously mentioned air horn sent shock waves through the night air. But if, for example, you had just dozed off, body temperature having finally dropped to within five degrees of 98.6, and eyeballs slowly covered again by the eye lids that had been jammed into the top of your eye sockets the last time the air horn sounded, you would perhaps not hear the approaching Midnight Special from Helena. The air horn would startle you to a level of consciousness not unlike the last time you shifted your paradigm into overdrive. Your sleep cycle would then hit the reset button, hoping to complete all stages of relaxation prior to the 2:37 "City of New Orleans" passing through town.

I was so anxious last night to "post" my previous days narrative that I told my "Townsend, Mt" story and little else. It was, like today, mostly a travel day used to transport from point of interest to point of interest. Along the way however, there are always things to see and learn. Like this history lesson that I had not previously heard extolled:

It seems the Blackfeet were not "playing nice with others". But I'm sure they have their side of the story to tell also.

Buffalo, oil, gold, if it's not one thing it's another...

Today's journey was one of stages. By stopping for the night in Townsend my choices had become riding to Gardiner, then across the north of Yellowstone N.P before heading north across the Beartooth Pass to Red Lodge, Mt., then turning around and heading home across a hitherto undecided route OR riding south to I-90, then traveling east, then south to spend the night in Red Lodge, before climbing the highest elevation of any highway in the Northern Rocky Mountains, at which time I would select a route through Yellowstone to provide my preferred exit point.

The distance from Townsend to Red Lodge seemed to qualify as the most appropriate route. Yes, it was on an Interstate, but a 200 mile day that would eliminate the need to backtrack over a 10,400 foot pass in yet-to-be determined weather seemed to make sense. Yesterday was near perfect riding conditions, three bears perfect: not to hot, not to cold, but just right! The cloud cover was constant but I got spit on just enough to cause me to put rain pants on, then remained dry the rest of the day. This was not the case for other travelers as I was riding all afternoon on roads that had recently seen rain.

I talked to Chuck during a coffee break at a gas station this morning. From North Carolina, he was riding his well equipped Triumph to Olympia, WA. to visit his son. He said he had been rained on heavily yesterday and while camping last night. He had traveled for years with his wife on the back of a bigger "bagger" but had a serious accident several years ago in which she did not fare well. The doctors told her she was lucky to be alive (I think that's in their contract) so she chooses to not ride anymore, preferring instead to be able to walk once she reaches retirement age in two years. 

This morning I rode to I-90 (30 miles or so), then grabbed the aforementioned coffee and a donut (don't drink on an empty stomach), rode another 30 + miles to Bozeman (where I picked up a poker chip), then rode another 75 miles to where I exited the freeway (thought about staying on I-90 for another 1,000 miles to my hometown, Beloit, Wi. - no I didn't), then another 25 miles to the next highway, then another 25 miles to Red Lodge. Never saw anything that looked like an inviting place to eat until I pulled into Red Lodge.

First things first however. I stopped at the Harley "boutique" and picked up another poker chip, then got the low-down on where to stay and where to eat. There was some reservation in the lodging selection as this weekend is a large, annual bike rally. So I cruised down the street to the Red Lodge Inn.

The "no" sign was not lit, but then again, neither was the "vacancy" sign. So I went to the office only to find it locked. While I stood trying to figure out my next move a guy came walking up with two garbage bags. He said he was not the owner but his son was. So he called his daughter-in-law, Tiffany, to see if she knew whether or not they were booked up. She didn't know but she was walking up the sidewalk with her kids and would find out shortly.

I was able to get a double room for a single price and they throw in use of a community barbecue pit, hot tub, a beer if you're thirsty, a/c and TV, microwave and refrigerator, breakfast and a bike wash station equipped with hose, rags and soap!

Tiffany and her husband Dale are the owners and part of what they purchased was this unique piece:

All that and WiFi that works! What more could a traveler want? I am definitely back on the grid baby!