Over the three day weekend, my GF and I made plans. We booked a hotel in Missoula, Montana for Sunday evening. The weather looked fine so we (or, I) decided to take the bike. We had to test out her new riding pants and riding boots, anyways, right? So here we go.
Here she is, trying to figure out how these @#$%'in pants go on:
Highway 12, going up to Lolo Pass:
By the time we finally make it in to Missoula,we collapse into our room and warm up. The reason why there's about 100 miles of riding without photos is it was
pissin' down rain the entire day. We had stopped at the top of Lolo Pass, where the visitor's center had wonderful, free coffee and hot chocolate and warmed up there. While inside, the rain just came down in sheets. I had left my tank bag on the bike because I was cold and lazy. When we came into Missoula, it had completely soaked through.
After eight hours of torrential rainfall, none of our gear was dry. For the first time, my riding boots leaked water. My Roadcrafter let water through the double-layered seat. My Widder electric gloves were completely soaked. My GF's ... well, everything, was also sopping wet.
So we laid everything out to dry in our hotel room:
My poor high-viz courier bag was no longer pristine. It had three states' worth of mud, sand and water on it, liberally mixed with chain lube:
We went to dinner, had some drinks and wandered around the adjacent University of Montana campus.
Sunset over the bridge to campus:
Some main building on campus, with the "M" on the hill behind campus:
THE GRIZZLIES:
We retire to our room and rest up for the return leg. So, bright eyed and ready to roll:
That morning was the only time we
didn't get rained on. Montana was nice enough to not rain on us until we were about 20 miles from the Idaho border.
Here's what is turning into my favorite intersection in Montana. I always seem to stop there and take pictures of it:
We press on and stop at the OK Cafe in St. Regis to get some grub and precious hot, hot coffee. Kim is exceptionally happy about the coffee:
After lunch, we zipped home through the cold and rain and finally make it back at about 5 PM:
The bike was great the entire trip, if not a bit beaten up. My riding suit's zipper has rubbed right through the tank's paint, the tank bag has rubbed through in a few places. The pillion peg rubber is splitting and rusting at the tips. The exhaust is covered in Montana's annoying dust and the entire bike in general is covered with a lot of dust. Also, the chain is rusting a bit on the side plates. Poor girl is seeing a lot of hard, hard miles.
Total mileage was 250 miles the first day and 275 the second. The GF didn't stab me in the kidneys once the entire weekend, despite a sore rear.
[url=http://www.motoblag.com/blag/]Practicing the dark and forgotten art of using turn signals since '98.[/url]
It was kind of sad to see htat, I had just watched him barely hold his own against a rider with mere hours of motorcycling experience...
