Happily we mounted the motorcycle early to leave Butte. We were in search of new tires for the motorcycle which we figured we would find in either Bozeman or Billings. When you have only two tires to depend on, you want them to be in good condition. Given the anticipated heat which causes tires to expand and the probability of road construction and poor road conditions, new tires are a good call.
To get to Bozeman we crossed the Continental Divide and the temperature was that chilly 51° but fortunately, the sun was shining. No rain today!
My image of this portion of Montana, is two parallel plains, one of earth and one of sky. The earth plain has formations, hills and even tall peaks off in the distance while closer up is this great rolling land. The sky plain has mobiles of clouds suspended from very high up, and though the clouds are big and pouffy they don’t come near the earth plain. Between the two plains is emptiness and the plains go on indefinitely, never meeting.
At Bozeman we found a delightful coffee shop, Rocky Mountain Roasting Company where Arlo was able to make arrangement at a Bozeman Honda dealer for new tires. It seems crazy to think that two tires, mounted and balanced would cost $630. We weren’t the only ones getting new tires, either. Three other motorcycles were in that day, and one of them was owned by a guy from Corpus Christi who was driving to Vancouver, BC for his wife’s family reunion. Nice, chatty guy--like most Southerners--a long ways from home. Though it was costly, things went along smoothly. We had a nice lunch while we waited and then away to Billings...or maybe beyond.
Except...that in Hardin, Montana when we stopped to get gas, damn if the left side case latch mechanism was stuck--it wouldn’t release. Arlo said more than “damn” and we spent 45 minutes while he took everything apart (after buying some tools since the motorcycle tools were in the left side case), figured out how the latch release worked, jockeyed it open, and determined that he could jimmy it open fairly easily as needed...but we weren’t going to put anything we needed in that side. This episode also determined our next overnight location, Billings. So, we didn’t have a long day of riding.
The Billings Holiday Inn had a casino attached to it where I spent $10 to find out that video Deuces Wild poker is a really dumb game.
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