This day started out a little slow. I got all ready to leave and just happened to look at my oil level. On the BMW there is a window you look in and the oil is supposed to be half way up the window. Absolutely nothing showing ! What happened to all my oil? Come to find out, BMW specifications say that your bike can use a quart of oil every 1,500 miles to 6,000 miles. It looks like mine is using a quart every 2,000 miles so I'm still in spec but not by much. It's related to all this freeway riding at 75+ miles per hour. Back home I was doing most of my riding at 55 and below and wasn't using any oil.
So, I had to find some oil. Not everyone stocks 20-50 weight oil so it was a struggle. Finally found a NAPA auto parts store that had some. Added 1/2 quart of oil to the engine and away I go to Sturgis where I had set up an appointment to have a set of tires put on the bike so I'll be going into Alaska with new tires. Hopefully, this will ensure a minimum of problems (or at least, tire related problems) while I'm in the boonies.
Zipped over to Sturgis to the BMW dealer and they had the tires ready to install. While waiting on them, I met a guy from Wisconsin who was riding a BMW K1200LT and pulling a trailer. Not just any trailer but a really nice one. I had never seen one like it before but now I want one! It's a one wheel small trailer that is aerodynamically designed to minimize air drag. The guy said he couldn't even tell the trailer was back there while riding. It leans when the motorcycle leans so it doesn't pull on the bike like most two wheel trailers would. Really slick! Must get one prior to next years trip with Lyle.
A little while later an older guy pulled in on an older Moto Guzzi 75 (750cc engine) and with him was a younger guy on a BMW R75/6, which is an older BMW that has the same type engine as my GS, but MUCH older. I didn't get the year of it but the old guy said he had bought it many years ago and kept it running and looking like a new bike. It looked sharp! The younger guy riding it was his son and they were making a trip from Minneapolis to out West together. I thought that was cool. Dad and his son on a road trip.
A little while later (it sure is taking those guys a long time to change my tires) a guy pulled in on a 2002 GS just like mine except it was white. He had been out in the black hills doing the kind of riding that the GS was made for. Dirt, dirt, and more dirt! He was having a blast!
So finally they're done with my bike and I'm back on the road West. Trying like heck to make it to the border. I didn't make it. Again, the day was nice until the end and then the storms came in again. I ended up in Buffalo, Wyoming. Not realizing that this is a big tourist town but I was beat!I'm down to one major problem now. My neck! It is causing me great pain and I can't figure out why. I'm thinking maybe it's just the wind pressure coupled with the weight of the helmet. I'll give it a couple more days to see if it gets any better. If not, I'll probably have to slowly head home. It could be riding position and it could be that I just have an old neck. When I get home, I may try some higher/farther back "bar backs" to straighten up my riding position even more. I'll have to experiment with the Harley and see how the two riding positions compare. I don't remember having this problem with the Harley.
Met a guy named Steve from New York and/or Florida (he was from New York, but his bike had Florida plates on it) riding a Yamaha cruiser and he had his bike pretty much loaded like mine. He plans on being on the road for much longer than me though. We talked quite a bit about motorcycles and ended up going to a steak house together for dinner. Interesting conversations and the food was pretty good for a town called Buffalo. He puts a lot more miles on a motorcycle in a shorter period of time than I do for sure. He's been back and forth across the U.S. at least twice and this is my first extended trip on a bike. He also plans on going to Alaska this trip but he's taking the "scenic" route. He's been up and down the badlands and will be riding some of the passes around here tomorrow and eventually heading up to Alaska. I gave him my blog address and told him to let me know when and where he'll be in Alaska and I'd probably see him up there. Since he's on a cruiser, he said he didn't want to ride the haul road but he might run up as far as the Arctic Circle (Coldfoot). His bike looks brand new and it certainly wouldn't look brand new after running up and down the Dalton Highway.
Took the time to do some laundry while here and started talking to a guy at the laundromat who is here with his young son on vacation shearing sheep. That's right, he takes vacation out here so he can shear sheep. He says he makes good money at it. He normally is a logger back in Virginia but he says business is real slow right now so him and his son came out here to make some money. They live out of his van. It was an interesting conversation. I learned a lot about shearing sheep that I probably will never make use of, but learning new things is what life is all about. The guy sort of struck me as a "Traveler" (look that one up in wikipedia) but I really don't have anything on which to base that. Just an impression I got.
Someone cut a fiber optic cable near this town and there is an almost total communications blackout. Very few cell phones are working and no land lines or internet. So this entry will be delayed going in also. Technology is so great. Until it quits, that is. Then it's like "how did we ever live before all the technology". Oh yeah, Steve has an iPhone. I got to look at it a little. It's slick. If I wasn't such a Windows guy, I think I'd like one. I still prefer the Windows Mobile 6 phones though for the compatibility with all my files and Windows programs. And, of course, there are practically NO freeware programs for anything that has the word "Apple" in its name.
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