Day 26 More of Montana

That storm that came through last night dumped a lot of rain here in Hardin, Montana.

When I was gassing up and getting ready to leave, I met three guys who were traveling around the Montana area and camping. They said they were camping last night when the storm came through and they only lost one tent. The other two held up ok. One of the guys asked me where I had been and when I told him, he turned to one of his buddies and said "Hey, this guy took this bike all the way to Alaska and back!". Evidently, he thought that was a pretty good trip.

One of the guys was riding a BMW K1200LT, BMW's answer to the Honda Gold Wing or the Harley Road King. He said they were going down the highway yesterday and his buddies passed a truck and then didn't leave him enough room to get back in so he cranked the throttle and passed both of them so he could get back in. He didn't think he was going all that fast but one of his friends said he was flying. He said when they stopped again he checked his GPS to see what his top speed had been and it showed 129 mph. He turned the GPS on and showed me. He said he couldn't believe he was going that fast. He said he's never gone that fast before in his life. That is pretty fast if you ask me! Especially on a big touring bike like the K1200.

When I stopped for lunch (at Wendy's again) there was a guy there driving a newer Turbo Porsche 911 and he asked me if I saw any 911s in Alaska. I told him I hadn't seen one of them the whole time. He said he had lost his farm in a tornado and that he also had an R90 BMW that was damaged during the tornado. He said he had been thinking about trashing it but I told him to hang on to it because the older BMW's seem to be becoming more popular these days.

Today I was passed by my first motorcycle. I think it was a Harley but I'm not sure. I'm so depressed. I've passed so many motorcycles and now I'm passed by a Harley. I was running a consistent 80-81 mph (the speed limit is 75 mph) and he must have been running over 85 mph. I just let him go. It was just outside Sturgis so I imagine he was drunk. Why else would he be passing me? :)

I've seen a lot more motorcycles since getting back to the Sturgis area. They are probably the early arriver's to the rally.

The rain chased me all day long today. The sky looked bad in one direction or another for the whole day. I got a little bit of rain near Sturgis but nothing heavy.

I stopped in Wall S.D. again at the same motel I stayed at going through to Alaska. This time they gave me the "cheap" room. That room was so small I had to keep my arms close to my sides if I wanted to turn around. I don't think the whole room, bathroom included was over 10 feet by 4 1/2 feet. Really small ! But, it was cheap.

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