The alarm clock sang its song of misery at 4 AM. Having not crawled in bed until well after midnight, I got less than four hours of sleep. In hindsight, staying up that late was a poor decision.
I felt like death on a cracker, but crawled out of bed anyway. I hoped that once I got moving that adrenaline would carry me the rest of the way. I went about my usual morning ritual, minus the showering and shaving part. No sense doing either of those just to sit on a motorcycle all day.
I finished packing the last few things from my list that I wasn't able to pack the previous night, due to needing to use them this morning. Then I walked out into the living room to discover that the Tundra Girl and Tundra Boy were still awake. Uh oh. That's usually not a good sign.
Knowing I would be getting up really early, they opted to stay up and see me off. They're both night owls. I am not a night owl by nature, nor am I an early bird. I seem to land somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. Most days, however, my schedule requires me to be an early bird.
Today's route was going to be the longest of the trip, at least mileage-wise. 735 miles from Sioux Falls, SD to Billings, MT. This would be the only day I would ride interstate the entire time. My goal was to knock out a good chunk of the journey to Whidbey on this first day while I was still fresh.
The temp was about 61 degrees, but the humidity was in the 90% range. That put a huge chill in the air. Knowing I would be sitting in it for a few hours before the day began to heat up, I put on my heavy leather jacket and chaps. I packed the riding gear I would wear in warmer weather in the luggage attached to my rear rack.
With everything ready to go, I said my goodbyes to the family. I promised I would send the Tundra Girl update texts regularly throughout my journey so she wouldn't wonder if I was lying in a ditch somewhere. I also promised to call home every night.
I backed the motorcycle out of the garage, loaded my route file on the GPS, then rolled out of the driveway exactly at 5 AM. That was my intended departure time. So far the trip was going right as planned.
About a mile from home, I suddenly realized I had forgotten to text Shawn that I had left the house and was indeed heading in his direction. I pulled over in a parking lot and sent him the message. It was 3 AM Whidbey time, and he was probably just getting off of work.
I got on interstate 229 heading north. On the north side of Sioux Falls I would turn west on I-90, which would eventually take me all the way to Missoula, Montana. I wasn't going that far this first day. And at the moment I only had my sights set on the first section of the day.
When designing the routes for this trip, I had broken each day into small chunks with each gas stop carefully planned out. That would make sure I wouldn't find myself in a remote area with no fuel available. I also tried to make sure each chunk was 150 miles or less in distance, so that I would be getting off the motorcycle to stretch on a regular basis. I was hoping this would keep me fresher, longer.
While I am usually very meticulous in my route planning as far as what roads I would take, in the past I was usually a lot looser on where I would actually fill up with gas. For the most part I would figure out the gas stops as I went. This year, I didn't want any stress about the possibility of running out of fuel. My first gas stop of the day was planned at Oacoma, SD, which was 150 miles from home.
As I rode north on I-229, I could see the sun was just starting to come over the horizon.
About five miles up the interstate, I came to the I-90 interchange, and proceeded to ride west on I-90. Except for my planned stops, I wouldn't leave the I-90 interstate the entire day.
Even though the speed limit on I-90 was 80 mph, I set the cruise control to 75. I find that running at 80 increases my gas consumption significantly, which means I need to stop more often to fill up. Stopping more often defeats the purpose of riding faster.
Also, as I've mentioned in the past, it's a lot less stressful to run just a little slower than most traffic and let them worry about passing me. Constantly trying to pass slower vehicles will mentally wear you out by the end of the day, and fatigue was already going to be an issue without piling additional on top.
Earlier this year in June, our region experienced significant flooding. Many towns in southeastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota were devastated by flood waters due to heavy rains. My rain gauge recorded a total of 22 inches of rain in a one week period, with 13 of those inches happening in a single 36 hour deluge. There were normally dry sections of Sioux Falls that were underwater for a week or more. My house sits on top of a large hill, so thankfully I didn't have any damage.
By the time I left on my motorcycle trip, the floodwaters had mostly subsided. A side effect of all the moisture was mosquitos. A lot of mosquitos. A level of mosquitos I had never seen before in my five plus decades of living in Sioux Falls.
As a result, I got pelted by a lot of bugs as I rode west in the early morning hours.
Before I left the house I had drunk an entire bottle of water. Knowing it's easy to get dehydrated while riding a motorcycle all day, I wanted to start off the day with some fluids.
Unfortunately, along with fluid intake comes fluid outtake. (Yes, I know I didn't use the word "outtake" correctly, but the wordplay made me grin.) Once I got west of Montrose, SD my bladder started announcing it was full.
I thought maybe I could hold it until my first gas stop, but then decided why be uncomfortable if I didn't need to be? I knew there was a rest stop coming up near Salem, SD, so I made plans to pull over.
As often happens, once I got off the motorcycle and repositioned my bladder, my need to urinate became much more urgent. I hurried into the rest stop building only to see this:
That was not good. I looked over at the ladies room and saw that it was open. I briefly considered becoming a trans person for a few minutes and using it, when a woman walked out of it. I chickened out.
A minute later, a guy came out of the unisex family bathroom. It was a gift from God. I ran into that bathroom, emptied my bladder and restored my ability to think straight.
Back out at the motorcycle, I decided to switch out to heavier gloves. The temp was still hovering in the low 60s, but extended time at interstate speeds had really put a chill into my body. Even with my grip warmers turned on, my hands were pretty uncomfortable.
My old winter gloves had reached end of life, so a couple days before this day I had gone out and bought a nice new set of Carhart insulated winter gloves. They weren't cheap, but I reasoned that I don't buy them very often and it would be nice to have a pair of quality winter gloves. Usually I buy the cheapest gloves Menards sells.
The gloves helped with the warmth, at least for a while. After about half an hour the cold, wet air had worked their way through them. My palms were toasty from the heated grips, but my knuckles and fingers were freezing.
Also, what I hadn't anticipated was how slippery these new gloves were on the handlebar grips. They had leather palms on them, which I had reasoned would be useful if I were to go down and slide on the pavement. However, they also wanted to slide on the grips. I found I had to squeeze the handlebars a lot tighter to keep my hands from sliding off.
In the days leading up to the trip, I felt some of the anxiety from the previous year's trip resurfacing. I thought I had "kicked" most of it, but as the departure date approached I found myself worrying that I was going to break down again. Knowing I had packed extra provisions for repair, and that I didn't have a looming deadline for return helped, but there was still anxiety.
The anxiety seemed to linger throughout most of this day. Thankfully, once I got through the first day it mostly went away and didn't spoil the trip.
There isn't a whole lot to see in eastern South Dakota. I just sat and rode as the miles slowly clicked by.
When crossing South Dakota, one of the milestones is the Missouri river. It roughly splits the state in half, but does so at an angle, rather than straight up and down. Because I was riding through the southern part of the state, reaching the river meant I had about 1/3 of South Dakota behind me.
As I crossed the river, I played a stupid game I've always played since I was a kid: I hold my breath from bank to bank. I don't remember exactly when I started doing it, but I was young. I will say the increased speed limits since back then have made the game easier.
The river at this point is roughly a mile wide. Traveling at 75 miles an hour means it takes about 45 seconds to cross.
I've always had the ability to hold my breath for a long time. I think it came from the thousands of hours I've spent swimming. 45 seconds of breath holding is still in the realm of "comfortable" for me, even as I've gotten older.
Back in the day, I could hold my breath underwater for nearly 2 1/2 minutes, which would really freak my brother out. I doubt I could go anywhere near that long these days, but I'm pretty sure I could still break a minute without too much trouble.
Once across the river, the foothills of the Missouri give a little more scenery, at least for a few miles.
Oacoma was to be my first gas stop of the day. It is located not far from the river, still in the foothills.
I pulled into the gas station. I was feeling really cold and was in need of a few minutes off the motorcycle.
I topped off the tank, then went inside to use the restroom and warm up a little.
I had already killed thousands of bugs. I realized it was fruitless to try and clean them all off at this point because I would immediately be out killing more of them. I did take a couple minutes to clean the windshield because it was so bug spattered that it was starting to become useless.
One of the side effects of having a time lapse camera on my motorcycle is that it would occasionally capture photos of me without me knowing. It snapped a picture after I had finished cleaning the windshield. I think from this shot you can visibly see how cold I felt.
After 20 minutes I got back on the motorcycle, and hit the interstate again to begin the second leg of the day's ride.
There's not a whole lot to see between the Missouri river and the start of the Badlands, which is 130 miles further west. Just mostly straight road with slow rolling hills and no trees to be seen anywhere.
Up to this point I think the excitement had kept me awake despite getting so little sleep. It was during this stretch that the dull interstate began to take its toll, and started to lull me. I began to struggle hard to stay awake.
It got pretty bad, to the point where several times I started to veer into the passing lane because I had nodded off. I tried my usual tricks of sticking my legs out into the air and holding them there, singing, counting out loud, etc. Despite these attempts, I was losing the battle.
I managed to make it to the Wall exit without killing anyone, including myself. Fortunately I had a planned gas stop at this exit, but by this point I would have made a stop either way.
I pulled in and got off the bike. Once I was on my feet I started to feel more alert. I topped off the tank and did my usual routine.
Knowing that once I was out on the road I would likely start falling asleep again, I decided I needed some chemical assistance to stay awake. I went into the store and bought a large coffee. Then I went outside and chugged it like a college boy chugging beer at a frat party.
Since my heart surgery I rarely drink caffeine any more. Prior to this morning, I think it had been at least three months since the last time I had a (non-decaf) cup of coffee. One of the benefits of going long stretches without caffeine is that when you do need the energy boost, it works very well.
With the coffee inside me, I got back on the motorcycle and headed out for the third leg of the day's journey.
The ten miles or so of interstate directly west of Wall are very scenic. Lots of rolling hills and curves. Compared to the scenery I would see later on the trip, it doesn't seem like anything special. Compared to the previous 150 miles I'd just ridden through, however, it was pretty darn interesting.
The change in scenery helped keep me awake long enough until the caffeine kicked in. Then I felt really alert. In fact, I felt downright great. I was so much more alert that I was tempted to drink another cup of coffee during my Rapid City stop. That's the kind of thinking that I need to temper as it can get me into trouble: "if a little bit is good, more will probably be better!"
The next planned stop was going to be in Rapid City, SD, just 60 miles down the road. This leg was going to be the shortest jaunt of my whole trip.
The company I work for has a branch in Rapid City. They had changed buildings since the last time I visited, so I thought it would be cool to swing in, say "hi" to some of my coworkers and see their new digs.
With the temperature now rising into the 80s, I figured I could also kill two birds with one stone and use the restroom at the office to change out of my leathers and into cooler clothing.
I made it to Rapid City and started following the route through town that the GPS was showing me.
My next planned gas stop was to be in Moorcroft, WY. That was a little longer between stops than usual, and I justified while planning the trip that I would be making a stop in Rapid City to see the company office, so I would have a rest break. However, it did make for a 165 mile stretch on a single tank of gas. At 80 mph speeds, I probably had enough range in the gas tank to make it, but I would be pushing the limits.
As I went by a gas station, I suddenly decided to go ahead and top off the tank. It was an impulse decision, and the only non-scheduled gas stop I would make on the whole trip. I pulled in and filled the tank, which didn't take long as I only had about 60 miles since my last fill.
As I filled the bike with gas I was looking around the area and realized it was a bit on the sketchy side. I needed the restroom, and decided I didn't want the discomfort of waiting until I got to the office. So I went inside. Seeing the people hanging out in the gas station and the parking lot didn't do much to improve my opinion of the sketchiness of the area.
I rode about another mile to our company office, and parked. There weren't any open spaces directly in front of the building, so I parked in front of a coffee shop next to our office. I walked in and Daryl greeted me. I don't think she recognized me right off the bat, one because I was wearing a lot of leather and carrying luggage, and two because I wasn't expected to be walking through the door.
My coworkers all popped out of their cubicles and talked to me for a few minutes. They offered me coffee and doughnuts, which I declined. The coffee I declined because I had just guzzled a cup an hour ago. The doughnuts I declined for reasons I will get to in a few minutes.
On my last day of work the previous Friday, the client to which I am assigned decided to do a major upgrade to the system I help them maintain. I strongly encouraged them not to do this right before I left work for two weeks, but I got outvoted. They got the system up and running around 4 PM, which gave me an hour to try and find/fix all the bugs before I left. That's not much (or enough) time.
While I was gone, my coworker Emily was going to cover for me with this client. She's an extremely bright and talented developer. In fact, I will readily acknowledge that she's much smarter than I am. However, she didn't have the years of experience that I have had with the client's system. As I half expected, the client ran into issues this Monday morning as users returned from the weekend and started using the system. In a coincidence, they had just contacted Emily for help shortly before I walked through the door.
Even though I was technically on vacation, I took a few minutes to look at some error messages and explain where the problem was likely happening, and get Emily pointed in the right direction to try and fix the issue. As I mentioned, I half expected this to happen, so I had prepared to spend a little extra time at the office.
Once Emily had enough information to start digging into the client issue, I retreated to the restroom with my luggage and gear and proceeded to change clothes. I swapped out my leather jacket for my mesh armored jacket. I also swapped out my regular jeans with leather chaps over them for my kevlar armored jeans. Slathering myself liberally with sunscreen was also part of the process.
Between changing clothes, conversations with coworkers and helping with the client issue I wound up staying at the Omnitech office for 67 minutes. A little longer than I had anticipated. It was time to get back on the road. I climbed back on the bike and headed west on I-90.
I was glad I took the time to change clothes, as the temp was now 82°F and climbing. Way too warm for my leather jacket.
I-90 between Rapid City and the Wyoming border skirts the north side of the Black Hills. It's a scenic stretch of road, although not nearly as scenic as riding down through the Black Hills themselves.
I bid a temporary adieu to South Dakota, and a hearty bonjour to the state of Wyoming. That sentence used up about 40% of all the French words I know.
My stomach was starting to rumble. As I mentioned previously, I had resisted the offer of doughnuts. I'm ashamed to admit that over the span of the previous eight years I had gained almost 70 pounds. I could try to justify it by saying I've been under an extreme amount of stress in my life (which wasn't an inaccurate statement in itself.) Or to explain it away by saying that it happens to most everybody once they turn 50.
It didn't matter the reason, the fact is that gaining nearly 10 pounds per year was not a sustainable trend if I wanted to maintain a reasonably healthy life. I decided I needed to make some changes. It wasn't a matter of knowing how to lose weight, it was a matter of putting that knowledge into practice. So in February of 2024 I got my butt in gear and started seriously working on weight loss.
Without going into exhausting details that you probably don't care about, I'll just sum up my weight loss method as my own variation on intermittent fasting. Three days a week (usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday) I will fast most of the day, consuming only 500-600 calories. Three of the other days (usually Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) I will try to eat normally, but sensibly. One day per week I don't worry about it and eat whatever I want.
This eating pattern was successful for me, and in the five months leading up to this motorcycle trip I had lost about 30 pounds. I still had another 40 pounds to go, but I was making progress.
I had some weight goals I wanted to hit for my upcoming doctor visits in August. Because of the momentum I had achieved and the goals I had set, I didn't want this motorcycle trip to screw things up. Often on my motorcycle trips I tend to go hog wild with my eating.
So I made the plan to try and stick to my normal eating pattern as much as I could while I traveled. I knew there would probably be some adjustments and/or slip ups, but that would be better than throwing caution to the wind and filling my face with anything and everything. I set a goal of not gaining any weight during the trip. I'm actually pleased to report that I lost a pound during the ten days of traveling, so my efforts were a success.
However, at this point in time I had been awake for more than eight hours, and other than the cup of coffee I had not eaten anything. I was feeling hungry. Some of this was probably driven by boredom. As I rode I had a lot of time to think about my empty stomach.
Once I made it past Sundance, WY the scenery started to get a little more interesting. As I've mentioned before on my site, Wyoming tends to be either breathtakingly beautiful, or painfully barren with very few spots that fall between the two extremes.
I arrived in Moorcroft, WY for my fourth gas stop at 12:45 PM mountain time.
I filled up the tank, and then went inside and used the restroom. When I walked back out from the air conditioning I realized how warm it had gotten.
While I was stopped, a guy in a 50's Ford Thunderbird pulled into the gas station. The time lapse camera on the motorcycle captured a picture.
Because I didn't know that the camera on the motorcycle had taken the picture of the car, I also snapped one with my cell phone camera.
My gas stop was right at 20 minutes, and I was back on the road. My next planned stop was Sheridan, WY.
By my calculations, this was the seventh time I had ridden (or driven) the stretch between Moorcroft and Gillette, WY. It's not a super exciting stretch of interstate. In fact it's dull enough that I start trying to figure out how many times I've traveled on it.
One highlight of this section is there's a place on the interstate where Devil's Tower can be seen. It's only a short stretch, and it occurs right where the interstate is high enough over the surrounding area and there aren't any trees obstructing the view. The tower was to the north and somewhat behind me, so I wasn't able to get a picture from the camera mounted on the motorcycle.
Gillette, WY is the 3rd largest city in Wyoming with a population around 35,000 people. It proclaims itself the "Energy Capital Of The Nation" due to the large quantities of coal, oil and methane mined in the area.
Just to the east of Gillette I passed by the Wyodak mine, which is a large open pit coal mine. While it's not the largest coal mine in Wyoming, it is the oldest continuously operating open pit coal mine in the United States. While this is an interesting fact, frankly the mine itself looks to be an environmental eyesore to me.
Once past Gillette, time slowed. The two hour stretch between Moorcroft and my next gas stop in Sheridan seemed to creep by slowly.
As I got closer to the Bighorn Mountains the terrain got a little more interesting in places.
But many other places were just long stretches of nothing.
I made it to Buffalo, WY which is in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains. Here I-90 swings north and heads towards Montana.
The section of interstate between Buffalo and Sheridan, WY is a little more interesting. However, by this point in the day I was pretty hot, hungry and tired so I wasn't able to appreciate the scenery as much as I should have.
At long last I made it to Sheridan, WY. This was to be my last gas stop of the day.
I filled the tank on the motorcycle, then went inside to use the restroom. I briefly thought about grabbing an iced tea, but then decided that more caffeine this late in the day wouldn't be a good idea. The coffee I drank had mostly worn off, but sometimes a bit of the caffeine lingers in my body for a long, long time which interferes with my sleep. I decided not to risk it.
I did notice the time lapse camera was bug crusted again, so I made sure to clean it off before I left the station.
Now I was on the last leg of the day's journey. Just two hours to go.
A few miles up the road I crossed into Montana. As soon as I did the temperature suddenly jumped from the mid 90s to 101°F. I could literally feel it get warmer in the space of about a mile. Strange.
During this trip I would see temps above 100 for the seven of the eight riding days. The only thing that was saving me from the heat throughout this entire trip was that the humidity was exceptionally low. Even when I would be soaked in sweat the air would quickly dry me out as it tried to soak up any moisture it could.
I had never been in this area of Montana before. Honestly, prior to this trip I had only been in Red Lodge, which is just barely over the border. I'd also been in West Yellowstone, which is in a little sliver of Montana between Wyoming and Idaho. This trip was the first time I'd been more than 10 miles into the state.
Between Sheridan, WY and Billings, MT there were parts of the interstate that were more interesting than others.
Frankly, by this point in the day I was over it. I just wanted to get to my hotel where I could rest and enjoy some air conditioning.
I saw an exit stating that the Little Bighorn monument was nearby. Later I would look at a map and see that I passed about a mile away from the battlefield. Had I known I was that close when I rode by I may have stopped. But I didn't know, so I didn't stop.
The interstate turned to the west again near Hardin, MT.
I kept hoping the town of Billings would magically appear over the horizon. My GPS would bring me back to reality showing me the actual number of miles I had remaining.
I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and overheated from the temps. My body was sore, but remarkably my butt wasn't doing too bad. The AirHawk cushion seemed to be doing its job.
At long last I reached my exit in Billings and got off the interstate. I started to look for a convenient gas station to top off the tank. I usually prefer to do this the night before rather than having to stop immediately in the morning. Despite my preference, this would be the only day during the trip where I had enough motivation to top off with gas the evening of my arrival.
There was a gas station right next to the hotel. That was convenient. I filled up the tank.
After getting gas I didn't even have to leave the parking lot. I just rode around some cars and found a place next to the hotel building where I could park. It was now almost exactly 13 hours since I left home that morning.
I went inside the hotel and checked in. The woman behind the desk gave me my room key and directed me towards the elevator. I must say the elevator was one of the slowest I've ever experienced. Had the stair not been all the way on the other side of the hotel, I would have used those instead.
I found my way up to my room and opened the door. It was pretty nice and a lot larger than I expected. Really it was a small suite with a kitchen, bedroom area and a big bathroom.
I was warm, so I cranked up the air conditioning and took off my heavy jeans. While I relaxed on the couch I was eager to see how the new time lapse camera worked. Overall I was happy with the results. I downloaded the day's photos and put them out on my cloud storage as a backup.
Having not eaten all day, I was eager to find something to snack on. First, though, I wanted to wash the layer of road grime off of me, so I showered and shaved and got into some clean clothes.
I was hungry and looked on the map to see what food options were nearby. If I was eating a full meal I would have considered getting back on the motorcycle and riding downtown. And it was really tempting to say "bag it" to my diet and eat a full meal. But I resisted.
The closest food option to me was a McDonald's across the street. Not really exciting, but it was close and I wouldn't have to ride there. I walked across to the restaurant and stood staring at the digital menu for a few minutes.
Frankly, there aren't a whole lot of food options at McDonalds that would keep my calorie level below 600. The few things that would be lower calorie wouldn't be enough food to put a dent in my hunger. Plus, nothing on the menu sounded overly tasty to me at that time anyway. I walked back out of the restaurant and formed a plan "B".
Next to the McDonalds was a homestyle restaurant, but they were closed. A block to the west was a Taco Bell and a Dairy Queen. If I couldn't find any low calorie options at McDonalds, I most certainly wouldn't find any at TB or DQ.
There looked to be some restaurants to the east, so I started walking that way. The heat was intense, but as I mentioned, at least the low humidity kept the sweating at bay.
About six blocks down the road I found a Subway and a Wendy's. Perfect! I bought a 6" chicken sub from Subway, then went into Wendy's and got a baked potato. By my calculations I had right around 600 calories worth of food. Plus as a bonus by the time I got back to the hotel I had walked a mile to obtain them.
Back at my hotel room I flipped on the TV. To my surprise, I found the Twins game being broadcast. At home our cable company was having a legal dispute with the Bally Sports Network, and so we weren't able to watch the Twins games much of this season.
I ate my supper and watched the Twins play the White Sox. The Sox were having a historically bad year, but as I watched they were beating the Twins. Bummer.
Deciding I didn't need to sit and watch the Twins lose, I chose to be productive instead. I grabbed some supplies out of the kitchen and went down to the parking lot and cleaned a layer of bugs off the motorcycle. It was really covered. I didn't try and do any detailing, I just removed the big obvious stuff. It took about an hour.
Back in my hotel room, I called home to check in. I had been texting my wife at every stop as promised, so she knew I was alive.
I was feeling tired. The clock said 8:30 PM, but being mountain time my body said it was 9:30 PM which is my normal target bedtime. I say target bedtime, because that's when I try to normally be in bed. It rarely happens, but we all need a goal.
As I was getting ready to crawl in bed the Twins tied up the game 6-6, and sent the game into extra innings. Well, I definitely wasn't going to go to sleep now until I saw the outcome.
I layed in bed and watched the Twins finally beat the Sox 8-6 in eleven innings. At least a Twins victory made it worth staying up a few minutes later than I had planned. I turned off the TV and tried to get some sleep.
The bed was actually pretty comfortable. However, the pillow was a bit on the hard side.
I was exhausted, but as I had feared the caffeine earlier in the day messed with my ability to fall asleep. It took hours for me to fall asleep, and then I was awake again during the middle of the night. It's a good thing I didn't have any more coffee or tea than I did, otherwise I may not have slept at all.
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This page last updated on 12/10/2024