Montana day 12

Today's scenery!
Yes there still are phone booths!
My kind of place, out of the way, just a nice little "General Store"
Plaque at head waters of the Missouri river.
The head waters of the Missouri River! Another check off of my "Bucket List"


I think it is day 12? days, times etc. are just starting to run together, that means I am getting into the rhythm of the road! Today was a mixed bag, but ended up very well.
I started the day in "Three forks" Montana at the "Broken Spur" motel, it was a pretty nice place, until about 6:00am and a couple of rooms full of construction workers got an early start and wanted everyone else to be part of their wake up! Why people are so inconsiderate is beyond me, or just perhaps stupid. I stopped in to the office were they had a little Continental breakfast, I don't think there were any hotel guests there, the guy who owned the place was there and 1/2 dozen of his little "coffee clutch" cronies. I struck up a little conversation, and it was quite obvious that the owner was "King" of the roost. He was one of these types that thought he knew everything, but when you listened to him and the way he butchered the English language, you knew his IQ was double digit at best. Aside from being the owner of the hotel, he also was a plumber! I did not have the heart to tell him that the water faucet in my room was plumbed backwards. He then proceeds to tell the crew that he is going to make "glue" out of ground up bug "guts" as they stick to anything and it will be the best thing since super glue. He looks at me wanting my approval, and asks how hard is it to clean off bugs from your windshield. I almost said, about as hard as cleaning the "shit" off of my boots from this conversation. The sad thing is was that he was dead serious.
As I was loading up my bike in the parking lot, this guy comes over who was with his wife on a "Gold wing" towing a trailer and starts espousing his wisdom about motorcycle travel and started criticising my bike and gear. The night before, he and his wife had been bitching at each other for the better part of an hour, when the first got to the hotel. Once again, I held my tongue, I wanted to tell him, that he could get ride of 150lbs of nagging dead weight if he would have left her at home, and keep you thoughts to yourself, but I did not, I thanked him for his suggestions and was on my way!

(A Kinder more gentle Tim)

I paid homage to the head waters of the Missouri River, It was somewhat uneventful, much like my visit to Mt. Sunflower, it was one of the secondary things on my "Bucket" list, I took some time and reflected on what it must have been like for Lewis and Clark, when they found this area as virgin wilderness, it is amazing that those events took place a little over 200 years ago, and as a country we have come so far. Looking at the big picture many times can put things into an interesting perspective.

I knew it was going to be a big day of riding ahead, my plan was to get to Kalispell Mt. today so that I could spend a day in "Glacier" National Park and hit Canada on Sunday.

The ride to Helena was pretty uneventful, and a strong head wind was picking up, I was dreading that for the next 300 miles. I had lunch a Taco Johns in Helena, and once again was confronted by a "Know it all" motorcyclist, he was driving a BMW and was trying to be nice, but every other sentence he was putting down my bike and how I was going about my trip. He was a real jerk, however once again I was nice and acted appreciative of his comments. He was also going to Alaska, and was meeting up with some friends in Missoula, he offered to let me join the group, but thought that It would be difficult for me to keep up! In his next breath he told me that he had to be in Missoula on Monday to have some work done on his bike, a problem with the starter.
He was dressed in a real fancy riding suit and tried 3 times to mount his loaded bike. It was loaded about as much as mine. I was really laughing in side. He was a slim 20 something about half my size. After he finally mounted his bike, I walked over to him and said, "I don't want to come off as an ass, but I can show you an easier way to get on your bike". He gave me a sneer, and I showed him my technique. Basically, I turn my handle bars far to the right, stand next to my front wheel, bend over at a 45 degree angle and do a "Karate" kick right into the seat. Needless to say he was dumbfounded, he pulled up next to me and then was real nice, and expressed his desire that I meet up with his friends in Mizzula, I told him thanks for the offer, but I travel alone!

The rest of the day was "picture perfect" for a motorcycle ride, I got to Kalispell, around 4:00pm, checked into a motel. I will not go into details, but I went into a local casino, and in short order won a few dollars, just probably enough to pay for my next 5 days thru Canada. I will not be making any phone calls for the next few days, as roaming charges are $1.50 per minute. I will try to keep the blog up to date.

Tim