US-89 Day-8 "I Run Into a Mammoth in Hot Springs"

I identify a local motorcycle dealer in Billings, Montana called Hi-Tech Motor Sports that also does service. They are to open at 9:00 am, so I get over there at 8:00 am in the event someone shows up early, nobody does of course. At 9:00 AM I get in the door and pick out a tire on the rack that will work with my bike. Sue, the service manager gets someone working on the bike ASAP. I am excited, because at this rate I will be out the door by 10:00 am.  

Then it happens.  The guy working on the bike calls Sue over and a bunch of them start pointing to the axle arm and scratching their beards. Finally, Sue comes to me and tells me that the axle nut is stripped out and they must figure out a work-around because they do not have the OEM part. Of course, figuring this all out took forever, but they did and I am truly grateful. I finally got out the door at 11:30 am, ran back to the hotel and checked out.  Back on the road at noon. 

I just trucked on East on the 90 and finally get off to back roads, because I want to go to Hot Springs, South Dakota to see the Mammoth exhibit they have. 

At a construction stop, I pulled up next to a Yvonne (fabricated) who was wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans, blue tennis shoes, and had a long pony tail and a helmet piked on the back of the bike. She also had a snake or an S on her neck, I could not figure it out without staring. As with most people I run into, Yvonne smiled and asked me where I was from and where I was going. I told her, and also told her that I had a bad tire issue earlier. Yvonne said some other things that I just could not hear, mostly because her very large motorcycle had a exhaust issue and partly because I had a very good helmet, with an inside hat and ear plugs. I asked where she was from and she pointed up the road and said “here”.  There was only 1 town up the road, so I guess “here” really meant here. I finally passed her, since I could not stand the noise of her bike and gave her a friendly goodbye wave. We later passed through the town, which was quiet unlike Yvonne’s bike.

When I was 18, I was working on a bison archeological dig near Chadron, Nebraska. Dr. Agenbroad, the professor in charge of the dig received a phone call from a developer in Hot springs that had just uncovered some Mammoth bones when bulldozing a housing project. Dr. Agenbroad asked several of us to go to Hot Springs and start excavating the site in order to help determine what was there. Even though I was supposed to be heading back to Illinois, I stayed and went up to hot springs to help out.

When the 4 or 5 of us got to hot spring we started digging around the bones, even though the bulldozer was still removing tons of earth just feet from where we were digging. I was the first person to uncover mammoth tusks.  I was only able to stay about a week at the site because I needed to start school. By then others from the Chadron site had also come up to help. 

42 years later I was able to finally come back to the Mammoth site in Hot Springs. Currently there is a building surrounding the excavations which that are still going on. I jumped off my bike, purchased a ticket to the exhibit and tell the girl at the desk that I was here 42 years ago on the first day of the dig. She kind of gives me that “yes, and I am the queen of England look”, but I was able to name people and events that she knew to be true. She also told me that Dr. Agenbroad had passed away a few years ago, but Jim Meade, who I knew at the site was now the director. I took the tour and I was just amazing to see the story of what they have found over the last 40 years. Of course, we had no idea that what the story was back then. If you want to know more, then you will need to read about it online.  What was interesting was that they had marked the point where we first started digging with a suspended red ball from the ceiling. The ball is now about 30 feet in the air. I was able to tell others on my tour the story of how I first came to what was then just a dirt hill 42 years ago.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

By the time I get out of the exhibits it is 8:00 PM at night. I know there are state park camp sites down the road, so I go there. When I get to the park the ranger tells me that all 165 sites are full. I guess that could be since it is Saturday night. I decide to head east to a free site I see on the map.  Unfortunately, I do not estimate how far that camp site is.  Later on I determine that the camp site is 2 hours away.  The road, highway 18 is very dark as it really goes nowhere. The road has been under much construction and at one point the road gives way to about 30 feet of gravel.  Not cool when you are on a bike and going 65 miles per hour in the middle of the night .There were mega bugs and they flew by me, and into me as my new high beams laminated them in the dark of the night. I hoped there would be a hotel in the many little towns that I passed by, but it was not to be. At one point the wind was blowing sand across the road to the point I could not see 10 feet in front of me. 

After two hours I finally reached the free camp site. It was in the center of a sketchy town. I circled the city park twice, and after a person in a house rolled down their window and started yelling at me, I decided to leave before the police showed up. It was now 10:00 at night. 

I made the executive decision to head North back to the 90, which was 2 hours away. I determined there was nowhere in the outback to camp, and there were no hotels. I decided that after hitting the 90 and finding no hotels then I would just keep driving all night if I had to. 

I rolled into Murdo at 12:00 PM, which I later found out was really 1:00 PM because of the new central time zone. After being rejected by 2 hotels, I found a nice hotel that took me in. Interesting place because they had a full row of Tesla charging stations. The lady at the counter told me they were part of an initiative to have charging stations every 150 miles across the country. I hit the sack at 1:30 PM and was quickly asleep.

US-89 Day-7 "Up and Over Glacier National Park"

I wake at 6:00 AM in the Glacier Campground to the sound of rain on the tent. Thinking that it will not get any better any time soon, I drop the tent and pack up, while the rain get worse.  I decide to go to the onsite breakfast building to check it out. I am expecting a bowl of eggs and some toast. Instead, the food is incredible. This might have been the best food on the whole trip. 

I am the first one at the breakfast table, and then Bill and Melinda (fabricated) from Seattle arrive. Melinda is ready to start her PHD in cancer research. They are from Seattle and think nothing of the rain other than wishing that they had brought their bike riding rain gear. They are riding up and down the highway in Glacier. Melinda is originally from Chicago and enjoys Seattle.  Melinda tells me that they were 6 hours late getting to Glacier because their train hit a semi-truck. She says the conductor told her that this was the worst accident he had seen in his 20 years on the train. Melinda was pretty bummed out about having to wait 6 hours on the train. 

I hit the road and immediately get into the West gate of the park. There was no line.  I just drive up to the ranger and show him my annual pass. Done deal, unlike Yellowstone where you can catch a movie while you wait in line.  

It was just beautiful. You immediately see the lake and the towering mountains with snow. I twisted up the slope where I had been last October. Last October I flew into Kalispell to interview a project manager. Part of the interview with her was that she had to take me for a small hike in Glacier. We could only go as far as Logan Pass before the gates were closed. 

There was just so much to see as I rode up the mountain. At one point I stopped with another car and filmed the scene unfolding before our eyes. As we were standing there a mountain of a cloud came straight up and covered the entire landscape. I could not believe what I was seeing, and neither could the young couple that had stopped with me. 

There are some points in your life that you share with others what you will never forget. This was one of them. I did not know the couple, but I am sure they will never forget what we all saw, even though it was just for a brief moment in our lives. 

I get to Logan Pass where I park to check on the visitors center. The center was built about 1966. My family and I were in Glacier about 1966, but I do not recall seeing the center.  The center is jam packed with tourist from all over the world. There was a big guy on a Goldwing that had been with me at several points during our accent. He now had a hiking hat on and gave me a friendly wave from across the road. 

My favorite moment at the visitor center was when a young ranger girl was talking to a bunch of kids. I heard her say “and the most dangerous animal in the park is the squirrel in the parking lot. They look cute, but then they can bite you hard.”  As a kid I remember chasing these same Glacier squirrels. I do not think her talk will stop the kids in the least. 

I continue down the other side of the mountain, and my time at Glacier quickly comes to an end. I am out the East side in less than an hour. What a wonderful experience, but way to short in time.

I then go south on the 89 and I am amazed at how quickly the landscape turns into flat plains.

I keep moving for a couple of hours and see yet another well farkled DL650 in front of me at a construction wait zone. I pull up right next to him and tell him I love his bike. He has stickers from all over on his panniers. This guy has obviously been around. We briefly talk, but then the construction controller tells us to get going. I lead the way and we quickly get to a major highway where I turn right. To my delight my new friend also turns right. I am now so excited. I have a V-Strom riding buddy on my trip. I have visions of us traveling across Montana together, two V-Stroms hand in hand. 

We go about 5 miles and my partner suddenly signals me to pull over with him. He is saying something about the battery and needing a jump, but I am having a hard time understanding him due to his accent.  I tell him that the rest area is just 1 mile up the road, but he tells me that his bike is dead right now and he cannot make the bike go. I help him jump the battery and it starts his bike, then when you disconnect the jump, the bike stops. He fidgets with the bike for 20 minutes, but I tell him that it is probably the generator that is dead. 

Then I notice that he has Canadian Quebec license plate. I say “You are French Canadian”, and he kind of responds with a “what’s it to you?”  I give him the “really, it is cool” and tell him I love the city of Quebec and Montreal. I tell him he needs to call for a tow, because there is nothing more that I, or he can do at this point.  I tell him my name is Alan, and he says he has a friend by the name of Alan.  His name is Martin and he has been traveling for a month. I give him the telephone number of a local parts company, wave goodbye to him and take off leaving him to call the tow company, which I hope he does. So ends my V-Strom riding partnership after 5 miles. 

After a couple more hours, two motorcycle guys pull up behind me at a road construction stop. One of the two guys then pulls up next to me and tells me that he can see the cords popping out of my rear tire. I am now totally terrified, because I knew the tire was not in the best shape, but I had no idea it was that far gone. Here I am out in the middle of Montana and my tire is gasping for its last breath.   I decide to ride very slowly to Billing Montana and try to get a new tire. 

I arrive in Billing late in the day and check into the Best Western hotel. I will tackle the tire problem on Saturday morning after doing some research on the internet for service options.

US-89 Day-6 "North to Glacier National Park"

I wake in Laurel, Montana after a great night sleep. I book up I-90 West to catch US 93 to Kalispell. The headwinds winds are horrific and I lose about 100 miles per tank traveling at 80 miles per hour. For a good period of time I have the bike at full throttle just to maintain the 80 mile per hour speed limit. 

For some reason I thought the road was going to be empty and there would be little so see in regard to towns. Quite the opposite, because I saw many small town around Flathead Lake. What a beautiful lake, with a number of small islands and many marinas.  

I got to Kalispell about 4:30 PM and decide to try to get into an independent campground called Glacier campground right outside the Glacier National Park gates. I get in and find that the people are nice and the campground to be very nice and comfortable. The owners keep two big dogs in the lounge area of the office. 

I am sitting in the lodge area of the Glacier Campground, and Marylou (fabricated) also sitting in the lodge asks me where I am from, and where I am going. I tell her my plan and then she tells me that she is a greeting card sales person for Northern Montana. This campground is one of her big customers. Marylou says her brother lives in Fullerton, CA, but they were born in Buffalo. I tell Marylou that my wife’s family left Buffalo and moved to New Mexico to escape the snow. Marylou, looking out the window at a patio umbrella then tells me about a female relative in Buffalo that recently had a patio umbrella fly up during a wind storm, and come down into her eye socket, where she lost her eye. I tell her that must have been a horrible experience for the women. Then Marylou is then off to talk to the owners of the campground. 

I go to Fred’s bar at the Glacier park entrance and have dinner and a beer. Alan the bar keep is a great guy.  Alan’s mom was Irish and his dad was Armenian. Alan has a great game at the bar. For 2 dollars you get to roll 5 dice at once. If they all come up the same then you get the prior losers dollars in a jar. Everyone loses and Alan adds your two dollars to the jar. I decline to play because you are just giving your money away with such low odds.