I opted to skip the ordination service at our United Methodist Annual Conference in Billings because the weather forecasts all the way home starting with Sheridan, WY, read something like: 80% chance of rain, thunderstorms in area.
I don't particularly mind riding in rain (even thought I hate to start a trip in the rain), but thunderstorms can get "interesting" when you're 40 miles from a place to get out them. I had a good night's sleep (a miracle in itself!), ate breakfast at the hotel, packed and loaded the bike and pulled onto I-90 from our hotel in a gentle rain. That stopped about 10 miles east of Billings. It had felt cool when I suited up, so I had put on my heated jacket. By the time I got up to the 80mph speed limit that Montana posts on their interstate highways, I had turned the jacket and my heated grips on to a low, but toasty level.
I stopped for gas at Garryowen, about 5 miles south of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, and ran into a colleague I hadn't been able to talk to during the Conference. Dan had been in high school with my son during our three years in Casper, WY, in '80-'83. He was driving a Mercedes and I kept expecting him to catch me, but he never did. About the time I crossed the WY/MT border the rain started. It didn't quit for the next 70 or so miles. I was glad to have the heated jacket on! I stopped for gas again and rode out of the rain at Kaycee, WY, the home of rodeo cowboy/singer Chris Ledoux. Back in the early 80s, when I lived in Casper, I used to deer hunt west of Kaycee in the "Hole in the Wall" country where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang kept a cabin (that's still standing on private property) and a cave hideout that they would keep horses and the gain hidden in when folks came looking for them. The Hole-in-the-Wall was also the start of "The Outlaw Trail," a string of ranchers who kept horses for the gang, all the way from Kaycee, down through Wyoming and Utah and on down to the Mexican border.
I had stopped for gas in Wheatland, WY, 135 miles from home and almost took off the heated jacket, but decided to leave it on (although I didn't plug it back in). About 10 miles down the road, it started raining. By the time I got Chugwater (maybe 25 miles) it was raining hard and there was hail in the fields and along the shoulders. There was even some on the road that I had to ride through (it was patch of about 3' from start to finish, but crossed the whole road. After I got out of the rain about halfway to Cheyenne, I saw an usual and unusually beautiful rainbow and it turned into a pretty but cool-ish evening. After I got home at about 6PM, we had thunder and lighting and a little bit of rain here at about 9PM.
Even with the rain, Wyoming has lost the lushness of the green that was everywhere on Wednesday. It's still green, but it's tired-looking green and it won't be around more than another week or two.
Oddly enough, the trip was 523 miles, the same as Wednesday. Usually there seems to be a mile or two difference, but not today.
I don't particularly mind riding in rain (even thought I hate to start a trip in the rain), but thunderstorms can get "interesting" when you're 40 miles from a place to get out them. I had a good night's sleep (a miracle in itself!), ate breakfast at the hotel, packed and loaded the bike and pulled onto I-90 from our hotel in a gentle rain. That stopped about 10 miles east of Billings. It had felt cool when I suited up, so I had put on my heated jacket. By the time I got up to the 80mph speed limit that Montana posts on their interstate highways, I had turned the jacket and my heated grips on to a low, but toasty level.
I stopped for gas at Garryowen, about 5 miles south of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, and ran into a colleague I hadn't been able to talk to during the Conference. Dan had been in high school with my son during our three years in Casper, WY, in '80-'83. He was driving a Mercedes and I kept expecting him to catch me, but he never did. About the time I crossed the WY/MT border the rain started. It didn't quit for the next 70 or so miles. I was glad to have the heated jacket on! I stopped for gas again and rode out of the rain at Kaycee, WY, the home of rodeo cowboy/singer Chris Ledoux. Back in the early 80s, when I lived in Casper, I used to deer hunt west of Kaycee in the "Hole in the Wall" country where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang kept a cabin (that's still standing on private property) and a cave hideout that they would keep horses and the gain hidden in when folks came looking for them. The Hole-in-the-Wall was also the start of "The Outlaw Trail," a string of ranchers who kept horses for the gang, all the way from Kaycee, down through Wyoming and Utah and on down to the Mexican border.
I had stopped for gas in Wheatland, WY, 135 miles from home and almost took off the heated jacket, but decided to leave it on (although I didn't plug it back in). About 10 miles down the road, it started raining. By the time I got Chugwater (maybe 25 miles) it was raining hard and there was hail in the fields and along the shoulders. There was even some on the road that I had to ride through (it was patch of about 3' from start to finish, but crossed the whole road. After I got out of the rain about halfway to Cheyenne, I saw an usual and unusually beautiful rainbow and it turned into a pretty but cool-ish evening. After I got home at about 6PM, we had thunder and lighting and a little bit of rain here at about 9PM.
Even with the rain, Wyoming has lost the lushness of the green that was everywhere on Wednesday. It's still green, but it's tired-looking green and it won't be around more than another week or two.
Oddly enough, the trip was 523 miles, the same as Wednesday. Usually there seems to be a mile or two difference, but not today.
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