Four Corners Tour – Ride Day 20 – Tour Day 17 – August 3, 2015 – Monday

Start Time: 7:46 AM MDT
Stop Time: 4:52 PM MDT
Start Location: Bozeman, MT
Stop Location: Red Lodge, MT
Lodging: Red Lodge KOA
Breakfast: Campground (biscuits and gravy, hash browns, fruit)
Lunch: Old Faithful Lodge (teriyaki noodles with vegetables and mushrooms)
Dinner: Campsite (PB&J on flour tortilla, peach, chocolate bar)
Miles Traveled Today: 286
Weather: 54-88, Overcast all day

Route: US-191, US-89, US-212

Today’s ride started just a little later than most. The KOA Campground provided a complimentary breakfast, so I decided to give it a shot, even though they didn’t start serving until 7:30.

The Biscuits and Gravy were pretty good. It was a nice break from my cereal or bagel routine.

Since I headed out a little later, I got to see the sunrise at the campground instead of on the road.

After breakfast, I noticed a bunch of bikes across the street in a field. I’ve been told that a lot of the Sturgis guys will camp anywhere.

  
Next stop, Yellowstone.

And shortly after pulling through the gate, I spotted this teeny, tiny sign (one more state under my belt).

And you can’t go to Yellowstone without dropping by to watch Old Faithful give a good ole belch.

  

Apparently several other people had the same idea today.

  
I was very blessed to only have to wait 5 minutes for Old Faithful to do her business, then it was time to eat lunch.

The teriyaki noodles with vegetables and portabella mushrooms in the Old Faithful Lodge looked great, so I settled on that.

I was a little surprised that a pretty good portion of Yellowstone is just not that attractive, and I never saw a single yellow stone. But there are other parts that make up for the not so attractive parts.

I’m pretty sure I took more pictures today than any other day of my trip, so I’m just going to have to add the ‘best of’ pictures to keep from boring you to death.

 

Met this couple from New Hampshire at one of the pull offs, and had a great conversation. Ultimately they ended up getting a campsite at the same campground I’m at tonight, so we’ll probably get a little more time to visit this evening.

That is if we are not blown away first. As I am writing this, my tent is flipping and flopping all over the place, even with the changing room staked down.

After leaving the park, I found what I came for, Bear Tooth Pass, and ladies and gentlemen, this road WILL NOT DISAPPOINT. Wow, what a road, and the scenery ain’t bad either.

Thank you Lord for keeping the Dunlop’s down, and the GrandBob up today.

Tomorrow I’m headed for Mt. Rushmore, and all the chaos that comes with the Sturgis Ralley. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much 60% chance of rain everywhere I will be. Lord, could you help me find the 40% area where it’s not raining?

Touring Tip:

Bag full of bags. You know, the Walmart bag full of Walmart bags that never seems to get thrown away. It’s a good thing they don’t get thrown away because they are second only to duct tape in usefulness on a tour like the one I’m on.

I use them for a trash bag in the tent, a laundry bag, as gloves from time to time while dealing with dirty things, and every now and then, you find a whole new use for them.

On this trip, it was to keep my Almond Milk carton from getting soggy sitting in the water in the cooler. Last long trip, they made great rain socks, they kept my feet dry in a monsoon.

Product Review:

The Yeti cooler was a larger than expected expenditure for this trip, and I really second guessed myself for several weeks on the final decision to get one, but a couple days before I pulled out of Smyrna to start this journey, I bit the bullet, and got one.

Since I did not have anything to compare it to, I just had to take Yeti’s word on the quality and attributes.

The first test came when I got to Las Vegas for a trade show I was working. I parked the bike in the parking garage of the hotel on a Tuesday afternoon, right after filling the cooler with fresh ice.

Saturday morning, when it was time to leave, I went down to check on the ice level, and the condition of my provisions. This is what I found.

After sitting in a parking garage in Las Vegas for Three full days, there was still several inches of ice in the bottom, and everything was still nice and cold.

The couple I met in Yellowstone today have a Timeout Motorcycle Camper that is very similar to mine, and it was equipped with an Igloo cooler, so I thought it would be useful if I could find out how often they purchased ice.

Bea immediately said they were purchasing ice twice a day, so the Yeti apparently is a little better than twice as good as an Igloo cooler (I only purchase ice once per day, and am able to skip a day every now and then). I also feel the dry storage basket is a feature that I would hate to be without.

Now the two cons I can think of. The first is simply that the handles, while designed very well for carrying the cooler, flop all over the place in the wind behind the bike, and the second is that I would like to see the drain plug tethered to the cooler in some way.