On the road with Buddy and Cally Cat too!!

I woke up yesterday morning on my east coast body clock time and couldn’t go back to sleep, so when my neighbors who are camped next to me, Javier and Estela Venegas, from Corpus Cristi, Texas got up I had already been awake for four hours, but I was ready to take my first ride up over Beartooth Pass with them, they are just breaking in their brand new Honda Goldwing and were going to go all the way to Yellowstone National park, so I had asked them if they didn’t mind, I would like to ride part of the way with them, they are here to attend the Honda Goldwing “WING DING” National Rally being held in Billings, Mont. about 45 miles from here.

We left the KOA at 7am and headed into town to get gas at $3.05 a gallon for regular and then headed up to the Beartooth. We were just about by ourselves on the road up until our stop at the rest/observation area at 9,600 feet, with Javier leading the way so he could keep the speed down until his WING’s engine was broken in. The temperature was 46 degrees at the rest area, so I was glad to ride into the sunny areas of the road, until it warmed up, which stated to happen when we reached Cook City, Mont. Where I would leave the Venegas.

I stopped for gas in Cooke City, where it was $3.70 a gallon for regular, but my Virago got 53 mpg, due to the very slow speeds that Javier was riding which didn’t bother me, as it made looking at the sites a lot easier while still paying attention to the road. We only had one car come up behind us that we allowed to pass us once we could safely pull over for them, so t was easy to maintain the slower speeds that early in the day. I said goodby to the Venegas, but would see them later that evening back at the KOA.

I decided to get something to eat and went over to the Soda Butte Lodge / Prospector Restaurant for some brunch and when I was done, I headed back to Red Lodge over Beartooth Pass again, but this time there was almost a steady flow of traffic coming in the opposite direction, but I managed to keep the road in my direction to myself by stopping for photos from time to time and taking breaks and waiting to start up again after I let all of the traffic go by giving it plenty of time to give me plenty of distance between us. I haven’t checked it yet, but I’m sure that my mileage coming back is not going to be as good, as I rode a lot faster on the way back, going into the twisties a lot faster but still at a safe speed, it is a fun road to ride and as you can see by some of the photos on my trip album it is very scenic, with snow still accumulate in spots.

One of my concerns had been how my Yamaha Virago would perform at these higher altitudes, being that it is an older style carbureted engine and it might be affected by the thinner air, but it performed flawlessly so I was very satisfied. On my way back to the KOA I stopped at the NAPA rats store and ordered the new filters for the ‘Bird, so today I have my work cut out for me, with changing out all of the filters.

Sandy, Karen, John and Rickie will be here Saturday morning so I will get to ride with them up over beartooth Pass all over again then and I’m looking forward to it. I hope the weather is as pleasant then, for our ride.