My eyes popped open at 6:30 and while I couldn’t smell it, I knew that coffee was just under 300 yards away. I looked out the window to see if I needed my flashlight to hunt it down and saw that the sunrise had some photographic potential so I threw on some clothes and headed outside to wait for the sunrise to materialize. It didn’t really reach the potential I thought it had but it was still pretty nice.
After the sunrise petered out I headed over to the Java Hut for my morning fix. I knew it would still be at least an hour or two before we left and we would not eat breakfast until we’d been on the road for a while so I bought what I thought were a couple of pastries to go with our morning coffee and carried it all back to the hotel.
Did I mention that Carlton was still asleep?
Carlton was still asleep when I got back to the hotel room but it was going on 7:30 and past time to be getting showered and packed. I walked in with coffee and what turned out to be a pair of muffin tops that were dry and dense and barely edible. A couple of bites ought to last anyone a day or so. The coffee however, was great!
Today was supposed to be a mostly interstate day to get in position to ride Beartooth pass tomorrow. I looked over the map and made some suggestions that not only made it a bit shorter; it made it a bit more fun too. Instead of heading back down Hwy93 to I90, we would go down Hwy 83 to 200 to 141 to 12 to I90.
When we finally got on the road I thought I might be a little underdressed. It was pretty chilly and while it wasn’t raining, it was thinking about it awfully hard. I decided to go on like I was, surely the sun would burn this off and it would warm up pretty soon…
That makes me pretty dumb. I don’t know if it ever warmed up in Kalispell that day but it sure didn’t while we were there. When we passed through Swan Lake I stopped and got a picture of the sign for my Mom who loves Swans but stubbornly refused to believe it would stay cold for any length of time.
While I didn’t put on any extra clothes, I did seal up my vents. It wasn’t enough. By the time we stopped for gas in Seeley Lake I was on the verge of shivering. Not good. I drank some water and put on my quilted liners before we headed out again.
That fixed the problem for me and the sun was trying to come out, it just couldn’t quite make it.
Then we finally rounded a corner and there it was…Sunshine.
It warmed up pretty quickly after that and I was able to shed some gear at the next fuel stop. Luckily, Carlton was riding the Valk and fuel stops were fairly frequent.
The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful (although I90 in that part of the country is actually pretty fun) until just over an hour out from Columbus. We were at, yet again, a fuel stop and Carlton suggested swapping bikes for a bit. I tried to put him off. I told him the Interstate does not reflect the strength of the Vstrom. It can do it and do it well, it just isn’t best suited for that type of travel.
Tangent: The Vstrom has been referred to as the SUV of motorcycles. It is one of very few bikes that can do just about any type of riding you want to do. It doesn’t really shine in any one category but it can hold its own in all of them and it can better than hold its own in some. Just like a Ford Expedition can handle a dirt road with ease but you would be reluctant to take it rock crawling, the Vstrom can handle dirt roads in just about any condition but it’s not really made for off-road work. It can hang with the canyon carvers or cruise with the Goldwings. It’s a great commuter, and makes a pretty decent sport-tourer. It is the multi-tool of the motorcycle world and there are only a small handful of bikes that it can be compared to and the Valkyrie is not one of them. Compared strait up to a Valkyrie on the interstate it will loose. Compared to a DR650 on a single track it will loose. Compared to a Ninja in the twisties it would depend on the riders. But none of those bikes can compete outside their categories while the Vstrom can hold its head up across the board.
OK, I’m back.
I told him if you really want to see what it could do, the Interstate is not the right place to test it. He said he knew it could do the other stuff and wanted to see how it rode on the Interstate. Long story short, he didn’t like it and was happy to trade back and truth be told, so was I.
Columbus is not a big place. We discussed out options while, you guessed it, getting gas. There were two hotels in town; a super 8 that was under renovation and an old place down town. I walked into the Super 8 and requested a double.
The girl at the check-in counter looked in her computer and said, “I have a non-smoking room with two queens for $88.”
I looked her in the eye and said, “That’s too high.” This line was delivered totally dead pan and she wasn’t sure what to say next.
The manager, expecting trouble, came out of her office as the girl at the counter was asking me why I got a discount.
“I’m cute.” This was said with one eyebrow slightly raised and a rising inflection but not quite enough to imply a question.
The two girls doubled over in a laughing fit obviously due to my expert delivery of these rather comic lines and not to any perceived discrepancy in the factualness of the statement.
When she caught her breath, Kim was kind enough to list a rather extensive list of categories that qualified for a discount and finally found one that applied for me. I’m a veteran, so I got $20 off. Nice.
I asked for a recommendation for a place to eat and she gave me a couple but we couldn’t refuse this place:
I asked to speak with the owner since we shared a rather uncommon last name but as it turned out we didn’t share it. They just picked the name because they liked the sound of it.
Nothing like a little humor, a cold beer and a good steak to cap off a good day.
After the sunrise petered out I headed over to the Java Hut for my morning fix. I knew it would still be at least an hour or two before we left and we would not eat breakfast until we’d been on the road for a while so I bought what I thought were a couple of pastries to go with our morning coffee and carried it all back to the hotel.
Did I mention that Carlton was still asleep?
Carlton was still asleep when I got back to the hotel room but it was going on 7:30 and past time to be getting showered and packed. I walked in with coffee and what turned out to be a pair of muffin tops that were dry and dense and barely edible. A couple of bites ought to last anyone a day or so. The coffee however, was great!
Today was supposed to be a mostly interstate day to get in position to ride Beartooth pass tomorrow. I looked over the map and made some suggestions that not only made it a bit shorter; it made it a bit more fun too. Instead of heading back down Hwy93 to I90, we would go down Hwy 83 to 200 to 141 to 12 to I90.
When we finally got on the road I thought I might be a little underdressed. It was pretty chilly and while it wasn’t raining, it was thinking about it awfully hard. I decided to go on like I was, surely the sun would burn this off and it would warm up pretty soon…
That makes me pretty dumb. I don’t know if it ever warmed up in Kalispell that day but it sure didn’t while we were there. When we passed through Swan Lake I stopped and got a picture of the sign for my Mom who loves Swans but stubbornly refused to believe it would stay cold for any length of time.
While I didn’t put on any extra clothes, I did seal up my vents. It wasn’t enough. By the time we stopped for gas in Seeley Lake I was on the verge of shivering. Not good. I drank some water and put on my quilted liners before we headed out again.
That fixed the problem for me and the sun was trying to come out, it just couldn’t quite make it.
Then we finally rounded a corner and there it was…Sunshine.
It warmed up pretty quickly after that and I was able to shed some gear at the next fuel stop. Luckily, Carlton was riding the Valk and fuel stops were fairly frequent.
The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful (although I90 in that part of the country is actually pretty fun) until just over an hour out from Columbus. We were at, yet again, a fuel stop and Carlton suggested swapping bikes for a bit. I tried to put him off. I told him the Interstate does not reflect the strength of the Vstrom. It can do it and do it well, it just isn’t best suited for that type of travel.
Tangent: The Vstrom has been referred to as the SUV of motorcycles. It is one of very few bikes that can do just about any type of riding you want to do. It doesn’t really shine in any one category but it can hold its own in all of them and it can better than hold its own in some. Just like a Ford Expedition can handle a dirt road with ease but you would be reluctant to take it rock crawling, the Vstrom can handle dirt roads in just about any condition but it’s not really made for off-road work. It can hang with the canyon carvers or cruise with the Goldwings. It’s a great commuter, and makes a pretty decent sport-tourer. It is the multi-tool of the motorcycle world and there are only a small handful of bikes that it can be compared to and the Valkyrie is not one of them. Compared strait up to a Valkyrie on the interstate it will loose. Compared to a DR650 on a single track it will loose. Compared to a Ninja in the twisties it would depend on the riders. But none of those bikes can compete outside their categories while the Vstrom can hold its head up across the board.
OK, I’m back.
I told him if you really want to see what it could do, the Interstate is not the right place to test it. He said he knew it could do the other stuff and wanted to see how it rode on the Interstate. Long story short, he didn’t like it and was happy to trade back and truth be told, so was I.
Columbus is not a big place. We discussed out options while, you guessed it, getting gas. There were two hotels in town; a super 8 that was under renovation and an old place down town. I walked into the Super 8 and requested a double.
The girl at the check-in counter looked in her computer and said, “I have a non-smoking room with two queens for $88.”
I looked her in the eye and said, “That’s too high.” This line was delivered totally dead pan and she wasn’t sure what to say next.
The manager, expecting trouble, came out of her office as the girl at the counter was asking me why I got a discount.
“I’m cute.” This was said with one eyebrow slightly raised and a rising inflection but not quite enough to imply a question.
The two girls doubled over in a laughing fit obviously due to my expert delivery of these rather comic lines and not to any perceived discrepancy in the factualness of the statement.
When she caught her breath, Kim was kind enough to list a rather extensive list of categories that qualified for a discount and finally found one that applied for me. I’m a veteran, so I got $20 off. Nice.
I asked for a recommendation for a place to eat and she gave me a couple but we couldn’t refuse this place:
I asked to speak with the owner since we shared a rather uncommon last name but as it turned out we didn’t share it. They just picked the name because they liked the sound of it.
Nothing like a little humor, a cold beer and a good steak to cap off a good day.
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