well day 3 taught us a few good lessons. Sometimes you have to just GO with it! Got a late start due to heavy rain. After picking up a few needed items at Wal Mart headed off to ride more of the Black Hills and visit Devils Tower (never made it!). About 39 miles in,the weather got bad and we had to make some equipment changes. Very happy to say the HD FXRG pants , jacket , and boots ARE waterproof and Warm.
Making a stop in Custer, I found that my ignition was shorting out and after a call to Tony at Traditions, we knew I needed a new switch or somewhere down the road we could have been stranded. The HD dealers around did not have the part but being that we were 60 miles from “Harley Mecca” AKA Sturgis, we had a chance. JP Cycles has a large store there and Matt made a call and found they had the part so off we went. The weather and the traffic made a slow go as we went by the Crazy Horse memorial and Mt Rushemore but this area is a great ride no matter what!
Part installed and a quick lunch and we were off. We missed our exit that would have put us in SE Montana heading toward White Sulpher Springs but this turned out later to be God surely watching over us.
We decided to continue west though NE Wyoming when a severe line of storms started moving east just north of us in Montana. It was real ugly, we stopped to gas up and check the weather and realized had we taken our original route, we would have been in rural Montana in 50 mph wind , hail and lighting with no way to protect ourselves! Praise Him!
We were not out of the woods. We were trying to make Sheridan WY for fuel and to check the weather. We were 20 miles away at 3800 feet MSL when the winds hit, it was bad, and I do mean bad. Then the rain and the lighting started and visibility went down to where I could just see Bates 15 feet in front of me. We were doing all we could to keep the bikes on the road. Sat the rest of the storm out in Buffalo, Wy with a few others. Almost made me believe Texas weather is a cake walk!
Finally made it to Sheridan, Wy at 9:30 PM where we called it a day after only about 350 miles!
We are so grateful God was watching over us.
Praise Him!
It’s 4:30 AM. Going to get Bates up and start toward Billings,Montana. Rain is over its cold here and foggy there so we have more weather to deal with as we head towards Kalispel, and Glacier National Park!