Saturday, June 15, 2013

Day 4 of the Trip to ? :Antelope and Oil Wells...

I debated staying another day in Belle Fourche, and spent quite a bit of time on the computer looking at places to go. It was hard to give up the free camping! Thank you Kent! I didn't leave until almost 10:00.

Yesterday, I was going to take video of Spearfish Canyon, but the battery in the GoPro was dead. I charged it until the light went of. This morning, on the way out of town, I took Spearfish Canyon Road.... Same problem! Dead battery! I thought I had turned off the WiFi. Maybe it's the Old Dog-New Tricks thing... I think I have it figured out now. As I type this, It's charging...again!

At the end of the canyon, I turned right towards Wyoming.
A few pictures from along the way.

At the Wyoming-South Dakota border I stopped for the usual State sign pictures.

I stopped for gas in Newcastle, WY and headed for Wright, WY, 70 miles away...
20 miles form town...

and still 50 miles from the next town. In the middle of the Thunder Basin National Grasslands

Lots of Antelope and oil wells out there..

10 miles before Wright, WY is the Thunder Basin Coal Company... And huge coal trains everywhere...

There was some road construction on WY 387 and a flag girl was stopping traffic. When I got there I was the first one in line. She was pretty chatty and I wasn't watching traffic. She got a terrified look on here face and started frantically waving her flags!! I headed the bike for the ditch. A semi pulling 2 huge oil tanks came to a stop just a few feet behind me. I could smell the roasting brakes! Way to pay attention A$$ Clown!!!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I took WY 220 from Casper down to Rawlins. About half way between the two is a rest stop with historical information about early settlers heading west. Below is Independence Rock and Devils Gate, both were landmarks on the westward trail.

Tonight, I'm tenting at the Rawlins KOA. The Gopro has charged and I'm pretty sure I have the WiFi/Bluetooth OFF... We'll see tomorrow!

I also noticed that my MPG is improving. I don't know if it's the higher elevations, I'm over 6000', or if it's because I hadn't done much riding since I put it away for the winter. When I left home the same gas was in the tank that was in there all winter....????





7 comments:

  1. Pictures 7 & 8 looks like a high speed road.
    Fantastic picture of the lake to Eric.

    Very scenic country side.

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    1. 7 & 8 are out on Wyoming Highway 450.. 70 miles of open, rolling grassland. The only problem with high speed out there are the Antelope that graze on the taller grasses along side the road. I hit one in '06.... Don't really want to do that again!

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  2. Those photos make it easy to feel the wide open and I like that feeling!

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    1. My favorite places are free of people and out in the middle of nowhere. It makes me want to head for Nevada......?

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  3. The Thunder Basin photo made me sigh. Late summer/fall when the grasses start to turn color...oh my.

    Very sweet trip you are enjoying.

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    1. I'll have to time a trip to see that. I've only seen it in the lush greens of early summer.

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  4. To avoid the GoPro dead battery issue, I bought an extra set of batteries on Amazon. I thought I would have problems when I bought the LCD BacPac, but so far things are working fine. Nice images!

    btw, I noticed you deleted some of your traveling threads at the zx14 forum.

    Riding My Own Biography
    NINJA ZX-14 MotoVlog

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