Little Gems of Late Summer...

All around my property grow wild berries...

I'll be honest and say that, I knew we had Raspberries growing here, but I wasn't sure if the dark ones were Blackberries or not. I had to Google how to tell them apart. I found THIS interesting web site. It does a great job of explaining the difference.

As it turns out, we have Red Raspberry, Black Raspberry and Blackberry plants scattered all through out the yard. They're growing right along edge the driveway and in the open areas.

I have to say that the Blackberries are my favorite... They are SO sweet. As I was making this post, I finished off my small portion of them, and saved a handful for Nancy...

I've also spent some time over at the neighbors place. He's the one that's building the garage and had offered me any of the downed trees... Well, I've just about cleared the place out. There's one log still to get, it's probably 10" in diameter and maybe 16' long. It will have to wait for colder weather, there's a hornet's nest in the ground next to the log... I'll be patient and let the frost take care of the problem.

I figure I now have 7.5 "face cords" of firewood. That would make a single row stack, 4' high by 60' long. I only have a small amount left to split and stack. If I pull anymore wood out the woods this fall, I'll have to make another rack to hold it. Everything outside is getting full.

No Motorcycle content in this post, except to say that I took the Wr250X out for a spin. I had to run over to the local hardware store to get a couple things to fix my bbq grill. The grill needed so attention. So, I took it all apart, replaced the regulator, knocked a big spider out of one the cast iron burners, cleaned the debris out of the bottom, put it all back together and fired it up It will reach over 700 degrees F now!!!

Home!

Wednesday....

We Started the morning with breakfast at Dori's Cafe in White Sulphur Springs...

From then on it was pretty much just gas up and go for the next 630 miles... We arrived in Gettysburg, SD just as the sun was setting.

One of the things we like to do on a road trip is, never make a plan or a reservation. It has worked for us. I'm sure there are others that have to plan each day and never travel without making reservations for the night.... Not us... We found an affordable motel in town.

I'm sure it was a very nice place back in the 60's, and it has survived time quite well. It was still a decent place for a $49.00 double/$39.00 single. The bathroom was interestingly tiled..

Thursday...

Back on to east bound US-212...

Another day of gas up and go... I split off from John near down town Minneapolis and turned to go north. After a 537 mile day it was good to be home.

Even the Deer were waiting for me to get home. I saw several along the side of Hwy 63, and Momma Deer and her baby were waiting in my driveway.

15 days on the road and 4663 miles...

I'm glad to be home!

A Low Mileage Tuesday.

We set a new late starting time record this morning... 10:15, but it doesn't matter, we're on vacation. There was a railroad trestle right behind the Super 8 Motel in Cut Bank. We watched a few trains cross it the night before. This morning we must have timed things wrong, no trains.

We continued our western direction on US-2 to Chester. At Chester, we turned south on 223 down to Fort Benton. There were some scenic old farm buildings weathering away in the fields...

From Fort Benton, we took 228 down to Belt, then 89 past Sluice Boxes State Park...

Through the little town of Neihart...

Over the Kings Hill Summit...

We stopped for a late lunch at Dempsey's in White Sulphur Springs. After a good burger, we walked outside and looked at the sky. there were big dark clouds in the direction we wanted to go. We decided to stop and stay at the Spa Hot Springs Motel. We took advantage of there hot mineral pools... I should sleep good tonight!

Tonights sunset...

The Motel...

Monday in Montana...Leaving the Mountains

After waking up in the tent to a 43 degree morning, I learned that sleeping on a cot was nice, but I should have added my insulated air mattress. My back was cold. We packed and continued north. We had breakfast at the Hungry Bear. They had an interesting appetizer on the menu...

Rocky Mountain Oysters..... eewwww.

We stayed on 83 up to Big Fork, the over to Kalispell. From Kalispell, we took US-2 west, to a few miles west of Happy's Inn. We turned right onto a Forrest Service road. It was scenic but a ROUGH 50 miles!

Trego, MT was the point where we stopped heading west and made the turn east towards home. Momma deer was with her 2 babies eating apples under the apple tree...

From Trego, we turned right onto 93, and eventually picked up US-2 again, and rode towards Glacier National Park. The weather in the mountains looks bad, so we elected to ride US-2 around the park rather than go up over top to ride Going To The Sun Road.

Once out of the park, the terrain turned rolling plains. We'll continue east and south, and will try to avoid the oil fields and road construction of eastern Montana and western North Dakota.