Gremlin's Tall Stories

6.15am and there’s an urgent knocking at the door, calling for me. While trying to gain some semblance of open eyes and an idea of where I am, Murray is up and answering the door. Ernie reports there is oil under my bike, and looks like it has leaked.

While rubbing sleep from my eyes I’m stumbling outside to take a look, and sure enough, a large puddle of oil under the bike. I’m thinking shit, how could this happen, is it because it’s on its side stand? Perhaps because I somehow overfilled the previous night? Either way, I need to figure out what’s going on, before I go anywhere. Stumble back inside, collect my keys, and wait for one of the other bikes to leave (yep, people are already leaving before 6.30am… crazy :scratch:) and park the bike up in the space, on the centre stand. Back to sleep, have to wait for the oil to settle anyway, to get a proper reading.

I didn’t get any more sleep, worrying about the bike, so eventually got up at 7.30am, as planned the previous evening. Checking on the bike, sure enough, no oil leak, she’s still full, so someone has been playing what they think is a funny prank. Won’t be funny once I find out who it is, and I’ll be telling them to leave my equipment alone. There are only about 32 of us, so it shouldn’t take too long, and I have 3 weeks left.

I was on my way across for another complimentary breakfast, when a local cop arrived, taking a look around. Some of the others ended up chatting to him, so we got a good chance to check out a USA cop car (without an involuntary ride of course). Much more kitted out than ours, a cage inserted inside, behind the passenger seat, for one person. In the other half of the rear seat was an automatic rifle locked into a mount, AOS spec gear (scope etc.), standard for these guys – not even close for us.

Cop was amazed at how our cops often work without guns, how small our country was (nothing like interstates etc.) and all the girls posed with the cop and his car (men in uniform aye?) The others continued speaking to him and I got distracted by a couple of the others talking to someone by the Unicat, who evidently had key access. Ended up chatting to Don for probably over half an hour.

The Unicat was owned by his boss, bit of a toy, worth US$600-700k and the rear was fully kitted out with a bathroom to yacht standards, teak and mahogany etc. Apparently the owner didn’t like yachts, as you spent 3 hours looking at the same thing, so a vehicle like that allowed you to see a whole lot more. Previously, it had been made available to Pari-Dakar Races, but hadn’t been used. It been on Baja 1000 type races, entered in the truck category. I was also correct about the light bar on the roof.

Don himself was also interesting as we chatted over a breakfast of pastries, orange juice and fruit. He’d raced all sorts of bikes, track and off-road and was now responsible for moving his bosses vehicles around for him, so he could use them when he was able to get spare time, then flying home, and back again to collect once done. He hadn’t thought about it, but I said, it was a pretty cool job to simply move around and maintain a fleet of vehicles.

I used the free lodge Wi-Fi to upload the last couple of day’s pictures since I’d got behind again on the blogging and pictures. Loaded the bike, noted the 28 degree weather and filled up across the road (little garage place, that allowed you to fill before paying) before leaving town at 11am, with more a more reasonable temperature of 25 degrees.

With a full load of fuel, 230 miles to cover (just under 400km) I headed east, very boring compared to some previous days, with an almost featureless landscape, devoid of trees, unless beside a river. This is what I expected from the USA and didn’t bother with pictures. Focussed on keeping my speed near the limit and covered 180km before it started to get interesting. Didn’t get passed, and passed a few vehicles. Temperature stayed around 28 degrees.

After taking 31 to avoid Worland, there was finally some scenery worth photographing (at least my camera was still working) and carried on through Ten Sleep (so named because it took the Indians ten sleeps to get there). The surprise and highlight of the day was going through Tensleep Canyon, a great road winding through and up and down the canyon, even coming close to reaching 10,000 feet (and a corresponding 10 degree drop in temperature – suddenly it felt damn cold after getting used to high 20’s).

Reaching Buffalo, I pondered stopping for a bite to eat, as it was 2pm, but only had an hour to go, so figured I’d get something there. 65-70 miles of Interstate 90 East remained and what an engineering feat. Middle of nowhere, no services for 66 miles, but the highway was 2 lanes each way, 75mph. Cranked Jessica up to 135kph indicated (she ain’t used to going that fast) and surprised myself by managing it OK (expected I might have to stop on an off ramp for a brief break). The temperature even topped out at 31.5 degrees, some of the hottest weather we’ve had so far.

Wingate by Wyndham was near the Interstate so not too hard to find. Caught at a traffic light, the real impact of 30 degrees quickly became apparent. The heat is easier to withstand when moving at 70mph. Checked in, unpacked, the hotel was pretty flash with quite a few services offered complimentary, including Wi-Fi and breakfast.

The time was right for a bit of food, so tried the local A&W, which turned out to be a fast food place much like Wendy’s or McDonalds. Still, it wasn’t too bad, and the drink was bottomless, so good for hydration, which was probably more important than the food.

Attempted to catch up on the blogs, as I had slipped behind, but between 4pm and 7pm I failed to finish a single day, watching a lot of NCIS instead. Damn marathons going for hours. Memory stick didn’t want to be detected by the laptop, then the laptop froze, all sorts of fun and games with my electronic gear so far, but at least the camera continues to work. Murray came back to the room after having some beers with the rest and we headed off to Bootleggers with the group for dinner.

We split into groups of 4 for the tables, Mark and Gerry, Murray and I being put in a separate corner we liked to call special. I had an Italian Sausage Lasagne that was quite nice and a New York Cheesecake, a proper dairy cheesecake this time, and much better.

Headed back to the hotel, continued my blogging. Shouldn’t have let Murray near the remote as he “accidentally” ordered up a porno at $16 +tax. Didn’t know you ever paid for porn?! :scratch: Suppose it will be on my debit card now, so he’s said he’ll pay for my next dinner… I think I’ll keep the remote as well. :no:

Just under 240miles completed today, tomorrow Ken wants us to ride in formation into Sturgis, but since I’m the black sheep I’ll probably continue to do my own thing.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5ABF9YY8NK6M4fTD9