Beautiful start this morning. The sun was in the perfect position to make the river next to us shine a silver so bright it was hard to look at. This was one of the most rapid filled rivers we’ve seen. It must have been pretty dangerous because we saw zero people rafting or really anywhere near it.
We didn’t gas up this morning because we knew there was a station near the edge of our range. Also, when we start the day with a full tank we typically don’t make our first stop till we are almost out of gas. This makes for a long first leg of the day, sometimes too long. So we are feeling pretty good about our genius plan. What could go wrong?
We find the gas station, the pumps have a sign on them.. Never good.  They say check inside with the clerk first. Right as I notice the pumps have no power, Swampkat sees the reality sign in the window.  Great. We’ve come to far too go back.  Our only hope is a sign we saw prior to pulling into the station. Next gas 30 miles. I’m down to 3 chicklets of fuel. Remember that gum that tastes like soap called chicklets?  That’s where the name comes from. We can probably make it we decide, not as though we have a choice.
As we ride I almost immediately lose a chicklet and my reserve light comes. Now I’m counting the miles, who cares how pretty this is I need gas. Another chicklet gone. Oh shit. We’ve now driven over 30 miles. Pucker factor, engage. Another chicklet gone. I’m reading bingo fuel. I let Kat know. He’s bad off as well, but still has a fuel reading. Now I’m looking at every bit of road judging it’s ability to support the bike with kickstand down. Lemme tell you, it is not looking good. I make a plan with Swampkat. He can’t stop when I run out, it’s too risky.
About 20 minutes go by, Orion is giving me her best. Then on an incline the image of a gas pump appears.  30 miles? Try around 60+. We turn down this dirt road and at first see nothing. After a few longgg seconds we see the back end of a fuel truck and he’s currently filling the pump. It was a Sinclair station, we were saved!
We ate while the truck emptied both of it’s containers. While eating we were looking out the window at this big pine tree nearby. It looked like dust was being blown off of it. It wasn’t dust though, it was pollen, f*cktons of pollen.  It was coming off of this tree in sheets,  almost like how hard rain looks. Both of us laughed, we both have allergies and beyond the trees near us were literally thousands more. This morning when we loaded up we noticed both bikes completely covered in yellow pollen so we shouldn’t have been surprised, but I’ve never seen a tree shed pollen to that extent.
Bellies and tanks full, we set off. We followed rivers almost all day. We made it into Montana today,  it’s my first time.  So far it’s been beautiful and the roads were mostly fantastic. The forecast says there will be some rain, so routes will have to be adjusted but we got this.
Internet is hit n miss, so the data heavy uploads will be a bit sparse till we get nearer…well anything.
Your week is almost done,  you guys hang in there.