Shirley woke me at 5:30 and she had coffee on.  After my shower I went downstairs and she was making breakfast for me.  It was too early for Roy to eat.  I was on the road by 6:30 and had to take the long way out of town due to a lot of the streets blocked off.  The morning was just a little cool but it was not too long before I had my jacket off and was riding with just a sleeveless t-shirt.  It was very warm all the way through North Dakota.  On the eastern side of the state there was a real strong wind coming from due south.  It was pushing me around a lot and I was riding tilted over at an angle most of the way. It was so windy that the ponds had white caps on them like the ocean!  It was just the opposite on the western side of the state.  The wind was coming from the north and pushing me over the other way. 

One of my gas stops found me putting in 5.15 gallons in my 5 gallon tanks!  I don’t know how I didn’t run out of gas.  I found it still windy getting into Montana.  As I got to Billings I had ridden about 850 miles so far.  The sky was getting very dark and I stopped for fuel and got my leathers on.  The skies opened up a few miles later and I stopped under an overpass as I forgot to put my clothes bag in a garbage bag to keep it dry.  I also put my seat pillow in a garbage bag too.  It was getting very wet as I pulled into Livingston for fuel.  That was only 995 miles for the day and I wanted to do another 1,000 mile day.  I kept going only to find out that it could have been a very bad decision.

The rain was coming down so hard and so fast that I could feel myself hydroplane on the sheets of water.  It was so dark that I could hardly follow the taillights in front of me.  At one point they made an abrupt swerve to the left. As I was wondering what that was all about I almost ran right into a minivan that had no tail lights on! Wow, was that ever a close one.  Right after that a pickup truck almost hit me as I saw a set of head lights right on my butt when they swerved to the left and almost got me!  He must not have been able to see me too good.  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the road construction was another obstacle.  The two lanes of freeway that were bad enough just went into both directions of traffic on the same side!  Cars were coming so close that between the heavy rain and the glare of the head lights I could not see hardly anything.  I had to raise my visor when cars were approaching just so I could see the faint taillights in front of me.  I was doing a lot of talking to God for those last 25 miles.  I was also calling on the souls of all those family members and friends who had passed on to keep the animals away as the last thing that I needed was an encounter with something else that I couldn’t see.  I was so cold that the front end of the bike was shaking from my hands and arms not being able to keep it steady.  I kept thinking about what a stupid thing that I was doing just to get another 1,000 mile Iron Butt day on the books for me.  Next time I will be good with 995 miles!

I followed the signs to the business route and saw a vacancy sign for a motel.  It turned out to be a very low end $40.00 a night place.  I asked the guy behind the desk if they had hot water.  He looked at me funny and said of course.  The place only had base board heat which took forever to get warm.  I turned the NASCAR race on to be able to see the last 50 laps of the Fontana race and see Jimmie Johnson run away with it.  I ordered a couple of sandwiches to be delivered and I was starting to get warmed up a bit.  This night was to be one to be very thankful for that I made it through the cold, the rain, the traffic and all the things that could have proved very disastrous for me and the bike.  I will do it different next time…..Maybe!