Tuesday, July 12



Birdie and I left her friend Cindy's house and headed for the Spokane shop. It wasn't there ... moved. She couldn't find the address in her GPS so we weren't sure how to get to it. A lady came out of the store and we told her and she said she had to load a few things into a truck and then would lead us over there. That was very nice. Turns out the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene shops are owned by the same person, they've merged them and they're now in Spokane Valley, under either Lone Wolf or Timber Wolf HD. It was their grand re-opening. Hung out there, got our required shirts and then went out to the parking lot to load and go on our separate ways.


We were off Highway 90, Birdie going west, me going east to Belgrade. Off we went out of the parking lot to do our own rides again. Separation. It's so sad. I got over it within minutes; bet Birdie did, too. We had a great time, though. She's a great traveling companion.


I headed east, running mostly 65 or 70. I was enjoying the ride, the gentle curves of the interstate, but watching the cloud cover ahead of me. It appeared I was going to run into a storm.


Rode on. Took the cherries left from the other day and put them inside my vest so I could get to them while riding. Yep, eating cherries and spitting the pit out as I went. It was great. And then they were gone. But as Birdie said in a Facebook post, I brake for cherry stands. And I saw a sign for another one, so I stopped, bought two pounds of cherries, some apricots and some huckleberry jam. Cherries for Jan and me and for Don and Donna, apricots for all and the jam for our English muffins. Yum.


Was running intos storms, thunder, lightning, rain. The first one soaked me, but I wouldn't stop to put on more clothes or a helmet or gloves. Stubborn? Nah. The second storm wasn't as bad, but still more rain and I was nearly dry from the first, but it remained cloudy and questionable weather. I'd fought headwinds and at 90-some miles on the odometer my gas light went on. So then the search began for a gas station, and slowing down to 50 mph to make it last as long as I could. I saw a sign for services, but it seemed I couldn't find it. Finally, in Deer Lodge. I had 109 miles on the tank, and took 4.445 gallons. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief, put on my sweatshirt and gloves and headed on, into a couple more storms. But this time I stopped to put on my jacket and helmet because I was freezing.


Pulled into Jan's place just about 7:30 p.m., changed clothes and went to get friends Don and Donna's and go out for Mexican food.. While we were sitting there Don said to go with him, there was something I had to see. It was. Three horses tied up outside the bar next door while their owners were in getting a drink. One of them came out to have a smoke ... big hat, chaps, the whole cowboy outfit and routine. The Marlborough man in person, or so it seemed. Was too funny. Of course, my favorite was the horses. I was close enough to smell them, and I love the smell of horseflesh. There was a brown and white pinto, a bay and a dun. A couple of my favorite horse colors.


Back to the barn, and then Jan and I stayed up til 1 a.m., talking, laughing, reliving old times. How do we still find stuff to talk about? You'd think we'd get talked out, but no, there's always something. That's a great friend, a good friend. And we just take up where we left off.


To bed, to bed.