Start Location: Sturgis, SD
Ending Location: Billings, MT
Miles Today: 350
Trip Miles: 2261
States Visited: 6
National Parks Visited: 1
Low Temp: 82.5° F
High Temp: 99.6° F
Min Elevation: 2903'
Max Elevation: 5110'
Route Map:
Sturgis 2021 - Day 11
Unfortunately we had to leave Sturgis today. Well we didn't really have
to leave, we still had one more night on our reservation but things
were definitely shutting down. People were loading their bikes on their
trailers and hitching up their campers. Vendors were taking down their
stands. Even the restaurant at the park where we were staying had
stopped serving. On top of that, the rest of our group was also heading
out. Mark had already left Saturday afternoon for Rapid City where he
was flying out of to Atlanta for a trade show this week. Mike and Karin
and Jason were heading back to Mandan where Jason will stay for another
week.
The
ride to Billings was hot and uneventful for the most part. we did see
plenty of motorcycles, trailers and mammoth motor homes on I90 during
the day as well as smoke once we got into Montana.
The
biggest problem was what turned out to be a bad tank of gas that I got
in Gillette, Wyoming. Shortly after leaving Gillette I started having
cruise control problems. The cruise control would suddenly stop and I
couldn't reset it for about 5 minutes. I started noticing that it
seemed to happen when going uphill. I also noticed that when I was
controlling the throttle I couldn't maintain my speed either. I then
remembered that many years ago, also in Wyoming, I had a similar
problem only much worse. I couldn't maintain my speed at all and had to
keep the throttle significantly open when I was stopped just to keep
the bike running. I could find nothing else wrong at that time so
topped off the tank with premium fuel and, after a short time, the
problem resolved itself. This time I just didn't use the cruise control
except on flat roads and, the next time I stopped, did the same thing.
I filled the tank with premium and all was well after that. Very
frustrating.
We eventually arrived in Billings and checked
into the Baymont which I would not recommend. The problem is that
Montana seems to be quite proud of their hotel rooms. It's not uncommon
to see many of the hotels charging $350. to $400. a night for rooms -
way more than we are use to paying. We also found that many of the
hotels were full - people are definitely out on the road again. We
picked a hotel that was only $150 and apparently got what we paid for.
You live and learn.
Tomorrow it's off to Missoula and hopefully a better experience.
