A Day Off
22 June 2018
Sometimes you need a break from vacation
Rumors have been swirling all week about what day the Going to the Sun Road might open. When I was in Great Falls, someone said it would be July 9th. When I talked to the guy on the bicycle, he rode it a couple of days ago and it was clear. The motorcyclist from Maine a few campsites over had an in with the ranger, and she said that she had heard there were people on the schedule to work the Logan Pass visitor center on Saturday, which means someone thought the road would be open. But if you go ask at the visitor center, they won’t say a word. The lady checking tickets at the entrance told me that people coming in knew more than her. I guess the NPS likes to play it close to the chest, but that sure doesn’t help a guy plan his vacation.
So this morning, I went and bummed around the visitor center a little, trying to glean whatever information I could about a potential opening and the weather. Nothin’. So, I decided that I’d just go the long way round to Kalispell, MT and then maybe swing back through Glacier on the return trip. It wouldn’t be THAT out of the way, especially since I hadn’t exactly considered which way I was coming back yet.
But then when I got into the camp, I talked to the motorcyclist from Maine and his wife for a good 20 minutes. And then I talked to my neighbor. By the time I got to packing, it was getting close to 10:30. And packing was going slowly - I kept forgetting things, which meant I had to unpack other things to put those things in. And I wasn’t real happy with my packing situation anyway, even on a good day it takes me over an hour to break down camp and load up the bike.
By the time 11:45 rolled around and I was past the official “checkout” time, I was also thinking about lunch, since I didn’t really have much of a breakfast. Thats when I decided that I was just going to take the day off. Relax a bit, spend some time optimizing my packing (since I had most of it packed already), relax a bit, and maybe even go out for dinner.
So this is what I did:
- Wrapped paracord around part of the mounts for my pelican cases so they won’t wiggle their pin out and fall off.
- Oiled the chain
- Found a new place to store my rain gear that wasn’t on the seat
- Found a new place to store the hatchet that wasn’t in an already heavy pelican case
- Somehow stuffed all of my tools in my top box, along with everything else, which meant I wouldn’t have to bag them every time it rained
Once I got all that done, I went for a nice test drive. Since I wanted to test whether or not the pelican cases would fall off, I took a nice run down the super bumpy and potholed Many Glaciers Road. Nothing fell off, thankfully.
On the other hand, I’ve found that my left fork seal is leaking. So is my stator cover. The stator cover I’m not worried about, its barely a seep. But I’m afraid I’ll have to deal with the fork seal at some point.
After finishing my test drive, it was getting late and I was getting hungry, not having really eaten anything substantial all day. So, I stopped at the bright purple Two Sisters Cafe outside of Babb, MT. This was a very good choice. I had the Red Burger - mushrooms, cheese, bacon, meat, bacon, and some sort of cajun red sauce. Yummmm.
I rounded out the evening with a much more successful campfire than last time. Turns out the wood they have burns much better if you give it lots of air and split it nice and small. Also, you can totally use a pelican case as a somewhat uncomfortable chair.
