Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Kalispell, Montana to Whitefish, Montana via Glacier National Park
Once again, a scruffy, grumpy, tired bunch showed up at Brent and Shane's room to drink down the Bailey's before getting out on the road for breakfast. Then to downtown Kalispell for the morning feed. Not much happening downtown this morning, so somebody's bright idea was to line up the bikes along the main street and take a picture. Which we did, and you can see the result as the first image below. What you see there is a seriously hung over bunch a riders who are facing a long and difficult ride today to Glacier National Park. And back, hopefully. In one piece, maybe. Why do we do things like last night?? Sure was fun at the time.
So we were all lined up along the road, trying our best to look like Hell's Angels rather than some roadkill that the cat dragged in. A couple of us alternated in taking pictures of the rest, we couldn't just put the camera down with the timer on, because it was in the middle of the road. Then, incredibly, a bunch of fancy ladies showed up. They all had on fancy hats, with feathers or fur on them, and the hats were all red. And the ladies were all ... old. Yes, you have it figured out, they were the 'Red Hat Ladies'. No, I had never heard of them either, but it is a society of older women, mostly widowed, who join up and get together for outings, a kind of a social club. International, world-wide in fact, with chapters in all the major cities in north america and europe apparently. So they told us. The name comes from some writing, somewhere, by someone, who said something like, 'When I am old I will wear a red hat and do outrageous things ...' or whatever. Anyway, there they were, and they offered to take our picture for us. That's how all eight of us are in the picture at the same time. Some of the other pictures are more interesting, but eight bikes and only seven people. Then the ladies posed with us and the bikes, those were interesting pictures. There were about twenty of them, so they cycled through the shots and we were at it for about half an hour. We didn't get any of those shots, I wish we had. Finally they left and we got on the road for Glacier.
Out of town a short way on a wide, multi lane road, then a left into the ticket and parking area for Glacier. Shane had promised his lady of the evening last night that she could come with us on the ride, up behind him. He went to her place while we waited. He got there and she wanted him to stay with her, didn't want to come with us. Shane figured "Bro's before ho's" he said, and rode back to join us. We waited at the park entrance for Shane to join up, and we were all impressed by his loyalty to our group. But at the same time, we thought he was dumb. I mean, she was an attractive lady, and Brent, his evening roommate, is not ... at least not in the same way.
So, finally, eight bikes line up, pay our admission and begin the 'Going to the sun road' as the Glacier highway is called. Words beyond 'spectacular' fail me as to the scenery, you can see for yourself in the images below. A long but low-speed ride, up and up and up, all the way to the lodge at the top. We stopped many times for photo opportunities and group shots, then moved on again. Lots of traffic, this is a very popular destination for the travelling public, lots of motor homes with grumpa driving. Worse, for bikes, the road was under repair or reconstruction in many places, so lots of gravel. Not good for bikes, particularly with a thousand foot drop-off next to the gravel shoulder. But it was all good, we made it to the top in one piece and as a group. Then at the top we hung around a while, got a coffee, took pictures of the mountain sheep and goats, mailed a card to mother, and headed down the other side. Near the bottom, we stopped at another park building with a restaurant and had lunch. Over the meal a conversation ensued regarding how to get to Whitefish where we would spend the night. It turned out badly, as we sort of split up into twos and more or less agreed among some of us where to go and how to get there. It is all murky to me now, and it didn't make sense at the time either. So eventually, in the parking lot, we took off, for the first time not as a large group but in pairs, choosing different paths.
Garry and I rode together, and for the first while all went well. Then Garry's bike quit on him. Just stopped. We pulled off the road together, in the middle of nowhere. He monkeyed and fiddled, got it started, set off for a while, then it quit again. At the side of the road we looked at it, couldn't get it going, spark ok but apparently no fuel flow. Garry said for me to go ahead and try to find a gas station or store or something where we could call for a tow vehicle to get it to a shop. I did that, pulled into a road-side building about 15 miles down the road, but it was empty and abandoned. I got back on the bike, about to go further, when I saw Barry and Doug going by. They saw me, stopped, we talked, Barry was going to go back to Garry and Doug and I go ahead to find help. That decided, we turned to go and, surprise, up rides Garry large as life. He had taken his tool kit and pulled off the gas line, drained some out, reattached it, and the bike started. Vapor lock, Garry said, everything should be fine now. The four of us rode on to Whitefish together, but Garry was very low on fuel so he kept his speed low. Eventually we got to the appointed motel and checked in. The others were already there, so we went out and got a bunch of beer and sat around in Danno and Danny's room to get drunk and happy. Or at least happier than we otherwise were.
Turns out there had been another gravel incident, this time with Danno. He had also pulled off the road to the shoulder, also misjudged the surface, and had gone down. But he wasn't wearing leathers so his jeans were shredded at the knee and the knee was scratched up. His pride was hurt more than the knee, but the beer helped everything to feel better. Later more beer, and still more, with chips and cheesies for dinner. I don't remember much after that, but I think I slept well.
We turned for home when we left the summit of Glacier National Park. Homeward bound now, but a long way to go. Sobriety is an elusive goal now, probably impossible.
Once again, the crew, courtesy of the Red Hat Ladies,
Danny Garry Brent Danno Dennis Shane Barry Doug
