Moving to Ft. Collins

Cindy and I helped our daughter move to Ft. Collins. Her husband Stacey had a new job there. We had loaded my motorscooter into the moving van, so we could ride it back to Cheney. Stephanie had Chloe and Athena in her car while Cindy and I had Shannon with us in the moving van. We left Cheney at 0700 on August 12 with a goal of 10 hours to Billings MT. Stephanie left about an hour before us to pick us Alexis, her friend and babysitter. By 0900 we were in Kellogg, ID fueling the moving van. At about noon we got a call from Stephanie that she had a flat tire. We found her on the side of the road 35 miles west of Missoula, MT. I put on the spare and we slowly made our was to Missoula to get new tires. We had lunch there while the very nice people at TireRama replaced her tires. At 1700, we arrived in Butte for more fuel and Starbucks Coffee. We met up with Stephanie at a rest area near Bozeman for a picnic supper. At 2130, we arrived in Billings, MT only 3.5 hours behind schedule.

We left Billings, MT at 0730 with a plan to be in Custer, SD for supper. We got fuel and made our way to Little Bighorn Battlefield.

We had a nice time there and left at 1030 for Mount Rushmore. We arrived at Mt. Rushmore at about 1600. Stephanie had been there for 30 minutes waiting for us. We took some picture at made our way to Custer for supper.

We had a great dinner at Cattleman's. Alexis watched the kids while Cindy, Stephanie and I went to the Bugglin Moose for drinks. We were on the roof and had a great time. It was the last day of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, so there were lots of motorcycles around to watch as we talked.

We left Custer at 0700 with a plan to be in Ft. Collins at 1600.

Just south of Custer we saw buffalo on the side of the road. We take some pictures and met Stephanie at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD
After getting fuel in Orin, WY and Starbucks in Cheyenne we arrived in Ft. Collins just slightly behind schedule. We unloaded the moving van and collapsed in our beds.

Motorcycle Trip Ft. Collins

We said goodbye to Stephanie and the kids and started our trip back to Cheney from Ft. Collins at 0735(MST) on August 17th, 2011. At 0810 we crossed into Wyoming. We stopped to get gas in Laramie at 0840. By 0920 we were in Rawlins, WY. We bought gas and sandwiches which we planned to eat latter.

We stopped at a rest area called Split Rock at 1200 to eat our sandwiches. At 1335, we were in Landers, Wyoming for more gas. We arrived in Dubois, Wyoming at 1520 to stay the night at the Stagecoach Inn. We had a nice dinner by the river at the Sundance Cafe.

The next morning at 0700, we bought gas and breakfast at the Exxon station in Dubois.
We left Dubois, Wyoming at 0730 for the national parks.
We crossed the 9658 ft Togwotee Pass at 0810 into Jackson Hole.

Took pictures of Jackson Hole at 0825

Arrived in Grand Teton National Park at 0850
Bought gas at Flagg Ranch Village at 0940
Entered Yellowstone Park south entrance at 1000
Bike odometer rolled over 10000 miles while driving past Lewis Lake

Arrived at Old Faithful Geyser at 1110
Geyser erupted at 1220
Left At Old Faithful at 1235
Bought gas, bananas, rolls in West Yellowstone at 1320
Ate lunch (bananas & rolls) in Ennis, MT at 1515
Bought Gas in Whitehall, MT at 1600

Arrived at Comfort Inn in Butte, MT at 1730

Left Butte at 0705 in August 19th.
Bought gas in Missoula, MT (Bonner) at 0915
Had Starbucks in Missoula at 0930
Arrived in Idaho at 1050(EST)
Bought gas in Kellogg, ID at 1120
Ate at Olive Garden 1215 til 1400
Arrived at Home at 15:20

Used 21.182 gallons of gas over 1038 miles. Average cost of gas was $3.753. average MPG was 49.0.