This is one of those motorcycle trips that turn out to be a whole lot more entertaining in the middle of the Winter when they are retold. I had been planning this longer trip for most of the Summer, mostly figuring that it would be cooler in the Fall, boy was it ever! This was going to be a long loop across Wyoming over the Uintas, across Utah to ride the Moki Dugway, to hit northern New Mexico to revisit another Longmire site that I couldn't get to earlier this year. After New Mexico, the plan was to head up through central Colorado and back home by one route or another. I spent some time watching the weather and things looked good for the areas I was heading to, just a little cool in the mountains. The first day was home to Hot Springs, South Dakota and it was 106 degrees from Rapid City south. Next day was Wyoming, with Casper hazy with smoke and busy too with the Labor Day weekend, to Rawlins and I 80 to Evanston for the night. Evanston was jumping with the first rodeo of the year. Riding by the arena it looked like the state fair was on. Oh ya did I mention that I had forgotten my cooler and it's contents in Hot Springs which kind of made the whole trip kind of a bummer? I headed back East the following morning with lots of trucks and the Union Pacific for company with a tail wind to boot. I stopped in Wheatland for lunch and fuel at a station that has a sign on the door that says "This is Wyoming assume that everyone is armed", I love that one. Anyhow headed north toward Lusk I noticed a cloud bank in the north west and the wind was coming up and the temperature was dropping off. Now I started to believe the information signs along the interstate that were warning of high winds and heavy snow the next day, when it was 85 90 degrees when I first saw them! North of Lusk when I made the turn toward Edgemont it started to rain and it kept it up all the way back to Hot Springs. I got checked in and dried off and asked if I needed to could I stay another day, because I could see that the next day would be iffy, with snow in the Hills etc.. Well it rained most of the night and when I checked the Weather channel they told me about the eight inches of snow in Custer, which is right up the road but a higher elevation than Hot Springs which did give me some hope. After a couple of hours doing some soul searching I made the choice to try for home, luckily or call it foresight, I had virtually every item of cold weather gear along, which I struggled into before I made my break for home and hearth and Jan of course. I have ridden in cold temperatures before but nothing like this cold and distance. Going up to Rapid City it was 34 degrees with snow on the shoulder of the highway and the Hills were white. I didn't worry too much about slippery road conditions as I figured with 100 plus temps just a day or two earlier the pavement would still be warm enough. From Rapid East I cranked Fritzy up to 80 and set the cruise and motored on home, with a few stops along the way, arriving about 8 pm. Looking back, if I had gone on from Evanston I would have been stuck in high winds, cold temps etc., etc., and would have had to swing as far south as Mexico to get around that front that roared in out of Canada. I look at weather today and the plains are having plenty of rain now too, I guess that I am lucky that I left that cooler in Hot Springs ultimately, because I came back for it and got out of the west before the record setting cold and snow rolled in. A post script here too, I 80 in central Wyoming was closed due to heavy blowing snow and I had just cruised that section the day before in nice weather. And another thing, I was surprised to see lots of bikes heading west on I 90 as I was heading home, maybe they aren't paying attention to the weather either. Hopefully they did not plan on going west of the Hills as I am sure I 90 in Wyoming was not good. Anyhow I made it home in one piece vowing to never try that again but knowing that by later this Winter I'll be dreaming up another adventure and Jan will be urging me to check off another road on my bucket list rides.
