Easy Rider 2006: Day 9, Billings to Bozeman

It was about as perfect a day on the bikes as you could get -- a nice 220 mile ride from Billings to Bozeman, no freeway, and glorious weather. There is a reason Montana is called the "Big Sky" country -- it's very appropriate. The vistas went on for miles -- both along the prairie and through the small mountain range to drop into Bozeman. It's also very isolated and remote -- not a lot other than the road, the sky, and the horizon ahead.

We'd wanted to do a whole chorus group ride -- the four women in SWC, and the six with SMC. The women are performing tonight in Helena, and we'd mapped our a ride that would take us all for about half the distance before we guys going to Bozeman turned south, and the Women kept on going to Helena. However, the Women, had to leave earlier in order to get to Helena in their bus "Handbasket" AND stop for brunch somewhere along the way at a church, didn't have time to ride with us. However, this is the first time all six of us with the Men's Chorus have ridden together. Tony and I rode with Rose and Thatcher from Pocatello to Jackson, and with Dan and Ken from Jackson to Billings. All six of us met in the hotel portico at 8am and slathered on sun screen and headed north east out of Billings.

There is a lot of heat and reflected radiation from the sky as well as the road when you are on a motorcycle, so you get very tanned and if not careful, very burned. We've gone through two tubes of sun screen already this trip, and despite those efforts, my arm looks like a paint chip from Home Depot, with four very distinct shades of reddish/tan, caused by my varying shirt lengths which are based on temperature and weather. My hands and wrists are very dark since that's what's nearly always exposed. There is a distinct line and a drop in shade where I've pulled up my long-sleeve t-shirt to my mid fore-arm, then another one from where my short-sleeve t-shirt hits, and a final one where my sleeveless t-shirt rides. Tony on the other hand has the worst case of "racoon eyes" I've ever seen, complete with a white "helmet chin strap" stripe. It's quite colorful.

As I said, the ride through the sparsely populated high plains north east of Billings was wonderful -- we dipped in and out of a river bottom, and along high grass covered plains past very small towns and farms, and at a steady 65 mph. Traffic was very light, I don't think we passed a dozen cars. Part of the line followed the old Milwaukee Road railway which was abandoned in 1983. They took up the tracks, but left the signals as well as the old red-brick substations that powered the only electrified mainline in the Western US. I'd wanted to stop and take a few pictures, but when one is traveling with a group of five others you can't really stop easily. Thatcher wanted to stretch the legs on his sport-bike, and decided to take off and push the limits -- the traffic was so light he could really let it rip and says he got it up to 120 mph out on the prairie. We got to Bozeman at about 2p and rested before the afternoon rehearsal and evening performance.

The show in Bozeman was at a small venue on the Montana State University Campus. Once again the small audience was to say the least, overwhelmed I think at the power of the music that the guys sing, not to mention being amongst so many supportive and positive people. Like I've said, its great fun for me to sit out among the audience and watch them. Many, if not all, have no idea what to expect -- the shows in each city are promoted by local non-profits such as the local GLBT group, or AIDS organization, to whom the proceeds of the show are donated. In troupe a couple of hundred tuxedoed guys who launch into wonderful music. It's fun for me to watch these folks fall in love with the guys in the Chorus just like I have, and to watch them be moved -- often to tears -- by the power of the music. I've seen the shows enough to know what's "coming up", and the jokes and skits are amusing, but to the audience they are new and I get the laugh now in watching them burst into hysterics at the antics on stage or the smart-ass lyrics.

There's one more show to go in SLC on Saturday night. We've got 400+ miles ahead of us tomorrow to get to SLC, then we can rest a bit on Saturday before the show that night. We rode home in another Montana evening thundershower, just like last night in Billings -- and we are soaked, and changing to catch a ride to the cast party and BBQ at an estate north west of town that is owned by one of the SMC Board Members.



ADDENDUM: One of the busses taking SMC members out to the cast party tonight went into the ditch after dropping folks off at the house. The rain turned the dirt road to mud and it gave way under the weight of the bus and the bus slipped into the ditch on it's side. No one was on board or injured. They called out a heavy-duty wrecker from Bozeman to come out and pull it upright and out. As of 1240am it's unknown if the bus will be able to make it back to SLC or they'll need to get a replacement one or what.

We'll want to get an early start however, and we'll ride south from Bozeman to West Yellowstone, then down the Snake River in Idaho and into Utah and past Bear Lake and into SLC.

From the Downtown Holiday Inn in Bozeman -- a wet, tired, sunburned and hungry...

Gary and Tony