Day 16- A Bad Day Gets Worse

7-30-06 Sun

Mile: 2,285

The cold morning started out by rotating, plugging, & checking air pressure on the trailer tires. One of which I’m not sure if it’s gonna make it back home.

After fueling up in West Yellowstone, I met a guy who told me the only way to ride out of there was to back track over 100 miles to the northwest. So on my way towards Bozeman, MT, I went.

Along the way I stopped by the river to help a young couple with a broken heater hose on their car. They gave me a bunch of bottled waters out of their ice chest.

About 20 – 30 miles later, as I entered the suburb of Bozeman, MT., the unexpected happened at about 35 – 40 mph. I heard a loud noise under the quad. I thought I ran over something. Nope! Only a broken drive belt in my transmission. I quickly coasted over. There was a bicycle path that I pulled onto about 100 yards later.

After shutting off the bike, I got off to turn around to find out my dog was missing! Great – now what. I guess when I hit the brakes, she must have bailed off. I worked on the bike for over an hour, just to find out I still needed an impact wrench to pull my tranny apart. Now I’m stranded and don’t even know if my dog is alive - & no wheels to even go look for her.

Eventually a younger guy named Kelsey rode up on his 500 Honda quad & pulled me back to his house where I borrowed the proper tools.

By now it’s getting dark. After I put the bike back together, I went with him in his truck to go look for Sadie. Needless to say – no luck. I thanked him and headed for the local bar for a sandwich & beer.

Disgusted with how my luck was going, I rode 10 miles to get a motel, even though I really didn’t want to spend the 80 dollars.

Day 15------------------------------ Day 17

Learn more about Nathan and his trip at "Interview with Nathan Beck"