Day Four: Dubois, WY to Valentine, NE

Today sucked! That is the only way to put it. It was a 500 mile day and it was totally unrealistic to think that we could make it before dark. Sara and I rode together for the better part of the day, because she was having issues with her bike and wanted to take it slow. Bobo met up with us at a rest stop and rode with us for the most of the day. We had lunch in Casper so Sara's bike could cool off a bit. Then, about 6 miles outside of Casper, my scooter soft-seized. I think it is a lubrication issue, so I went back to using the crappiest 2-stroke oil I could find. No more Bel-Ray SI-7 two-stroke oil for my scooter! While on the side of the road, Sara left Bobo and I. I needed to spend a few minutes checking the plug and allowing the scooter to cool down and then we got back on the road. We finally hit the Nebraska border just before dark. I hit reserve on my gas just outside of Crawford, NE, but I didn't realize how close we were so I went and used some of the gas I was carrying to fill up enough to get to the next town. While in Crawford, we found out Jim Smith was broken down in Chadron, NE so Bobo offered to let him ride "cupcake" since there was no room in the sag wagon. We rallied on to Chadron and the wind was blowing me all over the road. I had decided that I was going to stay in Chadron for the night and get up extra early to ride to Valentine because it just wasn't safe to be on the road. It was really dark and really windy and I didn't feel it would be a good idea to continue riding. Once we got to Chadron, we found out Jim had gotten a Uhaul to take his scooter to Valentine, so I loaded my bike up and he drove us to Valentine.

That's it for now....more to come.....gotta get on the road or it's going to be another long day!