Livingston MT to Miles City MT

June 13th, 2025

My first order of business today, was to put some oil in my bike. When I haven't done something myself before, I always have a bit of anxiety about it. I held off on doing the oil until after I had my continental breakfast. It was acceptable and I enjoyed the coffee. I talked with a nice gentleman from Washington state. He was traveling with some freinds from Europe. He was taking them to all the big sites in the western United States. Hunger taken care of, I got down to the business of putting oil into my bike. I had parked with my front end a bit higher to help with putting it on the center stand. The breakfast friend just happenned to be in the parking lot too, so I asked for some assistance to get the bike on the center stand. He was more than happy to lend a hand. I put my gloves on and found the funnel I had bought at Wal-mart. Rob had said to put in about 5 seconds worth. I did as instructed, but then the viewer seemed to read over full. Oh no.... It is times like this that I wished Rob was here. He gave me advice through text, but I was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having to drain some out. After moving to a level parking spot, I was able to tell that it read full. Phew. I think on a long journey you get moments where it would be easier just to be back home. Livingston, MT would be the farthest west I would go on this trip. As tears were welling up a bit, a large horse trailer pulled up next door, to park for a bit. The owners checked on the horses and then went over to Starbucks for coffee. The horses made me think of home and the barn and put a smile on my face. I assumed the people were going to ride their horses in Yellowstone National Park. How cool.

It took me a few minutes to get everything back on the bike. Once packed , I headed next door to get gas and the all important stickers from Montana. As I took the road through downtown Livingston, I decided to stop and walk around a bit. It had been forty years since I had been there. I thought it would be a shame to come all this way and not visit the town itself. I parked the bike and took a walk up and down one of the main drags. The view of the mountains as you look down the street, I do remember. There were many red brick buildings with interesting western town architechture. They have done a great job keeping the vibe of the town, with neat neon signs and murals depicting the town and its' cowboy culture. I went into a cute store with lots of leather and hand made items. It had a fairyland like atmosphere. They had an assortment of the pocketbooks I have. I almost bought another one. I had to get going, but it was nice to say hello to Livingston again.

I turned onto 90 East bound. It felt weird going east after going west for days. My target was Billings MT for lunch. I stopped at the next rest area and had a snack and water. I have found the rest areas have been nice and clean on my journey so far. When I arrived in Billings I decided to go to a Perkin's resturant. They are a nice family resturant and they have yummy pies. I got off the highway and it was a three lane road. I took the middle lane. Well I ended up driving right past the Perkins and had to go farther ahead and turn around. That is not too easy on a dvided road. After turning around, I pulled into what I thought was the Perkins driveway, but it was the gas station next door. There was a large curb between the lots, so I chose to go back out the way I came in, and then take the next driveway. I parked, happy to be there finally. Later while I was eating, I looked out the window to see a guy on a BMW do the same thing that I did. He however, chose to go over the curb and back out into the road. I ordered the Perkin's Burger and pie special for $9.99. I talked with Rob while I waited for my food to arrive. The coffee was helping wake me up again , as it was now around 2pm. It was a yummy cheeseburger and fries. I had more coffee and enjoyed my Carmel Apple pie. It was sort of like Apple Crisp.

After lunch I was back on the road towards MIles City KOA. Since I was now backtracking some of what I had travelled the day before, I was able to see all the mountains I saw yesterday, just in reverse. The Crazy mountains, Livingston Mountains, and there was the same sign going east that said Bear Tooth Mountains with an arrow. So again I looked quickly to my right and there were the snowy Bear Tooth Mountains in the distance. Some of the terrain as I went across looked alot like in Custer SD. The hills were green with pine trees sparsly scattered and the rocky outcroppings peared out from the trees. As I headed East, the terrain gradually appeared more lumpy and flatter with large tracks of fields being irrigated by huge moving sprinklers. At one of the rest areas I stopped at I was bothered by very persistent little bees. I went into the building to get away from them. I do wear a yellow jacket and my bike is red. They may have been attracted to the colors or to the many dead bugs on my windshield. When I was ready to go, I took all my gear inside and put it on. I wanted to make sure that I none of the bees were going to join me on my ride. I got away safely, but interestingly enough , a few miles later I passed a semi truck. Can you guess what it was carrying? It was carring many Bee Hives. There was a net over them, but you could see bees flying around under it.

At my last stop before Miles City, I made my reservation at the Miles City KOA. I continued on the last 25 miles or so and took the exit for Miles City. I stopped for gas and picked up a sandwich and drink to have for dinner at the campground. I arrived at the KOA and was escorted to my site by golf cart. There were thunderstorms and light rain in the forcast for later tonight, but it was only sixish now, so I took my time setting up my tent. There was a nice fence to hang my fly and ground cloth from, as they were still wet from two nights ago. I set up the tent and in short order the fly and cloth were dry and I had my house ready for the night. I ate my dinner and met the neighbors that were camping with their two golden retreivers. They had a nice site with their own private fenced in yard for the dogs. After dinner, I went to the bathroom to take a shower. They had a very nice bathroom. There were tile showers with nice bamboo foot rests to stand on after your shower. There were plenty of hooks too. It was still dry out when I was done my shower, so I wrote most of this entry sitting at the picnic table. There was a beautiful sunset, so I took out the phone and took a few pictures of it through the beautiful Cottonwood trees that were all over the campground. When I heard some thunder, I decided it was time to retreat to my tent. I finished writing as the thunderstorm continued. No fun, but I was safe and dry. I realized I forgot to mention the trains I saw today. There were four, the usual with 2 engines in the front and many cars following. They all had an engine pushing from behind and no cabooses. The storm was slowly moving away, but the wind has picked up. The KOA offered me a cabin for only $30 more. Maybe I should have taken it. A train just came through town with its' horn blowing. It was a very long train. Hopefully now I can get some sleep.