Day 26 - Livingston, MT to Teton Village, WY

The day started off as expected. We rode to Yellowstone in the morning. At the entrance to the park my bike's temperature light turned on. We had to wait in a long line to get in so we hoped that once we started moving again the problem would go away. It didn't. After riding in about five miles my bike overheated again and started to spit radiator fluid.

Walt called the Salt City BMW dealer and discussed some possible problems with a guy there. We decided to head out of the park and try some emergency repairs.

To get out of the park I coasted the bike, it was almost all downhill, most of the way out. Just outside the park we removed the thermostat and let the bike run more. It overheated again. We had a conference to discuss the options of having parts FedEx'd to us there or trying to get the bike to a dealer. We opted for the dealer approach since the bike is still under warranty.

I called and got a tow truck to take me and the bike to the nearest dealer. "Nearest" meant 300 miles away in Missoula. It was too late in the day for Walt and Don to ride that far so they opted to ride to Butte and meet me at the dealer the following day.

The tow truck ride was long and I got in about 9:30pm. Don and Walt got to Butte about 7:00pm but got hit with some horrendous thunderstorm. The sky was black and dumping drops the size of buckets. For a while Walt and Don waited under an underpass with some other stranded motorcyclists (Harley riders).

We hoped that after a quick repair in Missoula we'd be back on the road. Since Missoula was backtracking for us the rest of the trip plan was cancelled and we'd be taking a different route home.