Day 1 of my Conga, Idaho Falls to Hamilton, MT

Well as expected I was awake at 5 am even though I didnt close my eyes til midnight. I tried to stay in bed as long as I could but gave in around 630 and made coffee. As expected the others slowly got up and we all add more notes to the puter and read what others had left for us.

We got ready and thats when the fun began, with the pink wigs I had and other accesories, Im sure people thought we were nuts. We finally got the bikes loaded and managed to check out of the motel. Then headed to the dealership that was right around the corner. We had to wait for a bit for thr manager to return but she did donate quite a few small items to us to auction off. All the staf thought òur look`was great and were bending over backwards to help us with anythings. Should have told them Therapy needed a good detailing as she has a new tie dyed look to her with all the bug guts collected.

We hit the road finally but late, it was close to noon before we actually got going and sure enough we barely get 2 miles down the road and Tanya has a `hair` raising emergency! Her Hair is trying to leave. So we have to stop to fix it. Then Flo figures she needs video of us two pink gals and takes offf up the highway to get us on camera. Well we thought we were doing ood and being calm but guess she couldnt keep up with us and it was like we were blowing by her. Finally we actually really get moving.

Rode bout an hour and hit a stop for road construction, got a donation from the flag guy and carried on for lunch. Small bit of rain but then it cleared. We rode on with basically no stops but for gas. Our second from last gas stop we knew we were coming to a scenic route and Flo wanted to take the lead so we let her go. Off she went tearing through the twisties. I was having some difficulty as my arms and especially my shoulders were extremely sore and I had a hard time pushing the bike into the corners. Ibuprophen wasnt helping as I had already had 8 to this point and I felt like I was straining every muscle in my arms, shoulder, neck and upper back. Guess I needed more rest then I thought. I was still keeping pace fairly well even though it hurt somethin fierce. We hit another straight stretch and figure no problem, I may make it to either of our choices for stops tonight. Well I was wrong in a huge way! These nice straight stretches with gentle twists turned into an alpine climb, with switchbacks(which I hate even in a cage)
The pain radiating out of my shoulders was almost unbearable and I had to slow down alot to keep myself in the turns. The girls just kept going as they knew I wouldnt give up and that I would come down the mountain eventually, which I did, tearing at a buck 40 and they were pulled off to the side and I just wanted to keep going instead of stopping but stop I did.

I tried to stretch my arms out abit, popped a couple more pills and off we went. Now the speed is posted at 70 miles so Im flying along and calculating mileage in my head to make sure Tany has enuf gas for the next stop. I knew she would but they started dropping off to conserve fuel. We pull into the station and are debating wether to stay in this little burg or to carry on to one of our choices for the night. Well we were all going to top our tanks anyways but now I realize I cant find my purse, with all money, credit card and passport. I tear apart both saddle bags dumping everything on the ground and cant find it anywhere. I check my luggage bag cause I was in there at the last stop but it isnt there either. Now Im starting to stress in a large way! No money credit and no passport to get home. Well if I can find money I can be home before the law take effect on June 1st but will end up being another casuality in the Conga. Flo suggests to try and find the number for the last gas staion we were at in Idaho and see if it was found. Even though I had asked both of them to dig through my bags themselves, they didnt at first and just tried to calm me down and tell me what to do. So while Im standing waiting at the counter, here comes Flo all noncalante with my purse. Damn it all to hell! It was where I had put it, I just couldnt find it. So after I have a little rant and try to unwind my stressed nerves we think we are going to stay in this small town called Darby. It is all done up with false fronts looking like an old western town. Well no motel and deffinately no internet, so we take off down the highway to the next town which wasnt as far away as we had thought.

We are in Hamilton, MT for the night. It is about 35 miles short of Missoula and was bout a 500 km trip today, longer then Flo likes to ride but they wanted to do the back roads instead of the slab. Found a cheap hotel, no coffee machine but hey for $60 we each get our own queen size bed tonight. The motel manager even got us the hose, bucket, rags and car wash soap so that we could clean the bikes down from all the bug guts we had collected. And Therapy sure needed it, the windsheild was a mosaic of multi coloured splatters this morning.

We were definately a sight rolling down the highway today, with myself and Tanya in neon pink wigs (no helmets) and Flo in all of her pinkness! Yep managed to fashion my bandana around my head tight enuf to keep the wig on the whole trip. Think I will have to give it a bit of a brushing and rebraid it before we take off again. We had many people honk or wave to us in passing and several ask us what we were doing and give us donations.

Heres hoping I can get Flo moving in the morning so we have the extra time to get to Missoula before the trip to CDA to meet up with Peppermint Patty and then of course to our motel in Post Falls to meet Flos bro BigE. After that we plan on going to Cruisers which is a drive thru bar on the stateline.