Day 8

Today was the high point of this edition of the Cannonball, topping out over 9400′ as we crossed the Big Horn Mountains between Sheridan and Lovell Wyoming. Even though I left the main jet unchanged the scooter ran well in the mountains, contributing to a good score for the day at the finish. The scenery was spectacular (sorry, no pics due to riding) but the temperatures dropped at the higher elevations. The 10% grade on the decent into Lovell was most welcome to get back to warmer temperatures. However, the dreaded wind picked up in the later portion of the ride.  That made for an unpleasant final hour plus riding uphill into the wind on Interstate 90. Vespa means “wasp” in Italian, and I was hoping my Vespa wasn’t going to be a splat on the traffic rolling along with a posted speed limit of 80 while I was lucky to hit 50. Three out of the remaining four vintage scooter riders had an enjoyable dinner, and we were happy to see Scooterista had made it in when we got back to the hotel. Tomorrow will be another climbing day although it’s “only” 284 miles vs. today’s 380.

vertical profile for day 9

I’ll also add a couple of shots showing some of the daily routine of a Cannonball rider since I had a personal support team (my sister and her husband) join me for a couple of day in Nebraska through South Dakota.

Supervising parking lot repairs

A picture of me taking a checkpoint verification picture

Refueling alongside the road because the built in tank didn’t provide the range to the next fuel stop