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Was able to get out with my brothers yesterday for a short ride. We were on the trail at 7:45 and took the ride my wife and I took the other night for our picnic dinner ride. It is so amazing how you can go to the same place and it can look so different at different times of the day. As always, was great to get out and get some time with just my brothers. Seems to too far and few in between that we get the opportunity to do that. Probably need to make a more concerted effort to do that. My oldest brothers health is not that great and it makes it more critical to take the opportunity to makes it happen. That being said, the ride was great, we took a spur off of the loop trail my wife and I rode and added a total of 4 miles to the ride to explore a little bit. Unfortunately we were on a time frame due to my other brother needing to be back for another pre-planned engagement. So we (I) will explore that trail further at a later date. Here's some pics from our day.

A few more.

Got some more work done on the Rubicon this weekend. Rear fender, rack, and mudflaps installed Front bumper wire wheeled down and painted. Got a new Yuasa battery installed, along with winch lines and contactor. This takes me down to one dry Yuasa left. I hoarded a few of them back when they were $65ish, and now they're almost twice that. Got the wife to sit on it and hold the handlebars while I adjusted the steering, got it aligned. Wouldn't idle worth a crap though. Runs good at throttle but won't idle at all, choke or no choke, so going to have to pull the carb back off. When riding if I left off the gas it would die, and then would sometimes thrown an error code 10. So, will probably clean and swap on a different carb (or might use the NOS one I have). Winch plate will be here today, so install front bumper and winch, and then I think I'll be down to putting front fender, rack, and side plastics on and will hopefully be able to ride it. Oh, still gotta bleed front brakes too, and put a new sending unit in the gas tank.

bidenomics ice chest / BBQ pit combo

To show just how devolved our society has become, found out last night that the church I grew up in was vandalized. When I was growing up in this small town, churches were left unlocked, and even the town criminals respected houses of God. The Presbyterian church in my small town was never a big church, probably 40-50 when I was growing up. Mostly WW2 vets so as time rolled on, fewer and fewer on Sundays. Then the PCUSA went full of left with politics, but the trick was, THEY own the building, even though it was built and maintained locally for around a century. So membership continued to decline, and the church stopped meeting during covid, and never started meeting again. Dad and I have kept the place mowed, gutters cleaned out etc, but haven't been up there in a few weeks to check on it. Apparently someone(s) broke into the Sunday School side of the church, spray painted the walls in the basement (where kitchen is, potlucks etc were held), fired off fire extinguishers in the sanctuary, flipped over the pulpit and communion table, and did some damage to the organ pipes. Dad is really upset about it. He's been the building caretaker now for the last 15 years or so after my grandfather died, and I'm sure he thinks that this happened "on his watch" so he feels responsible. Now that the congregation is gone, it's just a building, but it will always be more than that to my family. But again, a sign of the times.

Yep, that was the best part. Maybe water them with some pepper spray.

Some of my favorites this weekend. Shrimp and sausage jambalaya and fried hammered pork lion

If build it back better were a ship

YIKES!!! That sounds terrible. I'm not going to repeat these stories to my wife or she won't come back. She got scared enough on the Beartooth Pass. 😁

Excellent pictures as always. C'mon guys.... get out and ride those machines!

I wonder how long someone could stand a car horn blasting in their ears? Thinking I could rig up some locomotive horns with a compressor and generator in the bed of the truck. Heck, just walk out front of the vehicle with two stadium horns and blast 'em.

Update on the start button issue. Installed new solenoid and it starts right up. Start button issue was just a bad solenoid replaced with a new bad solenoid that got replaced by a new solenoid. Still need to clean the carb/float

The first breakdown occurred on my 2000 Rancher 350ES a few days ago. I went out to warm up the bike to run bait refills out to bear stands and it barely cranked over fast enough to start. I checked the battery and it measured 11.74 volts with the key off, but while it was running the charging voltage measured good. So it was just a shorted cell in the battery. Quick and easy fix.... and trust is restored that it'll carry my grand daughter back when she's out having fun on it. I wish I could afford to put together another one just like it, for her.

Well almost nothing ^^^^^^ about fishing

Was a tragic day in our valley and area on Wednesday, 3 major incidents resulting in the loss of 4 lives. With all the influx of people coming from different areas, there are all sorts of different driving styles. There was a major accident on the I-90 running through the middle of the Gallatin Valley. 5 vehicles involved, 2 pretty much unrecognizable one gone on site 33 years old, the 2nd life flighted to Billings hospital 150 miles away, died 2 days later, 33 years old. Another separate accident on one of the main arteries in the valley, another lady dead on site, 33 years old. Another accident involving two girls one 12, the other 13. They were in a SXS crossing a highway, evidently the 12 yr old was driving was crossing the highway and was drying struck broadside by a pickup. Both were thrown from the SXS, the 12 year old didn't make it. The 13 yr old turns out is my cousins, sons, daughter, so I guess my 2nd cousins daughter. She was flown to the same hospital in Billings and underwent reconstructive surgery on her left side of her face and eye as well as her left shoulder and arm. Not sure what her status is at this point. Another incident up the canyon towards Yellowstone Park, a guy that rents ATVs and SXSs rented a couple atv's to some bow hunters, they killed a deer and contacted him and said they were going to be late with the return, he went up to help them and found them looking at the kill getting eaten by a Grizzly. It was a small one and they were able to scare it off, unfortunately when they turned around the mother was there, the SXS rental guy got attacked. It bit him in the face, tore his jaw off, ripped his chest open and severed his right bicep. The other guys somehow chased it off, they couldn't shoot in fear of hitting him so threw rocks and yelled. It finally left, they contacted emergency services and were with him to keep him conscious till the life flight arived. They flew him to Salt Lake in stable but critical condition. Horrible.