Three Months In Montana in Pics

Montana Motorcycle Safety Course

A busy night at work on the sautee line

Cooney Reservoir

Ice Cave, Lewistown area, Montana

My first special at work: Veal Pho

Billings Montana

Bison Osso Bucco

Three Months in Montana

Back Home

New Job

My previous job search was a slog. It was a months long process, it was frustrating and humbling. This time I got the first job I applied for, and the interview took all of five minutes. Been working for over two months now at Walker's Grill. I'm back to cooking: sautee and grill.
It feels weird to be cooking. I have two patents, finished a huge business deal last year, and recently re-upped my teacher certification. On the other hand, my deal with the patents prevents me from working in the bike industry for the next twenty years, and nobody is hiring teachers right now around Absarokee Montana.
First few weeks were weird. It was like I'd gone back in time fifteen years, life revolving around a kitchen again. Now I'm back in the groove. Mostly sautee lately. It's a cool kitchen. Menu and service is stuck in a bit of a time warp too, all very 80's, like a lot of parsley garnishes, and shredded Parmesan piled high where it doesn't belong. Overall though, there's a good chef, some cool people in the back of the house, and it's solidly placed as one of Billings' finest restaurants.

Remember Your Family? Now Say Goodbye Again. . . . . 

Our family was apart for 2012, and for most of 2014. We were together for all of a month, before Yokie and Rose left for Malaysia. So, a topsy-turvy year continued with a month alone back in Absarokee, working in Billings.

Home Alone

During my one month return to bachelor life, I biked, watched TV, worked (a lot), played Fallout New Vegas until 2 am almost daily, and worked on the house. I built a shelf play / chill / eat area for our cat up on the living room wall. I doubled the shelf space in the pantry and organized it. The fireplace is now sitting on a custom built stand, filled with river rocks. And lastly I built a desk and shelf office area behind the TV, in a weird spot in the house's architecture.

Settling In

Now, we're all back together, for the past month or so. The new normal is a lot of homeschooling, cooking, driving back and forth to Billings, and hanging out with the family by the fireplace watching TV and listening to music.
With the off season about wrapped up, it's time to add biking back to the mix. Here's to a successful 2016 racing season!

Fattie on a Beach

Grand Finale

Desaru Beach Ride

For my last ride in Malaysia, I took advantage of the fact I had a car, and I took Shrek out to the beach in Desaru. It was my first ride on a beach with a fatbike. Verdict: insane fun. Fatbikes on a beach are now up there with a sweet powder day in the trees and a great football match. Riding a fatbike on a beach is simply a bit of heaven.
One of my best days ever.

This is the end of the beach at Desaru, looking back towards the main beach area.
There was a really cool grassy, treed park on the right, and it's delightfully deserted. 

Years ago, Rose and I discovered a secret stash of beach north of the popular Desaru stretch.
I had always wanted to connect the two stretches, and the only obstacle seemed to be this creek.
I tried to find a bridge, but couldn't, so I had to portage. It was about hip deep and super warm.
One more advantage of fatbikes: when you portage through water, the big tires' buoyancy make it super easy. 

It turned out that there was more of a break between the two beaches than I realized. I had to not only cross the creek above, then I had to wind up and over a promontory in a plantation. On top of the promontory there were amazing views, and sea eagles roosting. 

Back on the beach, this time on the secret side. This beach is about five km of uninterrupted smooth sand, and there's never anybody there. I only saw one three person family on the way up, and nobody but a plantation worker sleeping in the trees on the way back down. 

The end of the line. I was about twelve km or so from the parking lot when I hit this impasse.
Halfway through one of the best bike rides of my life. 

When I was almost back to the parking lot, I took advantage of a nice empty spot, and did my best to spell out "I <3 U Yokie".
It was my fist go at Strava art like that, and I think it came out OK considering. Yokie loves it. 

The last biking picture of me and Shrek in Malaysia. 

https://www.strava.com/activities/386694297

You can see details of the ride with the above link. 

All in all it was a fitting end to a hell of a season for Shrek and me in Malaysia. In less than a year, we rode almost 2000 miles. We did a cross country ride, starting in Malaysia, sampling some of Singapore's world class ST, and going back home. We rode in three races, winning all three in the fatbike category. We made tons of biking friends. Most importantly, we stayed safe, and had a hell of a time!