This is my 400th video upload to YouTube. Never thought I would be creating this many videos when I started to get serious in 2018. It is fitting that I am on my way to “As the Magpie Flies”, Amanda Zito’s rally Rocky Mountain Roll on her family’s farm. This is the 9th one. I started watching Amanda when she was on Lazarus and broke her wrist. I was quite impressed with her fortitude in getting out of the woods while hurt and have been watching her ever since.
While editing this I am reminded that International Women’s Day just passed and it makes me think of some of the women motorcycle vloggers that I follow. Of course, we probably all follow Itchy Boots, Noraly, and I watch her because she takes me places that I know I will never get to. One of my favourites is Kinga, On Her Bike as she just seems to love her motorcycle travel, camping and life in general. I just missed meeting her in Newfoundland in 2022 and we’ve stayed at some of the same campgrounds, just never at the same time. Others include Jess, Her Two Wheels, Carolyn, Doodle on a Motorcycle and Staci, Ride to Food. I think I missed a chance to meet Staci at RMR as I am sure I saw her ride out on the Saturday morning. There are a lot of other women vloggers I watch and there are so many women out there on two wheels who don’t vlog. Talked to a number of them while at RMR and will meet more at the Vagabond Rally in Oregon on Labour Day weekend.
Indian Trees NFS Campground neat Sula, Montana was a great place to camp. My only issue is the ongoing one with the slow leaking air mattress. Very nice hosts.
Rocky Mountain Roll is held on a family farm and you have to get a ticket early as it is capped at 100. This means you just can’t show up and the location is kept as private as possible. It is a working farm and the first thing I needed to do when arriving was to clear a few cow pies from my campsite. The general cleaning of the field was pretty good. Only had a few pies to deal with. There were porta potties, a primitive shower (but good), a hillbilly swimming pool (tarp in the bed of an old pickup), covered communal picnic tables and a firepit to sit around and exchange stories. It was very laid back. Major food stores were within a 20 minute ride.
I had a lot of people curious about the Mini Mate. Most riders here were on ADV style of motorcycles so riding the old Goldwing and hauling a trailer was novel to them. Talked to a lot of people, had a chance for a short chat with Amanda and also with her brother Gary about farming.
Some people were already leaving Sunday morning but not before the pancake breakfast. I was carrying a bottle of New York State maple syrup that had been given to me by Chuck and Kat when I visited them early in the tour. It was much appreciated by everyone.
Sunday was also a group ride day into Missoula about an hour away. Had a great lunch at a Ramen restaurant and a brief tour of the Montgomery Distillery which had a vintage motorcycle display happening that weekend. Before heading back to the farm, I managed to get to Walmart to find a new air mattress. Trying to find the leak in the old one was proving futile.
Woke to a beautiful morning on the Monday. Packed up and headed to the Lolo Pass.
I had a great weekend.
https://www.facebook.com/rockymtnroll Rocky Mountain Roll
https://www.youtube.com/@AstheMagpieFlies Amanda
https://www.youtube.com/@onherbike Kinga
https://www.youtube.com/@ridetofood Staci
https://www.youtube.com/@HerTwoWheels Jess
https://www.youtube.com/@DoodleOnAMotorcycle Carolyn
https://www.youtube.com/@ItchyBoots Noraly
Buy Me a Coffee Campaign (or lunch or a tank of gas for the summer of ’25)
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/OldGuyonaBike
Direct contact: oldguyonabike8@gmail.com
The following music was used for this media project:
"Breakdown" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Other music:
https://www.epidemicsound.com/