72.5 miles today, 1444 miles total
That was another long day in the heat and we are tired, so we’ll update further tomorrow (we all readily agreed we’d sleep in and do a short day).
That being said, I must mention that we met a real saint on the road. He saw us as he was headed west in the morning, so he brought us ice-cold water and snacks when he headed back east in the afternoon! There are good people out there😁
60.4 miles today, 1174 miles total
We are camped by a creek again at another KOA (we appreciate the shower and laundry facilities).
This time there’s no rail line. It sounds great.
We had a slow start to the day on some beautiful roads but it wasn’t long before we were faced with a very long gravel road that took us away from I-90. In an effort to skip that we asked Google for directions and it sent us down Acme Road. That looked like an excellent plan until it wasn’t, and the road was blocked by a gate and a no trespassing sign.
So we headed back and got on the freeway. But not before I enjoyed some red roads that reminded me of the roads back home in Lanarkshire.
We enjoyed riding through Sheridan, where Bob and Shirley started their family many years ago. The public art was impressive with many sculptures. Alas, none of Bob, yet. We procured lunch and enjoyed it in the park before getting on the roads again.
The aforementioned nap interrupted proceedings briefly but was appreciated by all as it was followed by an extremely long 8% grade. We struggled on in the heat for a while then decided to hightail it to Buffalo on the freeway.
Dinner tonight was a large tin of baked beans, followed by two tins of Dinty Moore beef stew (augmented by red pepper). Delicious!
Steve’s doing laundry and we’re off to bed.
It’s hot and we are at the side of a road with a 70 mph speed limit. But traffic is light and the shade is rejuvenating. 24 miles to go today.
73 miles today (a new record, and, PB for Steve!), 1311 miles overall.
Quote of the day, “You’re doing that on the Huffies?!?”
After 13 days in Montana we have eventually reached another state. Barely 1 mile over the state line we found the Parkman Bar, in (you guessed it) Parkman Wyoming.
Due to several failings of the town of Hardin, we restarted the day at McDonald’s, where the coffee was okay, the tea was middling and the ice cream was fantastic.
Our next major stop was Lodge Grass where we had our traditional lunch and Steve executed an impressive nap (we should note, that he slept through a guy arriving with an excavator, emptying the trash and leaving again).
Then it was back on the road for more beautiful scenery. Our only complaint, it was warm/hot. Here are a few photos of the rest of the ride.
After dinner it was about a quarter mile to our campsite in the beautiful Conner Battlefield State Historic Site.
The campsite is near, perfect, but there is no running water (except for the vast quantities in river). It took us a while to find a potable source.
54 Miles, 1239 miles total.
If we could find a secret passage through which we could bike in Montana all the way to the east coast, I would take that path. We don’t know of that route, so this is likely the last night in Montana. We’ve been traveling through the state for a long time, and the scenery and friendly people will be missed.
Today started with great velocity, even though a long climb started the day out of Billings, MT. Mid-day the complicated flat tire out on the plains zapped our energy. Upon repair, a large shared bag of potato chips and a beer in the nearest town lifted our spirits, but not enough to go further today.
An odd and goofy thing happened today as well. After returning to our campsite and enjoying pizza for dinner, my tent had vanished. After some pondering and searching, Colin found it sitting perfectly fine on the other site of a fence in an adjacent field. This creeped me out for a bit, though as it turns out another camper had witnessed a freak gust of wind gently lift and reposition the tent. It is retrieved now and functioning perfectly in its intended spot.
Tomorrow it is on to Wyoming for a few days, then the Badlands of South Dakota. Life is good.
We were making such good progress and had just enjoyed another marvelous lunch of tortillas, bananas and, now sugar-free, peanut butter (it took a while to convince the guys that was a good idea) when Steve got off to rather bouncy restart. So while Steve and Bob are doing hard work, I’ll give you an update.
We spent several minutes riding a beautiful trail alongside a the Yellowstone River this morning. In fact, we were enjoying it so much we missed a turn and did an extra mile or so.
Within 5 mi we were were climbing on another beautiful road. The view is from the top were expansive.
We saw a paddock full of palomino horses.
Then some less attractive feed lots…
The cursing continues so I think I’ll go and offer some advice. 😁
