curvy hayfield
The bike shop in Glasgow MT. Only sign is the bike and the piece of paper visible in the window. Unfortunately not open
It's a wonder no one wiped out on this maze of cracks in the road, about an inch deep and just wide enough to fit a bike tire. This went on for several miles
This pretty little house-sized building is apparently really a working Coca Cola bottling company in the tiny town of Glasgow, MT
Bikes lined up before breakfast in Wolf Point, MT
This is my attempt to capture the beauty of the alfalfa lining the highway.
Day 21 - July 10th - Malta, MT 88 miles, 660 ft cumulative elevation gain 80, sunny and windy - perfect biking weather! Last night I worried about whether I would want to complete today, thinking I might just hop in the sag wagon at about mile 60. But this was surely the easiest 88 miles I’ve ever ridden.. The weather cooperated by not getting too hot, and we had a marvelous tail wind for the first 50 miles: I averaged 15mph, unheard of for me. The terrain was very different today. No more vast fields of wheat. We rode all day within sight of the Milk river and, what’s more, within sight of actual trees! Instead of wheat we had lots of hay fields. Where are the cows that one would expect with them? At about mile 50 the terrain changed again, to a wide river bottomland, dotted with small ponds and BUGS. You literally could not stop - or even slow down - without being immediately surrounded by a cloud of what I think are black flies, which I remember (and not fondly) from northern Michigan summers. Luckily that only lasted for about 20 miles, and then the wind picked up, and changed to a cross wind, blowing all the bugs away and keeping us cool. (Note that positive spin!) I felt like I was leaning about 20 degrees to the left to ride with it, and sincerely hope that does not turn into an actual headwind tomorrow. C’mon, prevailing westerlies! Day 22 - July 11th - Glasgow, MT 0 miles, 0 ft cumulative elevation gain 75 and drizzly- perfect biking weather! I woke up this morning still very tired and achy from yesterday, so decided to skip riding today. Got into the little town of Glasgow a couple of hours before the motel room was even ready. When we first got to the hotel, it seemed like everyone in town was at the hotel restaurant for the Sunday afternoon buffet. Not much else to do here on a Sunday. Although it is still apparent that the town was once fully alive, with quite a few nice old brick 3-story buildings, it is all but dead now -- especially on a Sunday. Still, it’s the county seat and there are TWO espresso places in town, and one nice looking restaurant -- all closed today. About half the stores are empty, and the only one open for business today other than gas station mini-marts was Ace Hardware. Wikipedia says Glasgow was 4 times this size in the 60’s, due to a nearby air force base that was used in the Viet Nam war. I also must note that today we drove through Saco, which held the record for making the world’s largest hamburger in 1999 --- 6040 pounds, which is about 30 pounds for every man, woman, and child in town. Hey, cut me some slack! It’s been a boring afternoon! I tried to watch the world cup final game for awhile, but my god, how long can you watch a game with no score???? (my limit was about 60 minutes….) Tonight is one of those perfect, crystal-clear, soft, warm evenings you get after a summer rain. I really wanted to just sit outside until sunset, but I lasted for all of about 10 minutes before the mosquitoes found me and I had to retreat to the safety of my room. Day 23 - July 12th - Wolf Point, MT 53 miles, 750 ft cumulative elevation gain 90 and sunny- perfect biking weather! We started out racing a big thunderstorm off to the south this morning, but it passed us by with no problems. I’d like to know where the heck these “prevailing westerlies” are, because we rode into a stiff headwind / crosswind all day. Probably a blessing, as that kept the temperature down and the bugs away. I added a layer of Cutter’s over the sunscreen this morning, which probably helped some, too. We actually got off of US 2 for about 30 miles today, on nice back roads through beautiful, sweet smelling fields of alfafa, some freshly cut, some just about ready. We had our first, and hopefully only, accident of the trip. Lynn and Barbara crashed, Lynn coming away with skinned elbows and Barbara with a split lip.They both seem OK and in reasonably good spirits and I think both will be riding tomorrow. Day 24 - July 14th - Culbertson, MT 57 miles, 910 ft cumulative elevation gain 75 and sunny with a tailwind- perfect biking weather! What a great ride! We finally found the prevailing westerlies, so it was more of a flight than a ride: 57 miles in 4 hours. For several days, we’ve been riding with occasional glimpses of the Missouri river to the south, and today we were right at it’s banks briefly. Lots more hay fields today, and toward the end of the day, a couple of big hills to climb. Once again we were on pleasant back roads for a good part of the day. Today we played group “poker”. Everyone contributed $3 to the kitty this morning and got 5 cards. At each of our two sag stops, we got to draw. Tonight at dinner we’ll see who’s the winner. I’m pretty sure it’s not me, with just a pair of 8’s, aces high.
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