Notice the hills behind me. Up and down, up and down. But they are less extreme and I only had to walk once for a couple hundred yards. Went 57 miles today, and it was a pretty good day. I was feeling pretty strong after that nice rest day yesterday. A lady pulled off in front of us and announced as we got to the car that she was a “Warm Showers” member and loved keeping bicyclists like us in her home. I thought, “super, she must live just up the road and we will have a free place to stay and a great meal to boot!”. Then she told us she lived in Wyoming and assumed our trip was taking us there. We informed her we were going through North Dakota and would have to miss her. We chatted for a bit about her husbands bicycle trip he was on in Canada, and then off we went. I thought, nice visit, bicycle riders sure are nice people! We are staying in a little Motel in Stanford, Montana. The town is listed as 150 population and not much here. Motel is inexpensive but clean and we will sleep well. Our plan tomorrow is to pedal 102 miles. That will be our longest day so far. We ride a gradual uphill for 60 miles and then gradual downhill for 40.  We will see how that goes.

Notice the rumble strips on the left side of the white line. Then notice the distance between the rumble strips  and the gravel. It is about 6 to 8 inches. When I try to ride in that little, tiny, Winnie, narrow strip I am constantantly riding on the rumble strips for fear of going into the gravel and landing on my face. So I choose to ride on the road side of the white line. I ride really close to the white line so it isn’t like I am out in the road, but a number of the cars and trucks honk at me. My thought is, “you ever ride on those rumble strips with a bicycle? Try it then honk at me, you jerk!” Then I confess my poor response and wave politely! One truck laid on the horn for a couple hundred yards as he came up behind me! That will give you a panic attack! I have developed a precise prayer life while riding my bike. “Dear Lord, give me strength, Dear Lord, help me from wrecking in the gravel, Dear Lord, help that driver see well, Dear Lord, a tail wind would be nice, Dear Lord, thank You”.

When we got through the construction we got into this rolling hill country. We had over 20 hills like this picture, one after the other. We would go as fast as we could down and start the incline in our highest gear and keep shifting down and be in our lowest gear about half way up the other side and grind to the top at 4 mph. The worst part was when we got to the top there was another one up ahead that looked bigger. After the 6th or 7th in a row I began to pray for mercy in the form of a really strong tailwind! At mile 60 they were over and we had flat ground for the last 34 miles.

Shortly after getting over and down from Rogers Pass we hit road construction and 7 miles of this kind of stuff. I had mud all over my bike, bags, and myself. When we got to to the flag guy I asked if we could go on through. He said no, we needed to wait for the pilot car. When the line of cars and trucks pulled out behind the pilot car they promptly left us. Two or three groups of rigs behind the pilot car went by us before we got through it. I tried talking him into letting us ride in the pilot car with our bikes in the back, but he said to much liability.

We reached Rogers Pass at over 5,000 ft elevation after riding 18 miles. I must be getting stronger because I only walked and pushed my bike the last mile. The ride down the other side was exciting. I am getting a bit braver because I got the bike up over 30 miles an hour. We assumed this was the hardest part of the day, boy were we wrong.

Well, yesterday is officially the hardest day on the trip and possibly in my life! We biked 94 miles and the first 60 were hills, big hills. We were on the road daylight to dark for 13 hours. We rode up to the office at the KOA campground in Great Falls, Montana and I promptly fell over on my bike with spectators all around greatly concerned with this old guy laying on the ground with his bike on top of him. I usually unlock my right foot from the pedal of the bike, brake, lean the bike to the right slightly, put my right foot down, and then unlock my left foot, but I was so tired I forgot to lean the bike to the right and it went left and over I went. Very embarrassing!

We had 7 miles of construction as well with wet muddy roads that got mud all over everything. It was impossible to ride in the gunk so we pushed our bikes through most of it.

i was so tired last night that I set up my tent and went to sleep and forgot to do my Bible reading. That is the first day I have missed in over 500 days!

today is a rest day! This is a nice campground with a nice hot tub, showers, and I plan on making good use of them as well as sleep a bunch.

we have bicycled 920 miles and are pretty close to 1/4 the distance of the trip. I am so thankful that most of the mountains, passes, hills are behind us!

Rode 49 miles today, all uphill with an occasional short downhill to reward us. Much cooler today than yesterday which was a great blessing. We had planned on camping at an RV park in Lincoln, Montana but as we were riding into town a billboard caught our eye that said ” Ponderosa Motel” $50. We decided to spit the $50 and sleep on a real bed the night before our hardest ride.

tomorrow we are headed for Great Falls, Montana and it is 92 miles and we cross Rogers Pass at 5,700 feet.  All the locals we talk to say it is as hard as Lolo Pass was and the day we did that we bicycled 61 miles, sooooo tomorrow will become the new “hardest day of the trip” and could remain champion for the entire trip. I am dreading it. I am thinking I might die!

There are two things that make it bearable. The first is, mountains will be over!  Flat, flat, flat at least compared to what we have been doing since we started this trip. The second is the next day is our scheduled rest day which we will spend at a KOA camp ground that has a swimming pool. I plan on sleeping a lot.

Today while we were riding a horse fly that had been circling me for miles bit me on the arm. I don’t know if you have ever had one of those rascals bite you but it HURT! I swerved all over as I attempted to kill him, and stopped quick before I wrecked, and just as I got stopped he got me again on the leg, but I smacked him, and then stomped on him several times.

I am getting into shape more each day and the pain in my butt has been reduced to an ache that is bearable as we stop and rest for a minute about every 5 miles, drink some water, eat a little trail mix, and take a picture. Love you all. Dee

I thought yesterday was the hardest day of my life, but I think today was. On the road almost 12 hours with temperatures in the upper 90’s from noon on. We bicycled 70 miles with all afternoon being uphill.

We rode most of the day along the Blackfoot River and it was very beautiful though it was hard to really appreciate it with sweat in my eyes!

We are camped about 30 miles East of Misoulla at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest headquarters. They have a bunch of little cabins for forestry workers and some are empty so they let us slep in one. The bath house is very close and the showers have so much pressure it can blow the dirt off. So nice to stand for 20 minutes in a nice cold shower. Made me feel like I wNt to live again!

Tomorrow should be an easy day. Going only 45 miles. Should be done and in camp before it gets to hot. That will be oh so nice!!

We saw a wolf along the road this morning. Big and black. I was going to take his picture but John pulled out his high frequency horn designed to scare away dogs and started blaring away. He was protecting me from getting eaten by the wolf. The thing worked, off he went, but no picture 😦

Love you all. Dee

Today was the hardest day of the trip by far. It was sorta like climbing Mt Adams on a bicycle. We road 61 miles and the first 53 miles was all very steep uphill. I pushed my bike the last 5 miles to the summit with 6+ % grade. Several concerned people stopped and asked if I wanted a ride to the top, but I told them I needed to do it otherwise my boys would call me a wimp. 🙂 I will sleep really well tonight I am sure.

We entered into Montana when we went over Lolo Summit, and tomorrow will go through Missoula and head towards Great Falls. Tomorrow we bike 75 miles but will be relatively flat with no mountains to climb. That will be so nice. In a couple of days the mountains will be behind us, and hopefully we will have the wind at our backs instead of a head wind.

The new seat that I got is working great. Still some soreness, but not near as bad. A fellow in our church Mike Burner sent me some great ointment as well that was miraculous in taking away the pain after I got off the bike. I am feeling super tired tonight but confident that I will get stronger everyday, and finish the trip successfully.

I am enjoying my evenings reading and studying and working on my new sermon series on the Gospel of John that I will start in October. I usually lay in my tent with it all zipped up to keep out the mosquitoes laying on my very comfortable air mattress and air pillow. They squeeze down in the morning to just a couple of pounds and very small package that works super for a trip like this. I have several hundred books downloaded onto my iPad and have a wonderful time reading and writing.

The riding conditions have been mixed. Sometimes there is a nice wide shoulder, and sometimes there is none. Drivers have been good about slowing down and going around us, and many wave and yell encouragement. They are probably bikers. We had one close call with someone in a Motorhome missing us by a couple of inches as they passed us. That was on the second day going up to Hoodoo. We have seen a lot of other bicyclers doing the same route that we are. They have all been young!

Mary Ann heads home in the morning so it will be just John and I from this point on. It has been nice for the last week having Mary Ann carry our stuff in the car. In the morning all 60 pounds goes back on the bike.

Occasionally like yesterday when I don’t blog it will because there is no cell service or wifi where we are camping.

Love ya all. Dee