Home and Away in Chinook Montana

So, the plan to make it to Malta in one day sorta fell through when I found that I'd broken a spacer on my steer tube. This meant that on a Sunday morning, in quiet, most-things-closed-on-Sundays-namely-the-bike-shop-which-is-owned-by-a-jerk-so-I-wouldn't -go-there-anyway Havre, I had to go in search of a solution. This solution ultimately came in the form of a very nice gentleman named Mark that I met while trying to saw off steer tube with a dull hacksaw as it was propped on the curb in the parking lot of the Checkers auto part store. He made the mistake of letting me borrow a sharp hacksaw and when all was said and done, he'd lent me his hacksaw, pipe-vice, mini sledge, brass punch and a file. He also gave me some zip ties to replace the ones I'd cut off of my computer. Apparently a bicyclist's best friend is not a dog with roller skates instead of legs after all but, rather a man who works with natural gas pipelines and carries all of his tools with him in a large truck...with a pipe-vice on the bumper. Thanks Mark!
We didn't leave Havre until whenever, I don't have a clock. I think it was 11:30 or so. Not a good start to a 80+ mile day. Rode through construction and dirt and strong headwinds until we got to Chinook. At which point we made it official that we were going to bag it after only 20 miles. While we licked our wounds, we ate cheeseburgers and 15 pound ice creams things. Our wounds were sticky and cheesy to say the least. Upon the recommendation of a local, we set up camp on the grounds of the Chinook Water works, a nice little place with big cottonwoods, right next to the Milk River. We spent the afternoon napping and drinking water as the winds gradually increased. In the evening all hell broke loose. King Lear type stuff. Really strong winds and rain drove us into our tents for a while. Don and I went exploring a little later and found the bicycles of a three-man group headed west that Devin had been in contact with. We didn't interrupt them at dinner, but let Devin know that they were in town. He went and found them later and they camped at the same park. I think that there is a link from our site to theirs. If not, I'll have Devin do that, they're cool guys.


So blah, blah, blah. Camp, shmamp. You guys want the good stuff don't ya? You're like little fiends; just can't get enough. Well I've got something for you. Can you handle it? Ok...ready...here goes. Today we rode one hundred and forty miles. That's right. We got up, got off our cans, feasted on gas station breakfast burritos, caught a tailwind and proceeded to haul ass from Chinook to Glasgow in 7 hours of riding. It was sweet. We rode the first sixty to Malta before lunch. Had a nice lunch on the lawn of the library, and did some stretches and headstands.


Oh yeah, I did my push-ups. Well, I'd already done some but, really, I just don't feel like I ever actually get tired doing them, so I did some more. It was sweet too. Then we blasted on to Glasgow. The first half of the day was faster as the winds were much stronger and more directly at our backs. The entire way was pretty, again the qualifier you hear a lot comes up, "if you like the prairie." Sunny the whole way but not blazing hot. As we approached Glasgow, the presence of water could be seen in the green grass and tress as well as THE INCREDIBLE SWARMS OF MOSQUITOES. Holy smokes! I take A-positive in case they suck me dry. You could kill six with a single swat on your calf and by the time you'd wiped them off your hand, their buddies had come to take their places. I'm wearing my bike shorts inside-out tomorrow. Giving 'em the old "nose in the chamois" trick. We'll see if any of the little buggers wanna bite me then.



Tonight we are camped at the RV park of a hotel. The internet, showers and chance at a cold beer being very weighty in the decision making process. And, no mom, I'm not drinking too much. We each had one and then had to leave because we were all about to fall asleep. This is what it's come to. Four, twenty-something, broke, bike ridin' punks that can't even stay awake to party, crashing in the dirt of a barren RV park next to the train tracks. Maybe everybody will have it this good some day.