I just arrived in Miles City, ahead of Bob for a change. It was a pretty short ride, which is good because thunderstorms are forecast for this afternoon.
We stayed at the hot springs in Bozeman which was quite relaxing. Denise met up with us there and kept me “carbed up” by providing s’mores and donuts.
The next night, we stayed in Livingston at a somewhat scary looking RV Park, then I had a long ride to Denise’s house in Billings. The temperature hovered around 98F/37C, do I had to stop several times to cool down in the shade, including a short nap in a city park. I think such siestas will be part of the game plan for future such days. I packed my hydration pack with ice in the morning, and replenished when Bob met me for our PB&J stop. Cold water sips helped a lot, as did the cold Corona Denise handed me when I got there 🙂
Billings was a good time and Denise was a wonderful host. She’s turned her backyard into a cozy hangout area with a fire pit. She also took us out to a cidery and a bar her family runs.
Our fundraising for the MS society got a $100 boost from Jenny and Mark from Washington who we met at a dog -friendly patio in Livingston.
BikeMS Colorado is this weekend (go Team Left Hand!). I’m hoping to cross the $5K boundary before then. We bought some art supplies to try to bring attention to our QR code on the trailer, but not sure what we’ll do yet.
Afternoon storms are forecast for the next few days, so we’ll be trying to get an early start. Tomorrow we’ll stay in Glendive, MT, finally crossing the longitude of Fort Collins. Then on Saturday we should finish our tour of Montana and cross into North Dakota. We’ll stay in Medora, near Teddy Roosevelt National Park. If you’ve got recommendations for things to do there, please let us know. And I’m very excited that my friends Heather and Curtis from Denver will be making the trek to meet us in Bismarck, with Curtis planning to ride with me to South Dakota!
We stopped at the brewery in town and met a man who was excited about what we were doing. He’s a Vietnam vet, who had ridden his Gary Fisher over. He gave us detailed cycling directions into North Dakota, places where I can avoid the interstate by carrying my bike to and from gravel roads. He suggested a historic hotel in Terry, and a photo museum there that, if it’s not open yet, we should just ask the guy at the upholstery shop to open up for us. There’s a good buffet place in Fallon and we should definitely spend some money at the only business left in Sentinel Butte – a gas station -because of the high number of veterans in that town percapita. He also suggested walking up from our campsite to see where the Tongue flows into the Yellowstone. I plan to do as much of that as I can. Here a picture of the latter:
Rides since the last post:
I’m finishing up this post after making my nest in the bed of Bob’s pickup for the night, because this site doesn’t allow tent camping. I’ve 4 large tubs of things next to me that we prioritized as having the most negative impact to the trip if stolen, with most replaceable bins slid under the truck outside. My foot pump neatly tucked in beside me.
