2 Lefts

I wrote a long and excellent blog post. I hadn't saved it and then the laptop suddenly restarted, losing everything. It's late and I have no patience to write it again. Here's a short summary: - Yesterday's riding was miserable with headwinds all day. It took 11 hours out on the road. - We met an Irish cyclist named Jamie from West Galway. He told us if we're in his village of Clifton we have a place to stay. - Someone dropped condiment packets on the road. I intentionally rode over a mustard. It went SPLAT and was fun. - We rode 60 miles to a town called Browning. - Today had beautiful scenery. We climbed to the top of Marias Pass, over 5,000 feet at the Continental Divide. - We bypassed most of Glacier National Park due to fire road closures. Riding to the closure and then doubling back would have added 2 days to the ride. - There are stunning streams and forest here. - The owner of the campground we are at is a Grade A shishkebob and was nasty for no re...

Yesterday morning began with our good deed of the week. A day earlier we had spotted a woman's purse at the side of the highway as we left the town of Havre. It looked like it was recently lost and had the full complement of cash, IDs, and credit cards. Luckily the owner had a business card in there as well so we exchanged some texts and Mike mailed it a few towns west, back to its rightful place. We stopped by the Hi Way Bar and Grill on our way out of town to pick up some baked goods. The first stretch of riding had some services but the towns were only a few hundred people in size and we didn't want to rely too much on finding food further down the road. The morning was our coldest yet, just 2 C / 36 F when we woke up. We survived the night by sleeping in all of our clothes, including rain gear. As the day wore on we gradually warmed up and started peeling off layers. I think it was mid-afternoon before we got to the standard attire of shorts and jersey, though I kept on...

Yesterday morning we were downright flying. I think the pavement was melting beneath us, although that may have been less likely as it was 58 degrees when we started out from Harlem. We did a stretch of 20 miles, took a break, and did another 20 to finish off a short day by arriving in Havre. A guy named Mike was kind enough to open his copy shop for us on a Sunday afternoon. We needed to print out a whole sheaf of papers for the customs and immigration service. They want to know we're still married and boy are we ever. The weather had warmed up all of four degrees to 62 by the time we were done riding for the day. We must go to the coast and the moderating effect of the ocean. The town allows cyclists to camp in their city parks so we stopped by the police station to check in. They gave us the once over, decided we had no ill intent, and we were cleared for camping. We spent some time sorting out our next several days. Our route takes us through Glacier National Park and som...

The first order of business on our rest day was to check out the three pools that our accommodation boasted. There's a very small, very cold pool, a huge warm pool, and a small hot pool. The hot pool felt great on our bug-bitten bodies and we soaked for a good while before finding it necessary to relocate to the warm pool for a while. Then we'd get cold and return to the hot pool. The cold pool was only for those who were raised in cold climes (i.e. me) and would likely induce hypothermia if you stayed in for more than a minute. I think the longest I lasted was 10 seconds. Mike got in as far as his knees. The second order of business was to complete some paperwork to renew my green card. It was neither exciting nor restful. It was nice, however, to be able to use the resort's conference room to hide from the mosquitoes that were out for blood (literally). We celebrated the form's completion with a beer and cheese pizza. Then we took naps. We returned to the pools for ...

To be charitable, you could call this segment of Montana spare. If you elected to be critical you might call it barren. Out here, there is grass, the freight train, the highway, and the occasional outpost town. Let's review the events of the last two days. From Wolf Point we continued west through the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. At around mile 20 we passed through a hamlet called Oswego. The side of the road didn't look too appealing for a break so we carried on. Mosquitoes started flying after us so we decided we should definitely press further. Around mile 30 we hoped to stop next to Lake Frazer to enjoy a view with our snacks. The map showed that it should be about a mile wide. We arrived: it had dried up completely. Rach and I decided that was plenty far enough and had a stop in the gravel at a crossroads. Thankfully, no mosquitoes here. Another stretch of pedaling and we came to the outskirts of a tiny town called Nashua. A large crew was re-surfacing the road here a...

Yesterday we officially entered the British part of the trip. The weather was overcast and cold (52 deg F/11 deg C). I'm pretty sure London was actually warmer. Due to the dismal weather we weren't inclined to take a break until about 24 miles in when we reached the town of Lindsay. This was the only town of the day with any kind of business though we were well stocked with snacks and lunch. We huddled together under the overhang of the roof as it began to rain. The rain eased up before too long and we continued on our way. Later we took a break just standing at the side of the road and I took the chance to wish Happy Birthday! to my younger brother. The scenery was much the same as previous days: gentle hills, grasslands, lots of hay bales waiting to be collected, and the occasional herd of cows meandering around. A group of pronghorns scampered away as we rode past, flashing their white tails towards us. Did you know that pronghorns are not antelope nor deer, and that their...

We had a great start yesterday and did an easy ten miles to the Painted Canyon Visitor's Center in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The scenery here was stunning. There were buttes and cones, eroding hillsides and winding canyons unfolding for miles and miles beyond our hilltop vista. And there were bison too. We managed to spot two from up above the grasslands. I'm sure there were many more down in the park. Rach and I chatted with a number of vacationers interested in our travels and handled a bison horn and hide in the visitor's center. As we left we saw a group of prairie dogs poking their heads up from their holes at the side of the freeway. After a few snacks, we hit the road again and did about seven miles to the western town of Medora. The town proudly proclaims its historic claim to the pioneer days with a miniature shooting gallery for kids, museums documenting the settling of the American west, and tons of buildings built with raw, gnarled wood to give it a pr...

Farewell, Bismarck, who knows if we'll ever end up back there again. We pedaled out of town, only getting mildly lost in the process. At our first break a UPS driver pulled up to say hello and ask what we were up to. His truck had a malfunctioning horn and he wanted to explain that he hadn't intentionally beeped at us as we sat at the side of the highway. "Watch out for brown trucks" he told us as he pulled away (UPS drivers drive brown trucks). We visited a cafe in the town of New Salem for lunch. It was in a converted old house. The food was great. Mike is now convinced that businesses in old houses are wonderful. We last visited a business in an old house in Rochester, Vermont, when Doon of Green Mountain Bicycles let us use his tools and camp in his backyard. We will be on the lookout for more house-businesses in the future. As we finished up two touring cyclists pulled up. Their names were Tom and Julian and had met on the road. They were heading east and were ...

As we pedaled through Hazelton the evening before, we saw there was a storefront labeled "Coffee Shop" with a simple hand-painted sign. Hours 8 AM - 11 AM. With another stretch of limited services, in fact no stores at all on our day's ride, we thought we should stop in. And we're glad we did. Arlene and other volunteers run what I'd call a community kitchen and gathering space. After the town's only cafe closed last year they came together to run a place where people can mingle and eat and see their neighbors. Coming from a big city it's easy to lose sight of the importance of such a place when there's a restaurant everywhere you turn. And without the pressure of money and expensive rents a group of volunteers can more easily embark on such a project. Arlene showed us some photographs of previous riders and cooked us scrambled eggs and toast with her homemade fruit preserves. Plus an Oreo for dessert. We bought a container of homemade honey as we...