Tires and the chain take the most maintenance on the bike. We have had 3 flats so far and have wiped down and re-oiled our chains several times. Half way across the US we will replace the chains. We also have to pay close attention to medical issues for the engine powering the bicycle. There are 5 pressure points to monitor; the hands, feet, and sit bones. The knees are susceptible to repetitive motion stresses. Environmentally we are susceptible to hypothermia on a wet windy day, and heat exhaustion and sunburn on a sunny day. We also deal with bumps and abrasions, sore muscles, and so far 1 bee sting. Most medical issues are resolved with water, food, and rest. We are machines, our bikes and us.
Randy and I woke up at Jolly Swagmans with a drizzle outside. It’s Sunday, we’re unsure if there’s any place open for breakfast, so we share two leftover pizza slices, a couple of apples, and yogurt we had bought last night. As we are leaving we see a couple of people up and walking outside who wave and holler to us to have a nice ride. The rain is intermittent all day but OK, it keeps us cool. A headwind develops early and gradually gets stronger all day which makes the ride from Poplar to Williston seem like it’s up hill the entire way. Our plan is to stop for breakfast the first place we can, but in the first town nothing’s open. Finally we find a place called Scoop in Culbertson Montana that’s open, and full of people too, so the food must be good! We ask the waitress about breakfast, she says there’s no breakfast after 11. We’re both surprised that we’ve already ridden 3 hours, and it’s past noon. Instead we order the Fathers Day special dinner of roast beef, potatoes, and corn. We stop one more time mid afternoon and buy water. The water the past few days has been naturally soft, and to us has tasted salty. We have both been drinking much more water and yet still feeling thirsty, the salty water has made us slightly dehydrated. We bought 4 liters of water, drank about a pint each and filled water bottles. We still had 30 miles to ride, but felt refreshedfrom the water break. The wind continued, at one point a thunderstorm passed over us with heavy rain and thunder but no visible lightning. We get to our motel in Williston about 8:00, with the time zone change from Mountain to Central. We’ve ridden 80 miles, we’re tired, and we’re ready for a day off.
Greg
June 19
No rain today. Leaving Circle we have the winds lighter than yesterday but still helping us, for the most part. We turn onto highway 13 straight north, turn right onto US 2 straight east to Poplar, 65 miles. Highway 13 is rolling hills coasting down for a mile or more then making a climb of the same distance. Highway 2 is absolutely flat, straight, I hope not mind numbing.
Poplar is quite interesting. A boy stops us and asks to have his bike helmet adjusted. A large papercentage of the population is Native American and they’re interested in hearing about our trip or greet us in a friendly way. We check into our motel and the landlady recommends the Buckhorn cafe down the street. It’s really just about the only cafe around and is next to Wallys grocery. We walk through the Buckhorn Bar to get to the cafe. In the cafe our waitress is also watching her 3 year old daughter while waiting on us. The landladies recommendation was good, the salad bar is the best we have seen in quite a few days. We hear a firecracker while returning to our room, but haven’t seen any fireworks for sale yet.
Greg
Walking around Jordan the Fire House door is open, loud music is playing and a lone man sits at a card table playing solitary. There is one grass fire rig inside, and the man talks about fire response inJordan. It reminds me of a hundred years ago with fire fighters sitting in front of fire stations filled with horses and steamers.
As we wake up it’s raining. We have an early breakfast at the cafe up the street. Since it’s raining there are 15 local men all sitting around drinking coffee. They warn us that the road to Circle is pretty bad, that in one spot it’s just one lane. One man says we should just lay low in Jordan and wait for the rain to quit. As we are leaving town we discover a flat on my trailer that we repair back in our room before riding off into the rain. The road is narrow enough that a couple of times we have to quickly get completely off the 2 lane road because there is traffic coming from both directions. Along with the rain there’s a tail wind that helps us along the great stretches of fast descents followed by slow climbs to get through the giant rolling hills. The ride really isn’t as bad as we’ve been told thanks to the wind and the cool weather.
When we get to Circle Montana we stop to eat at the only cafe that’s open, check into the only motel, and walk to the grocery store. There’s also a hardware store where we buy another tube for the trailer. As usual the people here are very friendly and like to let us know about the town. We meet one woman who says she moved here to Circle from Chicago four years ago, because it feels like home to her, she’s always felt like a cowgirl. To look at her you’d think she grew up on a ranch here.
This is our 24th day since we began pedaling, our 10th night in Montana. We rode 68 miles today, and about 1200 miles so far.
Greg
In Winnett we weren’t able to get breakfast, so we had Meusli and headed out. We are leaving the most sparsely populated county in Montana. Highway 200 is a 2 lane up and down 78 mile not much to see ride to the next town, Jordan.
In Jordan within minutes we were met by a woman from the town newspaper. She asked if we would mind an interview and about an hour later we were talking with Carla about our trip and having our picture taken. Celebrities here in Jordan Montana!
Greg
It was a climb the first 10 miles out of Lewistown, then fairly flat, long straight roads to Winnett Montana. Randy would entertain himself by whooping to stampede the cattle we passed. Finally even the cattle weren’t around to whoop.
Winnett was 53 miles from Lewistown. It is the county seat and only town, population 185, in Petroleum County Montana. After checking in at the Winnett Hotel we had dinner at the Winnett Bar. The only other cafe is closed for a week for vacation. Talking to the bar owner we found out the public school here is about 100 students from K to grade 12, and when we asked about the library she said it was closed but maybe Blanche, the librarian would let us look at it, so she called her. Blanche Weigum was obviously very proud of the library. It’s attached to the school which is the biggest structure in town. If it’s true that communities largest buildings are monuments to that which is most important to the community, then Winnett has built a monument to it’s children. Blanche showed us the library and showed us a replica of the largest dinosaur skull fossil ever discovered. It was discovered near here about 10 years ago. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the general store to buy drinking water, the water here is salty. We were informed that our sales person was the mayor of Winnett.
This area was booming about 90 years ago when they thought there was oil. The town back then had a population of over 2000. Randy and I have really enjoyed this charming little Montana town.
Greg
Lewistown to Winnett.
Randy and I rode a hundred miles today from Fort Benton to Lewistown, Montana. The distance we ride right now is based somewhat on where we can get food and a place to sleep. Here in eastern Montana it can be a long way between towns; we have to plan, to have a strategy, it feels like a campaign figuring out where to ride. We look ahead 3 or 4 days and plan what we’re going to do.
We had the best breakfast of our trip this morning at Wake Coffee in Fort Benton. We got yogurt, honey, raspberries and blueberries in our oatmeal, and omelets made to order. They even filled my ‘on the bike coffee mug’ with coffee as we were leaving.
What towns we did see in our hundred miles todsy included Geraldine, Square Butte, and Denton. We stopped in Denton for a little while. They had a cafe and a very nice library which also doubles as a community center. We were glad to make it to Lewistown which is the exact geographic center of Montana. We are both tired after our ride today, on to Winnett tomorrow.
Greg
2guysbiketrip 