With an afternoon off I spent an enjoyable (ha ha) hour at WalMart getting prescriptions filled and then patched my tire. Randy and I were looking for someplace for dinner when I discovered my patch job wasn’t working. Randy helped me pump up the tire, we had dinner, pumped up the tire, went home and I re-patched the tube. Had a great rest at the Central Motel, found out my second patch wasn’t working, had breakfast at Lippis, very good, Randy helped me pump up the tire, rode to Knicker Biker and they finally fixed my tire.
So we’re leaving town and I stop at the US Bank to use the cash machine. I’m not used to cash machines. It takes my card, gives me cash, then swallows the card. In the bank they tell me I wasn’t quick enough and it swallowed my card for my own good. ‘Can I get my card back?’ ‘Well, no’ the teller says, ‘it will be destroyed, for your own good’. ‘Thanks’, I say. So I call the credit union to get a new card. ‘Can you send it to me, say in Fargo?’ I ask. ‘Sorry, we have to send it to your home address. It’s for your own good’. Oh well, it is June 13, not everyday can be idyllic, things got better though.
We left Great Falls and turned north towards Fort Benton. The road was fairly desolate with only a handful of cars passing us an hour. After 50 miles we arrived at a very special place from a Walla Walla point of view. Fort benton is a beautiful town, a little touristy, sitting along the Missouri river. The connection with Walla Walla is the Mullan road. Fort Benton is one end and Walla Walla is the other end. The road went from paddle wheelers here, over the continental divide, near the present day Interstate 90. No Lolo Pass in those days. The town is full of historic buildings including an old Carnegie library building which is still in use as a library. Being here in Fort Benton puts some puzzle pieces in perspective for me about the history of Walla Walla.
Greg
Cascade Montana was a sleepy little town with a main road under construction that is now just a dirt road. We ate a cold breakfast and continued on frontage roads to Great Falls. Here on the prairie the views are immense; a plateau off in the distance seems to travel with us all morning, always visible miles away on our left. The roads we were on on this Sunday morning had so little traffic that we could ride side by side. We rode 30 miles today and stopped for the afternoon in Great Falls. Thunderstorms are threatening and as we arrived in Great Falls I discovered I have a flat tire. We are taking the afternoon off.
Greg
The Lincoln Hotel is a 2 story log building on the National Historic Register. It has recent new owners, a family, all very friendly and quite helpful although the hotel is still under construction. I also spent time at the Lincoln library branch.
In the morning, we were concerned about closed roads due to flooding, so one of our proprietors suggested a route from Highway 200 to interstate 15, a road that was beautiful in it’s expansive grandeur, ‘a little hilly, but worth it,’ he said. So we started our approach to Rogers Pass, 17 miles away, and at 5610 feet the highest point we will reach on this trip. After crossing the Continental Divide at Rogers Pass we descended until we came to our detour. The road was indeed a beautiful ride, but the 18 mile detour was spent in first gear quite a bit of the way, it was very hilly from a bicyclists point of view. Once we reached the interstate we discovered a beautiful road that is the old US 91, the highway from Helena to Great Falls. We continued on that highway which follows the Missouri river until stopping for dinner and the night in Cascade Montana. We are both tired, 80 miles today, Great Falls tomorrow.
Greg
Today is a day off, kind of. We had breakfast in Ovando talking with Ed, the father of the groom, and then rode 25 miles to Lincoln. We stopped at the historic Lincoln Hotel, so as to get a fresh start before crossing Rogers Pass, the Continental Divide, tomorrow. There are reports of flooding, snow, and closed roads, so we may be forced to find detours to get to Great Falls.
Greg
We left Missoula this morning in a drizzle and it never left us all day. Our route followed the Blackfoot river and Montana highway 200 for 52 miles. We also climbed about 1400 feet towards the Continental Divide.
When we got to Ovando Montana we were happy to see the hotel! Unfortunately it was totally booked for a wedding on Saturday. The hotel owner, Peggy Fly, told us maybe she could find us a place to stay. She phoned Steve and asked if we could stay in the basement of the church. We’re sleeping on the floor and there are no showers, but this is certainly better than camping in the rain. It turns out Steve is performing the wedding ceremony this Saturday. We also met the wedding party when we went to dinner at Trixis, ‘the place to eat dinner in Ovando’.
The kindness of people was one of the things we were looking for on this trip and we have certainly found it here in Ovando. This trip is about seeing the country, testing ourselves with the challenges of weather and physical exercise, and meeting people that restore our faith in humanity. So far we have not been disappointed.
Greg
2guysbiketrip 