Start: 6:54 AM

Finish: 2:08 PM

Saddle Time: 5:45

Ascent: 1,831 feet

Descent:  2,175 feet

Miles: 76 miles

Total Miles: 1,233

Highlight: Seeing the geography change from the rolling hills covered with wheat and grass to a landscape clearly shaped by erosion.

Lowlight: Well the only thing I can complain about today was lack of cell service all day and poor wifi in my motel so it must have been a good day.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Did you hear about the bear attack? I was in the local bar last night and overheard local talking about how a camper was killed by a bear and now there’s a massive hunt on to kill the bear. Just wanted you to know it wasn’t me. Interesting about how they had food in their tent, something you should never do, especially in bear country. I’ve been in motels lately but wondered what would I do with food when there are no bear boxes like in Washington and no trees to hang your food.

Today was my longest ride since the heat wave set in back in Washington. No passes or anything but the terrain is rolling, the type of climbing that can sneak up on you over time.  All of a sudden you wonder why you are so tired. I wanted to leave at 6:30  but it was closer to 7:00 before I left largely because I had a long conversation with my neighbors in the motel.  Three guys, one a regional local and the other two from South Africa.  They are in the area working on installing some type of irrigation systems somewhere.  I talking to the South Africans about the time we spent in Namibia and how I would like to visit South Africa.  The regional local guy asked about my trip so I told him how I’m riding to Connecticut. He said “that’s a liberal state, right?”  I laughed, I shouldn’t have laughed but I couldn’t help myself.  Trying to regain some control and sound less offensive I said “well it’s more liberal than here”.  My motel is plastered with Trump flags. I’ve lived in Connecticut my whole life, it’s not a liberal state. We don’t even make the top ten of most liberal states but he’s not the only person who has made such a comment to me.  From his worldview democrat = liberal = socialist = communist.  Of course there are no hard equals signs between any of those, in fact some have no equal signs at all.

You can see how peoples views are heavily influenced by what they consume unfortunately now from sources like FOX News or MSNBC.  We went on to have a long conversation about the area while he gave me pointers on the road ahead.  He’s a good guy from a vary narrow world view based on his life experience. There’s a Mark Twain quote about how travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness.  Travel is the best way to understand “others” are really not all that different from you.  We may come from very different backgrounds but at the end of the day we want the same thing out of life.  The benefits of travel go both ways.  You obviously benefit from traveling with new life experiences but it also impacts the people you meet.  When we were on our round the world trip I remember telling the girls that how they act matters.  In some places the person you are interacting with may never have met an American.  That can leave a lasting impression. Same for my conversation with this guy, he may never have met someone from Connecticut.  Maybe he left thinking people from Connecticut are not all that bad and I got a better understanding that some dude from the middle of nowhere Montana wearing a black American flag is truly a good guy.

The morning ride today again was fantastic. The cool temperatures and light traffic really makes me think I should get going earlier every day.  Today was about change, the geography of the area is changing from the rolling prairie land of grasses and wheat to land clearly shaped by erosion.  Gone are the vast fields of wheat and all the accompanying hardware like grain elevators.  I’m still in the prairie but much more shaped by erosion which impacts my ride. As the guy I was talking to earlier was warning me about, the roads have a lot of blind spots as it travel over buttes, into gullies and around turns so I need to be alert to what’s coming behind me and be careful where I stop.

I stopped at a rest area about 20 miles into the day that had some information on the area. The geology is made up of shale, sedimentary deposits from the inland sea that occupied this area millions of years ago.  Embedded in the shale are lots of fossils.  I’m entering fossil country.

About 40 miles in I stopped at a store in the middle of nowhere, well it was in Sand Springs but that’s more a name on a map than an actual town. The store had a lot of miscellaneous stuff from snacks to artwork made from horseshoes. I bought a gatorade, an apple, an orange and three hard boiled eggs for $5.  Hard boiled eggs! What a great idea.  I thought if I can buy a half dozen eggs I can cook them up in may camp stove, chill them down in a motel fridge and take them the next day for snacks.

I met a west bounder there, a young guy riding solo who started in Bar Harbor on June 6th. At first I was impressed with his progress but later doing the math he was likely averaging about 80 miles a day, what I wanted to average when I started out on this journey. 

Right about when I left the winds really started to pick up.  Forecasts were for wind out of the north-northwest which seemed to hold up.  I had broadside wind that occasionally moved to mostly tailwind depending on the road direction.  My remaining 30 miles were no problem.  I had been used to suffering the second half of the day with relentless headwinds so this was super easy.

I made it to Jordan a little after 2:00.  There was no one in the lobby of my motel so I rode around town and visited the local museum. You may recognize Jordan, MT because it’s where the first T-Rex fossil was discovered back in the early 1900’s with other significant discoveries over the years.  In the museum I met a west bound couple from Glens Falls, NY not all that far from where I live.  They left in early May riding a tandem.

Today was partly a test for me, how do I feel after a nearly 80 mile day.  Can I expect to ride this day after day once I get into more populated areas with more frequent options for places to stay.  I think it went well, I can easily handle this distance. Maybe I’ll be home in a month.