The bumpy road of 93

Thursday 5/10 Day 20


House I stayed at

One piece of gear that I have that I'm really thankful for are my windstopping gloves. You don't know how many times I have been riding and my hands are freezing, I pull over put these gloves on and two minutes later my hands are warm. So as you can imagine if this is the gear I'm thankful for today, that means it was a bit windy, cold, and there was a little bit of snow while riding. I was riding down along side the range of mountains which block the view of Glacier national park. The jitters in my body have increased. Going to Glacier is the only reason I went this far north and so far it has been the best decision to go this far north. The people and the landscape have been most welcoming.
I came up with the term Zone riding today. Zone riding means if you are doing this you are in the zone. It is this effortless pedaling, it does not matter if you are going uphill or downhill, and usually I'm in the highest gear which allows me to cruise or go at a pretty high speed. Another aspect that often makes zone riding more enjoyable is when the wind is at your back. It's so enjoyable when the work is effortless.
Also I have an on the go lunch that I usually eat now is some sort of cheese, tortilla, and peanut butter. I have been eating this quick lunch for a few days because I'm so far away from anything. Quick side note, my crunchy peanut butter that I had on this trip requires you to stir it before using it to mix in the salt. Well I stirred it when I first opened it but today I realized that my stir job was terrible. As I Iooked at the bottom of the jar, it was almost empty, but I was able to see a pile of salt. This may not seem like much but the peanut butter is a bit bland without the salt. Anyways I made up for all the days without salt in the peanut butter today with a salty peanut butter tort. Mmmmm.
The last fifteen miles into town today were rough. Literally. First off there was no shoulder and to make matters worse the road was falling apart via potholes on the far right. So often I had to ride close to the center of the lane to even be able to ride. It was not to bad for the first bit but once I got about three miles out of town it was pretty bad and I had to primarily ride in the center of the lane. The cars often gave me reminders by honking and yelling at me to tell me that I was in the center of the lane, so thoughtful. I made it into town alive and safe.


Whitefish Train station

My first task once in town was going to Glacier bike shop to find back roads to get out of town tomorrow. The guy gave me a back road all the way to Columbia Falls, the next town, and a back road to West Glacier. Perfect so I no longer had to deal with cars. But that adventure was for tomorrow.


I called Suesie whom I was staying with and got directions to her house. Her house was away from all the commotion so it was nice to unwind. Susie and Dallas were old friends of Larry's from high school and Susie knew him from elementary school. Once there I said my hellos, took a shower, and uploaded some pictures. We had dinner and talked about my journey so far. Also talking with Dallas I found out he has received a gold and bronze medal in the 60 & 64 Olympics for shot put. It was interesting to her his stories. It also led into a conversation about traveling in cities back then compared to cities currently. We finished the night off with a little show on a murder mystery.