Up and over the hill to Helena

Monday 5/14 Day 24


New ones

Hole in the Tread

I was up and out on the road by eight this morning.  The bike shop in Great Falls opened at nine so we wanted to be there early to utilize the remanding time in the day. On the way out and back Mike and I had some great conversations about foreign traveling and language, people taking responsibility for their actions, and about Mike's time as a cyclist. Talking about traveling got me excited to be going to Japan. It is going to be interesting learning a language from scratch, it will be tough for sure.  But just thinking about some of the great experience that I could have when I do try learning it, or when I finally do know the language. One great thing about Mike is that he lays everything out there for you to see, there is no bull shitting you in any situation. He did mention something to me that stuck with me and got me thinking.  He said it tells a lot about my character that I was willing to go on this trip with no experience in touring. I don't know why that struck me so much but I have never heard it put in that way. 
 At  the bike shop I had several tires to choose from.  The guy at the shop wasn't much help, when I had a question he would just read something generically off the package to try and coast around the question. I ended up going with these hand made German tires, gator hard shell tires.  So now it is up to Germany to get me across the USA. :)  They are a bit thinner and have a smoother tread on them so it should help add some speed to my riding. I got the appropriate tubes to fit into the tires so everything was a OK. 
 When we got back to Choteau I switched the tires and prepared my bike for departure. I made some lunch before I left so I didn't hit the road until 11:30.  My goal was to get to Helena by 8:30, which left me nine hours to get there. the only reason I wanted to get to Helena so quick was to get off the roads. Jo was telling me on average after 9PM statistics show that 1/3 the drivers on the road have had some sort of alcohol in their system. I'm typing this now and not sooner because I'm almost out of the state and I did not want mom to worry ;).  But it is just good habit to be getting to a location before it gets dark so I can find my way around town.
 I could not complain about the landscape today, Suize, Mike, and Jennifer all said that going south from Choteau was a great view, and it was.  Once I got up onto the plateau I overlooked the entire front range of the Montana Rocky Mountains.  I could see as far north as Big Chief Mountain, almost at the Canadian boarder.  I don't know how far I could see south, but it was a while.  As I was riding today I noticed substantially less traffic and I was glad that my explosion happened yesterday and not today. During the first stretch of road only about one car passed every 10 minutes, and the second stretch of 20 miles there was only three cars that passed me. Needless to say I had the entire road to myself until I hit the Interstate.  I was making pretty good time at about 15 miles per hour.  Oh and today I spotted the first of the anti Meth campaign here in Montana. There was a giant stop sign on a barn that had Meth in it, and on the other side it said not even once. I'm guessing they struggle with that drug because this was the first of many advertisements that I have seen.

My last stretch of about 30 miles was on the interstate, and like all the interstate sections I have ridden on during this trip it was great.  Wide shoulder, two lanes, and 90% of the traffic will get over in the left lane as they pass.  The only bummer of the last 30 miles was a decent size hill right before Helena. I thought there was a waterfall coming off me because I was sweating so much. But I made it and when I saw Helena at the top I screamed with joy.  I was pretty exhausted.  It took me about 20 minutes to find Jo's apartment in the city.  When I arrived she had some nachos and water waiting for me. When I took a shower I noticed that I had a sunburn on the inner side of my arm.  I rolled my sleeves up a bit to high above my sunscreen line.  Ehhhh sweet tan line though. I was exhausted and slept well tonight.