Two days. Just under 200km. Two days of crippling headwinds, tire punctures, endless nothingness, towns with nothing in them, and a chorus of folks telling us exactly how many miles to the next town. Complete with directions. There is only one road, but thanks all the same.
Last night we slept in Saco, Montana. It was exactly as we expected it to be: bar, grocery store, a few houses, a hundred or so residents, and a city park that provides touring cyclists a placed to put as tent for the night at no cost. After 120km of riding, we figured we could sleep through anything. The challenge at hand proved daunting however, as the city park was nestled between the highway to the north, and the railroad tracks no more than 25 feet to the south. Every train that rolled by was sure to blare it's horn repeatedly due to the fact that there existed a grade crossing in the town. Not only did the ground rumble for all of the hundred odd train cars, but we got a nice horn too! All night.
Not at all rested, and facing 35km/h headwinds, we set off today feeling lousy. Not much happened, we rode, and we counted things to pass the time. Two day tallies listed below (some figures are estimates, we lost count, or exaggerations for comedic value):
-82 Budweiser cans
-23 Coors cans
-19 truck drivers coerced into honking
-1 million hay bales
-1 hay bale being created live
-1 failed attempt to roll a roadside hay bale a distance of 12 inches
-6 snakes (2 live!)
-28 birds that had been struck by vehicles
-3 trees
-9 US flags, stiffly facing the wrong direction
-3 punctured tubes
-9 people giving directions, such as "OK so y'all are gonna git on the 2, then turn towards the east. Then stick on the 2, and then keep going"
-1 guy telling us the winds will be twice as bad tomorrow.
-2 guys doing over 160km in a day going the other direction.
-1 invitation to a shooting range
-1 day away from rolling past 2000km on this trip
No comments:
Post a Comment