Day 15, Billings to Hardin, a very short 54 miles with just a touch of wind (Ha)

Best: Basically coasting along a flat grade at 25 mph

Worst: Trying to put on my windjacket in the wind

Most Unexpected: Being abandoned in camp as everyone left to go to Little Big Horn

Our group was on KP this morning so we left after the rest of the Big Riders.  We left Billings and did a fairly easy climb to get back up to the plateau.  A slight breeze helped us, slight as in check out the wind sock below.

Yes, we are traveling along that road from left to right.  I don't think anyone needed a shower after the ride. (well okay, a few people definately did).  At the top of the climb we could see back to Billings.

Skies started out blue, but turned to grey.  There was a 1% chance of rain, so of course it did.  I was of course prepared with my trusty windbreaker and pulled it out to wear.  The wind tied it into a square knot, then a bowline.  I got one sleeve on, and figured I would ride the bike so the wind wouldn't catch it and got the second sleeve on.  Then I found out I couldn't zip it because the body of the windbreaker was wound around the neck.  I said a few choice words, stopped the bike to fix it only to have the windbreaker retie itself into a new knot.  More choice words as my handkerchief came out of the pocket during this exercise and blew down the road.  Finally as the rain started to stop, I got the windbreaker on and rode into Harlan where I stopped at a cafe after hearing that our campsite was getting a deluge.  I shared a cinammon roll with Karolina who stopped by with Lynn, and then rode the rest of the way into the campground.  We turned 90 degrees to the wind to go through town and our bicycles were leaning 45 degrees to the ground to balance out.  

Charlton offered to drive anyone who wanted to go to the LIttle Big Horn.  After just having been there, I chose to stay in the campground and enjoy the ambiance and maybe swim.  The swimming pool was covered and is only 74 degrees, but I am enjoying sitting in the empty campground and just soaking in the experience instead of the water.  Picture below shows our lovely campground and the following picture speaks for itself. 

Should be a real quiet night next to the road don't you think.  Tonights meal is courtesy of Beyond Basil who were last seen in Billings cooking us ribeyes in the wind, and they should enjoy doing the same tonight preparing ribs for dinner.  To prepare myself I had an original Mountain Dew with real sugar, and a candy bar called King Bing first created in 1923.  According to the wrapper the unique treat has becom a Midwest favorite.  I am now typing at about 130 words per minute as a result of my unique sugar rush.  I have more pictures below, but I fear the next week or so the landscape pictures are going to diminish as the landscape tends to get, well, ugly in a word. 

Billings in the background.  Obviously this picture is out of order, but Cathy looks so happy on her electric bike going uphill with her gopro on her head.  She used me today.  She asked me to ride in front of her, turned on her gopro and said hi, then turned on her motor and said by all the while recording it.  I asked for a cigarette afterwards.  

Day 14, Billings 'rest day" 1/google miles

Best: Seeing the Battle of the Little Big Horn reenactment outside Hardin

Worst:  Waiting for our fast food for a half hour after taking 15 minutes to order.

Most Unexpected:  Actually getting to do the Little Big Horn thing today.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do today after washing the bike, but Terry and his family were planning on going to Little Big Horn, so i politely asked to go along.  On a vote of 3-2 they agreed to take me along, and one of the affirmative votes was me.  Five of us fit into a Ford Focus and took off toward Hardin where we bought tickets to go to the reenectment of the Battle of Big Horn. The reenactment ony happens one weekend per year.  (I am just hearing outside my room that they plan on shuttling big riders to LIttle Big Horn tomorrow, so I guess I could have waited until tomorrow, but I wouldn't have seen the reenactment).  We went to LIttle Big Horn national cemetary and park and cruised the site which is fascinating.  Terry's mother in law is a senior and had a senior pass so we all got in for free.  The picture above is from the Native American memorial recognizing the dead from the other side of the battle.  The picture below is the memorial to the stupidity of Custer.

We went back to Hardin about 9 miles away from Little Big Horn and went to Taco Johns which is like Taco Bell, however the service was amazingly incredibly slow. We were trying to get to the reenactment site by 1:30 for the 2:00 show and we thought if we got to the 'fast' food restaurant at 12:40 no problem.  We got out of the restaurant at 1:30 but it turned out to not be a problem.  

The reenactment was more than just the battle and included the whole western expansion, Lewis and Clark, and the encroachment on the Native American lands, kind of explaining why they might be a touch angry with the stupid white man.  With a bit of a shocking ending, Custer somehow lost the battle, again.  I watched one of the reenacters get up after being killed, chased down and killed, and then get up again to get killed right in front of the stands.  A true Lazarus but not quite.  The location of the reenactment was 5 miles from town, and another 1 1/2 miles on a dirt road into the middle of nowhere where stands were set up, a fort, and a teepee village.  Huge amount of ground was used.  The shots below show the actual Last stand of Custard, and then shots from the reenactment.  At the end I shook hands with Colonel Mustard and asked him what he did in his spare time.  He told me this was his job, that he plays Custer all around the US as a full time job and he even has a website called someting like Custer.com.  We got back to the Dorms around 5 after almost running out of gas, the gas gauge actually said 0 for about three miles before we finally got to a gas station.  The gas stations were 40 miles apart. Out for a beer to celebrate Charles birthday and I had a small meal of soup and salad with the soup being chili, I am going to eat a piece of cake from last nights dinner that I purloined this morning, and up tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. to set up breakfast for the Big Ride.  A most excellent rest day all in all. 

Last spot for Custer and the what were survivors until they got here.

You gotta love the cars in the background of the picture.

Me and Armstong (he is wearing the yellow jersey from the Tour de France)

 Most of the Native Americans on horse were played by white women with braids.  In case you were wondering, they were wearing vests.

Day 13 and a half, feeding time at the zoo

It was an incredible dinner and only pictures could do it justice.  

This was my rib eye after half of it was eaten.  It overflowed my plate.  The salmon patty is also half gone.  I went back for another half of a rib eye followed by the chocolate cake shown in the first picture.  Just before dinner we had a couple of 50 mph gust which blew everything around and a horizontal rain shower which quickly disappeared.  One beer each at dinner so we went to a close bar to finish off the night.  Thank God I am not riding tomorrow.

Day 13, Harlowtown to Billings, 92 wonderful miles

Best: Dinner in the park with Beyond Basil catering.  ( I am actually writing this before I eat, but I know what to expect.  If I am wrong again like the restaurant in Townsend, then tomorrow this will be my worst.)

Worst: Last day of REI employment means I can't buy at a discount anymore.

Most Unexpected: Getting awakened last night in the church when some family just wandered in and almost walked on me. 

Last night I walked into 'downtown Harlowtown' looking for cowtails (it is a candy) and I found this unexpected electric engine.  I have a Lionel train which has a Milwaukee Road electric engine a little older than this one, and just a little smaller. No luck on the cowtails.

We bedded down for the night when some large family thought it would be a great idea to walk in the church and check it out.  The wife walked into the sanctuary which was dark and was in the process of tripping over me when I spoke up and said the ever witty 'Hello'.  She stopped short and then immedatialy started asking me question after question while all I could think was Go  Away.  Eventually with some door slamming the family departed.  I got a text from one of the riders downstairs in the basement asking if I was having a party upstairs.

We heard we were going to have winds from the west last night which is a good thing when you are heading east.  After our typical breakfast I headed out and found little wind.  However, it grew and grew, and by the time we hit the lunch spot we were cruising at about 23 mph.  Lunch was after a right turn putting the wind on our side.  Weaving back and forth from the strong wind gusts, the road gradually turned more southeast, and just a little more southeast, until finally the wind moved to the back right shoulder spurring us on. I finished up in Billings averaging a little less than 20 mph. to our lovely dorm rooms.  I am a selfish person so I am not sharing a room with anyone tonight. 

You have to love a bar that has on its permanent sign the words testical festival.  I particularly like the poster which spells it testicle.  Creativity in English allows for multiple spellings.

This is a real fixer upper that I might just be able to afford.

You could probably buy the whole town of Lavina for the price of a candybar.

I loved the size of the stands at this football field.  They obviously have a rabid support group.  In the left foreground there is a frisbee golf target which seems to equate football with a flying disc in popularity in the town of Broadview.  Below is the big festival sign for Broadview painted on two pieces of plywood on the side of a barn. Shucks, we just missed being dazed.

I loved the puffy clouds that looked like dogs, and the oil cars on the very long train on the right.

Town of Billings in the background.  This photo was taken at the end of a private driveway to a house which has this view and probably is worth more than the towns of Lavine and Broadview put together.

Taken in the bike shop Spoke.  I love the sentiment.  

Day 12, Townsend to Harlowtown, 100 miles with a glorious tailwind

Best: 11 mile climb (when do you ever see best with the word climb after it)

Worst: Last nights most disappointing dinner, more below.

Most Unexpected: Cows that ran with us.

Okay get ready for one of life's biggest disappointments.  I have been building up this restaurant in Townsend for several days as the place to get a big steak in Montana.  The Woods family restaurant welcomed us, I looked at the menu to confirm my order, and said Rib Eye please.  The waitress said, 'no ribeyes, we forgot to defrost the meat"  Frozen, Are you kidding me?  I waited two years to come back for the steak that filled my plate.  The waitress recommended the sirloin and I went with it.  It was puny, and probably was flown in from Missouri.  Most of the other riders went with the pizza which was good, but took an hour to get it ready.  Two years ago Cookie never got her pizza until we were all done and were leaving.  Take the Woods Family Restaurant off your list of must do eateries.

We ate breakfast at the Mint in downtown Townsend and I ordered a senior breakfast cause I am old. The ride had a wake up climb, then at mile 11 miles we began an 11 mile climb which was not steep and spectacularly beautiful.  One more picture from the climb below.

After the climb we started down at a slight grade, then a steeper grade and cruised into the Montana high plateau at an attitude of a mile.  After the lunch stop we caught a beautiful tail wind and enjoyed the last 60 miles.  We cruised past a couple of cows that were running along the road next to us, and then we saw a larger group just sitting around.  We yelled at them and encouraged them to get up and run, and amazingly the entire group started running along the road with us.  They probably thought we were leading an escape.  

Riding behind Terry I got a personal view of an antelope that jumped across the road about 10 feet in front of him.  I was looking for the second one that would take out one of us, but fortunately the antelope was a loner. 

The scenery changed from rocks, to high meadows.  The pictures below best show the changes.  We are at a church for the night and I am sleeping in the sanctuary by myself.  If I don't post tomorrow, you will know I received my higher calling, or got hit by lightning for being blasphemous.

This almost qualified as the worst.  We did five miles on dirt through a construction site.  My posterior is still recovering.

Day 11, Avon to Townsend, 62 itty bitty miles

Best:  Crossing the McDonald Pass for the second time.

Worst: Glasses fogged up in the rain making it really hard to see.  Not great on a descent.

Most Unexpected:  The Continental Divide sign was not there after I expected it to be there.  The sign above in the 9th and 10th words says Continental Divide.

Breakfast was once again supplied by the ladies of Avon, and included fresh cinamon buns. I figured they would make them again after the ride two years ago, but didn't want to have too high an expectation but of course my expectations were met.

It was misty this morning before breakfast as I agonized over what to wear on a potentially wet day.  However just before I started, the rain began, making my choice easy of going with the rain jacket.  I strategically placed my bike in the bathroom before breakfast as I knew I would probably visit after breakfast, so I jumped on the bike and left without extra walking. 

We got rained on as we approached the McDonald Pass (not the take out line) but it cleared up just as we got to the top.  This was short lived as it started raining on the 12 mile descent meaning we had to be a little careful not to wipe out.  

The pictures above are climbing the pass, and at the top of the pass.

I stopped partway down the amazing downhill to take a view picture, and that was the only time I used the brakes on the wet descent.

I went through the first checkpoint without stopping because it was still raining and i just wanted to get out of it, and amazingly I did. Cruising through Helena and East Helena and then my chain started a conversation with me like that with the Tinman.  Oil me, Oil me.  The oil had completely washed off the chain so I had my first phone call to our mechanic Gene asking for an oil job.  He arrived, we put oil on the chain, and off I went.  Kenny had caught up with me and got a similar job.  

The lunchstop was great because it was leftover dinner and breakfast, pie and cinnamon rolls in addition to the usual fare.  I chose the cinnamon roll, followed by carrots and hummus and a dessert of string cheese.  We got stopped at a construction project and had to wait while they routed traffic through.  While waiting I talked to the flagman who was the retired postmaster in Avon.  He said he got bored in retirement in Avon and took this job.  I asked how the winter was last year and the impact on the roads.  He said it was minus 20 degrees for a period of time, but in Avon on the other side of the McDonald pass there were two weeks of minus 40 degrees.  I doubt I will be able to talk my spouse into moving to Avon anytime soon.

After the construction area, we enjoyed traffic free periods and the traffic behind us had to wait to get through. I even went out into the fast lane of the road (gasp).  We rolled into Townsend and got our gear with the direction we had to set up our tents in the football field due to the new gym floor.  I talked to the janitor and it turned out the floor had not yet been started, asked Chalton if he could check with the principal, and wonder of wonders we got the opportunity to sleep inside.  Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but the forecast is for thundershowers tonight with rain in the morning.  I know I will get wet tomorrow on the ride and I prefer to start dry.  We had one more shot at the pie after unloading the truck, and Lynn went crazy squirting whipped cream in some of the riders mouths, moi included.  Her technique was sadly wanting, so I gave here a quick course on how to correctly fill someones mouth without squirting it all over their face.  Sadly I have no picture of this event. 

We walked to downtown Townsend all of the four blocks, and Kenny bought us all a Miller lite beer, probably my first one in 20 years  We walked back to the school, and I am in the library getting educated.  

Crossing the Missouri River in Montana.

Here it is, downtown Townsend in all its glory.  Final shot below is of Columbine flowers to make me seem autistic, I mean artistic.