Season 4 Episode 11. Poor Winston!

Season 4 Episode 11. Poor Winston!

8/8 Conrad, MT to Great Falls, MT 63 miles. 1,435’ climb. 

Cycling was for the most part more of the same, i.e. not very scenic and long open roads! At least the motorists are mostly great. Whenever there are no oncoming vehicles, it seems 90% of the vehicles going in our direction will cross the center line to pass us very widely and give us lots of space. 

Low point was lunch stop in Dutton. 

Heather was enthralled with a maple glazed donut - double sized. So much so that she wanted me to taste it. We both didn’t realize I’d already eaten a banana nut muffin and my one bite into her donut may have transferred nuts to her donut. Or else it was the wrap she ate without so much as mentioning her allergies when ordering it. Either way, this was allergic reaction #2 of the trip and there’s always the risk that reactions get progressively worse. And, unlike in Idaho when she could drug up with antihistamine because it was at night with no riding left that day, today she resisted medicating because we still had 35 miles to ride. I told her we could easily find somebody to give her and her bike a ride - remember lots of pickup trucks in Montana, and she should take Benadryl if needed. Heather being who she is soldiered on and we pedaled to Great Falls. 

(Note Heather says it was her best donut of the trip! While not as frequent as my indulgences, donuts are one of Heather’s.)

We crossed the Missouri River into Great Falls - our first city in a while, mind you with a population only of about 60k. I’d camped in Great Falls twice in the 1980s when driving from Yellowstone north to Calgary. Back then, the campground felt far from the city, and now I could see on our way out of town that it’s right at the city’s edge. Sprawl is everywhere, even Montana. 

Fun fact I did not know is the Missouri River is actually the longest river in the USA, not the more celebrated Mississippi. The Missouri’s muddy waters (hence its nickname the Big Muddy) flow for more than 2,500 miles from Montana to the south and east to end near St. Louis, Missouri, where it empties into the Mississippi. We will cross it again. 

8/9/24 was our first complete rest day after 20 days of cycling. We never rode that many consecutive days before. The rest day was a great recharge physically. My legs were definitely feeling heavier these past days and my rear end welcomed an entire day off the saddle. It was also a great recharge mentally, and allowed us time for practical matters like catching up with family, online bill paying and some trip planning. Since day 3, we’d been scrambling to reserve lodging and figure out our revised route. When we rode the GTTSR in Glacier NP, it was the first day we’d returned to our original route, though a day later. So Heather who handles reservations was still needing to make changes to our dates for the coming weeks. Oh, and Heather managed to walk 25,000 steps because she can’t sit still and that’s her idea of a day of rest. My idea was sitting for 3 hours outside the ice cream store, (average ice cream) people watching on Central Avenue while catching up on emails and stuff on my phone. 

I had to check out a Great Falls landmark since 1962, the Sip ‘n Dip lounge that features live mermaids swimming behind the bartenders. 

Heather didn’t join me as she said it’s just women wearing mermaid suits but I told her they are real mermaids! Don’t you think so?

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8/10 Great Falls, MT to Stanford, MT 61 miles. 2,968’ climb. 

Today started with an interesting thought. Our past 3 cross-country rides were each 6 to 7 weeks long. Since we forecast 7 weeks more to go, it’s as if today is like starting one of those adventures. But with a major difference, we already have 3 weeks of mileage on our bodies and despite a full 24 hours rest, we are not fresh. I wonder how this will play out.

Lots more hay!

Lunch in the only shade we could find - next to an empty building. 

Low on water, we were lucky to find one open bar in Geyser, MT, population 78! This place was a throwback to being in an old western movie and tying horses to hitching posts rather than leaning bikes on them.

I do love the long open roads in Montana.

We were showering and relaxing in our room in Stanford, MT (population 403) and heard lots of voices. We emerged to make new friends with a bunch of guys sitting right outside our door with no clue anybody was in our room since there was no car parked. 

They were from Missoula and on a motorcycle trip. I told them we are “bikers” also. We just keep our bikes in our room.

We spoke for a while and they were quite interested in our adventure. 

At their suggestion, we headed over to the same restaurant, the Water Hole Saloon. I seldom eat red meat but “when in Rome…”. Their steak was really good and we knew it was local and fresh.

We met Cristina , another patron at the restaurant who heard of us from one of the bikers and wanted to come talk with us. She’s a rancher and she told us about Winston, one of her Longhorns that she bottle nursed as a calf. She confided in us that Winston doesn’t know it yet, but his hide is going over the back of a sofa, and his meat is already sold. She said “that’s between you, me and the fence posts.” It never occurred to me that ranchers could have feelings of loss as she seemed to be conveying. 

Copyright Mark Segal 2024.