Day Forty-two

Yesterday was just fantastic. I guess I really needed a day off, and it was wonderful spending it with my honey. We had a great time in Malta, and met some really nice farmers from Rudyard at the lounge in the hotel. They’re brothers and they grow lentils and chickpeas. We told them we’re huge fans of their products! We walked down the road to Stretch’s Pizza, and their veggie pizza was the best we’ve had so far.

We went to the park after that and caught the last song for the evening: “God Bless America”. Chuck sang along and helped him with the lyrics a few times. Since we’re seeing the country this way, we both got a little choked up over the song. Went back to the room, had a hot bath and went to bed.

We went down to the café in the hotel in the morning to have a small breakfast. The pancakes were good – not as good as the Hitching Post, but still yummy. We told the owner how much we appreciated his generosity and I headed out. I was having some stomach problems at the start, but felt better as I rode. The wind was really a challenge, though. Quite often, the gusts would almost knock my bike over.

I entered the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and my cell phone signal disappeared. The skies were looking ominous, but I had my rain jacket if needed. My route took me off Route 2 onto Route 9 and the storm caught up with me: hail! I was being pelted with pea-sized hailstones and it hurt! Good thing I had a helmet on, and it didn’t last long. I rode a little further and a fish and game warden driving by stopped to talk to me. He asked where I was headed and I told him “Seattle.” He thought that was fascinating, but he thought I had gone off my route. I assured him I was going the way I was supposed to. I told him I had to get going because the mosquitoes were eating me alive. Soon after that, Chuck drove by. I told him I was OK and continued on. We met for lunch at Fort Belknap Agency and had a tuna sandwich. The wind had really picked up and riding was a real challenge.

We stopped at Chinook and went into a hotel bar looking for wifi. It wasn’t a very exciting place, so we didn’t stay long. We left Chinook and went to Havre. The map said we could stay at the University, so we checked in and they charged us $10. The room wasn’t much and the bed was pretty uncomfortable, but we knew our tent wouldn’t withstand the wind. I took a shower and we went to find a place to eat and a place to get the oil changed in the car. The bar was OK, not great. We’re just tired of bad food and trying to find places to stay.

Our favorite places on this trip have been: Malta, Minot, Dalbo, Madison and Wheaton. I’ll never forget the memories of those cities. But the whole trip has been great so far, despite the setbacks.