Day Forty

Today was a good day of riding, but the trip is getting hard on us. We’ve spent more money than we budgeted, and now we need to live out of the car, basically. I’m grateful to my Aunt Sue for setting us up with a place to stay in Seattle! We were very bad yesterday and ate in restaurants three times…and had bad food each time! I rode from Williston, North Dakota to Brockton, Montana today. It was another rough start for Montana, but I’m sure it will end better, just like North Dakota did. Somehow, I think Chuck’s had enough of North Dakota for a lifetime, though. He did, however, admit that he liked Minot as much as I did.

I got an early start, grabbing a bagel and cream cheese from the continental breakfast area at the hotel before the “start time” of 6:30. The girl setting up got annoyed with me. Chuck drove me to the starting point, and we tried to find a coffee shop on the way, but nothing was open. That’s OK, we arranged a place to meet later on.

The weather was nice and cool, and there wasn’t much wind. It was perfect for biking. I crossed the border to Montana, hoping for a Welcome sign that I could photograph, but there was none. Then I saw a sign that said “Road Work Next 13 Miles” and they meant it. Getting past that was pretty rough, but I was grateful when I had smooth pavement under me.

We stopped for breakfast in Culbertson. Breakfast came from the cooler in the form of yogurt, cheese, peanut butter on bread and a banana-strawberry smoothie. Very yummy! We both appreciated the signs pointing us towards picnic tables, and were filled with hope for Montana. We were relieved to hear that smoking is not allowed in bars in Montana. Seems like every place we’ve been to allows it. I had planned on avoiding the town of Poplar, since apparently there was a rape and murder there recently. I need to Google that, but a couple of other bikers have warned me about it, and that’s enough for me! Chuck didn’t want me riding through that town either.

We’re stopping in Wolf Point for the night. Not a pretty town, but the camping at the city park is free. I had a pretty humiliating experience trying to take a shower at the town pool, though. Chuck had told me it was free, but when I walked in, they said it was a dollar. Of course, I had no cash on me, but I said I’d bring it over later. The bathrooms had no toilet paper, which I thought was strange. There wasn’t even a place for it! Then I tried to take a shower, and that’s when the fun began. It was ICE cold, and wouldn’t stay on unless you held down the button with one hand. Then every child that had been in the pool came in the shower room, saw me and went “OH…MY…GOD”. I don’t know if it was because I’m an adult, I was completely naked, I’m white (they were all Indian) or a combination of all three, but they all ran away and then took turns coming back one at a time and just staring. It was pretty humiliating, and I really couldn’t believe I was being charged a dollar for this humiliation. I managed to get fairly clean and get dressed while 15 children stared at me.

Chuck suggested pizza for dinner and wild horses couldn’t tear me away from a pizza tonight. We’re heading over there pretty soon!