Day 60 – Walla Walla, WA to Richland, WA

July 29^th:

It was a SHORT day of something like 50 miles…?  Regardless, it was significantly shorter than our last three days had been and we were ready for a quick ride.  We “slept in” until 5:00am, and then took our sweet time getting the vans packed, eating breakfast, and dilly-dallying as we listened to music blasted from the vans.  We decided that the water vans should chalk us to coffee to start off our day, rather than sending us on the route immediately.

We also decided that Sean looked like cyclist Jesus today.

We all went to the same coffee shop and completely overwhelmed the one man who was working there.

It was finally time to get going.  I left with my team of Adam, Sean, Kellie, and Jen.  It was a gorgeous and sunny day and we were looking forward to this brief ride.  At one point, we rolled up to the group in front of us, who had pulled over off the road.  Whenever you see this, it is courteous to slow down and check to make sure they’re okay and that they don’t need anything (frame pump, tube, etc.) before you move past them.  Emma was in that group on the side of the road, and I could see her sitting on the ground.  She called out to us “nothing to see here!!” so naturally, we were curious as to what was happening.  Suddenly, an adorable ball of fur popped its head out from under her arm and revealed itself to be the cutest lab puppy snuggling in her lap.  We came to a screeching halt, excitedly yelling “PUPPY!!!” and pulling over.  There were several puppies, the youngest and smallest of which were some kind of mutt – a mix between a corgie and an Australian shepherd, I think.  We took tons of photos and got some much-needed puppy therapy.

  

The rest of the ride was nice, but nothing we hadn’t seen before.  Again, we were still confused as to why this area of Washington was not as tree-covered as we were expecting it to be.

We even returned to the land of the pivots, which are a type of farming machinery common in corn and wheat fields.  We’ve seen them all over the Midwest.  Halle, our Nebraskan, was particularly excited to see the pivot with an American flag on top of it.  She proclaimed that “Washington’s got it figured out!”  She’s the one who taught us many of the names of farming machinery.

Somehow, these “short” rides always seem long.  I remember being irritated with how long the last 10 miles felt.  I think when you put yourself in the mindset that it will be a “short” ride, you forget that 50 miles is still a pretty long bike ride.  Comparatively, though, these are much shorter days.  We finally approached the river and crossed the bridge into Richland, where we stayed at the community center.  It was huge and seemed quite new!  We spent the afternoon taking a dip in the river and then going to a nearby brewery in the evening.

Day 59 – Lewiston, ID to Walla Walla, WA

July 28^th:

We started off with our usual morning pack-up and breakfast, which usually looks something like this:

We headed out for our third long ride day in a row, which was scheduled to be over 100 miles.  We crossed into Washington within the first 10 miles as we passed over a bridge!  My group was Kendra, Brett, Flora, and Adam.

Immediately after the bridge, much too early in the day, Kendra got a flat.  As we were stopping to change it, Flora decided to online shop.  The first photo is Flora being excited about her purchase, and the second is her credit card getting declined.

  

We were nervous about this ride day because we’d be back on highway 12 – the same road we’d been on for multiple days, which had gotten exponentially more dangerous during the second half of yesterday’s ride day.  We expected some climbs, too, which made the thought of a road with no shoulder very scary.  This time, however, it wasn’t as bad.  I’ll say that there wasn’t as much shoulder as we’d prefer, but we had enough room to stay single file, and in some parts we could ride double wide.

It’s been slightly disappointing to me that the “evergreen state” of Washington has up to this point been anything but evergreen-covered.  In fact, it’s mostly been desert thus far.  I can appreciate the different landscape and even find some beauty in the dirt and desert shrub-covered hills, but I need real trees in my life.  I was looking forward to seeing them throughout the state of Washington, so this was a rude awakening.  I was told that once we went through the Cascades, the scenery would change to the greenery I was expecting all along.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen for a few more days.

Early on in the climb, Kendra got another flat.  This was all within the first 25 miles of the day!  I hoped that this wasn’t indicative of the way the rest of the day would go.  After the first water stop, we climbed a steady incline until the top of the first summit, where many of our teammates were taking a quick break.

This time, it was Brett’s turn to get a flat.  So once again, we waited at the top of the hill for him.  I remembered a fortune from a fortune cookie that I’d opened the day before and found it in my Camelbak, reminding me not to sweat the small stuff and to remain positive.

The day continued on in the heat with no shade and a desert-like scenery.  I’ve been thinking about it, though, and even though I’m inclined to call it “desert,” it was mostly fields of wheat.  I’m not sure if that qualifies as desert, but whenever a landscape is mostly brown, I classify it as desert.

After my two biking trips I’m convinced of this: when it is over 90 degrees, it is much more comfortable to keep biking than it is to stop and sit/stand in the sun.  When you bike, at least you have the breeze to cool you off, but when you sit in the sun, it’s unbearable.  It was crucial to put up this tarp during lunch so no one fried.

It is a common occurrence for people to sleep in the van during water or lunch stops.

After a couple more climbs after lunch, we found ourselves coasting downhill into a cute little town that seemed to appear out of nowhere.  The hills/mountains tend to hide these towns, and when you’re riding through wheat fields it seems as though you are not even close to civilization.  We went to a coffee shop and even found this rickshaw type cruiser which we thought we might trade a couple of bikes in for.

After the final water stop, we were on to our last climb.  We thought we were in fields of wheat before, but we REALLY hit the golden grassland in the final part of the day.

Again, I was very unaware that any part of Washington looked like this.

Finally, we made it to the cute town of Walla Walla.  Even just saying the name is fun!  We walked around town, and Brett and I decided to get a beer to celebrate the day.  Another century day complete!

Day 58 – Wilderness Gateway Campground, ID to Lewiston, ID

July 27^th:

There were a lot of very comical things about this day, starting with our 3:00am wake-up.  We had just crossed into the Pacific Time Zone, and we were used to getting up at 4:00am.  Therefore, our leaders decided to have us wake up at 4:00am Mountain Time so we could get the show on the road faster.  This may have worked if it wasn’t so cloudy in the morning, but we were in the mountains so we should have known we’d start out with a lot of clouds and fog at that hour of the morning.  But there we were, up at a 3:00am, realizing it had rained all over anything we’d accidentally or purposefully left out of our tents that night.  We had tried SO HARD to be strategic about this morning.  We’d all put anything we needed to wear that day in our tents the night before.  Many of us slept in our bike jersey and shorts to make it an easier transition when we woke up.  Our duffles and backpacks were packed up in the van the night before so that we could skip that process.  So we were prepared for the most part, but we couldn’t help the fact that the morning was pitch black.  We did a lot of standing around and cursing our leaders for this idea that made us get out of bed an hour earlier than we needed to.  Honestly, though, any one of us could have spoken up against this idea, but we didn’t, so we are definitely to blame as well.  It was a slow morning of waiting for it to be bright enough to ride.  It rained quite a bit, too, so we waited on that as well.  The campsite had a shelter that we all sat around in until it was time to go.  Overall, camping before a 120 mile day is hard.

When it finally lightened up, it was pretty to see the clouds over the mountain tops.

We spent the morning biking along the same river that we biked alongside the day before.  I think it was the slow morning, but I had a really hard time staying awake.  Nearly falling asleep while riding a bicycle is scary stuff.

This is how I looked and felt:

After the first water stop, I was starting to feel a little more awake.  The morning continued on nicely along the river, and we even saw some wildlife… in the form of deer, BUT they were running across the wide river, so that was a cool sight I’d never seen before.

We finally made it to a town called Lowell where there was a café, and since we were the last team, others had already gotten coffee and warm breakfast and were about to head out on their way.

We met a Swedish man whose name I did not catch that was also biking across the country, but in the opposite direction.  In fact, he’d ridden across the U.S. a casual 7 times.  He claims it’s the most beautiful country in the world because there are so many different landscapes.  I trust him, too, because he has ridden all over Europe, too.  He’s planning on biking across the U.S., then heading to New Zealand by plane, then somewhere else, and then Canada to start biking to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the summer 2016 Olympics.  To top it all off, he’s run 143 marathons.  WHO IS THIS GUY??!!?  I’d say I aspire to be like him, but in actuality, I do not.

While the morning started out pretty well, the day took a turn for the worse when we got to the town of Kamiah, and really it just all went downhill after that (and not the GOOD kind of downhill).

Suddenly, highway 12, which we’d been riding on for two days now, turned into a nightmare.  The shoulder would disappear and then return for a bit before disappearing again, and we rode along a guard rail which kept cars from tumbling down the cliff into the wide river.  There were several semi-trucks, and an increasing number of log trucks carrying huge tree trunks.  We had to remain in a straight line, and the only words we could say to one another were the usual “car back!” or “semi-truck!” or “shoulder ending!” or “hole… gravel…” etc.  We couldn’t even talk because we’d have to yell against the increasingly brutal headwinds.  We decided that Idaho was really throwing it all at us today – headwinds, terrible shoulders for riding, cars and trucks consistently passing us… it wasn’t great.  We weren’t prepared for the next thing that’d be thrown at us around mile 92.

I looked to my right while we were riding and saw a goose flying at our level right next to us.  My initial reaction was to laugh and tell my team “you guys, look at the situation to our right…”  Everyone turned and saw the goose and, like me, they all thought it was funny.  Suddenly, though, it started diving in between us, cutting us off and sending us into the road.  This wasn’t safe because, as I’ve stated, it was a somewhat busy road.  Luckily, there weren’t any cars behind us during this time.  I have learned in my 25 years that in the fight or flight moment, I’m most certainly a “flighter.”  I sprinted onward thinking I wanted to no part of this situation as the geese grew more and more aggressive.  I got pretty far ahead and when I looked back, I saw Patrick squirting water from his water bottle at the goose and yelling “GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!!!!!!” which honestly made me crack up.  I saw the goose fly back toward the river, which we’d been riding alongside all day.  I thought this meant we were in the clear, but I was greatly mistaken.  Upon turning back again, I saw the goose swooping back and heading my way.  I sprinted harder, but it easily caught up.  It was on my left at my eye line before I knew it.  I checked back quickly for any cars that might be behind me, and when I saw that there were none, I got into the road and sprinted harder.  Even though I had laughed at Patrick’s panicked scream at the goose just moments earlier, I, too, resorted to yelling this animal… choosing the same phrase, also.  I think got brave and took a swing at it with my arm, forgetting how short my arms actually are and coming nowhere near it.  This swing caused me to wobble my handlebars, but I stayed upright.  I had seen a parking lot to the left from about a mile away where the goose started chasing us, and I got into the turning lane as the goose continued to hover right next to my head.  It was opening its mouth as a sign of aggression, and I was officially in a state of panic.  I turned into the parking lot entirely too fast, running directly into gravel which caused me to fall and slide hard.  I got up immediately, locating the goose and keeping my bike between me and it.  My saving grace was Brett, who was driving the van that day and just happened to be driving back to check on the teams who hadn’t made it to the next water stop.  I got in the van and handed Brett my bike with full permission to use it to shoo the goose away.  My heart was pounding and I couldn’t stop breathing heavily.  The rest of my team rolled in as Brett was working to get the goose up the hill next to the parking lot.  When he thought he’d successfully scared it away, he started running back down the hill.  Unfortunately, the goose was running after him.  As he got back to work on shooing the goose away, since his first attempt was unsuccessful, he asked “do I have permission from the vegetarians to kick this goose?”  He was referring to Amanda and I.  Of course, I gave him full permission to do what he had to do, and although Amanda was slightly more hesitant, she agreed that something needed to be done to really get this goose away.  So Brett became my hero as he gave the goose a solid kick to the chest.  Look – I’m not into hurting animals, but we later learned that this same bird had aggressively attacked all the other groups ahead of us.  I was the only victim, but I guess it was bound to happen to someone.

I decided to van myself for the rest of the day, despite the fact that it would have been my longest ride ever and that would have been quite the accomplishment.  My heart took a long time to stop racing and I just thought it’d be better if I didn’t ride after that.  I got to the last water stop in the van with Brett and saw a leftover hard cider.  I immediately asked Martha (who was in the other van that day) “um, can I please have that?”  She said “absolutely.”  WHAT A DAY.

Day 57 – Missoula, MT to Wilderness Gateway Campground, ID

July 26^th:

We had 96 miles to ride, so we woke up at 4:30am and headed out, bound for a campground in the middle of the state park we’d spend our day riding in.

The next three days were going to be long, and we were already nervous.  About 10 miles into our ride, we saw a sign for Lewiston, informing us that it was 209 miles away.  The thing is, we were scheduled to arrive there the following afternoon.  So we were riding about 96 miles this day followed by a 120+ mile ride the next day.  Our hearts hurt a little when we saw this particular sign.

I was riding in a lady gang of Martha, Lindsay, Sam, and Hannah.  The morning started out a little chilly and we were bundled up.  We passed by a group of Team Seattle riders going the opposite way we were going, and somehow even though we had just seen them, it was exciting to pass by and wave to them.  There’s a certain comradery that you feel when you see other 4K cyclists, and really just cyclists in general.

In the morning, the mountains were mostly covered by what looked like burned trees.  I’ve heard of controlled burns, and this could have been the end result of one of them.  It was still pretty, and the taller mountains still had some evergreens that had summer morning clouds hovering and spiraling through them.

As we continued our climb, which was the perfect grade as it was just steep enough to be climbing but it was comfortable, we began to see more and more evergreen trees!!

We saw signs like this, too!

We were on a road that curved through the mountains along a scenic river.

After the second water stop, the final bit of the climb was steeper and a little bit more challenging, but once we got to the top of the pass, we crossed over into Idaho (we’re baaaaack) and into the Pacific Time Zone!!  We saw the Montana sign in the other direction, and it just so happened that some motorcyclists were taking a break at the sign.  Martha, Hannah, and I asked if we could take a photo with their motorcycles in front of the sign.  Confession: we haven’t been cycling this whole time, actually…. we’ve just been riding these motorcycles… (just kidding)

We stopped at the visitor’s center to grab a sticker for our bikes and learn a little bit about the landscape.  All of these evergreens is what I picture when I think of the PNW region of the country.  It was so beautiful!

Lunch was at this incredible location:

Jessie looked like a mermaid taking a nap on one of the rocks along the creek.

After lunch, we were tired but we pushed on.  Even though the scenery was wonderful, it was hard to maintain focus when we’d been riding through the same landscape all day.  We stopped to take a photo of another team on a bridge, and they took a photo of our team there.  That’s an unspoken deal between two teams that stop at a scenic spot or sign or whatever.

We were riding in silence for a while before Martha said to me “AGH okay I’m falling asleep and I need to talk so I stay awake!”  So that’s what we did.  We talked about her time in Sweden studying abroad and her strange experiences working with spinal cord injury patients (she’s now a licensed physical therapist, which has been a great resource for our team).  I told her about my first experience on a road bike, which included the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains of NC, a common place for Lance Armstrong to train.  We chatted until suddenly, we had made it the last 15 miles of the day and we were at our campsite.  We bathed in the river, ate dinner, and then Hannah and I went to bed before the sun went down.  The next day was a 120 mile day, and then the next day was a 103 mile day.  This, in all of Team Portland’s opinion, was a very poor decision on the part of the 4K office, who planned our route before the summer started.  This was our first time camping, and getting ready in the morning would be a totally different process.  Packing up tents and trying to get ready in the dark was an experience we weren’t used to yet, and placing a 120 mile day following such a night was nerve-racking.  But one of our bike jerseys says “Team Portland – Find a way,” so we figured we should probably just do that.  Here’s a possibly creepy photo of Hannah sleeping inside our tent that she is unaware I snapped:

Day 56 – Rest Day in Missoula, MT

July 25^th:

We slept in after a late night out and got ready to explore the town!  Emma and I got coffee first thing.  The coffee shop also had Missoula stickers, which we obviously put on our bicycles!  Everyone looks for stickers wherever we go.  There is still a little bit of room on each of our bikes to apply stickers from places along our journey.

Later, we ate lunch at the church before heading out in bigger groups to explore.  I hopped on my bike along with Julia, Lizzy, and Sean.  We browsed around a craft festival where artists were selling all kinds of things.

We later biked down to the Farmer’s Market and also walked through the Celtic festival that was going on beside the river.  There was food, music, and dancing on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

We went to the river to check out the surfers riding the major wave in the river to see how long they could stand up (the answer is… not very long).

I had to go to a bike shop in the afternoon because my bike was making a horrible creaking sound.  Turns out it was my bottom bracket, and I’m still not entirely sure which piece that is.  The guys at the Bicycle Hanger worked hard to find the part I needed at another shop and did the maintenance for me that afternoon, knowing that I’d be leaving the next morning!  I was so thankful for the work they put in with such short notice.

After Hannah and I got ice cream at the local Big Dipper ice cream shop, we met up with Sean and Julia at the church and then took a 5 minute walk to the University of Montana at Missoula campus.  It had a great lawn and was overall very pretty.  We enjoyed each other’s company as we talked about how we will describe this trip to others after it’s over.

It really is hard to explain a trip like this.  I struggle with writing blogs because many of the events that bring me the most happiness are very situational and difficult to explain.  Even if I did try to write about everything, I feel that most of it would go unappreciated to the reader, as most of these are “you had to be there” moments.  Hannah asked me how I would respond to someone who simply asked “so, how was your trip this summer?”  I told her that I’ve struggled with that question since Bike & Build, and I would probably say something like this: it’s an incredible feeling to live in every single moment of every single day.  On the other hand, it’s an exhausting and unsustainable lifestyle.  Every morning, I wake up unbelievably sleep deprived, and I wonder how I’m going to pedal a bicycle all day.  Every night, I face the reality that I’m going to bed entirely too late to make up that deficit with a daunting 4am wake-up call the next morning.  BUT I never feel a lack of purpose, and I never feel bored.  I love knowing that each day, I will ride to a new town with 28 other people who are just as physically and mentally fatigued as I am, but still manage to laugh at everything and appreciate that our bodies are allowing us to do what we’re doing.  When I was on Bike & Build, my teammate Amelia shared a quote with our team from a poem by Mary Oliver, and it has always resonated with me:

“Let me keep company always with those who say

‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.”

I love being around people who have a passion for life – for the big and little things.  When I’m having a bad day, there is inevitably a teammate who is having a great day and I know they can help cheer me up.  Seeing stunning world wonders and knowing that you pedaled yourself there is the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had.  Admittedly, this section of my blog has become more of a tangent that I had planned, but it’s what I’ve been thinking about when I’m on the bicycle for 8+ hours a day.  I’m thankful for having another opportunity to engage in such an adventure, and I’m thankful for the teammates who influence me along the way.  It was a restful rest day and it was exciting to see a city that I’d heard so much about – it lived up to my expectations, and I cannot wait to visit again!  I will end with a photo of me with my favorite person on this trip, Julia. (I’m sorry to my teammates who are reading this, but I DO have a favorite, and it IS Julia and I think it’s okay to admit that.  You all understand.)

Day 55 – Drummond, MT to Missoula, MT

July 24^th:

We turned a 96 mile day into a 47 mile day!!!  Don’t ask me how… it’s a secret.  It was a secret path that landed us several flats, but we made it to the SUPER COOL city of Missoula in record time!

I’ve been told by several people that Missoula is the Asheville (a hippie mountain town in NC… one of my favorite places) of Montana, and I was excited to confirm that comparison.  When we got there, we unpacked the van and then a strange thing happened – Kevin had to be taken to the hospital.  Here’s the sort of strange thing: he didn’t ride that day.  He was in the van.  We’ve had more than one occasion now when a person has to get taken to the hospital on their van day.  He hit his head on some metal part in the doorway of the van, and it was bleeding pretty badly.  He had to get some staples put in and wear this gauze on his head.  We all made fun of him and told him he looked like he was wearing a yamaka.

We did laundry and got lunch – two important business matters that needed to be taken care of before any fun could begin.  Afterward, a group of us went to a brewery, where they provided four samples of beer!  They weren’t pint glasses or anything big, but they were… enough.  Everyone’s tolerance has significantly decreased on this trip.

After returning to the church to meet up with others, we walked down to another brewery on a street near where we were staying.  This one definitely had the Asheville vibe I was looking for.  The bartender was hilarious and so cool, sporting a hipster mustache and telling us of all the bars to check out on the main stretch.  He told us which places were touristy and which were the favorites of the locals.  He was so cool that we accused some of the straight men in our group of crushing on him, and they all admitted that they would not be upset if he joined us later.  Sean wouldn’t let us move on to the next bar until he got to say goodbye to this bartender.

At the next bar, we found Zack – aka “Pops” or “Dad,” because he’s our ride director – sporting what we refer to as his “safari hat.”  He has no shame in wearing it out in public, but we’re a little embarrassed for him.

We then went to a bar called the Union, which we’d been referred to by one of our white water rafting guides in Bozeman.  There was live music and dancing and we really brought the party with us.  We met some of our teammates after they’d been there for a while, and we found them very sweaty from all the dancing they’d been doing. Later in the night, we met up with Team Seattle, who was also staying in Missoula for the next couple of nights.  This would be the last time we’d cross paths with them on this journey!  Overall, it was a fun night and a great start to our time in Missoula.

Day 54 – Butte, MT to Drummond, MT

July 23rd:

This 83 mile day started out rainy and dreary.  I was in a ride group with Kendra, Amanda, Gino, and Rhani, and it was lined up to be a tough day, mostly because we were just so tired.  The weather didn’t help that feeling, either.

Within the first 20 miles, we took a dirt/gravel road, which we always love (I hope you’re sensing the sarcasm here). One of my favorite things that Kendra does is when she says “no!” with sort of a chuckle, as if to say “is this a joke? Why is this happening??”  The second we saw this road, this was her response.  We had to walk our bikes for several yards because our bikes did not hold up in the deep sand/dirt/gravel.  We made it through and were bound for the first water stop when Rhani got a flat.  Unfortunately, Kendra and I had been too far ahead of the rest of the group to realize what had happened.  Over a mile later when we looked back and didn’t see them rounding the corner, we decided we needed to go back and make sure everything was alright.  We waited while she changed her flat and then rolled in as the last team to the first water stop.  It was still drizzly and gross by this time in the morning, and we decided it would just be one of those days.  However, in the second 20 miles of the day, the sun came out and we were able to take off some of our warmer layers.  We had the second water stop of the day on a lake!

I remember just being very tired on this ride and thinking I needed to simply make it through.  I got some caffeine in my system when we passed by a gas station and I put on some music when I had service, all just to stay awake!  The lunch stop was super quick because we could see the dark clouds in the distance and we decided to head onward before it got worse.  We scarfed down bananas, Subway sandwiches, pizza, and anything else before we headed out for the remaining 20 miles of the day.  As it turns out, we were going into the storm anyway.  It was a good thing I grabbed my rain jacket after dropping it off in the van earlier in the day because it started to downpour cold rain.  Shortly thereafter, it began hailing.  We rode through it for a little bit before stumbling upon an auto repair garage that had the door open, and the owner was kind enough to let us stand in the shelter with our bikes as we waited out the storm.  Sean pulled out his phone and examined the radar, determining that once this wave of storm passed through, we needed to hop on our bikes quickly to beat the next storm wave coming roughly 30 minutes afterward.  We zoomed out as soon as we noticed that the rain was letting up.  Several riding groups were merged together as we traveled down the country roads into the small town of Drummond, staring at the dark clouds ahead that were dropping so much rain that we couldn’t see the surrounding mountain land past the large streak of the downpour.  Luckily, it moved quickly to the right as we skirted passed it on the left.  We made it to the school and got ice cream at the local shop.  We were excited to head to Missoula the next day for a day off in this awesome town that I’d heard so much about!

Day 53 – Bozeman, MT to Butte, MT

July 22^st:

I had a host van day with Lindsay.  Unfortunately, even though we’re not riding, we still have to wake up with the rest of the team, and since it was a long day of about 97 miles, it was a 4:00am wake up.  Once we saw the team off, we stayed in Bozeman and went to the same coffee shop where I’d spent much of the afternoon the day before.  It was cozy and perfect for catching up on blogs and post cards!

We spent the day acquiring lunch for our team.  We successfully got donations from several restaurants in Bozeman, although we were denied from many as well.  We have this word “itis” (pronounced eye-tiss, or like the end of tendonitis) which we have defined as the feeling you get when you eat too much at lunch and then you’re stuck in sort of a food coma while riding your bike.  You’re sleepy, you’re entirely too full, and you just feel like you’ll never make it to the host.  I don’t think it’s a real term, although I’m not really sure.  Anyway, it’s just an overall bad feeling, or what seems to be an inflammation of everything.  When you’re in host van, you know you’ve done well with the food donations if everyone itis-es, because that means people ate a lot because you got great food.  It sucks to be a rider with the itis though, and we definitely gave that to them this day.

Peering down the road in the direction the riders was going was frightening because it appeared as though a storm was a-brewin’.

When the last group left, we packed up all the remaining food and trash and headed in the same direction toward Butte.  When we passed the riders, it was clear that the head winds from the storm were putting up quite the fight against them as they began climbing the major hill of the day.  The timing of this hill was rather unfortunate, due to the aforementioned itis.  Everyone made it in safely, though.  When we arrived, a trolley – yes, an actual trolley – took us to shower at the YMCA, then to the hospital where we got a tour of the cancer center from the doctor who worked there, followed by dinner provided by the hospital as well.  Afterward, the trolley driver gave us a tour of the town.  It’s not a big town, and it’s certainly seen better days, but it was interesting nonetheless.

As usual, we went to bed as soon as we could!  I slept in the nursery of a church.  I realized that I haven’t been posting photos of my sleeping locations, but to help put it in perspective…

Day 52 – Rest day in Bozeman, MT

July 21st:

We woke up at the super late hour of 8:30am and hopped in the vans at 9 to go white water rafting!!  We were warned that since they didn’t experience heavy snowfall this winter, the rapids would be more like a lazy river.  I didn’t think that was the case, though.  It was true that parts of it were calm, but it was still an exciting ride!  At one point, we got caught on a rock and our raft was tilted upward so that water was rushing in.  Our guide had it under control and new how to solve the situation.  Patrick and Sarah G. had to get out of the raft and up onto the rock so we could attempt to save our raft.  I managed to pull Vadim up out of the water by his life vest, which he later acknowledged by saying “I actually thought it was Patrick or Ross (our guide) pulling me up… I was surprised when I realized it was YOU!”  That’s right, people – I saved Vadim’s life that day.  In actuality, he would have been fine floating a little ways down the shallow river.  Matt fell out of the raft during this event and he just floated down to the next raft which picked up and returned him to us at a later time.  It was all hilarious and thrilling.

I only took one photo of Jo and I in some of our rafting gear.  I didn’t make the group photo, unfortunately, because I was putting some clothes away in the van.  Also, the really awesome photo (the third one down) of rafting was taken by Kendra, and it’s so great that she should sell it to the rafting company to use for advertising.  The last photo was taken by a photographer with the rafting company, and even though it’s not of my group, it’s a good representation of our experience!

In the afternoon, I went to a coffee shop called Wild Joe’s to work on my blog.  Later, Julia, Jessie, and Lizzy came to hang out with me.  I’m going to miss having all these wonderful friends around to spend time with me!  It’s so convenient to have 28 other people to call upon and hang out with at all times.

For dinner, we went to a pizza and pasta restaurant provided by Vadim’s high school friend’s parents.

Lizzy, Jessie, Emma, Kendra and I got ice cream afterward at a food truck!  It was SO SO SO good!!!!

It was early to be afterward because the next morning would be a 4am wake up for a roughly 100 mile ride to Butte, MT.  I was scheduled to be in the host van with Lindsay, though, so I went to bed knowing I’d have another day of rest!

Day 51 – Ennis, MT to Bozeman, MT

July 20^th:

A short ride day of only about 55 miles!  This day flew by and it was nice to get into Bozeman at the reasonable hour of about 1:00pm.  I was in the most kick-ass ride group of Lizzy, Jessie, Hannah, and Julia.  It’s unfortunate that the ride wasn’t longer with these hilarious ladies, but we spent some quality time at the coffee shop that morning to maximize our time together.

We rode along, laughing and talking about anything at all.  There were a couple of climbs in the morning that were slightly unexpected, but we got through them, slowly but surely.  Lizzy has had a rough couple of days because she blew out a tire – and I mean BLEW OUT A TIRE – the day before.  She was riding on Patrick’s wheel and tire because he was scheduled to be in the van that day.  Sadly, she also blew out his tire on this ride – and again, I mean irreparably blew it out.  I’m not sure how this has happened to her twice, but she was really upset about it because tires are NOT CHEAP and now she would have to buy two new tires.  She was especially upset because she’d be missing out on our lady gang ride, but to be honest the route itself was not the prettiest it’s ever been, so we told her she didn’t miss out on much.

I didn’t take many photos at all.  It was nice to casually ride with my teammates and get to Bozeman early enough to do laundry, go to a couple of bike shops, and relax.

Later that night, my team went to a rooftop bar.  We tend to overwhelm and take over places.  I met up with a friend and fellow chemistry major, Brandon, from Appalachian State, who was visiting Bozeman with his girlfriend!  It was such a coincidence that we were here at the same time, and it was great to get caught up on where life has taken us since graduating in 2012!

You guys, Bozeman is SO COOL!  The downtown area is not too big but not too small.  There are great local restaurants and coffee shops and bars all up and down Main St.  It’s got an outdoorsy vibe and the mountains hover all around.  There are TONS of bike shops!!  Overall, one of my favorite towns that we’ve ridden through.  Montana is awesome, so far!!!