Today would be all about the mileage. 70 miles in VERY hot temps and about 2,600 feet of climbing would land us in Libby, MT, our home for the night.
Yesterday Mark and I headed to our favorite laundermat and had barely put our load in when two vans pulled up and about 24 short, dark skinned Spanish speaking guys jumped out and took over the rest of the machines. In talking to Jeff Jeffery’s, the guy on the left side of the picture with Hugh yesterday, we found out they are Peruvian masons who work at Stutzke Stone works cutting and splitting flagstone. None of them were over about 5 foot 2 inches!!!!
Some of their handy work at the entrance to the quarry . . .
. . . soon to be at your Home Depot or Lowes store???
There was also QUITE the collection of old cars, truck and most kinds of motor vehicles proudly displayed and rusting in the sun!
Most had the windows broken out.
Soon we entered Montana. I stopped and took this shot and soon a woman and man drove up in a van from new Hampshire. We had a nice chat about our ride and I asked her if she would take my picture of the sign with Connie. She took several but once she left I found out she had been pushing the On\Off button!
Beside passing into a new state we also passed into a new time zone.
Not sure what this is all about but we will find out!
Interesting, first time I have seen this. Nice service provided by the American legion.
It is apparent many people in MT think the same as those in ID and WA regarding trespassing!
This poor fawn could not have been more than a couple of days old. Beautiful animal . . . looked like it was sleeping.
Typical of the view today . . a Kodak moment around every turn!
Wide open spaces, lots of sky and LOTS of sun. Very hot today. At times 95 degrees in the saddle. Hydration and the supple of available water became an issue.
Must have been one horrific accident here at one time. Sad.
We arrived at Kootenai Falls 12 miles before Libby and it was a great rest stop. You can see the swinging bridge in the foreground that over looks the falls. Mark went over to it and found it had a capacity rating of five people . . . and there was a huge crown out on it. He did venture out onto it!
The falls were FANTASTIC and once again was a great example of the power of moving water. Can’t fight mother nature!
As I entered Libby I saw this unique store and stopped by . . . already out of business
. . but there was ‘Robby the Robot’ was keeping an eye on things. FUNNY!
On our last big descent into Libby there was new pavement ON A DOWNHILL! Smooth as a newborn babies butt. The heat reflection off the new pavement pushed the tempts on the bike up over 100 degrees. Where’s that water bottle!! Most of us today carried our usual three water bottles and two quart bottles of Gatorade. Barely enough!
Was this our place for the night with the fancy sign . . .
No, we were down the road at the Two Bit Outfit!!! It was OK. You can see one of our ACA provided safety triangles in the l lower left. Anytime someone wants to mark a tricky turn or the campsite or a Dairy Queen, etc. they put out their triangle and the last person to ride by picks it up.
With the time change today, and the gruesome ride, it was too late to cook by the time everyone was in camp so we went out to eat. Good move. We had our map meeting at the restaurant and still didn’t get to bed until 10:30pm MST.
Another big day tomorrow as we pedal on another seventy miles to Eugene, MT.