Month: June 2015 (Page 3 of 3)

What a great send off from Ben. I got up to pancakes, bacon, eggs and juice. All american breakfast wouldn’t you say. Oh, and coffee. Left the house at 8 am.

I knew the day would have some hills. And they did’t disappoint me at all. From Geraldine to Square Butte was painless and for next 12 miles it was just a beautiful day. No wind, very few cars, as one of the next pics will attest too.. So where do you think the little community of Square Butte got its name. Guesses, guesses, take a look at the pic. How would you like this monster for a back window view. OMG for sure

Square Butte

Heading for the hill of course. You read about this hill in the bicycle touring forums. It is called the Arrow Creek Hill.

This hill kills old bicyclists also.

Best I can figure is 2.5 miles

Looking back. Just about
to the top

I did have some fun also. I had stopped for a break almost in the middle of the road as there was just no traffic. I laid the bike over and took this pic. I actually left the bike lay there while I rested and I know it was 20 minutes before a car came along, Pretty sure that was a fluke also as I got back on the bike and it was at least 30 minutes before another vehicle came along. Lay your bike on almost any other street in this country and see how long before it gets run over.

Taking a nap

Here is my dash panel:

So after the hill it was just a 20 mile ride into Stanford. And what a great time I had in Stanford. So that will continued on the next blog.

Some observations.

America we got to get out and clean up our roads and ditches. They are just full of junk. You name it, it is in the ditch. Might even find some lost souls.

For the folks that did honk, I hope it was a honk of blessing for me. What a shame if it was anything else. I pay taxes. I just happen to be going a little slower and enjoying the view. You should take some time to “smell the roses”.

And now the numbers:

40 miles
time: 6:22 minutes
Max Speed: 28.74

Live Critters: 2 deer, 5 antelope
Road Kill: 3

Auto Fatality Crosses: 3 and here is one of the very sad crosses

What a hassle setting up the tent and then tearing down to put it all back in the panniers. I will have to spend some time organizing for sure. As it was last night everything got pulled out and scattered around. It would be a lot easier just to hand the credit card to the counter clerk and say I will have a single room please. But no, I opted to rough it. Like riding a bike 1000 miles is not roughing it. Anyway.

Left the Fort (as the residents call it) about 8:00 am. Ft. Benton is on the banks of the Missouri River. So that means over the ions the city and the river are about 500 feet below the rest of terra firma. As most peeps would say, “In a hole”‘. You can carry this blog to the ends of earth but just let me say that coming out of any hole is never fun. So be it with coming out of the Fort. About a half mile of the ugliest grade. Yes I

walked a fair share of it. Skeeters were bad so had to stop and put on some lotion. And the next 29 miles were not much better. Up and down. Truck traffic was busy. Grain trucks to be specific. I would guess that today the price of grain was good so all the farmers were unloading the wheat in prep for the new batch that is growing. They were all very thoughtful and gave me lots of room. Honestly, rural drivers are much better than city drivers.

So here are some pics from today:

Nothing but Blue Sky and Wheat

When in Geraldine make sure and visit Rusty’s. Very good food. Love the fried chicken myself

I will be staying at a good friends house in Geraldine tonight and am looking forward to visiting Ben. Good a peep as you would ever meet anywhere.

And now the numbers:

Miles: 29
Total Time: 4.5 hrs
Avg. Speed: 10 mph
Fastest : 31.5 mph

Road Kill: 5
Old Glory Flying: 1
Auto Fatality Cross: 3

6/3/15
Left Michelle standing on the front yard with tears flowing at about 7:45. Not sure if they are happy tears or sad tears. Boy I’m thinking this is nothing but a selfish thing to do on my part. But she almost demanded I do this trip so away I went. Must have been happy tears right?

Taking the back road to Ft. Benton does add about 10 miles but the fact that the traffic is very little made it a very pleasurable ride. Had a slight tail wind but that sure didn’t help with the 4 hills that I had to get over. I’m not ashamed folks. I do have feet and will walk up it if it gets me to the top. Remember now that on the other side of the hill I’m climbing is a hill going down. That is the fun part. The last hill had me going 37MPH on the downside. Weeeeeeeeee!

So here are some images of the this day 1:

Black Eagle falls was running abit of water today.

So what was this fellow thinking? He just left it

Really the Ferry is Open?

So the Ferry is Open. What a great time to ask the Ferry for fewer hills for this old tired fellow. So I wonders off to find the Ferry to make a wish and find this fellow that looks like Barnacle Bill the Sailer. I ask him if he is a Ferry. Mistake. He insists I not call him a Ferry anymore. Well I guess he must be the bad Ferry as he threatened to put the bike where the sun don’t shine. You believe that story! NOT! I’m an old sailer and the difference between a fairy (Ferry) tail and sea story is, a fairy tale always starts our “once upon a time” and a sea story starts out ” this is no shit” But the sign was real.. We do have about 4 active ferries here on the Missouri River to get peeps back and forth across the river. Not a lot of bridges up here.

Sign of the times of rural America. Another vacant building in HIghwood, MT.

A great story behind this dog. Please read the next photo. This is very true. I had a friend who was on the burial detail for Shep. Sad ending I guess

She’s Story. Everybody has a Story.

Now a walking bridge.

Will take me some time to get used to sleeping in this

Nice easy ride to Ft. Benton and camped in the Canoe Campground at the County Fairgrounds. Met Katie and her friend for supper at one of the local Bar/Restaurants.

Now the numbers:

58 Miles
RoadKill: 1 Redwing Blackbird
Old Glory: 3 flying
Auto Fatality Cross: 1

Lost: My Bum. If found please return. Bring on the butte paste.