Saturday, July 3, 2010

June30-July3 Glasgow-Malta M-71.86,T-7:29:25,AVG-9.59,El-1359. Malta-Havre M-93.25,T-7:20:59,AVG-12.68,El-1181. Havre-Chester M-63.14,T-7:45:11,AVG-8:14,El-1769

Life on the road. The last few days I've just been putting my time in to get through the plains with the trains keeping me company. Small towns every 20 to 30 miles courtesy of the railroad. Allot of these towns popped up every 10 miles or so because thats how often the railroad engines needed water and it all happened around 1910 which makes this year the Centennail for Chester with a big celebration going on in town this Fourth of July weekend.


A concert, dance I took in last night after bucking 30 to 40 mph headwinds winds. The strongest I've had so far. They tapered off as the day grew on and descended to 10 to 15 for a much needed break.
A fun run this morning was part of the Chester festivities. Which I happened to walk into on the way to the pancake breakfast at the Lutheran church. Heck, I  might as well enter it.  Luckily it was only 3  miles and  was able to pull it off.
The Parade followed the Run.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

June 29 Poplar-Glasgow M-81.18,T-6:32:17,AVG-12.41,El-1359




HOT! I hadn't noticed the increase in temperature as the day progressed but my water bottles were rather warm was the first clue. I think it's hot out.
It looks like I could get some delays again as NW weather heads this way  and crashes into this hot front here in Montana.
 I just looked outside to and it's rather black.  Head for the hills.









I was never much of a horse fan till I took this trip. The horses look so striking and natural to the backdrop of the plains and prairies. Healthy to!

June 28 Watford-Poplar M-116.58,T-10:49,AVG-10.77,El-3234


The Missouri River as I was entering Culbertson from 16.
 It was a long day after leaving Watford this morning. It went rather well at first taking 200 to Fairview. Then 200 turns into 210 west which I thought would be a nice country road and usually 95% of the time it is.But 210 happened to be a shortcut for trucks heading south being 16 was under construction and they didn't want to put up with delays during there work day.I figured this out later once I got off 210 and headed noth on 16.
 I guessed something was up as I turned on 210 with the trucks following me west.But I figured if  all the traffic is going the  same direction it shouldn't be to much trouble with plenty of room to pass. Wrong. It made for a challenging 13 miles and I also picked up a few new tricks along the way when driving in  truck traffic.
 One trick was just get off the road  when all 3 of us passed at the same time.  Keeps the truckers happy and me alive.
The other is if you have  trucks coming at you from both ways and there both still  a ways out  with a no shoulder road and there the same size there probably going to intersect pretty close to where you  are at. So now if this happens I'll hit my breaks  and slow down and let the vehicle behind me catch up and get larger and usually it will pass me before the oncoming truck does. No problem or you can still just get off the road. It's probably not the proper method of handling this situation. Usually you can let traffic adjust to you. But I didn't want to hang around for the results.
Anyway it turned into a great day and ride on 16 north being no one was on 16 and the construction delay was minimal.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

June27 Killdeer-Watford M-57.78,T-6:58:35,AVG8.28,El-2242

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was quite stunning as I entered it from the south  on 85. One bit of bad luck though. My SLR battery  died of all places but I had my pointnshoot to get a few pics.
I should be in Montana and on 2 heading west sometime tomorrow with a favorable weathercast the next 5 days.