I received many kudos today for flying the American Flag high on the pole. “Thank you for flying the flag!” Numerous honks and thumbs up. One guy jumped out of his lawn chair and saluted!
Challenges today - 2 flat tires, both on my rear wheel.
Knowing it was to be a short day we left late, around 9:30. The first 25 miles was on lightly used frontage roads or near the freeway back roads. We had about 18 miles on I-94, to end the day. I felt much safer on I-94 than on many of the roads we have ridden. Like the prior time on the interstate, an 8 ft shoulder with rumble strips, light traffic, and much easier than gravel roads. One has to be careful to avoid steel belt tire remnants.
The second flat was on the freeway about 3 miles from the Miles City exit. Fixed it, with previously used tire and previously patched tube. Pulled into Miles City and there was a bike shop! I bought two new tires (Schwabe Marathon Plus) and 4 tubes. The owner (Miles) “entertained” us with much colorful language. He knows his stuff about bikes. He wished me good luck and said he hoped I reached Maine before the revolution breaks out.
Wide open, lightly used country. Very dry. From yesterday - the Yellowstone River is getting low and they (local irrigation districts) are likely going to shut off some irrigation canal diversions. Water wars to come?
Stops for the next week or so (until Fargo) including today, are dictated by where there is food, water and either a hotel or campground. This will make for some long and some short days.
Pics from today:
Generally a tailwind today at about 12 mph. I was riding at about 12, the cottonwood seeds were traveling with me and my flags were hanging down. Much better than 12 mph against me - that would be 24 mph in my face. It is all about the apparent wind!
By the numbers:
Dist 46 miles
Elev gain 1,764 ft
Elev Loss 1,751 ft
Moving time 3:34
Enjoying your progress and posts. I’m with Wa
ReplyDeletelooks like I can get tire tube changing instructions - how much of a back up supply do you have ??
ReplyDeleteGood day. No flats and a tail wind. Beautiful country, too..
ReplyDeleteSo much for no flats. I guess that was the day before. I hope you got some very tough tires today. As I mentioned, I used Schwalbe Maraton Plus and had no flats. But freeways have those wires that fall off truck tires. They can cause flats. Maybe because we had very little freeway riding, we had no problems with them.
ReplyDeleteNorth Dakota seems to be coming up soon. I am sure you will enjoy as much as Montana. Hopefully lots of tail wind and no flats. Have a great day tomorrow ...