Hello from the Adventure Cyclist Association offices in Missoula, Montana. I’ve been having internet connection issues since we left Canada, but Mike Deme, the editor here at ACA, has fixed me up. He promised me that it wasn’t a Homeland Security issue (Keep out the Kanuckastanis!!) Maybe it wasn’t my best idea to become a brand-new Mac user while on a bike trip?
We LOVE Montana. It is a bit of a wild state. We’ve seen a garage sale selling guns, more old bikers on Harley’s then I’ve ever seen in my life, and hardly a vegetable in sight…unless of course you count tater tots, jojos, cheddar munchers and spirals (such amazingly greasy ways of deep frying chunks of potatoes – and unfortunately, I’m hooked!) Though here in the university city of Missoula, we just finished off some great salads.
We’ve had strangers rescue us, danced with some of the those aforementioned bikers with no dental plans, and laughed our stupid faces off. Friendly doesn’t even begin to describe each and every character we’ve encountered.
It’s been hotter than heck. We ran out of water in the middle of nowhere, but even when Debbie & Irene went down that l-o-o-o-n-g driveway with the No Trespassing sign, the people sent them back to us loaded up with cold bottled water and Ziplocs full of ice.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a trip where we have met so many people on a first-name basis. Dolores from the Noxon Motel, Chris from the Motherlode Saloon and Restaurant, Rick from the Stateline House Bar, David & Heidi who stopped and took one of our broken-down bikes in their pick-up, the list goes on of this state’s friendly people who want to help.
We’re only halfway through this trip and it’s already populated our memories with an entire village of people from the friendly state of Montana…
With one exception; there was the guy that drove his bad-assed truck alongside Debbie, so his passenger could shoot her with a cap gun. So Not Cool.
I’m going to hope he was from out-of-state. Idiots like him ruin the story. Then again…boneheads can be found everywhere.
Kanuckistanis – brilliant. I have missed your posts and have been looking for them, so thanks for hopping up the addict again. That trip sounds like a blast, though I don’t know how y’all ride in that heat. Penticton over the weekend was bad enough, and only the mosquito smallfry came out in the evenings – suckers.
The capgun must have been scary. Good thing he didn’t know about the guns & roses sale back down the road, eh?
Glad you gals have found some salads. I can’t think of any physical activity enhanced by burgers and fries! Have fun, write lots more, and be safe (and get plenty of snorkage).
The heat really is crazy bad. Doesn’t matter how much water we drink…it’s never enough. The characters could fill quite a book.