Day 22: 1,000 miles!

Hey, it’s the one and only, Julia! So today was finally the day…I fell off my bike. Don’t worry it was literally when I was starting and very anti-climatic with only a small scrape on my knee. Now we have all had at least one fall, so all these falls can no longer be blamed on me. 

We had another fantastic day biking with Leo and Pat! Like any other day, we said we would leave at 7am…we ended up leaving closer to 9. Today, though, we were absolutely FLYING! In the first hour we did 18miles. Originally, we thought we would finish in Lewistown, MT and have a rest day after a 45mile ride. However, Pat and Leo are very persuasive, and convinced us to stick with them and do an additional 32 miles to Grass Range, MT. I mean we did get into Lewistown before noon and the rest of the day would be almost all downhill, so it wasn’t that hard to convince us. 

We ended up having lunch in Lewistown at the Montana Tavern that has a creek running underneath the bar. We thought it would be this whole clear floor situation, but it was actually just a corner of the bar with a sign and a hole in the floor. It was still a great bar that had happy hour for 8 hours a day everyday! Dustin proudly was able to have a beer before noon. 

After lunch we continued on to Grass Range. We knew we had a bit of an uphill before the gorgeous downhill all the way to town, but let me tell you…. Chicken tendies and uphills do not mix well. I was not a happy camper going up hills for 6 miles after eating. Brian was hearing all of my angry remarks and told me “you are not allowed to cry until we get to the top because it’s not safe to cry and bike.” Luckily, I made it to the top with no tears, but when I asked Pat if this was actually the top he responds with “actually we made a wrong turn and we need to go back down.” I know I took an oath to do no harm, but in that moment Pat was really testing me. We didn’t make a wrong turn and thankfully we got to just coast downhill for 25miles. 

When we got to Grass Range, which is a town of 110 people, we decided to camp in the back of a truck stop. Now most people would think that it would be hard to entertain yourself in a town that small in the literal nowhere of Montana. Well you would be wrong. We got ourselves some beer, Flaming Hot Cheetos, and Doritos and had an absolute blast in some abandoned rundown shed that’s next to our campsite. Pat was sure to capture the whole glory of the shed in his version of MTV Cribs. The night was full of music, laughing, and wild cats occasionally darting under our chairs. Leo summed it up with “I’m so glad we met you guys. We were doing it wrong! Why weren’t we drinking along the trip?!”

We wrapped the night up over at The Wrangler, where we got pizzas to share and Pat absolutely demolished me in an arm wrestling match. I guess we aren’t taking a rest day anymore because we have been enjoying our time with Pat and Leo so much, so check back tomorrow for our 60-something mile day to some town in Montana (sorry, I’m not in charge of the route).