Hello everyone! We just got out of a grant meeting. For those of you who don't know we get to choose where some of the money goes from our fundraising. This means going over pages and pages of applications and carefully discussing and considering them all for grants...needless to say, I am tired. This will be a frantic post because I also have to get up at 5am for a 94 mile day...I have had no time and no phone service so I apologize to anyone that I have not been returning calls 2..I'll admit that I do like being out of touch. To recap the last few days...we are in the Rockies and they are beautiful. It was an amazing feeling to see them from a distance for the first time and slowly, mile by mile, approach them until being within them. Unfortunately the first day of climbing I got my first flat, which took me an hour to change. Within this hour the winds went from being intensely strong to insanely strong, some of the worst we've seen. I made the decision not to finish the day because not being in control of my bike, with cars on the left and a drop off on the right, was not a comforting feeling. I found out later that two people were blown off their bikes..during a less windy time of day. We got into Glacier Park that night and swam in a nearby river. The next day was our climb up the road to the sun. This was a breathtaking and very high climb, frightening to those of us who are unsettled by heights. Unfortunately about halfway up the mountain it began to pour...you can imagine that a park that goes by the name glacier does not mix well with rain. We were freezing! When I got to the top of the mountain I rushed into the visitor center to warm myself by the fire, only to be yelled at by a park ranger..couldn't they see we were on the verge of hypothermia? I decided to head back down the other side of the mountain but as I approached the decent I realized this was just not possible. At this point you could not see more than an inch in front of you because of the fog. As hard as it was to turn back; fog, mixed with steep switchbacks, traffic, no shoulder, slippery road, construction and possible hypothermia was not an equation that seemed to end with me coming out alive. After a nice couple offered to take our bikes down the mountain we finally caught a bus...and hours later found a warm place to go. We are now in the beautiful Libby Montana, tomorrow we will be in a new state, in ten days we will have rode our bicycles across the entire country...for now I must sleep.

the west

Today was an amazing day to follow a string of amazing days. We left Wolf Point this morning followed by a tailwind (finally!) and a grinning pup who ran beside us for half a mile. We entered into Glasgow around 11 30am, with an average speed of 20mph for the day. This is surly a huge change from last week where we were faced with headwinds of around 23mph and gusts up to 40mph. North Dakota is rated #1 for the windiest state in the country. A local shared with me that in the winter the winds get so strong they have been known to flip trucks. Often I felt as though I was going to be blown over myself. It was rough, but we made it. Stopping in nearby towns for pie and singing silly songs at the top of our lungs to distract us. Its hard to believe that we rode our longest day in these conditions, 117 miles.
The landscape is very surprising and interesting. I have never been in such open spaces and its a strange feeling to ride along flat prairies with a never ending sky, I felt very exposed. Western ND brought rolling hills which we rode happily into Theodor Roosevelt National Park. I could not believe my eyes as I turned a corner and saw this place. Probably the most beautiful area we've seen on the trip so far. We had a fast steep descent to the entrance of the park and I felt as if I was being engulfed by natural beauty. We climbed and camped in the park but had to be on our way the next morning. We awoke at 5am and biked out of the park toward the sunrise..well biked most of the day. Kelsey and I were sweep this day and were stopped in our tracks by a herd of bison. After being told the night before that bison are extremely dangerous and hate bicycles we were terrified to be only a few feet from a herd. One of the males made eye contact with me and I thought for sure that any moment now he would charge and that would be the end of the trip. "O this?" I thought, " Its nothing, really, just this thing I sit on that gets me from point A to point B. No no, I don't want to take your children, they're very cute but there is no need for you to worry. Please continue on with your breakfast. Its just little ol me and I will be right on my way."