July 7, 2021
Day 63: Great Falls, MT to Conrad, MT
A Grizzly Bicycle Warrior's Death
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Climbing Today; 1,359 ft Climbing to Date; 94,578 ft
I went to sleep right away last night, only to be woken by Doc making a call to his wife (my sister). Thanks Doc. After that I was up and down all night, finally waking for good 30 minutes before the alarm. Such is life as you age - sometimes you sleep and sometimes not so much.
Montana has casinos. Most of the folks who visit these places are people who can't afford to lose their money, yet that's what they do. It seems like a very cruel way for the state to raise revenue - rather than taxing the people who can afford to pay, they swindle the money from those who desperately need it. If I seem a bit opinionated it's because I am.
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3 years ago
It was cold this morning and I wore the wind jacket. There was some condensation forming on the top of my handlebar bag, and you could see fog-haze when looking across the big valleys.
Our route today consisted of riding the frontage road along I-15. I think that I-15 must be one of the loneliest interstates in America.
Making our way to Dutton, we found breakfast at a nice coffee shop in town. I stopped at the post office afterwards and sent home what I expect to be the final package of things I don't need. Leaving there, I spotted a quarter on the roadway; the "found money" fund now stands at about $2.72, so the celebratory coffee is pretty much guaranteed. Maybe I will find enough to make it a caramel frappucino instead.
We met several other cycle tourists today. A group of 3 hailed us as we rolled into Brady; they are included in today's video. At least 1 of them (Liliana) is associated with a charity for musicians that raises money via a long distance bicycle ride; check it out here if you wish, it's a pretty cool site. (editing note added in January 2023; that link seems to be bad now)
Rolling into Conrad, we met Summit, a young man who is riding the Northern Tier west to east solo. We had lunch with Summit and enjoyed the conversation, then set out for the hotel. But just a couple of blocks later we pulled over to chat briefly with a young lady who was also riding solo west to east.
Our hotel is a Super 8 that is also a casino - great. The rooms are fine for us, I just don't like the idea of pandering to the Super 8 crowd to raise state revenues. When we walked into the Super 8, the following item was shown in the local paper;
The cyclist was a woman on a group cycling trip - that's all I can gather. Here's a link to a CNN article about the incident; Bear Attack
Ok folks, I got to go. I have a bad toothache - that's the sort of unexpected thing that could shut me down early unless I can resolve it. I'm struggling at the moment, will take some ibuprofen and hope I can sleep tonight. Video follows...
Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 3,307 miles (5,322 km)
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