Plains, MT 3000 miles!

We got up alittle late (surprise surprise!) in Kalispell. I think the day before the traffic wore us out. I don't think I will ever understand what a driver is thinking when he passes us on a two lane road with a car coming from the other direction. I decided that little Johnny must need an emergency ice cream cone OR they were late getting him to the waterpark. It must be some type of emergency. But we made it! Before leaving Kalispell we stopped at Perkins for breakfast. I had some really good potato pancakes and Hap had an omelet. It was turning into another hot sunny day. We studied the map before leaving Perkins and found what looked like a side road out of town. We needed to get onto Rt 93 south out of Kalispell. We figured we were doing an end run out of town. And I'm sure that the cars and trucks would appreciate not having to spend the extra 10 or 15 seconds to go around us! We turned onto highway 317 and headed out. Then we started noticing that there seemed to be alot of trucks on the route. Mmmmmmm.....wonder what that "truck route" sign meant. Oh and there is some road construction, isn't that just special! I guess you have figured out by now that although the traffic was better than yesterday it was still pretty bad. We checked our trusty county map book. Have you seen those huge county map books for each state? Well, we carry one for each state. Now you know why. We found what looked like a good alternative road that ran parallel to this route. It started out to be a good choice UNTIL does that look like gravel to you? That looks like gravel to me? No, it's gravel with oil on it. Great! But it didn't get bad until the bumps started, then it was actual more fun. Why pay for an amusement park ride when you can go to Montana and ride on oily, gravel, bumpy roads on a 180 pound tandem! We're having fun now. This was about the time, that I decided that Hap couldn't drive anymore because he kept hitting all the bumps........or he kept slowing down (we were already going 4 mph) because of the TRAFFIC that was passing us. Do you think all of the cars/trucks that we would've ran into (so to speak) on the other highway appreciated the fact that we went out of our way so that THEY could get little Johnny's ice cream on time??? I don't think so............

We finally got onto Rt 93 headed towards Elmo our stopping point for the night. The traffic on Rt 93 was just awful. I think that all of the brothers and sisters of the drivers from the day before were driving on Rt 93. We had about a foot of shoulder to work with and we used it all. It was another hot/sunny day. I don't even remember much about the scenery except that there was a lake and big trucks. We were riding down the west side of Flathead Lake which is very pretty I think. This is the third time we have ridden through the Flathead Valley and I don't remember traffic being this bad. We had several drivers pass us on the left and then all of a sudden make a sudden right turn. Hello there.......... We got to the "town" of Elmo where we thought there was a campground. There was nothing in the town. But they did have a post office at the crossroads so I think you have to qualify it as a "town". The directions said there was a RV park one mile south. We finally found it. When we got there the owner said, no we do not allow tents. Hap finally talked her into making an exception. And as it turned out she was from Indiana and had gone to the same high school as Hap's sister. We set up camp, cooked some pasta, broccoli and salmon for dinner. I did some laundry while Hap worked on the bike. He needed to replace a rear housing end on the rear derailer.

This morning we woke up to the sound of raindrops on our tent. So of course I turned over and thought, it's raining may as well sleep some more. The next time I woke up the sun was shining and it was getting hot again. We cooked our oatmeal, and added bananas for our breakfast. We started out the day with a pretty big climb. As a matter of fact that was how most of the day went. There were several long climbs and one big downhill into Plains. It was pretty barren terrain. Mostly brown and no trees (or shade). The road was alittle busy but nothing like the last two days. So I saw more of the scenery. We stopped for milkshakes in Lonepine. There were three other cyclists there out for an eight day trip. It sounded like a great route that they were on. They said there was a bluegrass band at Hot Springs that night (about 8 miles down the road) but we wanted to ride alittle further. We had a couple more good climbs before heading down into Plains. Just as we came into town there was a Subway, so we went in for something to eat and something COLD to drink. It was 98 degrees. There didn't seem to be any camping near so we opted to stay in a hotel. We got a bonus with our room. They got the channel VERSUS so we were able to watch the Tour de France. And will be able to watch the final time trial before leaving in the morning. For dinner we went across the street and picked up some instant mashed potatoes, baked beans and applesauce for dinner while we watched the tour. Tomorrow we plan to ride into Idaho. Until next time...............