Day 18 Making Hay

We depend camp and headed straight to the bakery that opened at 7:30. Coffee and a cinnamon roll. Heaven does exist in Montana. The bakery was also a small outfitters supply shop for the serious outdoors person. Climbing and backpacking supplies.
While today's destination was intended to be flexible, Cut Banks was our must reach spot. Under the circumstances, that wouldn't be a stretch. The road was relatively flat if not descending and the wind will be at our backs. My kind of situation.
Soon after liftoff, conditions materialized. Long straight roads to start with a great breeze pushing us along. Makes me smile just writing about it. The road sloped downward. That says, hit the gas. Varoom! Or what ever noise a bike makes. For miles it went like that. Later on I checked my max speed. 42! Faster than anything I let my ride do in the mountains. I'm not saying it's a big deal cause it's not. It's pretty fast but I've gone up to 50 on a tandem with Pam. It's been a while though. Now back to today.
The hills were rolling. The winds largely in our favor. Later in the ride the winds shifted somewhat. Quartering side winds. Still tailwinds but not totally. The dreaded side winds. Those challenge your ability to anticipate the winds effects on you. Fortunately that was short lived. What we figured is that try to get done earlier before the fickle afternoon winds kick up.
We arrived at Cut Banks before noon. We had already eaten lunch on the road so not much to do here. We did stop into an outdoor store and I found a replacement tube for the one I flatted two days ago. They had the right size and everything! Since we were doing so well we set our sights on Shelby. Another 23 miles. The conditions were unchanged except it was the end of a longer day. We made only a few brief stops to give our collective behinds a break.
We focused on an RV Park associated with a Comfort Inn. Grassy tent site close to the bathroom and showers and laundry. Clean too! For $24 it's a winner!
Tomorrow, Chester is our primary target but if it was like today, we may make more hay while the sun is shining and tag on a few more miles with slightly further off towns. We'll see how the day unwinds.
Today- 69.8 miles
15.0 mph
4:40 in the saddle
42 mph max
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
KPW