Day 21 Epic Day

Let me begin by giving a big shout out to my awesome mother-in-law Barbara Hartman. Happy birthday to you. Hope it was a great day and sorry I couldn't be there with everyone to celebrate. You know I love cake and ice cream. xoxoxo

The fairgrounds were a good bargain. $10. Get what you pay for sometimes. Havre's nightlife is apparently limited to riding your Harley around the fairgrounds into the wee hours. There are some things I can still hear without my ear buds in.  It was a busy place.
We departed at 6:45 this morning. Since the fairgrounds were at the top of a hill we were able to start the day with a fun downhill stretch! Only thing of it's kind all day. And it ended up being a long day. There were no surprise climbs to set the day off to a sullen mood. The road was flat and the wind was at our backs. Just the way we like it. A little more velocity would have been helpful but we take what we can get.
Our general plan was to get to Malta. We thought it was 67 miles. Just outside of town we got s shock when the sign said 92 miles. A slight miscalculation. Ok. Keep rolling. We'll adjust our goals first stop. Great thing about goals. Flexibility. Our first real stop was Chinook, 20 miles in.
Chinook had a great convenience store with almost everything you could want. Except sandals. Just outside town Bill had to stop and make a load adjustment. The load was leaning hard left. Ready to topple it was. Why did it take on such a form? One of Bill's sandals had fallen off! Probably at the fairgrounds where the road was rough and rocky. Rats. He would either have to wear his flip flops or cycling shoes until he could find something else.
Back to the plan. Next up was Zurich. Too soon. As was Harlem which was another 22 miles from Chinook. Dodson it was. That would make it a 72 mile day. Better than 92! Bad weather is predicted so we wanted a roof over our heads. We called the B&B and left a message. Hmmm. Back on the road we go.
Nothing in Zurich for us. Harlem had a convenience store for a break. It would be close to 30 miles before we reached Dodson. We had food and drink to sustain us. Good to go. At some point on this forsaken stretch of road, Sandy proclaimed "We just crossed the 1,000 mile mark!" We all smiled as we continued on our merry way.
Before we knew it we were in Dodson. The area had trees! And a lot of old run down buildings. We found the turn to the B&B. It was .7 off route. Easy. The school we passed was clean and attractive. Nice playground. The B&B was one of the nicest homes around. Grass cut. Shrubbery trimmed. Problem. No body was home. No one answered the phone. What to do? The person may come home soon or not at all... It was starting to sprinkle. We get out rain gear and resolve ourselves to riding to Malta. Sigh.
Looks like it's going to be a 92 mile day after all. The rain fell. Lightly. Thank heavens. But the wind changed direction and blew in our faces. Our pace slowed considerably considering the conditions. This stretch was barren and desolate with a steady but slightly uphill climb. Perfect. Just perfect. We plug on. And on. It's gray and stormy looking on the horizon.
Hope not to get tangled up in that.
Finally we reach Malta. We found several motels available. Whew. We settled on Royals Inn. The innkeeper is a kindly older gentleman. He helped us find the right room. He also let us store our bikes in his work area. Even gave us our own key. As a bonus he let us use his washer and dryer! Free!
Tomorrow morning looks wet so after today's epic we won't be in s hurry to get out.
Today- 92.4 miles
14.0 mph avg
My bike is locked up so I'll have to update the rest later.
Thanks for following us.
Cheers!
KPW