Jordan, MT July 2

Jordan, MT -- Friday, July 2
Today's ride was all about the weather. When we left Winnett this morning it was a picture perfect day. It ended with strong winds, hail and rain and a severe thunderstorm warning until 11:30 PM. As I write this post at 8:30 PM I'm sheltered in my tent. Meanwhile outside, it is raining, thundering, and the winds are strongly blowing. It is a good thing that I improved the coaring on the tent fly yesterday, else wise, all of us would be sitting in a pool of water. Because of the strong winds at the city park campsite, we decided to dine at a nearby cafe. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the clouds let loose with pea sized hail and rain.
At least it did not let loose on our walk back!
When we began our ride this morning I thought I was living a dream and could do this bicycling touring for a long, long time. When we left this morning, Andrea was at the top of her game. She was in the riding groove and she made it almost impossible for Alex and I to match her pace for the first 43 miles. By the end of our 76 mile ride today, my fantasy of doing this for a long time had been shattered and Andrea's groove had long been lost been replaced by this grouchy, irritable, let this be over person.
Our culprit today was 33 miles of constant hills while battling a 25-30 mph cross wind in a blazing hot sun. It was ceaseless and never ending, in fact, it still continues. Towards the end of our ride we could see the storm that would dump on us this evening developing in the western sky. We had hoped the find a campsite with showers this evening to remove the layers of sweat, sun screen and dust from the ride; however, this was not a benefit available any place in town (motel excepted). For Alex and I our shower was relegated to lathering up at a nearby outdoor hydrant, while Andrea's was from our portable 'kitchen sink' behind a nearby bush. Yes, it was a trying day.
There were many good things about the day. The pancakes at Winnett were fantastic. We had one town - Sand Springs - (more like a store and post office in the middle of nowhere) to provide a mid ride refueling stop and near picture perfect morning weather. The store in Sand Springs was quirky but neat. As bicyclists, we were all asked to log in so that the attendant had a record of the bicyclists that passed through. There was a very limited selection of food on the shelves; however, the store did have a freezer of frozen pizzas which one could bake and eat on site. Since
the store was also a post office we used the time while the pizza was baking to write and send postcards. The store attendant was very accommodating to bicyclists. This break helped us get us through the day.
Lastly while eating dinner at a cafe we struck up a conversation with the Garfield County Sheriff. We shared some good stories and humor and learned more about our route tomorrow as well as the severe weather alert. Randy, the WV teacher, is still camping with us. He had a tough day too. Despite leaving 45 minutes before we did this morning he arrived at the site 90 minutes later.
The winds are supposed to cease tonight and tomorrow is supposed to be a good day. We are hoping so as it is a 68 mile ride to Circle with a constant stream of short hills and no services. It will be a challenging day.