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I can’t say the war is over, we have over 2,700 miles to go, but our big battles against the Rockies (and the surprising challenges of the Palouse!) are behind us. In this next leg we travel along the Yellowstone River for a few days, then climb up to the Norrh Dakota Badlands, then are back to farmland in the high plains on our way to Bismarck. 672 miles on paper over 8 days for this stretch. Wind and weather pose threats, and we have our first planned 100+ mile day to end this leg. It appears less daunting than what we’ve overcome, but a rest day today is prudent planning to enable a fresh attack tomorrow (Monday).

I needed to declare “Monday” as it’s difficult to recall days of the week: the calendar is largely meaningless to us. In fact, mostly what we think about is the day we’re experiencing and maybe the next 24hours. To be able to sit with coffee this morning watching dew drops fall from the evergreens while the sun breaks through clouds was quite a luxury; and this time allows for a calming of the mind as much as relaxation of tired legs.

Chad took us fly fishing to his favorite spot. Like protecting his family’s secret recipe for mulled wine, Chad swore us to secrecy not to reveal anything about this spot. In fact, he hooded us and we seemed to drive in circles for an hour to arrive. We could’ve been anywhere from 5-50 miles from Big Sky. When we got out (and removed our hoods) we were greeted with a beautiful stream on a gravel road with distant severe mountain peaks.

Known for his limited patience, Lecy and I couldn’t wait to spectate Geeto’s first attempts with a fly rod. Though Geeto seemed more excited about the opportunity to test his pepper spraying skills against a bear, moose, bison… even a hyper aggressive beaver would do. He just doesn’t want to leave Montana having carried around the extra weight of pepper spray purely as insurance.

Unfortunately, we didn’t catch any fish or emit any pepper spray. The water was “blown out” as Chad says is the proper lexicon for water clouded by the runoff of last night’s storm. Thankfully, master angler Chad was also shutout, so we didn’t feel like it was our lack of ability. Or, maybe he just doesn’t want us coming back and he blind folded us so we didn’t know we were fishing in the sewer effluent.

We did discover some interesting things about our hosts. Cari is a habitual rock licker. If she sees what she considers a beautiful rock, she picks it up and licks it to get a better look at its properties. I don’t know if Chad brought us out to this gravel road as a treat for Cari, or to get a good laugh. Cari said she’s expanding her personal microbial biome community one lick at a time.

We also learned that Chad grew up on a farm just north of Minnesota’s driftless zone. He had several jobs on the farm growing up: he walked beans, he power washed manure spreaders, he baked hay… One job he had when they were ready to take cows to market was to act as the human barn door. He stood in the wide barn opening with a shovel and whacked cattle in the head that were premature in their excitement to go to market. I can imagine Chad’s become quite handy with a shovel and I’ll show him more respect (especially when a shovel is in reach). Lecy followed this up explaining how his niece used to be in charge of semen collecting at a hog farm. This story immediately killed all conversation for ten minutes until someone thought to ask about the Cubs score.

As we left the secret fishing hole, Chad offered cold sparkling water and… Corn Nuts! Geeto has an unhealthy addiction to Corn Nuts; I think he’s eaten them every day on our journey and he’s trying to push them on me and Lecy. I guess now it’s not surprising that Geeto has gotten on so well with the Jerdees as Corn Nutters have a natural allure and respect for one another. I don’t know if they can sense the distinctive aroma on one another’s breath, or they see the semi-permanent microscopic crunched nuggets embedded in their molars, but Corn Nutters seem to find one another and form a bond before their shared love is exposed. Maybe Lecy and I are just jealous, but we’re starting to come around to this odd salty snack.

Thinking back on the past 2 plus weeks, five of the biggest learnings we can take into the rest of our journey:

1. Stop and smell the proverbials: We benefit greatly from the periodic saddle break, but usually our drive to complete the day’s tasks trumps opportunities to take a brief pause to admire our surroundings. Yesterday we took a quick unplanned stop to admire that cavern, but then we blew past a beautiful photo op of an old farmer near his John Deere tractor with his weathered old barn in the newly mown field with rocky peaks in the backdrop. We can and should afford these 2 minute breaks when they appear.
2. Hydrate or die! Thinking back on that battle to Bickelton day, when I bonked, I’m sure now dehydration was a big factor. The shoulders are sore, but keeping the 3-liter hydration backpack topped off is critical to a challenging day.
3. Remain adaptable. Even though we have a huge liking for our Ride with GPS app, it’s not foolproof, and things in our plans will be flawed. Like Dori, we just need to forget the past, have a positive attitude and keep on swimming (that’s Dori from Finding Nemo Ellie, not your mom; I don’t think of her as an avid swimmer).
4. It’s easier to change your attitude than change someone else. I’m sure I wrote this in an earlier post: we’ll continue to have aggravations in our partnership, but we’re all old dogs fairly fixed in our ways, so when upset we’ll have to focus on what’s in our hearts and between our ears.
5. This experience is temporary but will last a lifetime. We are very blessed to have this opportunity; God has given us supportive friends and family, physical ability, and every means necessary to make this happen. We need to make the most of this once in a lifetime journey.

Tomorrow we have to do some provisioning for upcoming camping stays. And, it’s nearly an hour’s drive to get us from Big Sky back to Bozeman. So, we have a short 36 miles to the Livingston Motor Inn tomorrow. It will effectively be another rest day. Here’s the link and photo from Ride with GPS (sorry, I think I’m done with Strava: Day 16: Bozeman to Livingston.

I can’t think of any good fishing songs (surely there must be some), and I don’t want to do another rain song (though we had another thunderstorm smiths afternoon), and I can’t think of any songs about shovels or artificial porcine insemination.. so, I’m going to stick with this one that again hints at the natural and wonderful relationship my friends have made in a short time. Chad tempted us with another day off and fishing attempt tomorrow, but the road is calling and we must pedal. Beautiful Strangers

Note: We met a lovely young woman who was finishing up a 20 mile ride on her mountain bike. We talked a bit about our journey and she told us about a 4,000 mile she did a few years ago in South America. She said she makes bike bags and I said we may have future needs, but I didn’t get any contact information from her. If you’re out there… send a message or link to where we can see your products!