Eastern Montana

After two days taking cover from thunderstorms passing through Lewistown, I finally headed out of town into what would be country out of reach of Verizon's not-so "Nationwide Network." While I set out on a nice, cool, cloudy day, I watched the innocuous clouds slowly transform into menacing, dark clouds. As I looked over my shoulder in the late afternoon, I could see bolts of lightning in the distance behind me, so I lifted my pace to 20 mph as I raced the storms from Lewistown to Winnett. While I felt a few drops of rain fall on me as I pulled into this little town, I counted myself lucky and checked into the inn.

The following morning I had my first of several days riding up and down short, but challengingly steep hills. While I made good progress from Winnett to Jordan, there was only one shop/cafe for the entire 78 mile ride and business was slow that the 80 year old owner was planning on shutting down, making the ride even tougher for future wheelmen. To add insult to injury, the pictured, cheeky, little grasshopper was freeloading on my bike for about ten miles, only adding to my burden. My bike is heavy enough as it is!