Day 23 Lubrecht to Missoula 68km

A big B.I.G. day today! With the prospect of an actual city only 30 miles away, and a visit to the home of Adventure Cycling (who made this trip possible) our first priority, we faced the chilly morning air outside our sleeping bags with fortitude. We were rewarded with blue skies, sunshine, plenty of downhill and a 70 year old bloke named Ronnie, on a solo tour from California to Pennsylvania, bloody impressive! The positive signs kept on coming, at 999.9 miles on the bike computer, who do we find grazing at the road side but a pair of very contented pigs, grunting and eating with gusto. For those of you who don't know, the pig is Kerstin's totem, so this was a meeting infused with real meaning. Around the next corner, scaling a sheer cliff face we were amazed by the skill and grace of a flock of Big Horn Sheep, seriously people if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed anything could stick to a rock wall like that! We coast into Missoula and head straight to the Adventure Cycling Headquarters, where we are greeted with enthusiasm, ice cream and some excellent advice. And we are immortalised on Polaroid and added to the photo wall of touring cyclists. The lack of clean clothes, of any description, pushes us onwards to our first KOA experience. KOA is an American campground corporation, like the McDonalds of camping, exactly the same no matter where you are! With freshly laundered clothes in place, finally smelling respectable again, we ride into town searching for dinner. We have decided to celebrate our first 1000 miles with pizza, but an unfamiliar town, and no specific destination in mind leads us astray and with hungry bellies and therefore shortened fuses we fuss over finding and choosing a pizza place. Finally we settle on the first place we passed, of course! But the delay brings an unexpected bonus... An employee of Adventure Cycling is out with her husband, and invites us to join them. What follows is a lovely evening of great conversation, shared stories and truly excellent pizza and beer! Flushed with our social success we bike off to the local baseball match for another genuine American experience, we are trying to be all about new experiences ;) and who should race after us down the bike path but our new friends Jenn and Rob, who invite to stay at their place and celebrate the 4th of July with them!!! Feeling on top of the world we arrive grinning at the baseball and spend an intriguing 2 hours trying to figure out how the game works! Tonight we retire feeling so lucky to be exactly where we are, and having so much anticipation for the new experiences of the next few days!


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