Day 35 - Ennis to Driftwater Resort 66km

As a precaution we both agree that it would be safer if I write today's post. Otherwise we may risk the shutdown of our 'bikeisgood' blog due to Louise's possible display of her swear word repertoire. But more so it also gives the chief editor and writer of this publishing platform a well deserved break from her writing duties. Which she truly seems to enjoy judged by the high frequency of hand-to-mouth movements delivering potato chips. That's usually my part. But back to today's stage which almost lost the 'bikeisgood' appeal. The statistics on the bike computer say it all: 4hrs 36min riding time to cover just 40 miles. On any other day I would have doubted the correctness of this data but at the end of today we are just happy that we have made it at all! The word that we can't hear anymore and that we won't mention one more time today is: HEADWIND. I appreciate that most of you will know and agree that h...w... is the most unpopular component of bicycle travel. Give us hills, mountain passes, rain, heat, barking dogs, crazy drivers, narrow shoulders but don't give us h...w...! Especially not of the kind where you even have to pedal downhill just to keep moving. I guess we all have our own ways how we deal with this cyclist's enemy. But Louise demonstrated a new technique that left me speechless and hade silently comply with it: she got off the bike and started to push her 30kgs steel horse along the highway! Then she shouted something like 'if I can't ride the f@#?! 18 miles to the campground, I can sure walk it!'. Before I could intervene she marched convincingly into the winds and had me following her (off the bike, too!). In such situations I have learned - to Louise's and my own advantage - to see it from her perspective. She is a lot smaller/shorter/lighter than I am, this is her first long-distance bicycle travel and there are still a lot of situations out there which are a 'first' for her but not necessarily for me. This trick usually helps. After stomping a brave mile on Highway 287 she reconsidered her tactics, said sorry and climbed back on the bike. And I saw her doing an awesome job battling nature's forces for the next 17 miles. But also for me today's riding conditions were inexperienced before. If someone was watching us from the distance (and thank god the great Montana drivers did!) they could have thought that we are either drunk or we are listening to waltzing Andre Rieu on our iPods. None of it - of course - was the case but we bounced between shoulder line and edge of the road like sitting in dodgem cars. And to add another cruelty factor: today we encountered the highest number of other fellow travel cyclists so far but they all headed into the opposite direction! And this so fast paced that we even didn't notice the smiles on their faces and the acknowledging waves they may have given us. Maybe for the better of both of us... But it is after a day like this where the hot showers feel better than ever, where the ice cream tastes sweeter than ever and where the smile on your face won't disappear until the sun sets behind the unknown horizon in front of you. With 'the proof' sitting next to me I look forward to tomorrow which will hopefully see us standing on the doorstep of our next big highlight: Yellowstone National Park. Headwind or not.


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