Epic Bike Ride Day 38 July 5
Thoughts from Kelly: We did not hear a single firework last night. A bit strange, but also welcoming because we were very tired and just wanted to sleep. Nevertheless, I didn’t sleep well, or enough, not sure which. I did start hearing cars very early in the morning, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so probably not enough sleep. I was a bit grumpy this morning, but we got ourselves ready, said goodbye to the noisy cows and headed out. Last night, we decided to skip a large portion of the route (Lima) and take a shorter version. If it works out we will shave off 100 miles, and save one to two days of time. We hate to do this, but we felt it’s either cut corners and finish, or do the entire route and not finish. Mark really wants to finish! We still had beautiful mountains and rivers to enjoy, with lots of hills for Mark to climb. We made it to Dillon, MT and stayed at an ok-ish motel with an equally ok-ish shower. I wasn’t feeling all that great still, so Mark went out to get food and brought me a yummy salad (I usually don’t like salads). Hopefully, I will feel better tomorrow.
Thoughts from Mark: It was a tough decision to jump off of the route, and pass up some miles, but I think ultimately it was the right decision. We essentially took the hypotenuse of a triangle, and skipped around 100 miles. I hated to do this, as I wanted to stay “true” to the route, but my back has been screaming the last couple of weeks, and hopefully this will help. The ride itself today was decent, and Dillon seems like a neat town to spend some more time in. The downtown area seemed to have quite a few restaurants and bars, and there is a college in town, too. Part of the fun of this ride is seeing these areas, and deciding if we would like to visit them again. The pizza I had was BBQ sauce, pineapple, fried chicken, onion, and some of the hottest jalapenos I have ever had. It was delicious (and a bit painful), but I managed to eat half of it tonight, and will save the rest for lunch tomorrow.
Miles for the day: 45.41 Feet climbed today: 1,580
Total miles ridden: 1,767.95 Total feet climbed: 109,780
