Monday June 1, 2009 Miles today – 58.2 Daily ride time – 4 hrs 57 min Average – 11.9 mph Daily Climb – 2,097 Total BRAA mileage – 728.6 Weather Start – Clear 49; Weather Finish High clouds 70 Today should have been an easy day for us but two things came into the limelight for us. The first was a 4 1/2 mile climb.  
Pam at Lolo Pass
We stopped off at Lolo Hot Springs Lodge to drop off 3 keys from the bicyclers
we met Saturday who cleaned the 3 rooms in exchange for dinner and breakfast but
forgot to give them back their keys – they were grateful. We then pulled into
the city of Lolo at 1pm and finally ate lunch. An hour ride after that we were
at Missoula.
   Photo Middle: Wildflower at Lolo Pass Photo Right: Lolo Mountain as seen 20 miles into MT We are 3 days ahead of schedule. Our plan now is to fly home on Thursday for 48
hours to pay bills and feed the cat and then head back to resume our trip on
Sunday morning. We will do some site seeing around Missoula for he next two
days and go for a couple of days rides around the area. More to come……
 Sunday, June 7, 2009 Miles today – 80.8 Daily ride time – 7 hrs 7 min Average – 11.4 mph Daily Climb – 2,967 Total BRAA mileage – 842.1 Weather Start – Cloudy 40; Weather Finish cloudy 52 The first day back in the saddle proved to be a trying one. We started off waiting for the local restaurant to open for breakfast since the next town was hours down the road. Had a great omelet and was able to start our day at 8:23. The clouds were dark and it was sprinkling on us on and off but not enough to put on our full rain gear. The wind was out of the Northeast at 10 – 15 mph and we were unfortunately peddling northeast so our speed was much lower than had hoped for. We already knew we were going to be peddling up hill towards the continental divide all day but the wind made it even more difficult.  Around 10:30 we had made it to a lodge in the middle of nowhere where I had my second breakfast, another omelet, and recharged our batteries. When we came out of the restaurant we had a pleasant surprise, the wind had calmed down to a slight breeze out of the North so we were able to pick up the pace a little. Yeah!   We finally arrived in Lincoln just after 6pm and I was one whipped puppy. We checked into our room, went next door to eat dinner, and I was showered and in bed by 7pm. It was by far the most strenuous day I have had on a bike and now we know how long is too long to take a break without riding. Until tomorrow….. Brian  Monday, June 8, 2009 Today we awoke to the gentle snow falling. I checked online and Great Falls, our next destination, is calling for Thunderstorms all day. We still need to climb another 1,000 feet to cross the continental divide and while eating breakfast this morning one of the locals says last Saturday it snowed 6 – 8 inches up on the pass. We decided to take our first official weather day today an hope for better weather tomorrow…. Until then! Brian Tuesday, June 9, 2009   Photo Right: Web cam from Rogers Pass (again looking West) Photo taken at 6:16am at mile post 90.8. What a difference    This morning’s ride did start out with a couple of mishaps. Right out of the gate Brian bruised the top of his middle finger when the bungee cord snapped back while he was tying the bags to the rack. Then a few miles into our ride at the 848 BRAA mile mark we tipped the bike on the right side after a photo stop. The shoulder of this part of the road was almost non existent, and there was a lot of gravel on the shoulder where the asphalt started. Needless to say we slid sideways on take off causing the front tire to slip. Both of us came away unscathed, thankfully! In the almost 12,000 miles on the bike this was our first spill. Not too bad!  - - Today we crossed the continental divide. - -  Today’s weather proved to be remarkably better than forecast. It was a bit chilly riding from Lincoln through Roger’s Pass, but the sun did begin to shine a bit. Yesterday’s snow storm was visible on the mountains surrounding us as we made our way up, up, up… When Brian used the “Map My Ride” program on the internet for today’s route, we were only supposed to climb 2,500 feet. I guess the hills after Roger’s pass and before the town of Simms were not registering on this program. We climbed several rolling hills after the pass, for about 700 feet of unexpected extra climb of sometimes up to 5-7%. We did very well, considering. The wildlife in the area from Missoula to Great Falls seems more abundant. We saw a beaver (or maybe a muskrat?) on our way into Lincoln. Also saw a bald eagle (and a huge nest near where he was souring), and plenty of blue and bright yellow birds. Today there was a huge elk up on a hill (too far off in the distance to get a good photo), but we were only riding approximately 9 mph up one of the numerous inclines so there was plenty of time to watch him. He did have quite a rack! After the pass there were a half dozen antelopes. I thought they were deer, and at first Brian thought they were goats, but the locals said they were antelopes.   
 That’s all for now! Pam Wednesday, June 10, 2009
  Some of the Montana license plates have a slogan “Big Sky Country” on them. I have wrote the governor and asked for him to change it to “Big Hill Country”. Even though we only rode for 51 miles and climbed just under 2,000 feet, they were the most painful and steep hills we have encountered. My bike odometer/altimeter was giving me readings of 9 – 11%, much too steep for us to peddle up, soooooo we logged 1.5 miles of bike walking today. And you may as well kick a man when he is down….. today we hit mosquitoes even the Minnesotans would be envious of. Another letter to the governor for the slogan “Big Mosquito Country” will be going out. The bad part was the only time they would be after us was when we were peddling 4 mph up the steep hills, once we crested the hills the head wind plus our forward speed would keep them in check. (not completely but bearable)  Having said all that we arrived in Fort Benton just after 6pm. Ft Benton is on the Missouri River and has many historic buildings, four museums, and lots of points of interest pointing out all the history that happened around town. It is a very interesting place and we will be starting late again tomorrow to take it all in. Resting our weary legs, Brian
 Thursday, June 11, 2009  Twenty seven miles later as we were peddling into the town of Geraldine for lunch and a rest, we had our third flat tire. The tire didn’t blow out or flatten immediately (thank you Slime for doing your job). We were able to peddle into town and make it to the café. After lunch we changed the tire. (under the shade of a tree and a park bench, yeah!) So… an hour and forty five minutes later we were back on the road, peddling toward Square Butte. After we crossed the Arrow River, it was one heck of a climb and two dirt road construction areas that we walked the bike through. We figure the bike walking exercise today was a combined mile and three quarters. Oh well, we made it! You can see the BIG climb for the day below  The animals along this desolate road are fantastic. There are so many antelope. If we are riding 15+mph they just sit there and watch, not flinching. If we are riding slow they start to run when we get close. The highlight was when we had juts been passed by a pick up and two fox were sitting two feet off the edge of the road watching the pickup and did not see or hear us coming until we were four feet from them – then they could not get down into their fox hole fast enough – very cool! The last 17 miles today seemed to take FOREVER since we could see for miles and miles and miles… We saw the town of Stanford water tower for about two hours (not really, but it seemed  What a surprise when our friend Cheryl Michaels met us here at our motel! She drove up from Denver Colorado (12+hrs) today to see us, and to see the beautiful state of Montana. We are going to meet her for breakfast in the morning, and reminisce some more before we roll out of here. It’s time for me to sign off now as it’s way past 10pm, and we have an early day tomorrow.  Ta-Ta for now! Pam Friday, June 12, 2009 Miles today – 47.2 Daily ride time – 3 hrs 40 min Average – 12.9 mph Daily Climb – 1,236 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,109.2 Weather – big blue skies – temps 48 up to 73 This morning we met Cheryl at ‘the’ restaurant at 7am for breakfast. After a few photos with Cheryl and her getting some video of our bike on the highway, we left Stanford at 8:43. Today was definitely in the top 3 days of bicycling we have ever had. Almost the perfect temperatures, a slight cool crosswind out of the North, and the hills are getting smaller. We actually had about half of our ride today on level ground so it was more like biking around home. Just a very comfortable day.  At eleven miles from reaching our destination a couple was pulled off the side of the road (in a car) flagging us down. After pulling over we found out they too were riding a tandem recumbent bike. Dave and Heather had ridden 1,900 miles so far from Ohio with no real plan on where they were going. They were real interested in how we rigged our bike and offered to buy us dinner this evening. They had taken 3 days off of riding and rented a car to drive through Yellowstone park and were heading out biking again tomorrow. More on them after dinner…. We arrived in Lewistown at 1:30 and checked into the hotel, The Sunset Motel. Our two tires that Emaloy had sent to us were waiting for us when we arrived. I changed both tires out. The front tire (tire not tube) had seven holes in it from the bridge coming into Great Falls. The back tire had two holes in it. Yesterday the tube had only one hole in the back. The front tube had three holes in it. That slime is some great stuff! Heather, Dave, and Brian  As a side note, GM, Dodge, and Ford have nothing to worry about in the BIG pickup market. I think 50% of all large trucks are here in Montana. Not very many cars but large pickups are everywhere! They should consider moving their pickup manufacturing plants to here in Montana to save on transportation costs. Just a thought….. Our plan originally was to stay in town for the weekend festivities (some squaw creek festival type stuff) but tomorrow is forecasted for perfect weather again then Sunday it is supposed to rain for four days. I feel that if we ride another day East we will be past all the mountains and the rain will be less in frequency and velocity – we will see. More tomorrow…. Cheryl, Brian, and her flat tire Brian We spent the evening with Dave and Heather and what an
interesting couple! He is an Operating Room Director and they both travel
around the country working where there is the need and live in an RV. They
already get to see much of the US but thought to take time off to see more and
ride their bike. For more on them they too have a blog going at:  Saturday, June 13, 2009 Miles today – 57.5 Daily ride time – 4 hrs 42 min Average – 12.4 mph Daily Climb – 1,107 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,168.8 Weather – blue skies temps 48 morning and 81 with high scattered clouds at finish  Photo right: Hay bales and covered wagons - that's Montana! Photo Left: View coming out of Lewistown
  
Stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Grass Range. Enjoyed an hour of rest there too. Didn’t see many wild animals along our journey today, just a few
cows here and there. We did see four
large cranes today (the first ones that we’ve seen on this trip). The small motel here in Winnett where we are
staying this evening is very cute.
Brian said, “Instead of TV we watch the leaves blow in the wind." The town itself has a population of 185
according to our map, but it does have a grocery and a couple of cafes. Hopefully we’ll sleep peacefully tonight as
there’s a wedding party staying in the remaining three rooms of the motel. June is wedding season!  Pam Sunday, June 14, 2009 Miles today – 77.0 Daily ride time – 7 hrs 1 min Average – 11.1 mph Daily Climb – 2,908 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,245.8 Weather Start – blue skies temps 43 no wind Weather Finish - 79 winds 13 gusting to 21, with high clouds Today we pushed off at 5:25am. The plan was to make it to the top of our big hill (22 – 26 miles into our ride) before the wind hit. It almost worked. We were half way up our hill when the wind started at 7:10… almost made it…… The ride up to “the” hill and the wind was fantastic. Being early Sunday morning there was very little traffic the first two hours and the animals were out searching for breakfast. Too many antelope to count as well as wild turkey, deer, and various birds everywhere. The view we had all day... up the hills! Photo doesn't really do justice. Very peaceful and we were “screaming” (on our Rans Screamer) up and down the hills.  The day after 7:10 was a whole different day. Wind makes our life extremely difficult on our bike. Hills that we used to coast down (3%) at 30+mph we now have to peddle down to keep our speed up to 18 mph. Hills that we could peddle up (3%) at 8 – 9 mph we now are peddling up at 4 to 4.5 mph. We also usually travel on level ground at 14 mph and now are only able to go 8 – 10 mph. Add the howling wind noise in your ears all day and now we have a LONG day. Pam started talking about heading back to Arizona. (What I said was, "We can keep complaining or pack up and head home any time." - Pam) Another item that makes for a long day is no place to rest. We had one restaurant/service station on our map just past our half way point but being Sunday it was closed. They only had one chair sitting outside which we put under ‘the’ tree, but still being out in the wind and not being able to actually rest takes it out of us as well. We arrived in Jordan Montana (population 364) at 2:45 pm. We will stay here until Tuesday and rest up. We have been peddling 6 days straight totaling 386 miles without any rest. The Big Hill and Big Wind state of Montana is taking its toll on our legs. The plan of outrunning the rain storms worked as the whole western half of Montana is getting rained on today. It is also supposed to rain over there for the next few days. Yeah! Well we have been invited by a local archeology group, from St Louis, to go and spend some time with them this evening as they have been out digging up dinosaur bones – sounds interesting! More on them later! Brian
 Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (Day 20 of Pedaling!!!) Miles today – 96.7 Daily ride time – 8 hrs 2 min Average – 12.1 mph Daily Climb – 3,898 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,345.7 Weather Start – blue skies (actually dark) temps 58 no wind Weather Finish - 82 with cumulous clouds building We started our ride today at 4:25am. For the first half hour to forty five minutes we rode in the pre-dawn mist. Following the Big Dry Creek (it did have a bit of water in places) was very peaceful and challenging! The hills rolling from Jordan were a bit steeper than expected. After about 15 minutes the outer layers of clothing came off, and we were on our way. We stopped after thirty six miles at a very nice rest area, complete with picnic tables. We lightened our load by eating some of our supplies, and enjoyed the beautiful morning resting at the comfy bench. The fog from the morning rose a thousand feet, and we had light cloud cover toward the end of our break. Out came the coats and sweats again as we were a bit chilly at this point!    Photo Left: Early morning Silhouette Photo Middle: Highway 24 is the Old West Trail Photo Right: Wild flax Photo Below: The view we had all day of he BIG Montana hills.  There were the usual deer and antelope along the way, and two more foxes frolicking in the distance. Cute! Once we left the rest area, we said goodbye to highway 200 and started our 59 mile journey along highway 24. The hills on this road were another challenge… We are getting stronger! We stopped about 30 miles along this route and rested under a nice shade tree. The traffic was so light, and we almost fell asleep there in the shade. Boy, what a difference when you can actually sit or lay down to rest instead of stand next to the bike. The last 20 miles were really starting to wear on us, as the hills never let up (like Google Earth showed). We were fortunate for the intermittent cloud cover, and only a slight breeze to help keep us cool. The10 degree temperature variance between full sun and cloud cover was quite amazing, and very much appreciated! By the time we rolled past the Fort Peck Dam, we were ready to get off the bike. The Interpretive Center was a welcome site (and free too), so we stopped in to take a look at their museum. After a half hour there, we started up hill once again to find the Fort Peck Hotel. Once we arrived, we discovered there wasn’t a restaurant or store within twelve miles or so. Linda, the owner made us feel right at home, and brought us water and made us pizza. What a nice and interesting lady! She and her husband own and operate this hunting lodge (Fort Peck Hotel) during the summer, and live in Missoula the rest of the year. They love and raise various birds (exotic pheasants and other birds) and offer hunting and fishing excursions in this area.    Photo left: Lake Fort Peck Photo Center: A Montana Badlands rock formation Photo Right: An abandoned wagon in the badlands
 Pam Wednesday, June 17, 2009 We started out a little late (6:20 am) due to the short day planned. We stopped off at 7:15 in Nashua for an ohmlet (I have not had an omhlet for the last 3 days) and they accommodated my 6 egg omlet request with no issues. Ahhhh things are getting back to normal! The best part of the day is the fact that the terrain is
very flat following the Missouri River, much lick being back in Arizona. Our
average was back up to normal with a slight quartering tail wind and flat
ground we finally managed a day over 15 MPH. Yeah!  We rolled into Wolf Point at 10:45, way too early to check into our hotel, but as luck would have it they have a museum for us to attend, AND a Chinese restaurant for lunch! Oh they know how to treat the bikers!
Thursday, June 18, 2009  Miles today – 57.2 Daily ride time – 3 hrs 58 min Average – 14.6 mph Daily Climb – 874 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,451.3 Weather Start – cloudy skies temps 60 no wind Weather Finish – partly cloudy sky temp 78 with wind 7 - 8 out of WNW I guess we are getting fit, since it didn’t seem like almost a four hour bike ride today (more like two hours). Yeah! We rode for an hour and a half from Wolf Point to Poplar where we ate breakfast. The terrain is mostly flat where we are riding with a chain of rolling hills on either side of us. The cool temperature and cloud cover was very pleasant. Just prior to breakfast, another cyclist named Tom rode up to us and we had a nice chat. He was riding from Washington State (where he lives) to (UP) Michigan in three weeks. He has ridden with his wife and two children along the coast in California on tandem bikes before. Very nice guy! Photo Top: The Missouri River    Photo Right: A rock formation along Montana Hwy 1 Photo Center: We are only 62 miles form the Canadian border! Photo Left: A small rain ahead we will try to avoid (and do!) Photo Below: A bike that rides on rails.... hummmm.... We stopped at a convenience store in the town of Brockton to rest for a while, and we talked  with a local Sioux (native American) resident. She was very informative about the
Reservation and history of the area.
This was our last stop in the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. When we crossed the Big Muddy Creek we left
the Reservation. We had quit a climb
just prior to arriving in Culbertson.
After we rode into town, we stopped at the Wild West Café for
lunch. After lunch we left for the
Culbertson Museum. Someone spent a lot
of time collecting and putting together all of the items at this museum. We spent nearly two hours looking at all of
the antiques. They even had an old
caboose to walk through in the yard area.
The museum volunteers were extremely friendly and accommodating.  Friday, June 19, 2009  We crossed the North Dakota state line at 9:35 Mountain/10:35 Central time. Montana was a huge state… when we crossed into Montana we started Mountain time and when we vacated the state we left Mountain time. At 11:30 we arrived at the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center a museum highlighting the history of the area where the Missouri River and the Yellowstone River merge. We then went one mile to Fort Buford – an 1860 – 1880 era military fort. We hit the road again at 2:15, now with full sun and the wind in full cross wind for the next hour. We arrived in Williston ND at 4:30 and checked in to the El Rancho hotel. Tonight was a special night as we finally were treated to a Walleye dinner. All this time throughout Montana they kept talking about the Walleye but we could never find a place that served Walleye – but today we finally had that taken care of – Yeah! The fisherman we ran into at Ft Peck said they were there just to fish for Walleye and would throw back any Northern or other types of fish. As it was not the first time we have had Walleye it sure went down good! Tomorrow will be a day of rest for us so until Sunday…. Brian
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009    Photo Above: Lake Sakakawea (Missouri River) Photo Right: One of the many oil wells pumping black gold. Photo Center: A few horses pose for a photo Photo left: From Williston ND down to Pierre SD they have a highway (1804) following the Lewis and Clark Trail. 1804 was the year they began their journey. They also have a highway 1806 on the opposite bank following the Missouri River.  After another thirty seven miles, we stopped for lunch in New Town. This was supposed to be where we would stay tonight, but the construction crews had rented every room in the four motels in this town. Looks like they’re working on various road construction and putting in oil derricks all over the hills and farmland. We passed quite a few of these oil sights along our route today. What a waste when we saw the natural gas fires just burning away instead of somehow utilizing this natural resource! Only seventeen miles to go! We climbed our way out of New Town, and climbed all but the last three miles into Parshall. The legs were burning for sure by the time we arrived at our final destination for today. As Brian put it, “My legs are burning in more ways than one.” Both of us ended our ride wearing shorts, with sunscreen of course, but still… Time to relax for a bit. Pam Quotes from the road….. When ordering a sandwich for lunch Pam asks the waitress if she could get some other vegetable other than potatoes and she relied, “Sure we have French fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, jojo’s (potato wedges), tater tots, scalloped potatoes, or rice pilaf.” Tuesday, June 23, 2009  The first half of our ride took us south along highway 1804. There was very little traffic, so the animals were more abundant today than yesterday’s ride. Today was pheasant day! We scared one as we rode by him (he scared me too, sounded like a large trash bag took flight) he was hiding in the tall grass beside the road. Also saw a few deer near the wooded areas. No mosquitoes today! Guess they took the day off.   We passed a strange looking lizard on the road and turned around to have a better look. Once we turned east we had a nice tail wind, so we were sailing along when Brian spotted the lizard. We took a photo of this iguana, wondering what on earth he was doing in this part of the country. As we got closer we discovered this was just a rubber kids toy! We joked about someone hiding in the old abandoned farmhouse taking video of bewildered passers by who stopped for a second look. We rolled in to Garrison ND (population 1,318) at 11:15, just in time for lunch. Nice to sit down and relax after our 56 mile ride. Until tomorrow….. Pam  Wednesday, June 24, 2009
  We started off at 6:20 this morning to a nice calm day. The forecasters are
calling for winds to pick up after lunch out of the south so the race is on –
we are heading southerly today. We actually started out heading East for 6
miles, then South for 10 miles, then Northwest for 5 miles then south again,
then East again, then south, then east and finally our last 3 miles were North.
Why you may ask??? We were out to see a couple of historic points along our way
that happened to be on the opposite side of the Missouri river, then we had to
cross back over the Missouri to get the only hotel within 45 miles.     Soooo….. at 9:45 central time we crossed the Garrison Dam over the Missouri river and crossed back into Mountain time and into Pick City. Subsequently the only restaurant along our route this morning did not open until 9:00 am Mountain time so we had to wait for them to open. While waiting, members of the breakfast club (they call themselves the Breakfast Club) we showing up to storm the restaurant when they opened and we had plenty of entertainment with the silver haired club members until they unlocked the door. The breakfast sandwiches were awesome and the cheapest we have found on our trip.   We rode two miles into Stanton to eat lunch and when we came out of the café we found the wind they were forecasting. Blowing from the South at 20mph we turned onto the highway heading South for the next 4 miles pedaling a mere 7 mph on level ground. Boooo. As we turned East again we picked up the pace to 10 –12 mph and felt good about that. We arrived into our overnight town of Washburn at 3:30 pm. We will be spending an extra day here as there are several historic sites within 6 miles of the city and it will take all day to explore them tomorrow. We will give a review of them after we see them. Until then! Blue Skies! Brian Thursday, June 24, 2009  Another fun filled day of rest and exploration in Washburn, ND! The two mile ride from the rest area/Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center to Fort Mandan was smooth sailing getting there… but uphill on the way back of course. The McLean County Historical Society museum in downtown Washburn proved to be very interesting and rewarding with plenty of antiques, and lots of various rocks, fossils, and specimens donated by a local rancher. Our legs hurt from standing around today – we started at 9am and did not finish the museum tour until 3pm. (with an hour off for lunch of course!) Below: The Missouri River Above: Fort Mandan
   Photo Left: Hills along the river Photo Center: Farmers line their fields with boots on their fence posts for entertainment Photo Right: Missouri River
 We returned to Ron’s, and his wife Joyce made a delicious dinner for us. During dinner we watched their son Tom on TV, he’s one of the evening news anchormen in Bismarck, ND. We then went out for ice cream. Yummy! On the way home it started to rain. As we were walking into the house, we heard the tornado sirens sounding. This is definitely a first for me! The weather radar showed possible tornado activity, and people from the area called in to report seeing a funnel cloud. The excitement was soon over, no tornado for us. Photo right: Our hosts Ron and Joyce Ron and Joyce have a beautiful home, and made us feel as though we were a part of the family. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and the time flew by. We went to sleep early to prepare for our rigorous ride tomorrow. Pam  Saturday, June 27, 2009 Miles today – 88.8 Daily ride time – 6 hrs 36 min Average – 13.5 mph Daily Climb – 3,509 feet Total BRAA mileage – 1,885 Weather Start – clear sky, temp 58 degrees Weather Finish – sunny, temp 75 wind from the Northwest at 15 – 20 Today we awoke at 3:30 from the best night sleep in a long time. There is something about staying in a house as opposed to a hotel that gives me a better night sleep. We left Ron and Joyce’s house at 4am and figured with such an early start we should find a breakfast place open – and Denny’s was found. The bar crowd from Friday night was still there.  We ended up starting the ride at just before 5am into the darkness an hour before sunrise. The forecast was for windy conditions today and we wanted to beat the heat and wind. They also had forecasted wind out of the Northwest to start and gradually turn out of the west later in the day and since our ride was mostly South we wanted to take advantage of the wind if possible. There was a brutal hill to leave Bismark and the chill of the air left our bodies quickly. The sunrise this morning was fantastic, especially being from Arizona. In true hospitality Ron and Joyce arranged to have the Arizona flag sun rays shine for us to make us feel even more at home. Another pleasant surprise was all the pheasant that was out this morning. We saw more pheasant in the first two hours today than we have seen the whole trip!  Today’s route has us following the Missouri River and there was not one town along the whole route. We found two nice break areas, the first a boat launch area that had picnic tables and the second was a newer vacant building that was for sale but had a double porch swing on the front that called out to us when we rode by – so we utilized that for our second break. The hills today were tough. There were a dozen large hills with three of them being almost a mountain status. Just after the last of the humongous hills was the North/South Dakota state line. (12:10pm) From there we only had 9 miles to roll into Pollock South Dakota (pop 369) for the night. Ron and Joyce have a ‘retreat’ there and with Pollock being on the lake (Missouri River) it is a very special little town. We rolled into Pollock around 1pm and found the Fins and Feathers Café for lunch. (We see they have Orange Roughy AND Walleye on the menu for dinner – yum!) We found Ron’s retreat shortly after lunch and feel very privelaged to have such a great place to stay. Ron says he may come down on Sunday to go fishing so we may stay an extra day to catch our own Walleyes….. maybe….      
At 3pm it started raining in Pollack. At 4pm it started hailing. I flipped the
TV on to see the severe thunderstorm warnings out for our county. Good choice
on leaving Bismark early. Hopefully the weather will be good for fishing
tomorrow…. Until then!
Sunday, June 28, 2009 Last evening around 5 o’clock, Ron and his buddy and next door neighbor here in Pollock, SD, arrived to set up for our Sunday fishing trip. Ron drove us to the local bait shop/convenience store/gas station/supper club to obtain our fishing licenses. We also picked up the bait… leeches and crawlers. Kind of slimy, but the fish love them. Went to bed early to get up at 0-dark thirty to start our fishing extravaganza. Once Mark navigated the boat to our first fishing stop, Brian, Don, and I put in our poles while Mark trawled the boat around. The water table in Lake Oahe was about 20 feet higher this summer than this past spring. We had to try and keep our lines from snagging on the submerged trees and shrubs. Mark and Ron gave us (me really as I’ve never truly been fishing) a quick tutorial, and off we go! Within the first 15 minutes I had a walleye on the line. Got it all the way to the net Ron was holding, but he got away. Brian and I caught four walleye (two each) and Ron caught a catfish. When we were finished and back at the dock I asked how long we’d been out on the lake, and found out we’d been out six hours. I had a great time!  After the fish were cleaned and we were back at the house, Ron took the fish down the road to Alvena’s house to cook them for us. Alvena is an 86 year young lady who is an awesome cook! We enjoyed the fish along with a home made Russian-German dish called kuchen (not sure of the spelling) and home made caramel rolls. Wow! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and ate way too much. We have caramel rolls and walleye for breakfast in the morning. Couldn’t ask for a better way to spend a Sunday. What a privilege to meet and spend time with these wonderful people. We are now relaxing at Ron’s fishing retreat here in Pollock, SD, preparing for an early morning exit for our ride to Bob’s Resort, an 80 plus mile ride. At least we have plenty of carbs to burn off tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day… Pam  Monday, June 29, 2009 Miles today – 85.8 Today we started at 5:40 am (sunrise at 6:01) and were treated to the fog covered lakes for a scenic view of the area that could not be beat. We were again off to beat the heat as they were predicting afternoon head winds and 90 degrees. Today’s route would be much more flat than previous days so we were much more optimistic about making good time.
     At 7:41 we rolled into Mound City for breakfast. The sign on Calicos café was closed but we can see many people inside so we step inside to ask if they were open. “No, but they will open at 8am for food, we are all here just for coffee”, the people said. We sat down at a separate table and a lady gets up to pour us coffee. I asked if she worked there she said no, they all just serve themselves. Pam and I get up and get our own coffee and sit back down. About every 3- 5 minutes a different person would get up (14 people total) and come by to refill everyone’s cups. At 8:05 a lady comes out from the kitchen and asks if we would like some food. We both order eggs, bacon and toast (the only option). When we started to eat you could tell they were farm fresh eggs and fresh bacon. Later the lady asked if we liked the eggs and commented that they were farm fresh eggs. Its kinda funny how you can tell the farm fresh eggs just by taste! Yum! By the time we finished breakfast the sweats came off and off we went again. It slowly continued to get warmer and around 11am the wind started to blow from the SouthEast. We also ran into some road repaving for a couple of miles which turned out to be very nice as they held back the cars and let us go through the five mile area by ourselves. The view from our room at Bob's .   OK, now after the 32 oz ‘large’ steak….. This is the first time in my life I have ever not been able to finish my steak. I left about 8 ounces – I guess I now know my limit on red meat!. It amazed my that they could cook such a large loaf of steak so perfectly and it had a real good flavor. Pam ordered the steak sandwich (about 16 oz) and did a lot of damage on that but could not finish hers as well. As a side note to Pam’s report from yesterday… I was very proud of Pam. I have seen her pet snakes and touch many animals other people would have run from but leeches have been Pam’s eerie animal. In the past she would not get in lakes or rivers if she thought there were leeches with a mile. Well yesterday after the first two hours she started baiting her own hook with the leeches. I guess the prospect of catching her favorite fish outweighed the fear of the leeches. Anyway I was very proud of her! Until tomorrow! Lake Oahe view 10 miles North of Pierre  Brian Tuesday, June 30, 2009 of the animals waking up and getting fit at the same time. This morning there were plenty of white  tail deer out, and a few other varmints that I’m not sure
of, along with the pheasants and various other birds. The first 32 miles today were especially nice as we had very
little climb. Pam held up 2 fingers at our 2,000 mile mark Brian holds up 3 fingers when our bike reaches 13,000 miles   Until next week, Pam Jump to our JULY page
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