7/3- All But 8 With Brian, and Meeting a Follower

Brian and I had decided to ride together today. He was feeling okay after his crash. One of the bike issues was bent rails on his saddle. He was still able to get his Ortlieb seat bag to attach to the rails. 

Almost ready to go 

Brian was incredibly kind to go my pace. I could tell he was having an easy time. But he seemed okay with it. 

This morning before we left, we saw a flock of pelicans. Then on the road I saw this buck and later these cranes. 

We rode quite steady until Three Forks. 

Williams Bridge

We found a coffee shop in Three Forks. There was a dude sitting across from us asking Brian all the annoying questions about Canada. Brian was very patient, but I could see he was starting to annoy him too. While we were eating, another cyclist came in. It was Ben. He has been reading my blog everyday for info on the route ahead. He’ll be spending two days in Bozeman, so he’ll be behind me again, until he catches me. 

Ben and bike

Brian did a little saddle adjustment at the cafe in Three Forks. It was slowly going nose up. 

As we were riding out of Three Forks, I noticed my Garmin said the route was ending in 2.9 miles. I wondered if this would happen. I downloaded the routes Dana created. Instead of all of Segment 2 in one route, he made two routes in smaller chunks. Apparently, part two of Cutthroat was not on my Garmin. I had the route on my phone, but Brian also had most of today’s route on his Coros Dura. I just followed him. 

We were on a really bumpy bike path. Brian hit a particularly bad bump, and it totally tilted his saddle back. We stopped to fix it. 

His route was taking him to his Warmshowers host in Belgrade. Where our routes diverged, I just decided to stay on the Frontage Rd with Brian to Belgrade. We had a celebratory lunch (for his finishing his ride) at a cafe in Belgrade. I was able to get the second part of Cutthroat on to my Garmin. I was off route, but all I needed to do was ride the Frontage Rd into Bozeman. 

Brian and I said our goodbyes. It was nice having a riding partner today. I hope he continues to have awesome adventures with his kids. 

As I headed toward Bozeman on the very busy frontage road, I was reconsidering my plan to go to a campground off route. This being 4th of July weekend, I thought there was a pretty good chance the campground was full. So I looked up a Super 8. There was one just a mile away. I also needed to do full scale laundry. 

Luke, at the front desk, upgraded me to a King room because it was on the ground floor. Same price as the Queen at $105. That’s my cheapest hotel yet!

I asked an employee if they had any rags I could use to wipe down Wanda. He gave me a whole pile. I saved out one to exchange my greasy chain cleaning rag. Wanda now doesn’t have chunks of mud on her anymore!

Not fully clean, but better!

There’s a Mexican restaurant next door. Me thinks that will be dinner after my laundry is done.