Billings to Harlowton MT

This week has been nice since we have had some shorter days. Monday we rode only 48 miles from Billings to Roundup. A 50-mile ride used to be a long ride for me, but on this trip, it is a short day. I actually got into Roundup before noon – and thanks to the generous people at Heights Baptist Church in Billings there was lots of good leftovers to eat.

It seems that everything in this part of Montana is brown. Wheat harvest is mostly over but everything is beautiful in the early morning sun.

I had noticed on our ride in to Billings that most of the houses didn’t have any trees around them. Surely the wind blows and it does get cold here in the winter, so why not plant a windbreak as we do further east on the prairie. I asked one of our hosts and they said the soil is too rocky and the weather too dry so the trees just don’t grow. About halfway to Roundup the rockiness of the soil became apparent. We passed a cemetery outside of town that demonstrated it is impossible to dig a deep enough grave to bury people completely underground.

I had another flat tire today. Once again, Greg’s eagle eyes found the little piece of wire that had caused it. Near the highest point of the ride, two teenagers were riding their mountain bikes towards us to tell us there was lemonade at the top of the hill. This family usually attends the church we had been at in Billings, so they made some lemonade and had some water ready outside of their home. Another pleasant treat from people all along our route who have been very generous with us.

Part of the adventure every day is seeing where we will get to shower. In Billings we got to inaugurate the new showers the church had just put in. There were only two so it took awhile for the 30 of us to get through, but they were wonderful showers with plenty of hot water for the whole crew. In Roundup we headed for the municipal pool. The hot water heater was turned on when the first people arrived so there were some cold showers for the fast ones in the bunch. Being forewarned, I found something to eat and took my time going over and the water was hot when I arrived. Tuesday, we also showered at the pool and I was again, one of the last ones to shower. By that time the water was cold. Everett would say it woke me up. I’d say it was just cause to not linger but I was still thankful to be clean.

Tuesday we rode 69.87 miles from Roundup to Harlowton. The profile for the day was a long gradual incline and we ended up about 1000 feet higher then when we started. I found out after we arrived in Harlowton that this is the windiest part of Montana (usually from the west) and we were blessed with only a light breeze. The windmills we saw weren’t turning – which is always a welcome sight to a cyclist.

Today (Tuesday) was the first day when I felt like I saw the “big sky” Montana is known for. It has either been cloudy or hazy due to smoke from wild fires in Canada. Evidently the smoke has cleared.

Once I had arrived and had showered, I spent my afternoon at the coffee shop working on job applications. As usual, we were told we could sleep anywhere in this little church. I ended up in the back entryway, which was perfect. I could shut the door and open a window to let in the cool breeze after a thunderstorm came through while we were eating a supper prepared by the women of the church.