To Arrest Or Not To Arrest, This Was The Question

Tuesday, June 17th. More steaming tents. God it's pretty unbearable in the morning. At least no bears came in the night. We woke up and got a surprisingly quick start, breaking down camp quick-like. As we were finishing up, some people started to come to the campgrounds. I went over and started talking to them and using my limitless charisma talked them into giving us some bottled water. Much better than our purified stream crap. I also discovered an ingenious way of cleaning my tent. Look-

We hit the road and about three miles down the road we came across a nice little country store. We stopped off and actually found two fellow cyclist right outside. An elderly couple who I can't recall the names of, but they had started out on the west coast as well, Oregon I believe, and were heading to Maine. Good luck to them. Too much for me.

So we shopped at the store, feeling silly for purifying water when we could had just came here last night. We decided to get a home made loaf of bread, a pound of turkey, and a half pound of swiss cheese. Divine!~ We both ate four sandwiches and were so stuffed we couldn't move. So we didn't. We just sat there. For hours. Literally like 3 or 4 hours. And did nothing but talk to kindly old people who wandered past. Pretty though eh? I felt like an old man. Nothing to do but sit on the porch and just watch. Somehow the time really does fly by.

We did meet a very nice couple though. I can't recall the gentleman's name but the wife's was Mona, who apparently was a author I do believe. We sat on the porch and discussed how they had lived in Motana for 60 or 70 years, until they recently had to move to Washington. She was quite the lady, apparently had been known to spot deer outside their window and just gun 'em down herself to feed the kids. It was interesting to hear how people used to live off the land in many ways back in the day. Thanks for the chat you two. Eventually though, we did digest and headed off down the road.

We biked a whole bunch. Nothing too exciting. They have these signs all over Montana though. Kinda interesting. I've never seen one above "low" though....

We stopped and had a mid-afternoon snack on this gorgeous lake. The wind was blowing hard, cooling us, and we just sat there watching a family boat and tube all over the place. So peaceful and gorgeous...



It's odd in Montana. Things are kinda huge. We were heading down this pretty flat pass, but about a half mile off to each side were some decent sized mountains. I had never really seen anything like it in my life. I think probably one of my favorite places on this whole trip was this large valley just surrounded by mountains. The picture does it no justice. It was just so... pure. Simply. Old rustic buildings in some middle of no where field. I wish I could had stayed and just absorbed it for a bit longer...

Toward the end of the night we stopped at a little shop where a father was working while his daughter accompanied him patiently. Again- odd. Things are different out there. If I was that kid I'd of been annoyed, wanting to go do something or have some fun. She just seemed so happy, so innocent. She sat there and talked and talked to us like it was the most fun thing in the world. She was absolutely adorable. We bought a few things from her father, and contemplated buying some beef jerky. Mmm the idea just made us salivate, but we decided against it in honor of our remarkable cheapness. As I stepped outside to take a picture of their horse with a majorly messed up back, the little girl came running out with a bag of beef jerk in hand... "Here, my Pa said you could have this!" It's amazing how much joy some dehydrated flesh can bring to men. We were beyond elated.

Not too long after we hit our 500th mile! Woo hoo!

Milestone 5 of 35ish.

We made it to the next town, which I believe was on an Indian Reservation, due to the absurd amount of Casinos on the property and had a bite to eat. We were saving our store food for later that night. Hardly an amazing meal, but one of the workers told us of another National Forest Campsite about 5 miles down the road, and 2 miles north. Granted- two miles in the wrong direction didn't sound fun, but a free stay sounded great. We packed up and headed for camp.

Let me tell you, he was wrong. Two miles off the road? Try four. Now, to most of you, four miles doesn't sound bad. But on a bike it's a bit more. And this was downhill. Very nice for the end of the night, but it just meant we'd have to wake up an bike uphill four miles for a half an hour. I was PISSED. We did get a free place though.

When we got to the site I was surprised to find other people there. We were somewhat excited because I was pretty sure I could charm my way into some free food off the fellow campers. We went and started setting up camp when one of our two neighbors stumbled over. The guy was nice and very talkative, but it quickly became apparent he was drunk, and in less than perfect spirits. He kept talking about how he was the "fuck up of his family" and frankly.. it concerned myself a fair bit. I didn't know if he was going to get belligerent an try something or what. Josh too got the vibe. All we wanted was for him to leave, but he simply wouldn't. Eventually, probably after an hour, he went back to his truck to drink more alone. The two of us enjoyed our jerky in peace, but the thoughts of a wasted man wandering over to our campsite during the night kept creeping through my head. What if he had a knife? What if he had a gun? I quickly pocketed my mace and put my rape whistle/knife on.

We went to lay in bed when we heard a car engine start. Then saw headlights coming in our direction. The drunk bastard was in his car! And driving! Our tent was a mere 3 feet from the road, and visions of being pinned under his tired raced. "Fuck, what do I do!?" We didn't have many options, by the time we got ready to jump out of the tent he had skillfully DUI'd his way past our tent. We eventually got out and moved out tent behind a tree so we at least had some protection in case he returned. I was conflicted. Do I call the police or do I not? I mean he was wasted beyond belief. Eventually Josh talked me into not doing it. I still don't know. I hope he didn't hurt someone, or I don't know what I'd think. Poor guy. Get some help.

But that was that, we slept safely behind our tree and drunko-johnson never returned.

Trip Summary
Day's mileage- 55.32
Total mileage- 521.04