July 10, 2010: Malta to Glasgow, MT. 71 miles.

It was predicted to be a bit cooler today, but that was not to be... it was in the 60s when we set out at 7 AM. We had a slight tail wind, but were still a bit tired from yesterday's long day... CJ and I started out taking turns in the lead, switching off every 5 miles.

The tail wind soon turned into a cross wind, and we picked up Judie in our little pace line. We continued shifting the lead rider every 5 miles. Dianne rode with us for a while, but then went off on her own... This entire day was spent on US 2--leave hotel, turn right on US 2, turn right into hotel at Glasgow.

At the 40 mile sag stop we met a man named Hiro, shown with his bike in the photo above. He is nearing the end of a 3 month self supported bike tour of the PERIMETER of the United States! He started in San Francisco, went south as far as he could go and then east all the way to the Florida coast. Up the east coast and then west. He passed through Michigan and roughly followed the northern tier ride we are making, but in the reverse direction. We were all very impressed with him and his great adventure.

As we neared Glasgow we saw a bunch of dinosaurs and other cool creatures on the hillside. Photo opportunity! We also saw a tin man made out of ductwork at a furnace supply place but did not stop to photograph it; by that time we were getting anxious to be out of the sun. Besides, we had picked up a glorious tail wind around the 60 miles sag and wanted to take advantage of it.

We got to the Cottonwood Inn at noon and found that there was no room at the Inn! There was a mixup in the reservations, and they expected us on August 20! But they recovered admirably. Many of us went to lunch in the hotel's restaurant and by the time we were done most of the rooms were ready. By 1:30 Dianne and I were in our room--we were upgraded to a suite since they already rented out the (cheaper) rooms that had been reserved.

There is a swimming pool here, but there is also a large group of boys who are here for a baseball tournament... I think I will enjoy the air conditioning until suppertime, since it is in the 90s once again. Now the cooler weather is predicted for tomorrow... we can only hope.