Day 30, Dillon to Alder, MT

Miles – 48

Ave Riding Speed – 10-30 mph

Hours Start to Finish – 4.5

Weather – Sunny and 81

I rolled over at 5:30am with the light coming in between the green curtains of our Super 8 Motel in Dillon, MT. Kim was still sleeping so I rolled over. I woke up again, Kim was up and the clock said 7am. I got up and Kim was not in the room, so I figured she went for coffee in the lobby. Sure enough, I walked to the lobby and Kim was sipping her cream with coffee and talking with a few of the Life Cycle leaders whom we had met back in Sula. Breakfast was hotel provided yogurt, hard boiled eggs, oatmeal and coffee. We went back to shower and pack up.

We rolled our bikes down the 1st floor hallway, through the lobby and out the front door, at 9am. As we leaned our bikes against the wall to put on our helmets, a lady walked from her Harley she was packing up and asked about our trip. We soon learned that she had breast cancer in her early thirties. She had been going to the doctor after having a baby and thankfully they caught it early. Her husband came out the front door with some belongings to pack in the saddlebags. He was a burly dude with a graying beard and a Harley T-shirt with cutoff sleeves. He came over and joined the conversation. I introduced ourselves and we met Mike and Kris (pictured above). An awesome couple, nice people, from Indiana seeing the sites for a couple of weeks via their Harley.

There is one thing about this trip that is apparent so far, appearances are deceiving as it’s what others project and how we choose to perceive it. Most of us are willing to open up, and even want to chat, but someone has to make the first move or step out of the box. It may be a little easier for us at this point, as we definitely stand out from what people would normally come across in their day-to-day lives. We’re enjoying the opportunity to step out of the box and giving people a chance to do the same.

We snapped the picture above and headed east out of town on Hwy 41 at 9:30am. The 28-mile ride into Sheridan was spectacular. It was a very gradual and almost continuous descent of 400 feet over the 28 miles. We pedaled a constant 17-20mph and on one dip and rebound we hit 30mph. It was a bit over our limit, but we wanted to see if we could carry the uphill to follow. We did.

Upon reaching Two Bridges, another small, western town, we stopped at the local mercantile for some raspberries, a beverage and jerky. After chatting with a couple passersby in front of the store, we mounted our bikes and headed southeast on Hwy 287. We were now doing a slow ascent for 10-miles into Sheridan. We stopped at the gas/convenience store for a Gatorade, potty break and of course a conversation. The two ladies in the store reiterated a need for rain and wished us a safe journey.

We were headed to Alder, another 10-miles down the road. 2 miles out of Alder we saw someone touring by bike coming our direction. We slowed down and he pulled over to our side of the road. We met Sam. Sam is 27 years old and grew up in the Minnetonka/Wayzata area of Minnesota, right next to where Kim and I raised our family in the Chaska/Chanhassen. Sam was heading east-to-west on the Transamerica Trail and left in early May. A nice young man.

We rode into Alder, population about 150, at 2pm. We checked in at the Chick’s Bar for a room in the Motel. We dropped our bikes and gear off in the room and walked to the rear of the bar, to the restaurant entrance, and I had a lemonade, cheese burger with tater tots and side salad and Kim had a water, steak sandwich, fries and side salad. We ate half of it and plan to have the rest for dinner.

After we stood in the ditch and departed from talking with Sam, I noticed, wheeling into town, that my front wheel was a little wobbly and I could tell I lost some air pressure in the front tire again. It’s the same one that went low a couple days ago, in Jackson. I pumped it back up in our motel room and made sure the valve was tight. I’ll check it again before going to bed and in the morning. If needed, I’ll recheck for some sort of foreign object in the tread and change my front tire tube, again.