MON TAYN!!! June 16, 2009 [This Post Written and Edited by Amanda Michaud]

[This Post Written and Edited by Amanda Michaud]
8 of us rolled into Lolo Pass ranger station which you read about previously. Montana welcomed us with another hellacious afternoon thunderstorm that soaked us all to the bone. :(. That is day six of rain! But that doesn’t stop us from being ecstatic about the journey. After a two hour ride out of the sawtooth mountains, we found ourselves indulging in Mexican food (thanks to the recommendation from our New Zealander friends, Heather and Jackson), while waiting out some torrential downpours. As we were being bombarded by awful repetitive news (this is why I hate tv ) and consistent rain storms and failing at trying to find a place to stay that was affordable some kid came in and mentioned this was the worst rain he had seen in the area! HAAHAHA. Just our luck ;). As we became frustrated with our lack of options, we were approached by a couple who had been dining at the same restaurant. They asked us if we wouldn’t mind letting them indulge us in a little bit of western hospitality. They welcomed us into their GORGEOUS apartment with open arms. We biked from Lolo to Missoula which is where they lived, and our destination as well. When we arrived they cleared us a space in the garage and told us to make ourselves at home. We had no choice because they literally had us in our own apartment. It was set up to be sold and everything was immaculate. There were two bedrooms with queen sized comfy beds and amazing pillows and fluffy towels!!!! There were two full baths for us to use and a living room/kitchen area. They also offered us there washer and dryer so we took full advantage and did two loads of laundry and took showers in probably the hottest water we could ask for! It was so awesome. We chatted all night and got to know a bit about each other and then they told us they wanted to make us breakfast. We woke up to homemade whole wheat oatmeal flax pancakes (pancakes are my favorite breakfast ever) and eggs with fresh spinach and fresh northern Montanian locally produced sausages which Nick kept talking about the whole time. They were the best pancakes ever! Thank you so much Jerry and Debbie! We all chatted some more and exchanged information and we will keep in touch with them. Thank you again for your hospitality, you have no clue how much it meant for us.

We headed on out to the adventure cycling association and it was everything and more than we thought it would be and moseyed on around there and then had a very late start to our destination which is Hamilton, MT, where we are right now utilizing some good signals and loving the big sky state…it’s a whollleee lotta sky, but we don’t get to see it in full, instead, we get MOUNTAINS AND ELEVATION AND AMAZING AWESOMENESS! Check back soon!!!! Every day on the road is the best day of our lives. And to all my CT and ME buddies…my mobile home is holding up great! One broken spoke way back many moons ago, and my first flat today!

[This Post Written and Edited by Amanda Michaud]