Tuesday, June 20, 2000

We traveled 114 miles today. We left Havre MT around 7:30 AM. We had traveled about 1 mile when we came to a hill. We started up the hill and the new chain, installed yesterday broke. The gentleman who installed the chain had damaged one link when he put the chain together and the chain came apart under pressure. It took a few minutes to remove the bad link and replace it with some spare links that I carry for emergencies. We then proceeded up the hill and did not have any additional chain problems for the rest of the day.

As we left Havre, we entered an area of the state where the crops tended to be dairy cows and hay. Later the scenery changed to sagebrush and grass. Our goal was to reach Malta MT, a 90-mile day. As we approached Malta, the land was again devoted to wheat. At Harlem we stopped for a short break. As we came to the convenience mart were we were going to stop, another bike rider was just leaving. Later we caught up to him and found out that he was riding his bike from San Francisco CA to West Bend WI where his home was.

We stopped for another break at Dodson MT and he continued on. We had a very strong wind from the northwest, and we reached Malta at 12:20 PM. We ate lunch and were not real tired so we continued on to Saco MT. The problem was that the road changed direction, the highway went up a very long hill and we had a bad crosswind for 7 or 8 miles. The wind tried to push us off the right edge of the road. Our speed dropped from 20 miles per hour plus to under 10 miles per hour. Then the road changed direction again and we were again pushed by the wind until we reached Saco.

At Saco we again caught up to the bike rider from West Bend WI and said goodbye to him. He was going to ride another 20 miles before he camped for the night. We arrived around 3:00 PM. The motel is another of those that were great 20 years ago but today are not very great at all. This one does not even have a phone. However, it feels great to have completed our first ”Century”, going 100 miles or more in a single day.