Tuesday, June 13, 2000

We traveled 71 miles today. The weather was much better than it has been for the last four days. One-third of the time we were in sunshine. Although there were many black clouds, there were clear skies around the black clouds. We left Plains MT around 8:00 AM. It seems that the first thing in the morning you have a long climb. Today was no different. We climbed 1,000 feet as soon as we left Plains. When we got to the top we traveled for a distance over rollers. Up and Down and Up and Down. You went up at 4 to 10 miles per hour and down at 15 to 30 miles per hour. The scenery was spectacular as usual.

We came to the end of the rollers with a long, 7% down grade. It was fairly straight and we had a strong tail wind. As a result we ended up going 45 miles per hour a new record of us on this bike. We came out on a long straight a way. The highway seemed to go forever without a curve, just ups and downs.

We stopped at a mini-market at the turn off for Hot Springs MT. We took off extra clothing since it was around 70 F. After drinking a sport drink, we continued north. After we had traveled 32 miles we came to a sign that said Highway 93 junction was 15 miles away. We continued on what seemed to be a level highway but the altimeter began adding feet climbed. We were now heading almost directly east with a strong tail wind. After traveling 13 of the 15 miles, all uphill, we came to a sign that said “7% down grade next 2 miles”. We coasted to the junction with highway 93.