July 8, 1998 - Miles City - Glendive

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 79.29 Miles

TIME: 6 Hours 40 Minutes

AVERAGE SPEED: 13.5 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Very hot and dry with a few scattered clouds. There was also a slight headwind for most of the trip.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Mostly good roads although there was one point where they were repairing the roads by using tar to fill in the cracks. The tar gets onto the tires and makes rocks stick also making the trip slower and not as smooth.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Small rolling hills the entire day. Overall a very easy trip.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up around 8:00 and finally got out of bed around 8:30 about 1:30 after the majority of everyone else. I packed up and got ready for the day. After eating some honey cereal(yes it was cereal not granola) I hopped on my bike and dropped off of a curb about six inches and heard an odd sound. I looked back at my rear tire and noticed that it was flat again for the third time in two days. I pulled off the rim and got the tube out. I went into the bathroom and found that the leak was coming from where I had previously put a patch. I had put on one patch the first time and air continued to come out. I figured that I had just missed the hole so I put on another one. The air was now leaking from between the two patches where the only explanation could be that the patches don't work. So I pulled out a new tube and finally left around 11:20 after fixing my fourth flat that should have been my second due to the falty patches. I quickly caught up with Katie and passed by Tom who was fixing a flat. A few people went to a bike shop where Anthony had to have a broken spoke replaced. Katie and I rode together for the day which was great since I had someone to talk to. We stopped in Terry to have our lunch of 2 pieces of pizza that we had donated but unfortunately it wasn't filling enough. We went to a local pizza place and Katie, Cosmus, and I ordered a 16 inch pizza for ourselves. Cosmus left early and when we were finished eating everything that we could we packed up the rest to bring with us. Finally I was full for once and at first we both felt very sluggish from eating so much. As we continued on, the road was being repaired in many places. To do this, they would fill the cracks with tar. Great for the bike! Every 20 feet there would be a strip of tar about 4 inces wide. Also this was on an uphill. I ended up bunny hopping almost every one but I still got every inch of my tires covered making sand and rock stick. The ride was very slow from here on. By the time we got to Glendive, we were both starving again so we went to a local convenience store where I bought a mountain dew, some candy and two ice cream bars. I finally arrived at our destination around 6:00 where I sat down and rested for a while until 10 minutes before we were supposed to be at a dinner that I didn't know about. I ran down to the showers and quickly changed. Fortunately I wasn't the last to leave so when we got there we found spagetti along with salad, lots of fruit, juice, sodas, and many energy bars that our host had gotten from a biking club that she belongs to. After we finished eating, some people went swimming while some stayed and watched a very old movie on a race in America. I had to leave early to get back to work on my computer. I ended up leaving around 9:30 and as soon as I got back connected to the internet to get all 25 of my messages and do some work. First I replied to the new mail and then finished up my article for Wall Street News For Kids. After finishing this and loading on some more things to the internet, I finally was able to go to bed around 2:30.

TRIP ROUTE:
Right onto main to I94. East for 20 miles to Diamond Ring Ranch exit. Take Frontage road 17 mi to Terry and go straight thru to Fallon(9mi). Get back onto 94. Take first Glendive exit(business loop)(towne st) into town. After bridge that goes over Yellowstone River take first left. Rec center is on corner of River and Benham.