Did you know that the prevailing winds in Montana blow from East to West??? And at speeds averaging 15-20 mph??? It's not supposed to be this way!
For about the past three days we've been facing constant headwinds out of the East and it's a real pain in the neck. Actually, it's more of a pain in the butt, because strong headwinds equal greatly reduced speeds, which add up to significantly longer amounts of time spent on the saddle - I'm sure you can follow the logic to it's sore end.
The East wind is a really downer, because everything we had read and everything we're heard from other bikers we've run into have promised that we'd have a constant tail wind to blow us easily through the plains. And biking into a headwind is almost worse than biking up a huge hill - you're constantly getting pushed backwards and you feel like your trying to push yourself through molasses! The weather report indicates another day of 20 mph East winds for tomorrow. The cool weather over the last couple of days has been the only thing that's saved us.
In spite of the winds, we're going to try to go 110 miles tomorrow to get through some rough Indian reservation towns, namely Poplar, MT, that many locals have warned us about - "don't stop, just keep biking through!" Apparently, poverty and crime is extremely high there and isn't a good place to stay overnight.
Tonight we're camping in Glasgow, MT, the yard of a really friendly couple, Marie and John. We met Marie during the day, as she was biking in the other direction while out for a 100 mile ride. We arrived at their house in the late afternoon and knocked on the door. Marie's husband John, who had no idea who we were, invited us in without hesitation and encouraged us to make ourselves at home and use the shower. He had to leave, and just left us strangers here, told us we could let out the dogs. When Marie got back from her ride, she gave us yummy cherries and we had a great time chatting with her about our bike trip and other things.
The depth of the kindness, sympathy, generosity and hospitality of the random people we've run into on our trip continues to astound us and really strengthens my belief in the general goodness present in all people. In the more than 1,000 miles we've biked so far, we haven't come across a single malicious person. Quite the contrary - where ever we go, people offer us water, food, shelter, ask if we need help and ask if they can pray for us - all of this on their own volition, without us asking for a thing. It's really incredible when you think about it.
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