For the second time on our journey, we have completed over 100 miles in a day. Last time was from Tallahassee to Port St Joseph, in the middle of the freezing Florida winter. Today was a very different story: 107 miles from Billings MT to Forsyth MT in the searing 90°C heat of the Montana summer… quite a challenge.
We were up bright and early this morning, and managed to get over half way into our trip before the heat of the day really kicked in. Stopping for lunch in the first town we reached, over 50 miles in, and everything was closed apart from one restaurant. We ate our packed lunch in the shade of the closed gas station and luckily managed to top up with water from the restaurant before hitting the road again. But riding along frontage roads with no towns has other advantages. We saw hardly any traffic for the whole of our 107 miles, and some great scenery (see photos and short video). We were right next to the railroad all the way too and, at times, it felt as if we were like tin figures on a huge model railway set. We got into the routine of waving to the train drivers when they would honk at us, and then counting the ridiculous number of carriages each of them were pulling (well, Anthony did…Kat was “eyes forward”, trying to concentrate on the road this time, and also avoid twisting her neck/shoulder). Our hi-score was 125… and over a mile long, we estimate. Blimey…
We stopped again in the small town of Hysham about 80 miles into the ride, and had a good chat at the gas station there with Nate, who was on his Harley travelling across country back to his hometown of Escanaba, Michigan (a stop of ours later in our trip). We picked up a few tips before heading off for the final stage of the day.
We were thrilled to arrive at a decent time, and felt surprisingly fresh all considered. A shortish hop tomorrow into Miles City, before we tackle the predicted 100°C temperatures on Tuesday!
Us x
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