glasgow

man oh man. where do i begin? so many thoughts as i ride, then i get to a computer and my mind goes blank. 'uhhhhhhhhh..........'

two nights ago i stayed in harlem. at city hall they have a nice camping area with picnic tables and a sign that says 'welcome to harlem - bicyclists camp here'. i don't think you'd see this sign in harlem, ny. must be harlem, montana.

it's funny, i've passed through harlem, zurich, kremlin, and last night i stayed in glasgow. i'm beginning to think that when it came time to name the town - they just pulled out an atlas and pulled the ol' 'throw a dart at the atlas and whatever it hits will be the name of our town!' trick. were they lazy, or unoriginal, or what?? i can't figure it out. and believe me, i had plenty of time to think about it! maybe i should ask one of the locals.

so much has happened... i'm traveling on my own now. the rest of the group is 146 miles ahead. i've ridden 89, 96, 78, 71, and 55 miles the past 5 days, so those clowns must be doing 100/day. whatever floats your boat - it's just that i'm in no hurry to reach a destination. i'm having plenty of fun traveling on my own and meeting people, so i'm not worried about falling behind. i almost prefer it. i don't like the rigidity of adhering to a schedule, of feeling pushed, dragged, of needing to get to a destination. i prefer not to have a destination, not to be in a hurry, to just stop when i want to stop, to go where i want to go. to take breaks, to go to museums, to read all the historical landmark jobbers and stop at dairy queen for a blizzard. and go to rodeos!

i finally went to a rodeo! it has been on my list of things to do before i die. at the blackfeet reservation. this was a few days ago. instead of bucking broncos they had bucking horses. pretty much the same thing. the horses were ornery! i swear every single 'cowboy' ended up getting hurt, one guy got stepped on, one guy got kicked. they all hobble off and hop into the ambulance and go to the hospital. hmmmm. nice 'sport'! then they had steer wrestling. this is where you ride a horse and try and jump off your horse and grab the steers head, then twist his head til he falls over and has all four legs up in the air. again, this is such a fantastic idea - why didn't i think of this? i think that i should invent a few sports for these cowboys - maybe they could have a footrace with hurdles, where the hurdle is a snarling bull. better make sure you clear the horns!

then the day after that i went to a dinosaur museum. that was very cool, montana is actually a hotbed of fossils. lots of old rocks and bones around these parts. they found an entire dinosaur a few years ago. dinosaur eggs, dinosaur heads. meteorites. all sorts of interesting things. OLD things, millions of years old. puts your place in time and space in perspective. plus they had some interesting exhibits on the wild west and billy the kidd and all the other outlaws. robbing trains, i'm beginning to see how this area lends itself to lawlessness. it is so poor and there is so little to do that people simply... drink.

after harlem i traveled to sitting buffalo. this is after i took an 'alternate route' down a 17 mile gravel road, parts of which were supposed to be paved but had potholes 2 feet deep.

i am finally at peace with the heat. i've accepted the fact that it's going to be 100 degrees every day. i got it. no problem. lots of water. but the wind! i woke up yesterday and got out of my tent. my tent promptly blew away, i had to chase it down. then i killed the 9 mosquitoes on my arms and legs. they apparently needed breakfast.

let me just briefly tell you about the mosquitoes! you wouldn't believe how many there were unless you saw it. ya gotta see it to believe it. they're big and they're everywhere. there are flocks, throngs, posses, hordes, gaggles, entire neighborhoods of mosquitoes that will surround your every move. you end up not even scanning your arms and legs for them, it's more of a reactionary thing. whenever you feel pain, you hit that area. you don't even have to look down because you know it's a mosquito. that's not even a question.
the locals say that this is not even a bad year for mosquitoes - which absolutely blows my mind. actually, meriwether lewis - of lewis and clark fame - said that he would rather fight the indians than the mosquitoes! that's quite a statement.

anyway, i rolled into sleeping buffalo. went into the bar/restaurant/casino/campground/truck-stop/gas station/general store/town gathering area - and order my usual 3 bottles of water that were gone in seconds. one of the townies was trying to talk to me, but he was so drunk that he couldn't really speak. later, when i was walking to the shower house, i saw him being beaten with a stick by a carnie. yes, a carnie! i almost intervened but finally they stopped. another girl was standing there shouting 'you'd better shut the $()%^ up! you'd better shut the $()*!@# up!' over and over. apparently our drunken townie friend had said something wrong.

so i had a quick beer before bed with the locals. the bartender gives me another one and says 'this is from dale at the end of the bar' - i think to myself - hmmm - this may be the first time a strange man has bought me a drink. probably not a good sign! anyway, i go over and thank him anyway. turns out he's just a normal joe, nice guy. drunk. he offers me a job in the oil business, says i can make 80-90k. apparently montana has the second largest oil reserve in montana, the only one larger is alaska. if anyone is looking to make good money, go see dale at murph's place in sleeping buffalo, montana.
dale is pretty intoxicated at this point. starts talking about mosquitoes. he says 'see, us humans, we tend to get pregnant in january, when we ain't got nuttin better to do. but these mosquitoes - they sit around in this 105 degree heat, they look at each other and say 'who cares about the heat, let's get er done!'
i nearly spit my beer out. it was the funniest thing i've heard in some time. the way he said it, the fact that he used get er done in a sentence, to describe the consummation of a mosquito relationship. amazing. dale is my new hero. i got to thinking about mosquitoes and their purpose, do they know what they're doing is annoying? can they think? do they feel? do they sleep? do they eat anything besides blood? when they buzz in your ear do they know it drives you crazy? is that why they do it? i laid in my tent one night watching 17 mosquitoes trying to get through my mesh netting. luckily they couldn't, but i felt uneasy just being surrounded by them. almost like they were aliens.

anyway, somebody is waiting to use the computer so i gotta go. i wish i could post pictures but i'll have to do that after the trip is done. i have so many great pictures and i wish i could post them, but it would take way too long.

in case you can't tell, i'm really just procrastinating because i don't want to go ride in the 100 degree heat. tonight i'm staying on an indian reservation called wolf point. apparently it's a little dangerous so i will try not to get scalped. the only other option after that is poplar, but people say poplar is even worse. or i could ride 150 miles to ND, but that's a bit far.
it is the white mans fault for introducing the brown water to the indians, so we only have ourselves to blame!