New State!

The new state is North Dakota! Finally. Montana was beginning to feel like a scrappy dog that kept biting at your ankles, between the heat and wind and mosquitoes. And no matter how fast you ran or how many times you shooed him away, he was still there.

And, you're running on broken glass. Apparently many of these Montanans mistake the side of the road for their recycle bins. Unfortunately, recycle bins do not exist here. A lot of the broken glass is clear, which makes me wonder - are these liquor bottles, Miller High Life 'the champagne of beer' bottles, old school Mountain Dew bottles, Orange Crush bottles?

I had an image in my head the other day - actually two images. One was from a typical NCAA tournament game, when they're counting down the last few seconds of the game and the guy with the ball throws the ball way up into the rafters during the last two seconds.

The second image was from Teen Wolf, when they're driving through town and the Wolf is on top of the van dancing around. Surfing. After they tried to buy beer.

So I combined these two images and decided that this is how all of the glass ends up on the side of the road. Someone is driving a van around while another guy is on the roof dancing around and lobbing beer bottles as high up into the air as he can - with the bottles smashing on the shoulder. Yes, these are the thoughts I have as I dodge glass and try to keep the bike upright as the wind tries to blow me down.

The thing about Montana is that not a whole lot of people live here. They have a population of less than a million, and it's the 4th largest state in America! Crazy. There are only 2 or 3 roads that cross the whole state. We are on Route 2 - also known as the 'Hi Line'. The problem with the Hi Line is that it's pretty busy. Lots of trucks - pick-up trucks and big 18 wheeler semis. People don't really drive cars up here, just trucks. Built Ford tough!

Now I know what a toll booth collector must feel like. Hot, sooty exhaust to the face, with a side of carbon monoxide. When I wear this white shirt I have and wipe my face, the shirt ends up brown by the end of the day.

I'm trying not to complain, I'm trying to be an impartial reporter describing the events as they occur, but my news is becoming biased! Rupert Murdoch must be involved. See, if it was any ONE of these things, I think it would be ok. If it was 106 degrees with slight breezes, that would be fine. Or if it was super windy, but cool temperatures - that would be fine too. Or, if it was pleasant riding all day long, only mosquitoes ate you alive at night - that would probably be ok too. But, it's ALL of them. It's 100-something degrees every day, it's windy every day, and mosquitoes eat you alive every night, as you prepare dinner after an exhausting day on the bike, before sweating yourself to sleep.

So, it's not a good combination. But I will try to be more positive, because it is still great fun. I meet so many great people every single day. I think of so many things as I ride, friends, memories, ideas. I laugh to myself, I moo at cows, I chirp at birds, I talk to horses. In other words, I've lost my mind!
I sometimes ride with my iPod (don't worry, the volume is very low and I can still hear the traffic) and a song will come on that will remind me of a person, place or thing. Nouns.
Yesterday I was thinking back to my trip to Italy in college, to the people I traveled with and the amazing memories from that time.

You've...got...to.... accentuate the postive! Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative, don't mess with mister in between. That song came into my head as I was riding yesterday, and it took a long time to get it out.

Anyway, new state. I feel like a new man. Even though I slept on a slab of concrete last night. It was either concrete, or grass. Grass = mosquitoes. So concrete it was.

I rode 106 miles yesterday to Williston, North Dakota. It was a grueling day, I started a little after 7am and rolled into Williston around 8pm. The heat was brutal. It feels exactly like a sauna. I had to stop in each town to drink water and gatorade to cool off. Most of the ride was through the Fort Peck Indian reservation. One large Indian said 'even dogs know not to be out in this heat' as I got off my bike and dripped my way into the store. I said 'yeah, I know'. It is insane. I went into a grocery store last night that was air conditioned, and walked out into an absolute furnace. It was frightening that I actually rode a bike in heat like that. Yowza. No wonder people look at me funny.

The thing is - is that what are my other options?? If I was in an interesting town, I could spend a week or two there until things cool off. But, i'm in no-mans land. These towns have populations of 118. One horse towns, they have one store and a few houses. The bigger towns (i.e. populations over 1,000) actually have a library and perhaps a church or grocery store, but that's about it. If I knew that it was going to be this hot when I was still in Glacier, I would've stayed in Glacier for a week. But at the time it wasn't this hot, and I felt like I should try and keep up with the group.

Anyway, quit over-analyzing Andy! That's always been one of my favorite past-times. Overthinking.

Today is laundry day, and hopefully air-conditioned movie theatre day. Sunday is fun-day.