Missoula

C2C4K

Missoula

Day 35

33.6

1553.6 total miles

I got up first, got packed up and went into the café we were camping behind for breakfast and ordered what has become a staple for me.  Two eggs over easy, bacon, sausage, hash browns, wheat toast with grape jelly and either a stack of pancakes, French toast, or a waffle.  It’s a biggie and is usually good for fuel for the first 30 – 40 miles.  When you ride as much as we do, it’s almost impossible to eat enough, yet somehow I’ve yet to lose weight.  Ryan on the other hand has slimmed down, and I believe will be a full 15 pounds lighter by the time we get to Jackson, WY.  While today’s ride was only 33.6 miles, it sucked.  We biked into a heavy headwind and uphill for the first 20 to 25 miles at a pace of about 7 to 8 mph.  It was slow and not the “light” day we were hoping for.  We are also heading south now and were under the impression that we would worse case have a side wind, best case a tail wind, after having dealt with northern winds all the way up the coast.  Unfortunately in this part of the country southern winds dominate and can get fairly heavy at times.  Luckily the last 10 miles or so where downhill, with one section having enough grade were my computer said I got up to over 48 mph. 

We grabbed a hotel for the day/night.  Showered, did laundry and grabbed a cab to head out for some food and beers.  Missoula is a college town as far as I understand, so a Sunday in the summer is a pretty slow time, but it’s a nice town and we hopped around a bit before deciding to call it a night, the only problem is a cab wasn’t available for an hour and a half.  Ryan tried convincing the Pita Pit delivery guys to give us a ride while I attempted to hitch hike numerous times.  We were both unsuccessful so we went back to the bar we started at, grabbed some cookie pie deserts and beers and waited it out for a cab.