In Butte, we rode from old town to the newer part of town – not as bad, but a lot less character. We ate lunch in the small farm town of Whitehall and continued onto the smaller town of Harrison. I laughed at the sign the storekeeper had in her window. “Unattended kids will be given expresso and sent home with a free kitten”. I almost laughed and gagged when I saw a jar of pickled turkey gizzards next to the pickled eggs. I know you can pickle anything but I’ve never seen that before.
Brent, Bob and Drew wanted to watch soccer but we couldn’t find a place, so we asked the nice lady at the general store in Harrison if we can use her wifi so we can watch it on the ipad. Kelly said sure, so we kept hydrating on her shaded porch and they watched the game while I napped.
We rode across the divide again for the 4th time and rode the long straight road into Norris. Brent saved us with his extra Gatorade when we ran out of water on the long hills. We stopped at the only bar in town to escape from the heat and met Steve, the owner. He told us about his homemade 4 hole golf course and his favorite golfer, Freddy Couples.
At the Sinclair mini-mart across the street we met some more interesting folks. Tommy, was a cyclist from Atascadero. He was riding cross country with no particular schedule and was visiting his brother in Livingston (near Bozeman). He offered to give us a ride into Bozeman to avoid windy highway 84 with a tight shoulder and get caught up on our schedule. We took him up on his offer and crammed 5 bikes and 6 people in his brothers pickup truck.
We also met Joe, who told us what is was like to grow up in Norris. He’s getting ready to retire from owning his tire store. He said his goal for retirement is to become a traveling bum.
The hostess ladies eyes lit up when she saw Drew’s $5 “Butte” shirt. She asked “are you a Butte boy?”. We are in Bozeman now.
We rode 68 miles yesterday.
