June 22 2014 Rest day Missoula MT

Sleeping in was great.  I managed to sleep in until 7:00 Am. Quite often I have trouble sleeping in a strange bed, however last night was the exception. I don’t think I turned over once before my eyes were closed and I never woke once during the night.  It was a hard week and rest was needed.

Last night Ken, Jos and I went out to celebrate and we found this micro brewery downtown. We sat on the patio enjoying this Belgian Wheat Ale and for supper this roast beef tenderloin. It was served rare with a wild mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed snap peas.  The tenderloin was done to perfection and was so well paired with the light citric of the wheat ale, we couldn’t believe how good it was.  It was a beautiful evening so we walked back to the university dorm where we are staying for the rest day.

Earnie had organized his friend who lives here to drive us around to we took advantage of this and made a Walmart stop and a REI stop.  I grabbed some munchies from Walmart and got some shock cord to re-lace my tent poles.  The tent is about 10 years old and the cord connecting the poles was now just string so the poles were hard to keep together when you were putting up the tent.  This is a task I should have had done before leaving Calgary but just ran out of time. 

The following week is going to be a much easier week as there are only 6 ride days instead of 7 and the distances are much lower. Last week we had two days over 100 miles, one at 99.0 and one at 95.0 miles. This week coming up we have only one day at 92 miles. The climbs are all much lower except for the last day into Jackson Wyoming.  That day is a challenge as you have to climb the Tetons’ pass.  I remember it from 2010 and it is a tough climb and the day was boiling hot. 

The picture of the Cycle America sign is the one which you see when you arrive at camp for the night.  It is generally the most welcome sight you see all day.

Terry