Days 66-68: Winnett, MT to Stanford, MT

Note: Dan is providing a brief update for Liz

Saturday, August 19 Elizabeth wakes up in the Baptist Church nursery which was her bedroom for the night and prepares for a chilly departure from the town of Winnett. The route was 55 miles and 2300 feet of climbing. Unlike many of the days of rolling terrain where the climb total was a lot of rolling up and down, this ride was a slow up hill for 45 miles from 3000 feet of elevation to 4700 feet of elevation then a short descent down to 4100 feet in the last 10 miles. It was a good day with cool temps and nice sunshine.

There was no place on the route to stop for food or water but Elizabeth had enough with her for this ride. Soon she found herself at the top of of hill at the Divide crossroads. Only 10 miles of riding left – down hill into Lewistown.

Going into Lewiston Elizabeth stopped to take a picture of a huge collection of bicycles stacked up in a front yard (?). Tonight’s accommodations would be a Super8 — where she gets to spend two nights since Sunday is a rest day! Before bed Elizabeth and some of her fellow riders watch the first episode of “Shadow of the Wheel” – a PBS documentary about a group of 31 teens who ride across the country in 1982 to raise money for MS! You can check it out on the PBS website.

Sunday is a zero day from a riding perspective but is busy none the less. Like a lot of riders, Elizabeth is generally “calorie negative” on the ride. That is, she can’t eat enough during the ride to offset the calories she burns. Rest days are a chance to catch up and based on her journal it seems she did a lot of catching up in Lewistown.

After getting a nice extended night of rest, Elizabeth gets up at 6am and finds the breakfast buffet at the Super8 for food and coffee while she catches up on her computer. Mid morning she and another rider walk into town to a grocery store to buy supplies and discovers that the grocery also has an ice cream shop – yes! Lunch time comes around and several folks head to the Central Feed Grilling Company for a nice lunch. This time Elizabeth rides her bike as riding seems to be better than walking for her knee.

After lunch Elizabeth and Peter stop at Starbucks to warm up with a coffee and chat with Starbuck’s Lisa, Cassie, and Maddie.

Summer is short in Montana as shown in this service station reminder.

At dinner time Elizabeth finds herself at Doc’s Casino Sports Bar and Grill where she orders a taco salad and a glass of “Caberet” wine — according to her waitress.

Monday, August 21 Elizabeth is back on the road but it’s a short day – 45 miles and not a lot of hills over to Stanford, MT. It was cool and rainy most of the morning and Elizabeth used one of tricks to stay warm — a hotel shower cap stretched over her helmet.

Since there were only 45 miles to ride Elizabeth decided to go off route to the Big Sky Grocery to investigate their offerings. About 7 miles from Stanford the rain began to break and Elizabeth stopped to take photos of the Horsethief Saloon — unfortunately closed on Mondays. The Sundown Motel awaited in Stanford so Elizabeth rode on and used the time to give her bike a good cleaning.

Still early in the afternoon, Elizabeth and one of her riding companions Gina go into town to investigate and end up taking pictures of flowers including this old truck turned flower pot. They find the only open business (most are closed on Mondays) the Waterhole Saloon where they were able to share a mid-afternoon snack.

Elizabeth takes in the sunset in Stanford on what she describes as the end of a perfect day!