Havre Bikes, Havre, Montana
I was up and out at 6:40. Temperature: 44 degrees (f).
I went back to Pat's Diner for breakfast, then across the street to IGA
for some bananas.
In the first few miles east of Shelby, I saw 2 rattlesnakes on the shoulder.
Honestly, I think they were dead. But, they were there alive at some point.
I thought of stopping and cutting off their rattles with my Swiss Army knife,
but then questioned whether they were dead or just sleeping. As you can
tell, I hate snakes.
When I pass cattle, every one of them turns to look at me. They seem envious
of my freedom.
Well, I'm back in America and there are aspects I'm not happy about. American
drivers are NOT as courteous, or even as good, as their Canadian counterparts.
Many Americans think they own the road, that the road is for cars and that
bicycles belong on the shoulder (or off the road altogether). That is most
certainly not the law. Bicycles have the right-of-way. Drivers of automobiles
have only a license to use the way. They must yield to bicycles and pedestrians
or lose their license. I can ride right down the road if I want to. I have
no obligation to ride on the shoulder. In fact, if there isn't room for
oncoming traffic, me and a car in my lane, I do take the entire lane--ride
right down the middle. That is the commonly recommended practice. Drivers
need to be educated about the rights held by bicyclists.
Note: I tended to fume over this issue for weeks. It was the prevailing thought process of the entire trip. I kept grumbling to myself, and sometimes yelling to the drivers, that "I have the right of way" and they don't, but they're in 2 ton+ vehicles (typically the bad ones drove pickup trucks) and I was never anything but a prospective road kill.
For the most part today there were no shoulders. The shoulders were scored with cross-hatches to alert drivers that they'd gone off the road. I couldn't ride on them. There were a lot of tense moments. Sometimes I moved into the middle of the lane to force the car/truck behind me to wait until the car coming at me came along, before they could pass me. Sometimes, I allowed the vehicle passing me to come too close. Often the drivers were courteous and passed me widely in the left lane after waiting for traffic to pass (as they're supposed to do).
[Here I go on my soapbox again]
Drivers can't legally pass me too closely in my lane and they can't go over
a yellow no-passing line to pass me (most do). They should use their brakes
and slow to my speed until traffic clears, but American drivers seldom do.
This is the sort of day I wanted all along. It is why I named the website
as I did. I had good strong tailwinds all
day.
I just flew along. I stopped in Chester for lunch: a Subway sandwich, fresh
apricots, potato salad and Gatorade from IGA, which I ate in the Lions club
park.
In Chester, I put together a package to mail home, but discovered
that the post office was closed on Saturday. At the post office, I was pounced
upon by a preacher who said he'd preached on KJNP (a Christian radio station
in North Pole, Alaska; KJNP stands for "King Jesus North Pole").
He told me that 48 trains per day go through Chester. The sidings at the
grain elevators actually seemed real busy around here, unlike in Michigan,
where most are abandoned. I saw a couple of passenger trains go by. They
blew their horns for me and I waived.
From Chester to Havre, I averaged about 19 mph. It was wonderful. I didn't
stop for pictures (actually I took a few, but the camera was set on macro,
so everything was out of focus and I couldn't see the monitor because it
was real sunny). I was just pumping those pedals for all I was worth for
hours on end. There were times when I reminded myself of my friend Fast
Food Bob, standing at 20 mph uphill (at one point with tailwinds yesterday,
also feeling like Bob, I drafted a semi at 37 mph until I looked down and
realized there was construction and no pavement).
My destination was Havre, Montana (apparently "Americanized" to
"have-er" rather than the French pronunciation [the
Weather Channel pronounced it correctly today when they noted that it was
-36 degrees (F) there]) - 105 miles. That would have been a new record
for me fully loaded with a 100 lb bike.
I got to Havre at around 3:30 and decided that my rear tire looked a bit
ragged, so it was time to switch to my spare. I was also wearying of carrying
a spare tire. I went directly to Havre Bikes, 108 First St (US-2)--the only
bike store in Havre (the mechanic said the other bike store listed on the
Adventure Cycling map had been gone for about 5 years; and I bought the
map from AC this year).
They replaced my tire ($3). Even though I'd already ridden 105
miles with a 100 lb bicycle, I was still feeling pretty good, so I inquired
about other destinations down the road. They told me of Chinook, 20 miles
east.
I jumped back on my bike and took off flying
like never before. I did the whole 20 miles between Havre and Chinook in
50 minutes--fully loaded--weighing about 100 lbs. When the wind is with
you and you don't have mountain passes to climb, you can really move--even
with a heavy bike.
This was my all time personal mileage record. I rode 128 miles in about
7 hours.
When I got to Chinook, I was hot and dehydrated so I opted for a motel ($40). I was in the mood for a beer so went to the hotel bar, but was too dehydrated, so I drank some water, then more water, and even more water; at least 7 glasses. Despite all the water, I never felt hydrated, so I eventually gave up on getting a beer and went for a walk. The Blaine County Fair was under way in Chinook and I really wanted to go but I decided that I was too dehydrated and tired.
In the course of my walk around downtown Chinook, it became quickly apparent that there were at least 10 bars for every other business. This was a 20th Century frontier town; a cowboy watering hole. This is cattle country. In the hotel restaurant here, I overheard a rancher (a local exhibiter at the fair; he knew everybody) tell the waitress, in response to the usual question about vegetable choice, that he didn't want any vegetables with his steak: "I want a steak, not vegetables."
I went to my room and computed for a while, getting some pages
uploaded.
128 miles.
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997