Bike Diary #12 sent Monday July 30, 2001

I got a late start today, which meant that the wind had a chance to build up. Ugh, what a wind. Today was both the slowest and shortest day of the ride so far. It was the first headwind I have faced since leaving Cooperstown, ND six days ago. This was the sort of wind that you only get on the great plains: a steady 25-30 mph coming from due west right in my face. It slowed my progress to a creep, as you can see from the moving average speed above. But I've complained about winds before, and I suppose I should really be grateful that I've had so many favorable winds despite the "prevailing westerlies" theory (of which I am becoming increasingly skeptical). Fortunately, I had planned for a short day today anyway.

West of Culbertson, MT some agency (whether it is government or private, I do not know) has erected a white metal cross on a signpost next to US 2 marking the locations of all the highway fatalities. I was familiar with this tradition from living in Tucson, where family and friends of people killed in automobile accidents often erect a small shrine beside the road, but the ones along highway 2 in Montana were clearly all done by the same organization. One can hardly travel a mile without seeing at least one, and sometimes they come in pairs and I even saw a group of four. Some of them have been decorated with flowers and ribbons, but most are bare. Meanwhile, the traffic passes at 70 mph,the posted speed limit.

As far as I can tell, both North Dakota and Montana have legalized gambling, or at least some forms of it. It seems like every business in these states now has an ancillary casino. Some of the ones I've seen: "Git-N-Go: Gas, Food, Beer and Casino", "Elks Lodge 1764 and Casino", and of course every hotel and bar in both states has a casino as well. There was even a forlorn looking "State Line Casino" on the North Dakota-Montana border, doubtless erected during that brief window of opportunity when gambling was legal in North Dakota and not Montana. Frankly speaking, I'm not sure that there are enough suckers, er, I mean gamblers, to support so many casinos, what with the Indian reservations already having such elaborate facilities. In this day of ubiquitous casinos, it seems to me that legalizing gambling in one more state is the last desperate act of a dying economy.

I encountered an eastbounder while I was doing my laundry at the campground today. He's spending the night here as well. Ben Reed left Aberdeen, WA on June 27th and is riding to New Jersey to celebrate graduating from high school. This is his first long tour, and he's getting a hard lesson on the frailty of everyday bicycling equipment when exposed to the rigors of long distance touring. Lately the problem has been broken spokes in his rear wheel (a 36 spoke three-cross pattern). He had no sooner had the last one repaired in Havre then another one broke before he got 170 miles farther to Glasgow. He didn't have any spares, but I was able to install one of mine and get the wheel true enough so that he could use his rear brake again. Frankly speaking, the wheel needs to be entirely rebuilt; I'm surprised the bike shop in Havre didn't do it for him.

Eastbounder Ben Reed in Glasgow, MT.

I suffered my first mechanical failure today: a toeclip strap broke during an ungracefully executed dismount manoeuver. Naturally, I don't have a spare so I will have to ride without it until I reach Havre in two days. It's moderately annoying, but certainly not a show-stopper.

Passenger rail station in Glasgow, MT.

Day	38
Date	Monday July 30, 2001
Distance	72 miles
Moving average speed	12.6 mph
Left at	8:30 AM
Arrived at	3:00 PM
Overnight in	Maltana Motel, Malta, MT
Latitude	48 d 21 m 32 s N
Longitude	107 d 52 m 35 s W
Cumulative distance	2910 miles

The wind was much better behaved today, mostly calm with something from the north from time to time. I was tempted to press on to Havre (the next place one can reasonably stop) since I don't know what to expect from the wind tomorrow, but there was a very interesting museum here in Malta, the Phillips County Museum, with a collection of dinosaur bones found in the area and I spent so much time there that I didn't feel up to another 90 miles late in the afternoon.

I watched the eastbound Empire Builder come into Malta and leave at 3:20 PM, half an hour late already and only 600 miles east of Spokane.

Wind turbine (for generating electricity) on display in Phillips County Museum, Malta, MT.

I've been riding on a schedule myself for the last several days. I'm meeting my father in Whitefish, MT on August 5, and I want to make sure that I get there on time. Since the Adventure Cycling route parallels the Great Northern Railway from Williston, ND to Cut Bank, MT, it seemed natural to base my schedule on the Empire Builder's. Therefore, my plan for the run from Williston, ND to Shelby, MT is to ride one Empire Builder stop per day and finally see something of the towns I've passed through on the train so many times before. So that's what I've been doing, so far Williston, Wolf Point, Glasgow and Malta are down and only Havre and Shelby remain. There's only 25 miles between Havre and Cut Bank, so although I'll pass through it I won't stop but press on to St. Mary instead.

Passenger rail station in Malta, MT.

I ran into another eastbounder today, staying in the same motel that I'm in. Scott Henderson, from San Diego, left Seattle on July 11 and is headed for the midwest. He says he just wants to get in front of tailwinds on the great plains and have some fun before going home.

Eastbounder Scott Henderson in Malta, MT.