Weird mix of cringe and good today

The cringe: It started out cold and rainy. Yep, we were prepared, and yes, it was sorta inevitable, but that doesn’t make it fun. We were all wearing rain gear and warm clothes as we slogged through the mud up the first hill.

But then it got worse. Bike traffic was being diverted from the normal route because of a nearby wildfire. And the authorities suggested alternate route was undecipherable by at least four grown men, including a doctor and a guy who works in transportation for a living. We managed to find a way, and it turned out that it took us to a couple of happy accidents.

Accident number one was that we met up again with the cyclists from DC, Bill and Giselle (sorry if I’m butchering that spelling 🙁 ). We had been leapfrogging around them over the last couple of days, but as we were all scratching our heads about the best route to take, we decided to bike together for a while. They really are great folks, and we all paced together into Helena.

Accident number two is that we ended up on the highway, and we really kind of needed it. We were all kind of beat from a couple of days of hard travel, weather, etc. With the six of us, we were able to keep up a good pace without too much effort, and ended up in Helena with plenty of time for a good meal and some much needed rest.