I am lying in a tent at Conrad, MT, listening to the thunder, hearing the gentle patter of rain and feeling nostalgic for being at Great Falls KOA (Kampgrounds Of America). The KOA at Great Falls is pretty good for the price - especially if you are sharing. For one person in a tent the price would be a bit much. But there are free pancakes in the morning, and there's the microwave to give you tea and porridge. And a silly but enjoyable water area. And live music of an amusing and entertaining sort - country, trad, cowboy. Why, it is something like home. By the time we had eaten porridge and yoghurt and pancakes we were feeling a bit stuffed and also running a bit late. We didn't leave until about 10.30am. And then looking for a gatorskin tyre delayed us, slowing our progress until we left town nigh on 12 noon. I did find a decent gatorskin (toughie hardshell) at Bighorn Outdoor Specialists. I would have accepted some other tyres - Schwalbe marathons seem similar. Anyway we were late and had lots of miles to do. But the wind was an easterly, maybe with a touch of south, so it helped us along. The road out of Great Falls is initially very busy until the interstate junction is reached and most of the traffic takes the interstate. One truck made an effort to rev his engine and blast diesel smoke at us. Hmmm this is the bone headed driver that we have in the UK as much as the USA. But the interstate, like some drain, soaked away the traffic leaving us with a quiet flat to rolling road with a tailwind. Excellent.
Before the interstate drained off the traffic we met Art, from Chicago, doing something like 4000 miles in an enormous round trip to visit his sister in Seattle. Plus doing some climbing as well as chance allowed. He was riding a similar classic bike to Guy's. Plus a neat collection of camping stuff and climbing gear. Wow! He gave Guy a classic bike sticker, Guy's bike has needed stickers since it had its respray ages ago, I got a rock and roll sticker. My bike is now further ornamented. Art has a proper blog here. This is the fourth sticker of the trip and the first from a fellow bicycler... thanks Art. I took the second selfie of the trip and the photo is mostly of me, hmmm perhaps that's enough selfies this decade. We continued in increasingly hazy sunshine with a big thundery cloud way to the west. But in an easterly that seemed OK since it wasn'tconverging on our path. Pleasant riding - we paralleled the interstate but the road we were on had almost no traffic. At one point it got a bit "jointed' with clunks as you went from one section to the next, bashing the heavy back wheel alarmingly, but overall a nice 50 miles or so. No great scenic moments except the effects of haze and sun over a patchwork of large fields - large wheat fields, prairie, harvested grey or straw patches. The sun was increasingly veiled. We arrived at about 6.15pm, shopped (yet again I puzzled a shop assistant by refusing plastic bags) and went to the Pondera Resort RV and Campground. The resort bit of the name is silly. This is no resort, no swim pools are available, no baskets of flowers adorn the area, no trips to beauty spots are available. It seems mostly to be long term lets for caravan / RV owners, the ones I met were people using it as a base to go to work. Utility not recreation. But expensive at $32. The rain came back heavier during the night. We are here.