We woke up from a pretty good nights sleep and went downstairs to the cafe. Unfortunately for Katie and TJ, this hotel doesn't have free breakfast.

Roger has become quite the nerd, doing some reading at breakfast on TJs Ipod.

As we packed up, TJ found that his Jolly Ranchers had fused into a Giant Rancher in yesterdays heat! He tossed them. Notice, the beard is really coming in nicely.

We hit the road late; we slept in until 8 after the heat and late bedtime yesterday. It doesn't take long to see reminders of Chuck. Man, Katie misses the Chuckwagon....he always gives her his extra food and treats.

After only a few miles, we stopped in Dotson at the grocery store. The owner was really kind and it was nice to find an open place on July 4. He was just ready to close, but stayed open for us. His store is very lightly stocked!

While TJ had the first 2 flat tires of the trip, today was Rogers day.

Highway 2 as pretty nice most of the day, however the rumble strips were too close to the edge for us trikers. Roger and I had to constantly move in and out of the lane, often riding with one wheel in the gravel. It was pretty tiring, but we made it work. The speed limits are stuipidly high here in Montana, so Rog and I keep a vigalent eye on traffic. The bike shoulders have been pretty good so far tough, so it has worked quite well. If this state had a 55 limit like most of the rest of the US, this would be an excellent biking road. Much of this is a 75 limit, on a 2 lane road. Kinda dumb.

Someday everyone can sit and look at all my pictures I took today. Grass, grass, and more grass. Sadly, meth signs also seem to dot the landscape.

The only other break from the heat was a stop at a crummy gas station. We speant about an hour there cooling down. Katie was feeling pretty crummy when we arrived, but we got her all sugared up. It was only 4 more miles untiil camping, 24 until a hotel. She found the energy. Again, reminders of Chuck.

We made good time to Chinook, going 16mph trying to get off of a bad road with the sun starting to set. A quick walk to a grocery store and we had dinner. Yeah, that was my dinner. Yeah, I finished it.

TJ and Katie split half of a watermelon. They also had cereal with Laura. Rog nuked a dinner. We also had some random snacks and kinda collaped into our beds. The heat had us worn out.

So, we are over 1000 miles now. We should go over our half way point (in miles) tomorrow.

69 miles (1060 total)