The word of the day today was Mountains! We are beginning to see them grow and loom over the horizon in front of us lying in our path to the ocean. The massiveness in front of us seems to dare us to continue while causing us to question ourselves and our ability to overcome. The mountains are also astounding us with their beauty, even from this many miles away. This beauty urges us to continue.

Here is a few pictures showing the growth of the mountains as we saw them today.

We decided to set an alarm this morning because we needed to make some miles today. The wind was supposed to be lighter and possible to ride through. We were up at 6:00 and were riding by about 8:00. It was a very good thing we left earlier than normal. The wind started out light for our first 9 miles or so but picked up quickly and was blowing more like 15 to 20 mph. As you can see in this picture, the windsock is blowing straight out and most of the time was blowing right in our face.

As we struggled and pulled into Browning, we saw a confusing yet interesting road construction sign. It turned out to be in our favor. They did not seem to be doing any work on the road, but it was closed off with cones, so we just road inside the cones into the downtown. Then we stopped for lunch. It was a great burger joint called Nation's Burger Station. The service was a little slow, but the food was worth the weight.

After we ate our lunch we decided to call it a day. We were exhausted from the wind and my knees are starting to hurt. We also have no reason to hurry because we are waiting for Chris's bike parts that will be arriving on Monday and Wednesday. We found a room close to the road we will be turning on. The city is having a Native American festival, so we walked across town to check it out for a little while. We were able to watch some dancers competing in dance wearing native dress. It was nice to see, but none of us really understood what it was all about. The town is mostly Native Americans of the Blackfeet Tribe, so they all know what is going on. They also erected 96 teepees throughout the fest grounds.

We are hoping that tomorrow will bring us more favorable winds and better news on the opening of the Going to the Sun Road.

35 miles (1244 total)