June 29, 2025
Butte - Basin
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The breakfast included in our Super8 room rate was very sad, and offered me only the usual bad coffee. Karo laughed at the bowl of oranges - well past their prime - but rendered inaccessible by lack of utensils to cut them up. The cheap plastic knives on offer had struggled to slice my byo banana.
Our fellow lodgers tucked into 2 types of ultra processed cereal, white bread toast, bagels, or pancakes from the pancake machine, with lashings of syrup. An example of standard American breakfast fare, which I find depressing in its high carb, low nutrition cheapness.
In place of breakfast I argued with a Mastercard CSR in a call about why my cash was being made inaccessible by their "security" software. I tried to escalate the call, but there were no supervisors available at 7am on a Sunday. More grumpy feelings!
The route took us out of town via the older area of town on the hill beside the open pit mine, and I found the escape from traffic, the I15, and all the fast food clamor of the downtown area, a bit more relaxing.
It was pretty quiet up there, but then there was this:
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Fortified on a variation of a flat white and an Eggs Benedict, we hit the road again, and climbed through an eclectic mix of well kept houses of different eras and old mining relics on display. Caffinated and fed, I started to mull over why downtown Butte had felt so alien.
I think that after so much wilderness, to arrive into the centre of so much fast food on a 4 lane road, under an interstate highway, was a disappointing shock.
On our climb to a low pass, we met a young German tourer who is in his 4th year on the road. He'd been thru Singapore, Oz and NZ, and then looped up to Alaska before picking up the GDMBR route. Great chat was had.
At the top of the pass we met a woman in a Cycology top (a NZ brand of cycle clothing) and lunched on the roadside, then it was downhill to Basin, where the Community Centre awaited us.
Already in residence were Ray and Kurt, from Minnesota
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We had a late lunch at the Silver Saddle, and then joined Ray and Kurt for dinner there too. During dinner we learned that both men had long careers with 3M and Ray developed the reflective film used on road signs. We enjoyed another great and varied conversation.
Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 3,570 km (2,217 miles)
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