July 6, 2018
Grumbys in the Old West- Denton, MT to Geraldine
The Denton City Park was nice but pretty mosquito-y, which is due to the late snows and rain they have gotten this year. We've been lucky with bugs up until now, but I would like to take a moment to tell you my opinion of mosquitos. Here it is: Mosquitos are dirty, slimy, evil bastards from Hell and should die painfully. Every last one motherless of them.
Now back our story. We got up at 0500, which I hate (have I mentioned that?), but once we get going I appreciate the early start because it can minimze heat and wind. And it's nice to roll into the destination by noon or 1:00.
About 13 miles into the ride we began an 8% descent that dropped us into a beautiful valley with grass covered hills and a couple of streams.
We got to Geraldine at about 9:45, plowing through 37 miles pretty quickly. We dropped in to Rusty's Bar and Grill for breakfast and talked to a couple of locals. It was a typical old-style tavern, dark and dreary, but the food was good.
We set up camp at the city park (free) while dodging the mosquitos. It was too hot to nap since so we got milk shakes at Milk and Honey Coffee Shop, and they even let us sit in the AC for a couple of hours. I had some calls to make and did that as well. The cell service this whole trip has been surprisingly reliable until we got into Denton, when it became spotty. We had a sliver of service today so I got the calls made, and the ice cream shop had free WiFi.
There were 4 or 5 women in the ice cream shop while we were there and we talked to them for awhile. It's a friendly town, but a but rougher around the edges than Denton. They are both legitimate small towns that are thriving in the 21st century thanks to agriculture and ranching rather than existing for tourists.
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We liked the other states and were surprised by what we saw. But reaching Montana made it feel like I was doing what I set out to do. We will be approaching and crossing the continental divide and the mountains, which is where I feel most at home. Even the tornadoes, heat, thunderstorms, headwinds and other hardships we've encountered have made us appreciate mild weather and easy biking days. We also have good stories to tell and we learned a few things. For instance, look for a sturdy shelter (bathroom, etc) at a campground and talk to your fellow campers and locals. They might invite you in their RV to sit out a storm. Traveling like this, physical and mental hardships and dangers included, is worthwhile and satisfying.
Experiencing the United States by immersing ourselves in these towns for a day or two at a time has reinforced our perspective that political divisions are overstated and cultivated by politicians and spread by the news for their own greedy and assholish reasons. Since we've been on the road, the only person I can remember trying to start a political debate was Mr. Auxillary Chins in my 6/30 post. And I didn't take the bait.
Off of the soapbox and on to Fort Benton tomorrow!!
Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 1,148 miles (1,848 km)
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