Not a zero today but two digit day with a zero after it and only a one in front. Between bike repairs, catching up on blogging, sleeping in, shopping and a rainstorm we didn’t get very far. We’re calling it a rest and recovery day.

Yesterday Don had to pump his rear tire up about four or five times and this morning we woke up tire was entirely flat and couldn’t get the tire to seal on the rim. We tried to seal the rim on the local picnic table but that didn’t work and so he walked a mile and a bit to the bike shop where they put it on the rack and determined that he needed a new tire.  And it was time to restore the supplies so we spent quite a bit of time in the local Safeway trying to figure out what we could fit on the bike, have high calories and protein and tasty at the same time.

We weren’t the only ones getting reorganized and recovering. Our local Commonwealth friends spent quite a bit of time in Whitefish as well. We found them on the corner lawn going thru all their gear. They said they sent a combined 20 pounds home. Young folks from Washington State sent home 15 pounds from their Bob trailers.

In early afternoon we found ourselves in Columbia Falls, Montana. Yes, only 10 miles down the road, where it started raining. After waiting over a hour for it to stop, Don found an Air BnB for a reasonable price and checked us in. Bunks tonight.

Tough day yesterday, lots of climbing, lots of dust on the road. Not to mention heat was probably somewhere between 99 and 100 and we’re only at about 4000 feet. We did manage 60 miles, actually 62 miles, yesterday but today we got 60 miles of them off the map.

It was hard not to jump into this lake at the top half called Red Meadow Lake, we still had 22 miles down into Whitefish, Montana. Whitefish is evidently a recreation town of less than 10,000. Lots of trophy homes along the lake and very small downtown area. We found a restaurant specializing in pork before we even looked for a place to lie down. Grilled pork salad went down with 3 16-ounce tumblers of water.

The hardest part of the day is gone climbing is riding with a semi-flat tire. A slow grind, it had to be pumped four times in 60 miles. Don says, “should’ve been 10 times”. He tried fixing it once we got to town on a picnic table, no joy. Now it’s on the bike stand shown above.