Chicken Sandwiches Are Not Your Friend

Nice warm day today, about 20C, just got in to Helena, the capital of Montana which amazingly only has about 27,000 people, although the whole state only has like half a million people, and it's huge! We're used to isolation and tiny places now so this place seems like a metropolis.

We had a good ride today, although bert has responded to my post last night by wearing his ipod headphones all day so he doesn't have to talk to me. We have a new game now though, when there is a layby (or turnout as its called here) one of us will usually ride along the edge of it, whilst the other will slyly try to get the right speed to block the exit and force the other onto the verge. He is good at it, but luckily is pretty bad at the 'avoid the puncture' game.



We've been in summer gear all day, which is a nice change from sub-zero snow. We are well into lewis and clark country, I can't recommend their journals enough, an incredibly inspiring and interesting read from what seems like long ago but is only a couple of hundred years. OK that does sound like a long time. We crossed the missouri for the first time, the river they came up for something like 1000 miles before having to portage across the rockies, which took a month.

We were riding well until the chicken sandwich i had for lunch turned out to be perhaps a little dodgy, i rode the last 30 miles with zero energy in my legs, unable to eat, with a 50/50 chance of a double-ended wet explosion. Bert used my complete wiped-outness to strong-arm me into the most expensive hotel in town as he was hungry for a swimming pool.

But all is good, as always. Tomorrow we got a long day through a decent sized pass. Should be good. Hopefully there will be a long descent, these are a lot of fun, we often play in each others slipstream like dolphins, sort of. I hate to go in front though as I've seen bert crash on descents so often that I like to be able to see him all the time, otherwise i have to keep turning round to see if he's still on the road, which is kinda dangerous at 45mph. Our bikes are good descenders though, even loaded they're smooth and predictable.

OK, room service is on the way. I'm sure bert will stick some photos up later. Riding with him is a bit like being on big brother, you're never sure when you are being filmed.