Pizza Size Pancakes

Why not in Minot wasn't quite what we had built it up to be but catching a movie and library time gave us a reprieve from what seemed like endless amounts of pedaling. We encountered a few snafus trying to leave North Dakota, fixing flat tires and patching tubes during a down pour proved to be quite the challenge. Eight miles from the Montana boarder we were forced to hitch a ride back the nearest town of Williston, ND to buy new tubes. That was our first time in a car in 24 days, it felt really fast. At the bike shop we met two young gentleman heading in the same direction as us so we spent the next few days in their company. We heard about this breakfast challenge in a tiny town called Nashua, MT, and Michael was tempted to go for it but we ended up splitting the meal instead. Our new friends Frisco and Dylan went for it but couldn't quite make room for the pizza size pancakes. We were eating fluffy white goodness for a few days and loving it. The trek through Montana on U2 was long, really long. I have been keeping a journal and one of our daily rituals is to come up with a creative title for each day. To give you an idea of our last week on our bikes I'll list the titles and let your imaginations take care of the rest. "Oil Boom", "Flat Tired of Williston", "Winds of Change aka Isolated Thunderstorms", "Mission to Malta fueled by Pancakes", "2222 Baby", "Into the Waves of Wheat", "So Long U2...For Now", and last but not least "A Day of Rewards". Our friend Sam Glickel was able to ride the last two days with us and it was quite the grand finale. Riding through Glacier National Park was one of the best experiences in my life and I think Michael and Sam have similar feelings. After several long, hot, hard, windy, days of U2 the sweet reward of humongous mountains, crystal clear lakes and creeks, clean fresh air, and little traffic was sweeter than any candy I have ever tasted. After reaching the top of Logan Pass we had the mother of all descents down the west side. Michael couldn't quite tell if the tears in his eyes were caused from the wind, the raw emotion of completing this journey, or the pure awesomeness of the park. My guess is that it was a little of each. At the west end of the park we rewarded ourselves with a giant cinnamon roll, huckleberry beer, huckleberry lemonade, lunch and huckleberry ice cream, all before noon. We greeted U2 one last time with smiles for our short trek into Columbia Falls. The Newman's had a huge banner and even a finish line for us to cross to end this most amazing journey.