We got up late this morning at 8:20 and cooked some delicious scrambled eggs on the camp stove which dirtied the skillet significantly. We headed to a gas station to fill up on water and grab some pastries for a second breakfast. 2.3 miles outside of town, I rode through some glass and got my first flat of the trip. About 4 miles later my left pedal stopped clipping in. Travis tried valiantly to do a roadside repair, but ended up destroying the pedal. We were faced with continuing with a dysfunctional pedal or returning 6 miles to a Missoula bike shop to buy a new one. We decided to backtrack.
Travis destroying my pedal
We limped back to Missoula to a bike shop where I picked up $20 "take-off" pedals and a wrench to adjust my maladjusted brakes. Travis also got some tubes at 20% off because Chad took sympathy on us and hooked us up with a discount. On our way out of Missoula, it was getting pretty late in the day so we stopped at Subway. Since it was already 1 o'clock and we hadn't made it out of town yet, we decided that today would be a rest day. Of course, I got another flat tire from an unknown source. However, the flat was a blessing in disguise because there were bald eagles soaring above the place it happened that we surely would've missed had the flat tire not happened. Unfortunately, Travis also got a nasty bee sting while I was repairing my tire, but as he's not allergic, it was okay. Travis' knee started giving him trouble so we slowed down for the rest of the day. My left achilles tendon had been hurting the past couple of days, so I didn't mind the slower pace.
We were a little early for the party
A few miles after the second flat tire, I saw a bunch of cars on the side of the road and some people on a nearby cliff. Turns out they were cliff jumping so we decided to cross the interstate and join them. We were done after one jump but it was a nicely refreshing and hopefully removed some of the salt stains that had accumulated on our jerseys.
We had set a goal of Drummond, only 50 miles outside of Missoula, but it was getting late and we were exhausted. We grabbed some delicious ice cream at Frosty Freeze before heading to the convenience store to get some trail mix and water. The trail mix was 1,200 calories for $2, which was about the best we've found. A local kid, or pest according to the clerk, was impressed with our helmet mirrors and after trying them out "helped" us fill our water bottles. The clerk, who is planning to get married to the son of the owner of Swede's bar recommended that we go there, so that's what we did.
Drummond - "World famous bullshippers"
At the bar, Roger and Arnold bought a round of drinks for the entire bar, which was much appreciated. We chatted it up with Roger, a rancher/oil field worker from Canada who was in Drummond to participate in the senior rodeo with his brother, Gordy.
Roger and his wife Lynn
Roger and his Canadian friends were adept at playing the spoons, which was a foreign concept to Travis and me. However, after Travis requested some spoons from the bartender, Roger was eager to teach the stranger the ways of spooning.
We got the business card from the bar, as we have started collecting addresses to that we can send a post card to all of the wonderful people whom we have met along the way once we reach New York. Tomorrow we'll try to hit La Hood, about 105 miles from Durmmond. Hopefully we won't have to pay for the $10.50 camping tonight at the park in Drummond, so we've got an alarm set for early in the morning to duck out before the ranger comes.
| Time | Trip | Odometer | Average | Max |
| 5:25:40 | 63.0 | 588 | 11.5 | 27.4 |
