All sorts of stuff

We had a great breakfast at the wonderful B&B and headed out in the car for Columbus, where Bruce & Willie had picked me up Friday. We didn't rush - only 40 miles to Billings, where we have a rest day. We had scheduled massage appointments for late afternoon.

The weather was perfect again. The temperatures reached the high 70s and the clouds were light and far apart. The frontage road took us a little farther from the freeway and we saw all sorts of wildflowers. Once we reached Park City, we had to choose whether we wanted to get food there or ride on to Laurel for lunch. This was decidedly not the Park City we often hear of in Utah. This one has two places to get food, and both are gas station convenience stores. Laurel was a bit farther, though, and wouldn't space the meals as well. We pulled into one of the gas stations & found two cyclists. We got talking - bicycles do make that happen - and learned they were local riders out for a Saturday spin. They offered to show us the scenic route to Laurel, so we ended up riding with them and having lunch with them at the cafe they like. Very nice. We traded names & emails.

We ended up pushing the time a bit. We thought it would be less than ten miles after lunch; turns out that was the city limit, and Billings is fairly spread out. Also, we chatted a bit too long & didn't leave lunch until about 2:00. We then had almot 20 miles with medium headwinds to ride. Willie (hurray, Willie!) had us all checked in, though, so we made it.

We are sorry that Willie is on her way home now. We will really miss all her help. Well, actually, we will just plain miss her. Let's do this again before long, Willie!

Kitty, Stephanie and Ben have arrived to join us for a few days, so we do have a little more supported time. They all plan to ride with us part of the time, which will be lots of fun. Ben has not ridden these distances before but is hoping to ride the entire 88 miles tomorrow. He recently ran a half marathon & has always been an enthusiastic athlete. He will probably breeze through. Actually, we'd better get him his own maps. I expect he will be out of sight within minutes. Kitty and Stephanie plan to take on more moderate rides. Bruce is considering doing some of the driving.

Today, our Billings rest day, we are making alternative plans in case we can't go to Minot. As we are looking at those ideas we are realizing that the alternate route would do away once and for all - no, cancel that expression, nothing on this trip is nearly that certain - would most likely eliminate our worries about having to ride all the way from Williston to Minot. Bismarck, here we come?

Miles Saturday 48
Total so far 1229