Day 9 Thank goodness its a rest day!

BEST: Walking through the downtown and discovering fun things specifically the Boone and Crockett club.

WORST: Only sleeping until 6:30 ( I am having a hard time coming up with worst events)

MOST UNEXPECTED: Getting hailed on today after arriving in town yesterday with the temp in the high 90's


I slept in until 6:30 today. Several of us ate across the street at the Food for Thought restaurant where we gorged on very large proportions (I had a three egg omelet with fixins including what looked like large french fries which were cooked in the breakfast potato style). After taking my shot of the Climber Pouch on the University of Montana Bear, I walked into town to explore. I loved the houses and have included several shots of them including one with an awesome treehouse. I visited the Adventure Cycling Association which is a nonprofit group sponsoring bike routes. They arrange tours, print out maps, and coordinate cross country bike riding. I got my picture taken on placed on the wall for riders crossing the country, took a tour of the building seeing old bikes which were used to cross the country, and got free ice cream, soda, CO2 cartridges, and cleat protectors.

Yesterday I stated the Big Ride was hard. It is kind of hard to back this up when I met a young man who is traveling from Alaska to Florida by himself on a fully loaded bike. He also travelled 100 miles yesterday although it took him 10 hours. I feel so inadequate.

Heading back to the college dorm I saw kayakers practicing in a standing wave in the river doing rollovers and other fancy maneuvers. Then across the river to the Boone and Crockett club about which I knew nothing. Turns out they were the first environmental group in the US started by Teddy Roosevelt and other important dignataries. Of course there motivation at the time was to preserve open preserve areas so they could kill things on four legs. The inside of the building included a alot of dead stuffed animals and animal heads. It would be worthwhile for you to look into the history of this group because they really did quite a lot for preserving land including many national parks. Back to the dorm I had a Skype call with my family which was liking talking to someone on the moon with the multisecond delays. We (all the riders) then went to an Ice Cream social at the Big Dipper where the Mayor said some choice words along with the President of the American Lung Association. My main focus was on getting my free ice cream in a waffle cone (did cost me $.75). We are going to the friends of one of the riders for dinner tonight, although I will most probably be using a cab to go the two miles to the house along with three other people. I definately did too much walking today, but I had a great time talking to various people throughout the town. One lady saw me taking a picture of the soldier statue in front of the city hall and made sure to tell me that the barbed wire around the statue was removed two years ago and she was happy it happened. Missoula is lovely.