Southern Montana has treated us like we were treated back in Texas. For example, yesterday I woke up on a couch (just as good as a bed), ate breakfast at the Helena Golden Corral, ate Dinner at the Great Falls Fuddruckers (Adriano was the lone cyclists to conquer the 1 lb. burger), and fell asleep in my very own room here in Emily Hall at the Great Falls College. And I do not think that I would be ready to go again on this particular morning (due to the three centuries in three days and at least 90 miles of road ahead today) if it were not for these wonderful institutions making me feel at home. We are headed out into the wild for a few days. We will be camping our way through the rest of Montana. That means that the next time you hear from me I will be writing from a totally different country. I can't beleive it!

The fourth of July: Everyone got in a buzz for this holiday. Meg woke everyone up dressed as the statue of liberty singing all of those very patriotic songs like "God Bless America." I wore my red jersey and blue shorts. Everyone put red, white, and blue streamers on their bikes and helmets. I think that after two hard days, a little bit of sillyness was just what the doctor ordered to get us through another one. Anyway, we sure attracted the attention of drivers on I-15 all day, and the ride was spectacular again. Once we got out of Helena and climbed a rather long, hard hill, we took a kind of access road called Recreation Road which paralleled the Interstate but had about no traffic and winded its way up, down, and through the canyon which we rode through for most of the day. I commented to Martina that this road must have been built specifically for cyclists. I beleive we were following the Missoui River, but I could be wrong about that. The last 30 miles were pretty hard on us. Andy, Paul, and I got to the point about 20 miles out where we just really did not want to be on the bike. We had been riding in a regular eschelon rotation in order to heed the crosswind, but about 20 miles out, nobody wanted to pull anymore. So we all just kind of rode side by side, barely pushing our pedals, only rolling because it didn't feel right to just stop either (Also we knew that we had hot showers ahead; my first real shower since before Yellowstone. We have become very crafty about bathing: rivers, hoses, bike tubes, etc.) But after a few miles like that, Paul stated to sing some contagious songs that got our minds and bodys inspired again. Paul and I have been singing our own rendition of a Bob Marley song "Buffalo Soldier" ever since training rides. We call it "Bicycle Soldier." It is a good song to sing because it starts with a purely vocal cry: "Aye Aye Aye......." It probably sound horrible when we sing it, but we still do it as load as we can. Anyway, we got all charged back up and rode into town.

Last night fireworks filled the sky of the city as we stayed up too late once again, but I feel rested this morning. Bye, Bye ~~Michael Z. West