Ray at 60th birthday party with cake and trusty bike.
Ray at 60th birthday party with cake and trusty bike.
Last Modified on 9/23/97 at 17:15:05
Day's Narrative:
Today is my 60th birthday.
This morning I searched my bicycling shirts to replace the one that resembles a spotted owl, and chose one from South Africa, with the South African flag on it. This one, I thought, should not present a target on the road.
It rained on me as I rode the bike to breakfast. It was warm, but there were high, dark clouds.
At breakfast I met a gentleman who related to me how several years ago the Aryan Nation chose Sandpoint and the area around there for their headquarters. [Note: For the South Africans who may be reading this, the Aryan Nation is politically somewhere to the right of Adolf Hitler. Compared to them Eugene Terreblanche and the AWB are liberals.] He was upset about the Aryan Nation settling in the area, and was writing a book about it. I sat there listening to him tell Aryan Nation stories, wearing my bicycle shirt with the New South African flag on it. I figured that if any of the Aryan Nation guys saw my shirt and recognized it as South African, I could maybe convince them it belonged to the OLD South Africa.
When I left after breakfast it was even darker outside, but no longer raining.
A few miles down the road it started to rain. I put on the bicycling poncho and hoped that this would not be a day so bad that the best I could say about it would be , "Well, it was a good test of the equipment." A few minutes later it stopped raining, but the roads were wet and the logging trucks I met kicked up quite a spray of water and road dirt.
Montana is absolutely beautiful. The lakes and rivers are crystal clear, and the air smells good. This must be heaven to hunters and fishermen. This is the only place I've seen where the deer signs along the road are not shot-up. Maybe here they get to shoot at the real thing.
By noon it was clearing. Connie caught up with me about 12:30, and I filled up my water bottles and rested a bit. We decided to try and push on into Libby, and not stay at Troy. That proved to be a wise decision, since Troy only has a couple of older Mom & Pop motels.
I got into Libby about 4:00 pm MDT. We are back in Mountain time again.
© Ray & Connie Poore, 1997