#acaNoTier Chinook to Malta, 73 Miles | Tailwind? Yes Please!

From Tom:

We are one day closer to winter 😩. But we are enjoying the moment 😁.

We got up super early this morning in the Memorial Park in Chinook since we were told the sprinklers would come on at 5:30 am. We scrambled to get the tent down and everything loaded. We passed on brewing coffee and cooking oatmeal and delayed our pushups and planks until evening. 5:30 am came and went and no sprinklers, but the skeeters were bad enough, so we were happy to get going.

We stopped in town to grab a coffee and let the eastern sun rise up enough since we were heading east and wanted the easterly drivers to see us clearly.

Off we went with not a cloud in the sky and a tailwind of 10-14mph. After a quick 21 miles, we entered Harlem and into a ConocoPhillips gas station for a second breakfast of coffee, protein bar for Tom and a small (supersized) KitKat bar for the Debster. 😁.

We took off heading east and entered the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. We left US2 for the first time in 4 days for a 9 mile joyous ride through the reservation with zero traffic. But with tailwind that joyous ride came to and end quickly and back to US2 and our rumble strips.

We were making great time and there was talk of a century ride. That idea ended quickly with 20 miles to go and the narrowing of shoulders and major focus kicked in for the next hour. We couldn’t imagine riding like this for another 50 miles.

We entered our destination of Malta at 1:30 pm and looked for a destination for a great big burger 🍔 since Tom was starving.

Great Northern served up a deluxe cheeseburger with fries for Tom and tater tots for Deb 👍. On to our camp ground at the city park with the threat of rain coming.

With the rain here, we are blessed to have a shelter to set our tent under. We were definitely blessed today with the sun, tailwind and gentle rains to fall asleep to.

Spaghetti, fresh broccoli and bread was for dinner and a walk to the convenience store for ice cream right after.

An Irish Blessing… “May the road rise to meet you, and the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm on your face. and the rains fall softly on your fields.🍀