Cross Country Day 26: Jordan to Circle

Today felt like Deja Vu

Today was a lot like yesterday. Wake up. Find the highway. Pedal till it's time to go to bed. The scenery really hasn't been changing much. Mile 2 felt like mile 22 felt like mile 62.

It's hard to fight the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. Because we aren't "nowhere". We are "somewhere". We are here in central Montana. It's a real place that serves as a real home to real people. After being buzzed by the 4th truck of the day, it is hard to keep the positivity going.

There were some great highlights though. The grocery store in Jordan was fantastic. A multi-year multi-award winning delli, and just about everything you could ever want. All this in a town of 300. Cool! We had breakfast outside and I noticed once some started to leave the local dog came over to help play cleanup crew.

Dare I call road construction a highlight. I think so. Why? EVERYONE SLOWED DOWN. it went from a posted 70mph speed limit to 30mph. Plus quiet construction zones gave us plenty of room to get out of people's way.

Another highlight was the pool in circle. We were the only ones there and while the water was pretty cold to do any fun swimming it sure was nice to soak my legs. The miles start to wear on you, so taking care of yourself becomes pretty important.

We camped at the city campground right next to the pool. One thing that made me giggle but also served as a moment of realization happened with the lifeguards. There was a group of dirt bikers that were causing a ruckus on the edge of the park. The lifeguard came out to tell them to keep moving referencing our tents as proof of her argument. She threatened to call the cops and the worst retort that the kid could come up with was "Well..... YOU'RE A DEMOCRAT". We've ridden through a lot of countryside at this point. I've seen rainbow flags and lets go Brandon billboards. Opinions are everywhere. When it comes down to it though, the issues that seem to define our national debate don't seem to affect life as much around here. Why do we need to yell it at each other as an insult?

The campground was full of small grasshoppers. They rolled away from your feet in a wave as you moved across the grass. I'm worried for the crops in the coming months. Will they be able to survive this onslaught?

A quiet night greeted us as we called it a day.

'till next time

-Matt