Day 17, Malta to Glasgow, Montana

Ride distance: 73 miles; ride time: 4:46; average speed: 15.2 mph; calories: 4280; Ascent: 1626 feet. After a 7:00 a.m. pancake breakfast served by our host church in Malta, Elam Lutheran, we started our daily ride. Several of us visited the Phillips County Museum in Malta. They had opened it up 2 hours earlier than usual just so that we could see it before we left town. The proprietor was impressed that a Phillips had come to see the Phillips County Museum. It had many interesting artifacts and dinosaur skeletons that had been found in the area. Today’s ride featured head winds again. It definitely slows us down. I was riding with a new rear tire that I mounted on the rear wheel to replace a worn one. I hope I can get about 2000 miles of wear from this new tire. The rear tire wears faster than the front tire so I may rotate them after 1000 miles. Along the way, we passed two snakes in the road that we though were rattlesnakes. We later found out that they were bull snakes since they didn’t have rattles on their tails. We started arriving in town about 2:30 p.m. and stopped at a couple local establishments for shakes or ice cream cones after the long ride. Our host church tonight is the Evangelical Church. They served us a great dinner featuring huge hamburgers made with Montana beef... They must have been ½ pound apiece and most of us had two of them at the invitation of our hosts. Zack, Stewart and I are staying with Joe and Allie tonight. They live just down the street from the church and have lived here for the past 37 years.