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"set db [ns_db gethandle subquery]..."
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"gt_category_id_list_inner_swcm "236754" "static_pages" "Content Type" "1" "0" """
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    (procedure "Memoize_for_Awhile" line 11)
    invoked from within
"Memoize_for_Awhile "gt_category_id_list_inner_swcm \"$id\" \"$table\" \"$category_umbrella\" \"$limit\" \"$min_weight\" \"$department_id\"" 90000"
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"gt_category_id_list 1 "Content Type" $page_id"
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ACTIVITIES
GORP Rides Across America
Day 14: July 2, 2000, Update
Harlowton, MT, to Billings, MT
Today's Miles: 94.7Miles since Seattle: 947.9


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Big Ride Logo

In for Good

Sunrise spinning through the Montana landscape
Sunrise spinning through the Montana landscape
When Marcia Larson of Sartell, Minnesota, drove (and drove) across Montana to get to Seattle, the starting point of the 2000 RadioShack Big Ride Across America, she started to have serious second thoughts about the 3,260-mile bike trip she had just raised more than $7,000 to participate in. It was one thing to zip along across the plains at 70 mph, but on a bicycle going maybe 12 mph?

"I didn't register until the last hour," she confessed."I almost backed out." And when the ride began two weeks ago on June 19, Marcia found herself at the back of the pack every day. "The hills have been then hardest," she said. "I couldn't train for them in Minnesota. And I'm not used to going all day without resting."

"In Missoula," Marcia continued, "I was ready to take the Greyhound home. Then I went to the Carousel and they were playing the Rolling Stones. It was wonderful." Marcia's friends persuaded her to stay on the ride. "Every day people ask me how I'm doing, they greet me with a hug and give me a shoulder to cry on. I'm counting on people who I don't really know and I've never done that before."

"I think it's getting easier," Marcia said, relaxing next to her tent, pitched behind Castle Rock Middle School (CQ) in Billings after a 95-mile day that proved to be tough for most riders. "I'm getting to see the things that I read about all my life. And I've never gotten as much fulfillment out of each day." Completing the ride is no longer in question. "I'm looking forward to hanging in there," she said. "I couldn't leave now in the middle of this with all these wonderful people."

Clay Gump of College Park, Maryland, said he's "finally getting my biking legs . . . I'm stronger than when we started and I'm loving every minute of it. As they say, a bad day biking is better than a good day at work." Clay has rigged stereo speakers to his recumbent bike to play music from his Walkman, as well as a solar cell for recharging batteries and an American flag.

"I've lost track of time," observed another recumbent rider, Mark Webert of Seattle, Washington. "When I'm at work, I read the newspaper every day. Out here, I don't have that daily connection." Like Marcia, Mark is seeing brand-new country. "I've heard about the wide open spaces. Now I'm seeing it up close and personal."

A Wide Open Rangeland

No doubt about that. Day 14 gave riders the chance to see plenty of arid rangeland up close and battle more character-building headwinds, and hot, dry conditions in the afternoon.

Ideal winds create optimal riding conditions
Ideal winds create optimal riding conditions

That came after a morning of sheer delight for most riders who sailed out of Harlowton in close-to-optimum conditions — cool and dry, a good road with gentle grades, and interesting scenery along the Musselshell River valley where Chief Joseph once led his band of Nez Perce in their sad flight toward Canada in 1877 before surrendering to U.S. forces.

Frogs croaked in marshes next to well-worn cattle chutes. Black Angus cattle grazed on lush grass. Meadowlarks on fence posts greeted passers-by with their distinctive notes. In the hamlet of Barber, three cars were parked outside a white-steepled church; the only other buildings were a house and a barn. At Lavina, riders reported in at the midday checkpoint and visited the Mercantile general store. At a cafi, a waitress kept pulling pie names off the menu board as hungry riders consumed slices.

Rygate, Montana offers a culinary treat
Rygate, Montana offers a culinary treat
After Lavina, though, the countryside soon turned into barren rangeland, made even more desolate by the severe drought the area is suffering. For riders, the challenges were numerous: headwinds, heat, and the monotony of long, virtually featureless stretches where grain elevators in the distance can take half an hour to reach. But there was some relief. In Broadview — a grain elevator, a siding, a few houses, and a schooL — three children set up a Playskool bench and sold delicious, fresh, home-baked cookies, cherries, and sun-brewed ice tea. The price: Whatever you wanted to put in their jar. And in the Acton Bar, where the day's last water stop was set up outside, a bow-legged cowboy sauntered up to a group of riders and offered this advice:"Now when you fellas get to Washington, D.C., you just take your smelly socks and leave them on the Capitol steps, because that's exactly the smell we're getting from there."

More DeBuff

Post script to the DeBuff family reunion: At least three riders took the family up on their invitation to the dance at the Moose Lodge on Saturday night. "We got back to camp at 1 a.m." confessed Mary Marks of Chicago. She reported that she jitterbugged with cowboys, talked to local folks about weather, and crops and walked home an 88-year-old woman whose secret of longevity was Black Velvet whisky. "It was wonderful," Mary added. "That's what this trip is all about." That and getting up four hours later and biking 95 miles.

By Clem Work, riding reporter.

For more information about today's ride, check out the GORP Big Ride Log.



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