7/16/19    

We started our day by eating breakfast at the same restaurant where we ate dinner last night.  There were some local people eating there also and they were interested in what we were doing.   A lot of the team stopped at various places in Malta for breakfast since we were making a long 91 mile ride.

The morning ride to the first rest stop was uneventful with a great tail wind on Highway 2 so the 18 miles just flew by.

After 12 more miles on Highway 2 we were routed on an alternate route which parallels the Milk River.  This route was somewhat rough but it was enjoyable with no traffic except for the rural mail delivery person.  We saw him a couple of times on this alternate route.  At the end of the alternate route the mail delivery person explained the existence of this route.  He told us it was put in place years earlier when they were repairing highway 2 and it never got taken out.  It wasn’t a big deal but it added about 4 miles to the days ride.

When we got  back on highway 2 the tailwind turned into a side wind to a slight head wind.  Nothing very difficult but it slowed our progress.

At rest stop 2 we had lunch at a small diner. It was nice to get out of the wind for a little while.  During  the next leg we all rode our own rides so we got pretty spread out.  I got to rest stop 3 before the others only to find that the MS rest stop at a Exxon Truckstop had shutdown so we were on our own which was not a big deal in that we normally bought our refreshments whenever possible.

There were three of us Julia, Ed and I rode the last leg together because the road was narrow and the traffic was heavy.  This gave us added visibility and protection from the heavy traffic.

There was one major event for me on this last leg.  I completed 10,000 mile riding for BiketheUSforMS.  Ed calculated where this point was and he stopped us for a photo opt.

This 10,000 miles is made up of TransAm Route 3875 miles, Southern Tier 3070 miles and the Northern Tier 3145 miles to date.  It was very nice of Ed to calculate this point so we could capture the moment.

We made it to Havre tired but glad we had completed this long day successfully.