Day 19: Missoula

Missoula, Montana

The morning started off absolutely horrible. Once everyone woke up and got ready we set out for Missoula in the cold and rainy conditions. The ride was 105 miles so it was another century day for the cyclists. We started out with three racked guys. One of them hurt his Achilles tendon, one hurt their ankle, and the other was a cyclist that agreed to drive for the day.  Our first crew stop was about 18 miles down the road from the start point and when the guys got to us they were literally drenched and starting to get miserable. Morale was so low because of the cold weather and rain. It wasn’t long during the ride before some of the guys started to rack themselves because of it. One of the guys was showing symptoms of hypothermia, one of the guys broke a spoke on their tire, one guys bike was broken on the back, and the list just kept getting longer. We eventually made it to Missoula and the guys were so grateful to be there. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and we went to dinner at a place called The Bridge. It’s a pizza joint that is extremely similar to Pies and Pints from back home. They have a lot of specialty pizzas and they also offered the ability to create your own which my friend, Jonathan Faler and I did. He’s from Southern Mississippi and we’ve kind of been pairing together when it comes to eating and exploring the cities.

After dinner we went to the Big Dipper which is a famous ice cream shop in the area. They have a lot of specialty flavors and unique toppings. Most of the group went there but I decided to wait because I went later in the evening. Once we were free for the evening my friend Olivia, who actually lives in Missoula and goes to school at the University of Montana . She was showing me around the town and we got Big Dipper ice cream. She had me try Huckleberry flavor and it honestly, is SO delicious. I encourage every single person to try Huckleberry flavored products. It is similar to a blueberry in color, but they’re smaller and packed FULL of flavor. Like a blueberry, but much, much, much better.

Our second day in Missoula was spent doing laundry in the morning before heading to lunch at the Adventure Cycling Center in town. They had a cookout for us and we got to tour the facilities and meet the staff. It was really cool because they had a ton of historical bikes used to ride across the world. Some of them were used on trips from Alaska to Argentina, some from Norway to South Africa, and many more. I also got a neat sticker that says “I ride therefore, I transam” which is ironic because I’m on the TransAmerica route.

There were also three different media outlets that came out to while we were in town. Two of them came out when we were at the high school and one came out to our lunch. That’s the most media I’ve been able to get out in a single city. I was able to get interviewed once, which is always cool. I’m trying to space out which cyclists get interviewed but it is kind of hard because some of them are not really into being on camera.

When we got back to the high school where we were staying we had only a little bit of time to get ready for our evening activities. I met up again with Olivia and she showed me the University of Montana’s campus and took me to the post office there so I could mail my things. She showed me the residence hall that she is an RA in and that was cool since I’ve been in her shoes before. We walked down Greek Row towards the high school and we said our goodbyes. It is always great to catch up with someone that you haven’t seen in awhile. She and I were CTFK kids and it was really great talking about that experience since it was so long ago and what we were all getting into now.

Dinner was sponsored by the local YMCA and we had a friendship visit with them too. We played tennis and bocce ball with them and got to talk to them about their favorite parts of Missoula and Montana as a whole. Dinner was positively delicious. We had cookout food, so there were hot dogs, potato salad, chips, and tons more.