goodbye missoula.. hello miserable..

So when we left the square dance campground, we biked straight for Missoula. It was only about a 9 mile ride, so it went really quick and easy.. When we got to Missoula, we first stopped at walmart and marveled at how low the prices actually are..! We have been buying our food at truck stops and gas stations, which we found markup the prices by about 700%..! We have been paying up to $2 or $3 for our canned veggies.. yes, ridiculous.. we know!

After walmart we went over to McDonalds.. we had to hustle because it was already 10:15 and as we all know, they stop serving breakfast at 10:30..! Since we got there just in time, we all got breakfast, ate it out on the curb, then went back in and got lunch! it was awesome.. we all got ice cream cones too, which were awesome, but slightly difficult to bike with..! After McDonalds we headed to a local bike shop where we cleaned our bikes up and made sure everything was working properly.. Scott realized he had a broken spoke, so we got that fixed.. and I got some new Arm Warmers, which i am awesomely pumped about!
Upon leaving the bike shop, we stopped by the Adventure Cycling headquarters.. there they gave us free ice cream, pop, and cookies! Then they gave us a tour of the place and everything.. it was pretty sweet.

When we finally left Missoula at about 2:00, we biked about 30-40 miles and setup camp at a campground.. When we woke up this morning, it was freezing! We had somewhat positive attitudes when we mounted up from camp, but as soon as we left the campground, it started raining on us.. :(

So we biked about 2 miles to a gas station, layered up, bought some hand & toe warmers, and hit the road again.. It was absolutely miserable.. The problem is that everything is a trade-off.. When we layer up because of the cold, we sweat like crazy once we start biking hard.. Then when you stop to take off a layer, you get cold again.. It is really frustrating..!

We had about 40 miles to get to the first town, which we were planning on stopping to eat lunch at.. When we got about 10 miles from there, Jeff's parents found us on the highway and we all pulled over and chatted for awhile.. It really lifted our spirits, and they even let us put our gear in their van so that we could bike the rest of the way to town without our load..!
When we got about 4 miles from town though, the rain changed from a slow drizzle to a full on downpour! It was terrible.. We were freezing and soaked, with no extra cycling clothes to change into..

We ate lunch, and all completely agreed that this would be a good place to stop for the night.. So we splurged and got a motel room, which has been awesome!!

This afternoon we went to the laundromat.. went with Jeff's parents out to this little souvenir shop thing.. Chilled out in the warm hotel room eating and drinking cookies and toddy that jeff's parents brought for us!

Oh, and Jeff's mom gave me a haircut! I have had this weird euro-mullet thing going on the last couple weeks.. so we put that to an end..!

Tomorrow we are gonna climb Roger's Pass, which is the Continental Divide! Shouldn't be too bad of a climb, but it is supposed to rain all day again.. So we are just soaking up the awesomeness of the hotel while we are here and preparing for a long day tomorrow!


*****Also.. We put up a bunch of new pictures over the last couple days..! We separated them by state and the links are at the top right of the page!*****