Little Cyclists on the Big Prairie

As we left Glacier and set out across the prairie, I couldn't help but think of my childhood hero, Laura Ingalls Wilder, of Little House on the Prairie fame. I spent endless hours as a kid reading, rereading, and play-acting the Little House books. Now here was my chance, I thought, to commune peacefully with Laura on the plains. (OK, so we were on the Montana prairie and Laura grew up in the Dakotas, but stilll... close enough.)

It didn't quite work out the way I'd imagined...

Saturday, July 18:

Doug's dad Reg drove us from West Glacier to the top of Marias Pass (elevation 5216), from which we rode a nice long ways downhill (wahoo!) through East Glacier and then out across the plains. As we rode through the grasslands, the mountains behind us provided a jagged contrast to the land ahead of us.

We spent the first night in Browning, MT, a small town on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Our funniest moment that day arose when we noticed that the mascot of Browning's public school is the Indian. Given the way many Bay Area schools have gotten rid of their Indian mascots in decades past, we couldn't help but wonder how the residents of an Indian reservation came to have an Indian as their school mascot. I wonder if the decision was made by tribe members or outsiders? Is it OK to have an Indian mascot when you are, in fact, Indian (or Native American, rather)? As Doug pointed out, the MIT mascot is the Engineer, though that seemsto be a less controversial example of adopting a community's identity as a mascot.

Sun, July 19 - Tue, July 21:

We continued to ride 150+ miles across the plains, which consisted of vast expanses of isolation speckled with the occasional miniscule town. Despite my Little House fantasies, I have to confess that the prairie was hot and boring. I tried to be mindful and meditative about riding across the slightly rolling hills of grassy nothingness, but it didn't really work. Each day, what pushed me forward was a monotonous counting down of the mile markers: "47 miles to go...46, 45, 44... oooh, 44 splits into 24 and 20, and those chunks don't seem too bad..." Needless to say, while this counting and calculating got me through each day's ride, it wasn't the most enjoyable way to motivate myself.

A few prairie shots, just to give you an idea:

Not only that, but our eating options have also been pretty limited. While we were in Glacier, I bought a postcard that depicted a man strapped to a lawn chair, looking afraid, while several other men waved huge chunks of meat in front of him. The caption reads: "Deprogramming a Vegetarian in Montana." And while I know that's a joke and an exaggeration, it's definitely tricky here sometimes! At one point this week, we stopped in Rudyard, MT (pop. 596) for lunch, where the only place to eat was the town bar. And the only food the bar served was 12 different kinds of frozen meat pizza, and no cheese or vegetarian pizzas. We convinced the bartender to pry the pepperonis off one of the frozen pizzas so we could have cheese pizza for lunch.

Unable to face the thought of another 970 miles of this, we...

Wed, July 22 - Thu, July 23:

...caught the Amtrak in Havre, MT, and rode it to Minneapolis! It was fun to see the scenery of the Montana and North Dakota prairie as the train whizzed along, but I definitely felt happy to be seeing it from inside the train instead of during 2+ weeks of riding, since it looked a lot like the prairie that we'd already seen.

It feels good to be back in a big city after feeling so isolated. We've spent the past two days wandering around the city, exploring shops, eating good food, listening to free outdoor music shows, and (of course!) spending quality time at the bookstore. It's so nice to be able to find all the foods that make me happy: plain organic yogurt, luscious cherries, Kashi cereal, sushi, Indian food (We had Indian food for the first time of the trip last night! Oh, how we'd been craving it!), and all the other comforts of home. Being on the road this long has reminded me how much eating familiar foods makes me feel at home. Too many days of cheese sandwiches, gas station snacks, and de-pepperoni'd pizza unsettle me, and it's been nice to recalibrate here.

Not only that, but we also scored an amazingly sweet deal at a fancy downtown hotel through Priceline! Here's Doug unloading stuff in our glorious room:

Check out those yummy crepes!

What I tried to capture in the next photo (besides Doug's winning smile!) is an awesome fountain that we discovered inside the Skyway, a series of connected hallways that run between major buildings downtown, and are lined with shops like a mall. The fountain looks like indoor rain: a circle of water shoots down from the middle of the ceiling, falls five stories, and crashes onto a marble circle, creating a peaceful breeze when you sit at its base:

I liked the Mary Tyler Moore statue! Reminded me of watching MTM reruns on Nick-at-Night as a kid.

Tomorrow afternoon, we'll head east toward Wisconsin and then drop down into Chicago, where we'll probably hang out for a week to see friends and see the sights.