No Jobs, No Home, No Worries. A Shared Journey by Bike and Support SUV Across the U.S.

Day 20 miles: 134

Total Miles: 1,054 <– We broke 1,000 miles today!!

By bike:

I swore when I did this that if I got tailwinds I would ride it out until the bitter end. You could say I overextended myself.

Anyway, I started at 16-18 miles per hour due to impressive tailwinds and blasted through Havre.

Chinook was 40 miles away and I blew by it in about 30 seconds.

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Afterwards, I crossed the Milk River and did not stop once in the 26 miles through the Fort Belknap reservation, except once to take a picture of several flowers growing through a crack in the asphalt.

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Once I made the 90 mile trek to Malta it was 1 p.m. and I thought I could do another 70 miles to Glasgow. There were no towns in between and I wanted to get through the worst of mosquito country. I told Lauren I was doing this and after getting some Mountain Dew made the attempted journey.

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On the way I met a man named Josh Rosen who started when I did in Washington D.C., but because of his excellent fitness level we met in Eastern Montana. He bikes 90-100 miles a day. I took a picture comparing our arms for what I was about to endure as I was entering mosquito country.

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I was starting to get fatigued at mile 100 and was trying my hardest to keep it up. I found a cloud to ride in but could not keep up with it.

The mosquitoes started getting bad, REALLY BAD. While in the car it may not be noticeable, the entire land here in Montana is irrigated with a lot of standing water. It felt like I was biking through a marsh.

I noticed that what felt like a lot of pricks on the right side of my behind was not from my chamois (padded biker shorts), but rather mosquitoes going through two layers of clothing to get a taste of me.

Saco was the epicenter and I was NOT staying in this town. I resolved to keep going the 40 miles to Glasgow.

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However, another unfortunate event occurred. I got a flat right in the middle of it all at mile 136. Even being from the South, I could not believe how many mosquitoes were attacking me.

I repaired my flat and resolved to keep going. Then Lauren caught up with me and I said “I’M DONE.” I had her drive me the 22 miles to Glasgow for pizza and ice cream.

By car:

After seeing Matthew off in the early hours of the morning, I enjoyed another late check out and caught up on my work. Havre is actually considered to be a small college town and also offers some interesting natural scenery, so I decided to take my time to explore.

One of Havre’s attractions is the Milk River Badlands. You can take a five mile drive and observe the dry terrain with various tall mounds of eroded sedimentary rocks. Okay, so it actually sounds boring when I put it like that, but it was worth the detour!

Permission is required to actually hike through these badlands since it’s technically on private property. Part of me wanted to do this because a lot of marine and dinosaur fossils are found here. If you’re lucky, you can join in on an excavation. I just stuck to the drive.

By the time I was done scoping out Havre’s badlands, Matthew was already about 90 miles away. He had called me to tell me about the tail winds blasting him through eastern Montana today, and his new goal to hit 160 miles to the next large town!

Given this information, I felt it was time to hit the road and make my way towards Glasgow. Our backup town was Harlem and original goal was Malta.

It’s funny. We ended up riding through the streets of Harlem and briefly saw Malta before ending the day in Glasgow.

I was a little over 130 miles out when I saw a lime green dot on the side of the road in the distance. Several more miles in, it became clear to me that it was my husband. I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelieve.

Another flat??

As I slowly pulled over onto the wide shoulder with my hazard lights on, I saw Matthew completely deflate alongside his tire.

Thankfully he had his bug mask with him. The mosquitoes out here are mutants! Regardless of how many layers of clothing you have, their death spears will still pierce your skin and drain you of all of your will to live. Deet? They thrive on it. It reminded me of Janet when she described bear spray as “condiments for bears.” Deet is just a side dish for these blood suckers.

Despite Matthew’s strength and determination to hit 150 miles, the wave of mosquitoes and now 4th flat tire had ultimately claimed their victory. Time to throw in the towel. I reassured him that 130 miles in this mess is already a monumental victory that I could never imagine for myself.

Just to give you an idea of how horrific these mosquitoes are, I got out a pen and marked each bite as I took inventory. I counted up to 476 bites total!

We decided to do another pizza and ice cream night to soothe his aches and pains. This got us talking. We both agreed that we could eat pizza every day if we had to. Even though I’ve occasionally felt tired of pizza, I quickly reclaim my love for it after a day’s break.

We wondered what the most common “I could live off of…” food type is. What’s your vote?