A mean machine

We arrived at the Belt Cafe as they opened at 7am. We weren't even the first, locals were already waiting. We had the breakfast special and chatted with the other diners. One gentleman said we should checkout the homeless mission in Great Falls for a place to sleep. I don't think we look homeless but I don't know what others might think about our mode of travel. We had a big climb out of the river valley up to the mesa to kick off today's journey to Great Falls. The road was pretty gentle but the traffic was busier than what we've had the last couple of days. The closer to a big city the more traffic, so we will just have to deal with it. We rode all the way across town to get to the Missouri River and our campground, which was just to the west of it. Checked in and were assigned site #7 in the tent camping area. Visited with our neighbors, Fort Lewis college students, who were doing a river quality study. We headed out on one of the many bicycle trails in the city for the Lewis and Clark visitor center. We had lots of great views of the river and downtown from the trails. On the way back from the visitors center we stopped at Wal-mart for supplies. We just had to go to the DQ for a blizzard since it is just across the road from our campground. It's sprinkling again as we return to the tent for a couple hours of reading before falling asleep. The rain came down hard for several hours overnight and was still raining lightly as we headed to Subway for breakfast. What to do? We paid for another night and headed to the local library to do some route planning for our ride to Glacier National Park. We used the library computer and Ride with GPS to come up with some alterative routes. Now we will have to see how all this planning shakes out in the days to come. Dee checked on her dad again and he is recovering just fine. We returned to the campground and stopped at the laundry room (TV inside) to catch up on the news and weather. We just heard the road to the sun highway will not open until at least the 15th of June, today is the 11th. Based on this information we now plan to do the southern route into the park. Everything is looking good. The trikes are loaded and covered in case of overnight rains. Can't wait for tomorrow's ride toward the park.