From the Mountains, to the Praries....

...to the Oceans, white with...oh, hold on, not so fast. I dont really want this to be the chronicles of the misfortunes of nancy & chris but we had some surprises and they were not all good! First, nf's bulge...or, more accurately, her tire's bulge. The bike shop didn't have a suitable replacement tire so we ordered one from Bike Tires Direct in Portland, OR, next day air. Got the tire on tuesday afternoon, put it on, and headed out in the rain. Whitefish was great but we had spent 4 nights there and it was (past?) time to move on. We had a short day. Finally we were off to Glacier National Park! They restrict bike travel on "going to the sun highway" so we zoomed 32 miles by 11 am then snacked, visited, and cruised to our campground. Next morning we were on the road by 6 in order to make the top by 11. First our fingers were frozen so we stopped to put on gloves. Next, nancy sees a bear grazing next to the road. We have alternative stradegies as to how to proceed... Nancy and most of her bike are inside the roadside restroom (and i'm thinking, i'm the one carrying all the food...) when i flag down the first car we have seen for 10 minutes. I ask the lady passenger if they will escort us by driving between us and the bear. She puts down her phone/camera long enough to say yes so we bike along side. The bear goes into the woods as all good bears should. After the car drives away, my behaviorially observant wife says, he (the driver) didn't seem to be that into it. Be that as it may the rest of the climb went fine. It was hard, but not as hard as Washington Pass, the first one we did in the Cascades. However, during the descent, I had a blowout...my tire, that is!!! Some bikers reading this may have heard of people using their brakes too much, the rims heating up, and the tire exploding. Well, I'm here to tell you it can happen and it happened to me! I didn't die, though you probably figured that out. Actually, I was stopped in a scenic overlook when my front tire went BANG!!! (the reason my rim overheated is a bit complicated but if you buy me a beer I'll explain it to you). The tube had a 3 inch split and the tire sidewall seperated from the bead. I tried to fix it with duct tape and I did roll slowly down hill for a couple of miles but it was Battle of the Bulge redux. I hitched a ride to the next campground and tried to identify an address for another new tire to be sent. The details are a bit tedious but eventually, eventually FedEx delivered 2 tires (we thought we should have a spare!) to me care of a grocery store outside of the park. After that, things have been going well. We biked to Canada and went to Waterton Park. We have left the Rockies and are now on the plains, in Cut Bank, MT! We rode 73 miles today! We've met some interesting people and are having a great time. With our spare tire we are assured not to need it!