day 70, Ennis, MT 53 MILES

Gorgeous weather plus beautiful scenery along the Madison River (the fly-fisherman's paradise) made for a great day of riding! We stopped at the Quake Lake visitor's center early in the day, where in 1959 a magnitude 7.2 earthquake triggered a massive rock slide which dammed the river. The rising waters of the newly created lake killed 28 people and injured and trapped many more.

Pulled into a truck weigh station, hoping the MT DOT guys would weigh us
(we've had many people inquire about how much weight we are carrying). The were willing if we could balance the bike on end! I estimate with us and all our gear plus the bike to be around 450 lbs! (that includes the Smokey the Bear plush doll /action figure that Stephanie picked up for our grandson Elijah).

From there it was easy cycling into Ennis, where our destination was the Riverside Hotel, which came highly recommended by our travel agent Amy. After a double scoop Huckleberry ice cream cone in town, I did some routine bike maintenance and sewed some souvenir patches on our panniers, which are looking so classy now that they may have to be retired and hung for display when we get home. stephanie opted for the nap, as it has been 7 days since our last hotel and real bed.

Met Carole and Dave again for dinner. Carole was quite daring and ordered the baked bean, pulled pork and BBQ sauce pizza - which she rated as very good! During the walk back to the hotel, we met several other west-bound cyclists just getting into town, including a young woman carrying a Ukulele although rumor has it she doesn't know how to play it.