Helena - Townsend
Time Traveled: 4 hrs 15 mins
Distance: 38.66 miles
Food Eaten: mocha, raspberry white chocolate chip scone, cookie, chocolate covered cranberries, apple, dates, pluot, trail mix, huckleberry freezie, apple juice, beer, fried halibut, onion rings, tarter sauce & ketchup
The sun was warm and shining when we rolled out of Helena on the very uninspiring Highway 287, but we were in no way planning on having such a problem with headwinds. What would have normally taken us around 2 hours took us over 3 1/2. At one point we were pedaling to get down a steep downhill.
Eventually, we pushed through into Townsend. Luckily for us the campground was at the very beginning of town and it was also free with no camp host. Unfortunately that meant it was up to us to find our own fire wood so we could start a fire for the night will surely be a cold one.
After we ate, we went to the grocery store in search of wood. The check out lady said that they didn't have any, then immediately wen on a campaign to find us some. All her efforts were fruitless however, and we left the store empty handed.
A woman who appeared to be an elderly, LDS missionary followed us out and told us to follow her two blocks down the road. Soon we arrived at a man's house who had a wood stove and a large supply of wood. He cut some up for us and gave it to us for free.
The wood was piled up in Joe's trailer and taken back to camp. As I was walking to the bathroom I walked past an older couple truck top camper. The elderly man stuck his head out of the door and with a twinkling smile let me know that supper was ready. I told him that we just barely ate and then we started talking for quite a long time before Joe wondered where I was and came over.
The couple seemed to be professional travelers from Arizona. They were probably in their early 60's and as sweet and cute as can be. The man came over later when we had a fire and chatted with us for a very long time. His face wore a perpetual smile and I felt as though he would never loose his zest and love for life.
Once again, we forgot to get names or a picture from this sweet couple. We really need to work on that.
