Arlee, Montana!!

This morning we woke up at 5:30 and got ready for our 75 mile bike ride to Arlee, Montana!  When I got up I had to check on the front tire of my bike to make sure that it was still aired up since I got 5 flats yesterday!!  It was good but I noticed I had a whole in the side wall.  I asked Fred, our project manager, if he thought I needed to buy a new tire or if I could just keep riding on it!  It said even though he knows I don’t want to I probably should buy a new one to avoid any other problems later in the trip.  But I didn’t have a tire so I had to come up with a quick fix.  And that was to put a folded up dollar bill in my tire between the tub to cover up the hole.  I am told it is supposed to work and it is tougher then the tire itself but I have my doubts.  We will have to see how it holds up on the ride today.  When we got on our bikes to start our ride we were welcomed to a beautiful sunny morning sky.  The scenery of Montana was absolutely beautiful and we could see the sun shining off the peaks of the mountains that surrounded us!  We also had the pleasure of biking alongside of a river during our ride!  It has just been incredible the scenery we have been surrounded by and it is by far better than Indiana!!  Overall the ride was amazing and the crew and cyclist just kicked some butt today.  We were flying through the ride and everything was running smoothly.  I am just so impressed on how well we are all working together as a team in just two short weeks.  We beat the rack point and made the easy ride into Arlee at 12:30. Surprising the dollar bill patch worked and I got no flats during the ride!!  Lodging for the night is at Arlee High School which is located on an Indian Reservation!  For most of us it was our first time on a Reservation so we were excited!  But since we kicked butt on the bike today we had a few hours of free time before our sponsored dinner.  Some took naps, others cleaned bikes, and some, like myself played some basketball!  It’s amazing the energy we still have to play basketball after a 75 mile ride, but it just shows how good of shape we are all getting in!  We had a pizza sponsored dinner at 5 that was awesome!  Thanks again to all our great sponsors and supporters! This trip would not be possible without all of you!  After dinner we had a little surprise for two of the guys on the team!  It was Derrick Bassaoud’s birthday today and Axel Holm’s birthday tomorrow!  So we bought them a little cake and sang happy birthday to them!!  After that we had some more free time!  Some relaxed while others went out and explored the small town of Arlee.  I was one that went an explored.  When we did we found out that all they had was a high school, gas station, and a bar and grill in the town.  So we stopped by the bar and grill and played some pool until we went back to lodging for bed!!  Another great amazing day on the Journey of Hope!