First Day of Summer!!

Today was the first day of the Summer Season!!  We are very excited about the Summer Season because that means we will be seeing more of the sun!!  After a great day off in Missoula everyone was feeling well rested and ready to start the day!!  We had an 80 mile trip to Philipsburg, MT with the sun shining on our smiling faces!  The first 60 miles was full or green rolling hills, a river flowing right besides us, and mountain ranges all around us!!  The scenery has been and continues to be absolutely beautiful!  We had our normal lunch of two meat one cheese with 20 miles to go.  But that’s when the riding started to become way more difficult.  After lunch a 20 MPH headwind started blowing right into our face.  The ride became mentally tough with us pedaling as hard as we could while not getting very far.  But as we turned a corner in the road we saw this beautiful river running parallel with the road off into the distance into a mountain of incredible stature.  You could also see the city of Philipsburg off in the distance.  Instantly the team moral spike high with the incredible view and the ride seemed to get easier instantly.  When we rode into town we all couldn’t help but feel that we just entered into a town straight out of an old western movie.  Old shops lined up both sides of the street, with only some of the roads being paved, and friendly people were walking all around.  We were told while here we had to visit the world’s largest and greatest candy shop that was called the Sweet Palace!!  So we quickly unpacked the vans and walked towards the candy shop so we could ruin our appetite for dinner.  When we walked into the Sweet Palace it felt like we just walked into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  Candy and chocolates covered the wall of both sides of the store!  They had 1,024 different types of candy from 26 different countries!!  We all looked like small kids running around trying to figure out what kind of candy we wanted.  I ended up buying a variety of both candy and chocolate.  It was all so amazing I almost bought extra to send home!  But after filling our stomachs with sweets we went to a sponsored dinner at the local Rotary Club.  The food consisted of baked beans, steak, and baby back ribs.  Both the food and the people that provided the food were amazing!  They all then invited us to the Summer Solstice Festival that they were having in town tonight!  So all of us went to it to talk to locals and try some samples of local food.  It was a lot of fun!!