Ennis to West Yellowstone

70 miles. Friends to perk us up.

Oh, headwinds, will you ever. go. away?

We rode in a light, manageable headwind until about 1, and then the wrath hit us again. I thought McKinley was going to have a break down, so I prepared myself to keep my sanity; only one break down at a time. We take turns having rough moments, and since, for some reason I wasn't losing my shit, I decided I'd pull us all day if I had to. So I stayed up front and she rode my draft for a while.

We took a break and McKinley found a cell phone in a public bathroom. So she called the person labeled "dad" in the call log to say she found the lost phone. I told her that for doing a good deed, the wind would stop.

A few more miles down the road, we  pulled over in campground/lodge to regroup, and luckily, Pete and Lauren came rolling in a few minutes later. Hooray! Mentally, we were saved! They were exactly the company we needed. Everyone is feeling just as defeated and frustrated from fighting these brutal winds with little reward, so we laughed and commiserated.

After a dose of ice cream, we all left together and laughed all the way to town. Oh, and the winds changed direction and gave us a little push. McKinley's good act, indeed, came with reward.

Montana sure is beautiful, but finally the landscape closed in on us and became even more magical. It changed from a dusty, expansive land of woody, brushy plants, to enormous, old growth forests along the Madison River. Trees! Trees to block the wind! I sure hope this is foreshadowing of Wyoming. I didn't realize that the unchanging landscape had become monotonous until we were treated to something new.

We finally pulled into town at 10 pm, exhausted and starving. I was the last person to receive my meal, and the first to finish. I ate a large pulled chicken sandwich, baked beans, potato salad, 2 pickles, and drank a beer. And then we had large brownie sundaes at DQ.

This was the best end to what started as a shitty day. If we didn't run into Pete and Lauren, we probably wouldn't have made it to town. Cheers to happy endings.