Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Day 16 (6/17): Butte, MT; 60 miles

Team Photos

Early morning rise…delicious crew chief breakfast…the usual. Said goodbye to little Philipsburg as we hit the highway. Today’s ride started off with a pretty sweet climb up a pass that I don’t know the name of. It was fun climbin up and up then seein the road up ahead hundreds of feet higher than we were. But the payoff was rockin…we came upon an incredible waterfall down a canyon that was gushing out of a hole in the side of the mountain. That same stream was flowing from the Georgetown Lake dam just a little up ahead…a breathtaking site. We stopped to take some pics at the lake with the snow-capped mountains in the background. Added coolness was some old mining cart lines following the stream…those guys were crazy back in the day. Rest of the ride into Butte went pretty smoothly with some more great scenery.

We lodged up at the (super-nice) YMCA and ate some Ezra-style lunch out front. After most of the guys made good use of the Y’s awesome pool facility – hot tub, waterslide…golden. After a little R&R we got ready to head to dinner and a friendship visit with the local Special Olympics folks.

Great turnout at the visit…met tons of new friends. I dined with Ellis and Kerry, a couple of total sweethearts. Elaine was hilarious, shushing everything I was trying to stay….and it was tough keeping up with Barb, who liked to always be on the move. We all dined on some awesome fried chicken, spaghetti, beans…a smattering of deliciousness. All too quickly we gathered for the group pic and said our goodbyes.

Got back to the Y and hung out for a little bit longer…most of the team was pretty beat and headed to bed but Pops, Farley, Ezra and I decided this was probably our only time ever in Butte and we had to seize it. Pops had been talking/hitting on one of the trainers earlier and we think she misunderstood him when he told her we were “bikers” because when we pulled up to the bar she had suggested…Dano’s…it wasn’t quite what we were expecting. But hey we were game and headed on in. The bartender, Kelly, was a cool cat with some good stories about Butte and his days on the road as a media uplink truck driver. We shot some pool with some locals and Ezra made friends with “Tree” and “Hurricane Katrina”…very free-spirited pair. We enjoyed a pitcher or two of Mandarin Hefeweizen…delicious…and rolled back home around midnight (with a late-night wendy’s run first, of course). Good times.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

YOU GOT SHUSHED- I LOVE IT!!!!!!!
MOM