Kiki Bikes Across America

Archive for July 30th, 2009

Thursday, July 30th – Hanging out in Missoula

We decided to hang out and relax in Missoula and try to let our bodies recoup a bit – my back and shoulders were killing me so I was definitely looking for a day off.

I got up around 7:30 or 8:00 and Craig was packing up to head out. He and Brent went and grabbed breakfast downtown somewhere and then Craig went off to continue riding on his own. Chase and I planned to hang around town for another day.

I made an appointment at a chiropractor’s here in town and went and saw her at 10am and then I ventured off on my bike to explore the University of Montana’s campus as well as a store called Rockin Rudy’s which had all sorts of odds and ends…pretty neat place. I wound up buying a T-shirt that says “My ass is on vacation… Missoula, Montana” – couldn’t resist that. Even though I’m not really on vacation because pedaling across the country is hard work and requires a lot of endurance and calories!

I then went back to the ACA and met Chase there and then we ran and did a quick Walmart run – forgot to buy batteries for the flip video camera and backup for the GPS in case the solar panel runs out of juice. Afterwards, we biked down to 1st street to Free Cycles and did a small informal class there before trying to build bikes for fun. We were there all day messing around with bikes that were donated, trashed, scrapped, etc. We had to look for all the parts to build a bike from the frame up – it was a little frustrating since it was sometimes hard to find stuff that worked together, but it was a pretty cool place nonetheless and with enough time, you can definitely build a decent bike for free.

After working at Free Cycles all day, we left about 7:30 and went down to Taco del Sol to grab a bite to eat. We got burritos and then headed to check out REI (the smallest one in the country, I believe)… it was still neat though. I did an exchange and then we wound up sitting outside REI for 2.5 hours talking about all sorts of stuff and I got us ice cream from Albertson’s for $1/ice cream cookie – amazing! It was tasty!

Finally, we headed back to Brent’s to crash for the night – but only after doing more journal updates and such. Finally, I went to sleep around 1am and called it a night.

Tomorrow we’re heading off for a half day of biking to get over Lolo pass and then the rest of the riding should be relatively flat or downhill-ish until we reach Portland (so we’ve been told anyway)!