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Out of New Town and on to Theodor Roosevelt National park, to Culbertson-MT, and finally to Wolf Point-MT. It has been a long long few days. So in the morning before leaving for new town we discovered that once again the van would not get out of park...so all of our gear was stuck at the high school until we got the van fixed again. So i packed everything that i would ever possibly need into my ginormous cammelback. I had my rain coat, camera, my hammock, a change of clothes, about 6 pounds of food, and of course 3 litters of water.... you know just in case the van didn't get fixed. The ride was outstanding we had the best weather, the hills and the scenery were all brand new and the ride was great and to top it off fir the last 15 miles we had a tail wind for the first time as strong as our normal head wind. So we made it to Roosevelt's National Park in no time and the last five miles were great because we were just cruising in the park and i got to ride past all of my Buffalo from Catalina! They were all over the park, and the ride was perfect. So we were all excited to be camping and enjoying the outdoors. Well, we toured the park and got ready for a night in the tents! So i set up my hammock and i thought i was preparing myself by setting up an old rain tarp just in case we got some rain, and i was pretty confident that my setup would keep me dry even in the heaviest of rains. So around 2:30am i wake up to a light drizzle and i make sure the tarp is on and secure and i was happy that i wasn't getting wet. About 30 minutes later it was raining pretty hard, and lightning in the background. It was really cool to be out in it and i was sure i was going to get through this. Well the wind picked up, and blew with hurricane force, it was so strong i am pretty sure i was parallel with the ground at some points in my hammock. The wind speed kept on increasing and i was starting to get nervous about my rain tarp. So far it was holding up and i was completely dry. then one gust came and it was so strong it ripped my rain tarp from the strap it was sewen on to. I immediately was drenched and I had no chance of fixing it in this storm. Since i was drenched already i took my time to make sure i had everything and i waddled my self to the Men's bathroom to find it empty so i hung everything up to drip dry and noticed i didn't have my Pillow that Karen gave to me. So i left the shelter of the bathroom to search for my pillow to no avail. On my way back i noticed all the tents that we set up for Bike and Builders were litterally flattend. everyone in the campsite seemed to have abandoned their tents for some sort of shelter. I began looking for them and found nearly everyone jammed pack in the girls bathroom. It still boggles my mind that everyone managed to cram themselves in one bathroom while the other was completely empty. I eventually returned to the men's bathroom to spend the rest of the night. Yup... I spent the night in a bathroom! yay for bike and build. oh and the ironic part of it was the park charged us for entry so these were the most expensive accommodations we have stayed in yet....and i was sleeping on the ground of a bathroom.

Anyway we all survived and the next morning i did find the pillow about 50 yards away in the brush. The morning was again perfect weather and we were back on the road. After helping to fix Bobby's 4 flats we were out of the park. Oh and we had to hop a fence because the buffalo were taking over the road to get out of the park. Well the day was really hot and long but we finally made it. I had been riding with Isaiah all day and the poor kid fell in the last 100 feet of an 85 mile day. He pulled up on his handle bars and it broke one of the bolts holding his handlebars to his bike and there was nothing he could do to recover because he was holding his handlebars and they were separate from his bike. He is ok now and is already eager to get back on his bike.

Today's ride was also long because of the headwind but its good to be done at such an early time.

Well i am off to get ice cream!

hope all is well and i will be finalizing the votes on the facial hair one week from today so get your votes in now!

observation of the day: Its frustrating to know that my mood is determined by which direction the wind is going...