Day 23: Wolf Point, MT to Circle, MT

We've been pretty fortunate for a while now that we've either had free wi-fi or could get a signal via our AT&T MiFi.  So we're optimistic that we may have internet access most of the time from here on out.  So we may be posting almost daily from now on.

Alea had 55 miles of rolling hills from Wolf Point to Circle, as the highway transected ridge after ridge pretty much the whole way.  There was a pretty good sidewind or quartering tailwind for most of the way and very narrow shoulders.  But I doubt if there were more than a few dozen vehicles per hour headed in her direction, so it was a good day for her.  It helped a lot that it was finally sunny again, and in the 60s and 70s during most of her riding.

Alea crosses the Missouri River just south of Wolf Point, MT.

Early in the afternoon I had stopped atop one of the ridges to provide a food stop for Alea.  It turned out that I had stopped at the entrance to a small cemetery, which looked to be an ideal place to let Lana out for a walk.  Wrong.  Just as we got to the cemetery entrance Lana discovered one of the tiny little cacti hidden in the grass.  And in trying to dislodge that first cactus from her paw she managed to find two more.  She did a lot of yelping before we got the last spine (out of a couple dozen) out of three of her four paws.  Her paws are still a little tender.

Cacti lurking in the grass.

I at first used Lana's leash to try to remove the cacti.  Luckily I had
a pair of leather gloves that were much more effective for the job.

A view from one ridgeline, with the next ridgeline in the distance.

Shortly after Lana's "punctures," Alea had the first flat tire of our trip, after more than 1,200 miles.  Fortunately, it started going flat just after our rest stop (and may have been caused by a cactus spine), so she turned around and we fixed it together using the supplies in the bike supplies drawer of our drawer pedestal and she was on the road again in just a few minutes.

Our first flat tire - caused by a thorn or cactus spine.

We're staying at Horse Creek Trailer Court and RV Camping ($10, power) in Circle, MT.  When the owner (John Howell) first saw our setup he chuckled and told us that he would never own a teardrop because they are too claustrophobic.  By the time we had stopped chatting with him he had changed his mind about that.  And he was nice enough to charge us the tent camping rate.