Rest day in Butte, Montana

It rained much of the night and there was lightning as well. The lightning appeared to be within 5 miles of us. At one point, the rain was coming down real hard and as it turns out, it was hail and or sleet. I know because the sleet or hail could be found around the outside of my tent.

It was raining in the morning and I needed to use the restroom, so I put on my rain pants and jacket and put on my hydrosocks and sandals. I brought my powerstrip and charged my devices as I washed my softshell jackets. Afterwards, I sprayed them with Nikwax to keep them waterproof.

I took a taxi into town and had them take me to the public library. I asked the driver about places to eat, and he said there is a new place on the corner. It is a chain restaurant called Pita Pocket. I ordered steak and eggs, and I thought they told me to have a seat. I was waiting for awhile until I asked and was told to get in line to have the clerk make a personalized pita pocket kind of like at Chipotle. It was very big and tasty.

I went over to the library and started picking photos to email to Lorraine. I was there from 1:00 p.m. until closing at 5:00 p.m. One of the computer web surfers was watching music videos and muttering to himself, so much so that two separate librarians came over to ask him if he knew he was talking to himself.

I went back to the Pita Pocket and had a gyro pocket, and then I called for a taxi. I met Justin from England, who is starting with us tomorrow.

I asked Frank the mechanic to check out my brakes because when I pulled the levers, they almost hit my hand grips. He adjusted the calipers so that they were equidistant from the brake pads. He said the pads were ok. I also had him check my chain and he said it is still good, but we should change it a little earlier than needed to protect the cassette. He said the rear tire still looks good. He said wearing off of the knobs is not an indicator of when it needs to be replaced, it is the base that is most important.

I did some journaling and some organizing. We ride tomorrow, and Harry from the Netherlands will ride on the paved section.