While doing my morning check on the bike, I discovered a broken bolt on the seatpost clamp. It left my seat and Sandy's handlebars free to swing back and forth, and the bike couldn't be ridden. But Missoula is only the second town on our route so far with a bike shop (Walla Walla was the other), and in fact there are a half dozen, including one only a block and a half from our motel. It didn't open until 9, so we hunted for a place to have breakfast, and stumbled across the Oxford Saloon. They not only offered breakfast, but were open at that hour. In fact, the place has been continuously open 24 hours a day since 1883, except one time in the '30's when there was a big fire in downtown Missoula. The bike shop was a little hole in the wall, and while we strolled around town for half an hour, the owner fixed our bike with a new part, very inexpensively. We had thought we might be stuck in town for a while, but we were on our way after a brief shopping stop for needed supplies. And by the time we were riding, the temperature had risen from its morning low of 39 to the high 50's.
The first 14 miles retraced our route from yesterday, along busy U. S. 12 to Lolo. We then continued down the Bitterroot valley on a bike path which had been built since we were here before, in 2001. The path took us all the rest of the 49 miles to Hamilton.
The rain we had two days ago left fresh snow on all the high ridges of the Bitterroot Mountains to our right all day, which made the scenery especially beautiful.
The route was nearly level, and the day was mostly sunny, so when we reached Hamilton we felt good and it was still only mid-afternoon. We were tempted to continue for another 20 miles to the next town, but that would have made us tackle a 7000' mountain pass late tomorrow when we were tired instead of early the next day when we were fresh. So here we are in Hamilton, where we enjoyed a good barbecue dinner. Alas, the motel's hot tub is closed for non-compliance with handicapped accessibility. I guess that's reasonable, but a soak would have felt good.
Pictures: The Oxford Saloon, Sandy in the Oxford Saloon, and Sandy studying the route map with the Bitterroot valley and a snowy peak behind her.
Glad to hear that you were in an area that had parts for your bike and could get it fixed in good timing and inexpensively. The Saloon looked neat. The area looks beautiful!
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