Day 8 - Butte - Bozeman, MT

Well, today is a sad day for me. My BFF leaves tomorrow morning to head for home and back to work. Today was his last riding day - so he leaves with 864 miles and 30,260 feet of climbing under his belt. We were able to share the most amazing time together through Washington, Idaho and almost all of Montana - discovering some fun new places to come back to and so many memories to treasure. It seems the more we see the more we want to see - that's why we are together to taste all that life has to offer for us and to revel in it together - we are very blessed! Ok, before I can't see any more due to my blubbering, I better get to the events for today.

We left the hotel today and within the first 5 miles we started climbing, but not too crazy, at about mile 9 we began climbing Pipestone Pass at 6,418', so about 2.5 miles of climbing. It was incredible. So beautiful - I know how many times can you hear me say that? We crossed the Continental Divide today -- let me repeat - We CROSSED the Continental Divide today on our bicycles! How crazy cool is that? My dear nieces and nephews I want you to look that up so that when I ask you what the Continental Divide is you'll have an A+ answer! Incredible.

We had a fast decent down and we cruised! Ernie came along and wanted to chat with me and I wound up going down faster than I would have liked - I'm sure he was thinking it was poky since when we stopped talking within seconds he was GONE!

The weather was much like yesterday cool in the morning and then warm in the afternoon. I felt great today and we kicked it along - passing beautiful ranges and always surrounded by the mountains. Anyone want to run through the sprinklers?

We rode along Madison River and had lunch along it's banks in the black Ford Recreation area. It was so nice- we watched as people floated on down the river on rafts and tubs - some on their party flotilla's - we wished we could put our bikes on them and float along too. While watching the river there were really cool spots along it that I envisioned Craig and I picnicking - maybe even with a book or something - of course that would require us to be still - it's a nice thought - think we could do it?!

After lunch we had another 2.5 mile climb that we had to do which wasn't too bad then we headed into Bozeman about 16 miles away. We kept waiting to see a sign that welcomed us but wound up only getting this one. We had to stop as this is our youngest namesake - and we needed a picture. I've been thinking about them both a lot with Craig going home and how much I miss them, Zera and Bozeman. I was reminded of Boz a bit today as we passed skunk smells - the little munchkin decided to chase some deer and found a skunk just before we left. Craig will get to love up on them tomorrow and give them some hugs and squeezes from me too. (for some reason the pic isn't loading - I'll get it)

As we entered into Bozeman, just before our hotel we darted into the Dairy Queen and I got a yummy Raspberry slush and Craig got a blizzard - dee - lish! Paul(Australia) and Susan (Chicago) came in and joined us - we got to talk about the ride.