Today:
Libby, MT to Sandpoint, Idaho (95ish miles)
currently in Clark Fork, ID

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This morning started really tough. With lots of wind, tired legs, and beginning to that mental calculation of exactly how bad things have to get before I can justify just calling it quits (assuming my bike suddenly fails - how expensive does the repair have to be in order to not fix it?). Very much like how at the end of term you start looking at fast moving cars as solutions. ('if i step in front of that car then I don't have to write anymore exams or even study for them! Probably only get a broken arm and some cracked ribs!)

Then things got better! Can't really explain it - the wind calmed down, the clouds cleared up, and I just cheered up. Didn't even require a diner breakfast.

Also met Jim, an elderly Irish gentleman, who is making his way from New York to Anacortes.

Oh and I realized I never put in my favorite (as in, most horrifying) Dru quote.
(Dru was the crazy woman who tried to make me cycle Monument Valley).
We're eating dinner and I'm not really listening to her very much as she goes on and on about the various men in her life. Then she goes. "So there we were at dinner and I order a nice bottle of wine but can't finish it. I don't want it to go to waste and I tell him to finish it. He doesn't want to, but I pressure him until he finally does. It was an okay date, but he was normal then. The next time I saw him he had lost his job and house."
She thinks for a bit.
"I'll tell you one thing. that's the last time I make a recovering alcoholic drink."