Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

Got up early to beat the heat but when Lorne opened the door to load the trailers he groaned, "It's raining." I called back, "Ya right. You're so full of it - that's not even funny." Sure enough, it had rained last night and was still drizzling. We decided to stall with breakfast at the Buffalo Cafe and let the roads dry out. Ran into a new friend, Hayes, on our way out - his company (Alpha Bar) is developing a new energy bar and he offered to mail some ahead for us. Woohoo!

Got off to a great start and 7 miles outside of Whitefish the dark clouds caught up with us. We could literally see a wall of rain coming toward us. By the time we pulled to the side of the road and Lorne threw a tarp over us, the skies opened and the buckets poured down. We could hear thunder in the distance as we struggled into our rain gear.  As we mounted up to tough it out, the first crack of lightning sounded like a gunshot overhead. We could see the strikes across the valley getting closer and you could smell the electricity in the air. I suggested we make a break for it and hustle back up the road to a barn we saw - either that or hop the fence and duck Into a chicken coop/she'd and wait out the storm. We were about to make a run for it when a truck slowed to a stop next to us and the driver signaled to ask if we were ok. Lorne gave him a thumbs up as lightning struck so close that our ears rung in the aftershock. The truck had started to pull away but stopped abruptly. We RAN for it and started tossing gear and bikes as fast as we could. Lightning continued to strike so close that when we all jumped into Reed's truck we just stared at each other in silence. We all agreed that was the closest we've been to a ground strike. Thank you, Reed, for stopping in spite of our "ok" signal!

If you followed the SPOT, you saw that we made excellent time this morning for about three miles as we entered Columbia Falls - where Reed so kindly dropped us off at the Coffee Traders. Sure enough, the skies cleared and the great Montana heat lamp started beating down. Thank you, Dennis, we had a favorable tailwind to keep us cool as we pulled into Ferndale. Base Camp is our home for the night - a couple allows cyclists to camp down on their property. Our little site is fenced (to keep bears out!) and has a hose and 1st class outhouse. Accommodations for the next few nights won't be as "luxurious" and I'm sure we'll be bathing in the frigid creek rather than a frigid hose! Haha

Until we meet again, peace and love,

Melani & Lorne