Friday, July 13th: Butte, MT or … Friday the 13th

Dogs like me … are we superstitious? Do we get crazy when we see a black cat?  Me, I’m a little bit scared of today. They are expecting thunderstorms in the afternoon and it being the 13^th…and Friday!

We leave the Travelodge early enough – this time dark clouds are up in the sky – way in the distance. My boss has it all figured out (and that for Friday the 13^th): we are going on the frontage roads today – as long as possible. She had a good internet study yesterday and wrote it down on her Q-sheet. Anyways – going on the interstate with a road work sign is not my thing either! Especially if we have to cycle in one lane on the upcoming traffic lanes… No way! Town is still a bit sleepy, but people are already driving on the frontage road. Good. There is also a car museum in this town. As the town buildings fade, we suddenly stumble upon a whitetail deer – next to the road. I believe it saw us before we saw it! The road seems to go slightly uphill, but my boss finds the riding going harder every second. And me – I have the feeling I’m getting closer to the road… what’s happening???? 

A flat tire! There you have it: proof of Friday the 13^th!

I get all nervous – what if my human cannot fix this? Luckily it’s the front wheel. I get to sit along the road, while she takes out her repair tools and the extra inner tube. Now what caused this leak? A tiny 1 cm long very thin iron sting… was it from the snakes or was it from the door they were repairing at the motel?

 Shoot… this thing is hard to get out of the tire. Soon it looks as if my human went back to the Stone Age as she grabs a rock and begins to hit it in the tire. Luckily she had some nails on her fingers which are smaller than mine to grab that tiny little evil thing. Out you go! Now comes the part of putting the new tube in and making sure the tire gets back on … the good way. I hear her rumbling a bit – I also think the sight of her bend over with her head between her legs is not so pleasing for the passing cars! And they do pass! Not one stops over. But – sitting down and working like that helped. The tire is back on! Let’s hope there are no other evil iron thorns any more in the tire. All the luggage comes back on the Sweet Machine and soon after that we are cycling again – waiting for it to happen again. But no! Perfect job! And those couple of rain drops… it was only a couple of them!

Now some black birds are getting angry we cycle through their terrain: they are only 3meter from my head and I want to jump out the bag and tell them for good that we have no evil minds, but my human just yells at them. A duck sitting in the pond next to the road suddenly lifts off – scared of my human singing!

What’s that – a car coming up from the other direction slows down, stops, and a window is being opened. A black dog sticks it head out and barks out loud: I give them a good response and he soon is very quiet. The driver – an older woman – now sticks out her head and asks us if we had seen a cane along the road? A what? A cane! No – no walking sticks… She had put it on top of the car when she got in, and forgot about it while driving away! Poor woman.

The frontage road suddenly came to a stop: go left or right? That wasn’t on Google Maps! In the distance some people were working and we went over to ask: just go one mile that way and then turn left where the small shop is and head to Montana 1. Then a right turn and that will bring you to the Interstate. The shop in the outskirts of Anaconda was a welcome thing: Gatorade and something to munch, while telling about the travel and asking how things were here in this town.

With new energy we headed out to the Interstate: what a noise again! There’s our uphill and there’s the headwind – getting stronger now. The sun was almost gone – nothing but clouds covering the sky. Slow it goes, but we get there – but I wonder how she will do tomorrow on the big climb out of Butte? Now comes the second part of her internet investigation. Boy – I wished she hadn’t done that. Ten miles out of Butte we get on this side road again – but this is a bumpy ride: crevasses in the road and bubbles under the pavement. My head just bounces in every direction and I believe the but of my boss does not like this either. But there is less traffic. It rolls and turns and crosses the railroad – watch out there is a train coming and you have to stop before crossing the tracks – wave!!! A last steep hill up. This is definitely not the most scenic way to get into Butte, along old worn out buildings. Two traffic lights later we smile again: the sign of the KOA! Yeah… we”ve done it again!

Butte is an old mining town – quite big. My woman takes a tour with the historic trolley and she learned all about the Lady of the Rockies, the copper mine and the Bad Boys, the buildings being buried, the amusement park being burned down, the red light district, the mine disaster killing 150 persons, the 300 birds being killed by the water in the pit, the 29 neighborhoods living next to each other (The Italians, the Irish, the Spanish, the Finnish …), the Folk Festival this weekend and Evil Knievel days in August. It was a nice tour. 

The pink ladies - a house for JD?

So, Friday the 13^th … it is not over yet… but are we superstitious are not?

Levi Leipheimer was born here