{"id":238,"date":"2018-07-07T00:02:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T04:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/?p=238"},"modified":"2018-07-07T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T23:46:09","slug":"day_8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/2018\/07\/07\/day_8\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 8: Alberton to Missoula, Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was a relatively short day of pedaling, slightly more than 40 miles.\u00a0 One problem that I have biking in Montana is that there are relatively few towns and motels.\u00a0 The choice today was 40 miles to Missoula or 130 miles to Lincoln, Montana.<\/p>\n

The last time I biked across the country I had the same problem in Montana; finding places to stop at reasonable distances.\u00a0 Once on the last trip we just couldn\u2019t make it to the next town because the distance was too far.\u00a0 We saw a clearing just off the road.\u00a0 It was besides some train tracks, but the tracks did not look very used.\u00a0 We set up our tents, had some food and went to sleep.\u00a0 In the middle of the night the ground started to shake.\u00a0 It felt like an earthquake was happening.\u00a0 Then a huge roaring noise filled the air as a giant train screamed by on the tracks.\u00a0 I was too petrified to even open my tent flap.<\/p>\n

The motel in Alberton was a bit like this story.\u00a0 All the rooms looked at the Clark Fork River.\u00a0 Just on the other bank of the river were train tracks.\u00a0 These tracks were used more than the tracks I camped beside years earlier, but the result was the same.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get a lot of sleep even though the surroundings were quite beautiful, and the motel\u2019s restaurant served a great steak dinner.<\/p>\n