David Freeze: Oversleeping makes the day shorter

Published 12:05 am Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Editor’s note: Salisbury native David Freeze is cycling from Anacortes, Washington, to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Post is chronicling each day of his ride. Contact him at david.freeze@ctc.net.

To start with, I overslept by about 40 minutes Tuesday morning. They almost never happens.

When it did, and knowing the challenges for the next couple of days, I decided to make this one a short riding day at 50 miles.

I was in Wolf Point, Montana, and it felt good to have time to do some things in the afternoon. I planned to take some stuff to the post office after writing this and send it home, the first package of about three for the trip.

I have now been on the road for 16 days.

My evening at Glasgow in the La Casa Motel was wonderful. You may be concerned why I had four beds. No, it is not because a few of my ex-wives tracked me down. The owners of the motel let me have the last room on the ground floor because it would have been hard to take the bike upstairs.

I went to bed early after the daylong battle with the headwinds Monday but maybe should have gone earlier yet.

I got up to find that my cellphone seemed to be locked up, and I struggled with it all morning until it appears to be working.

Early Tuesday, another headwind seemed to be developing but gradually the wind turned around to my back as I passed by the little towns on U.S. 2.

The first town was Nashua, but I didn’t see a store and there was no need to stop. Then the same thing with Frazer.

Oswego looked to be a sure bet, but this was another town with nothing appealing from the road. So essentially nothing for 50 miles of riding except for two interesting cyclist encounters.

The first was Chris Rea, who was pedaling west toward San Francisco but had some diversions planned after reaching Glacier National Park. Chris’ girlfriend was going to join him as they toured other nearby parks.

Chris graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York and two days later, he headed west on his bike.

Later, I met Tarryn Wickins from South Africa and Bastien Tren Hoste from Belgium. They were following the Northern Tier route west.

Tarryn ran the London Marathon and wants to run New York City. I told her that I had done them also and I hope she can get into NYC soon.

Tarryn and Bastien have 40 days to finish their cycling so they can go back to work in London.

I found out Tuesday that Glasgow had an Army airfield used for B-17 bomber training during World War ll that became an Air Force base later and was used through the Vietnam War. Glasgow is another of the Hi-Line towns along the main rail line.

Wolf Point was my home for Tuesday night. Every year in July, the town has a wild horse stampede.

The town borders on the Missouri River. I planned to head over and see it.

The local rodeo is the oldest one in Montana.

The town is called Wolf Point because fur trappers killed several hundred wolves and stacked their frozen carcasses near the water. Men on a steamboat saw them and the name stuck.

I would spend some time planning later Tuesday, hoping to finalize a good bit of the route to cycle down to Rapid City, South Dakota.

All three cyclists that I met this morning said I would not miss much in North Dakota by doing this and, in fact, Tarryn and Bastien had thought about doing the same thing but thought they would run out of time. I might, too, but I am going to give it a shot. All three said to make sure that I see the Teddy Roosevelt National Park near Medora, North Dakota, before heading south.

Albertson’s seems to be the main grocery store chain in the area, and gas prices have declined into the low $2.30s.

With that, I will get busy and get ready for Wednesday. I hope to make the ride to Glendive, a route deemed to be quite hilly by one group and not so bad by another cyclist.

Either way, it will be a long day and I plan to be out early. Tonight should be my last in Montana.

Thanks to two more sponsors for backing me again. Accelerate Therapy and Performance and Leonard Wood have helped make the trip possible.

Back Thursday after another challenging day. The mosquitoes left me mostly alone Tuesday, and I hope for the same today.

I’m glad you are riding along!