Pippus Brothers Bike Trip (Part 5): Havre Home/Observations

The last day of riding was fairly uneventful.  Lenny and I split up at Harlem, Montana.  He went north and I went east.  Other than being sort of cold and being very happy to be home, there is not really much to say about this day.  So, let me end with a few final observations......

1.  I wish I had a better "glasses breaking story".... like instead of running over them myself that I had broken them in some biker bar brawl.  However, since the only bar that we went to was the gas bar, it was significantly harder to start a fight there.....

Me: "Hey buddy, what do you think about ethanol?"

Buddy:  "I hate the stuff!  It gums up carburetors and making it causes more damage to the environment that it saves"

Me:  "Oh ya????  What don't you try coming over here and saying that?   Huh, punk!!??   Huh????????"

I tried.... but it doesn't work.

2.  You can get some really cheap hotels if you just look for them.  Lenny was the man for this job.  Most places we stayed were under $75 for the two of us AND they usually included a continental breakfast of some sort.  Sometimes it was only toast and fruit, but it was something.  Now, many of them did have a very funny smell..... some of them had unidentifiable stains on the carpet (and a few on the bedspread) but overall they served the purpose.  Sari and I are never paying $120/night for a room again!!!!  :)

3.  Riding a bike changes things.  You smell the clover in field as you go by.  You feel the change in temperature as you drive from the warm plains into the cooler air of the valley.  You experience the trip more because you are not sitting in a box of steel and glass.  The biggest difference though...... people talk to you!   I am not sure why that is but they do.  From an older lady in the Wal-mart parking lot in Miles City ("You boys are a long way from home") to a big Harley biker dude in Rocker ("You guys are riding those metric bikes across the state??? Cool!!!" - turns out he had a ton of vintage bikes that he was restoring - An Indian, a BSA, etc.  Interesting guy).  I am not sure what it is but like Lenny said, "You could pull into a gas station on the interstate in a mini-van 3046743967 times and no one would say a word to you.  Ride in on a bike - any sort of bike - and suddenly everyone wants to know where you came from, where you are going and how long you are on the road".  It is weird, but true.  (And carloads of girls don't generally scream at mini-van drivers either.... just saying).

4.  Gas station hot dogs are gross!!  They are even worse at 12:30 at night, when they are 1/2 cooked and cold.  This is not an experience that I had, but I observed it.  Lenny has an odd attraction to late night gas station hot dogs.  Years ago when we went to a NASCAR race in Charlotte, North Carolina he bought one that was glowing red inside and he ate it (said it was good).  The one he got in Belgrade on this trip..... not so good!!!   Who would have guessed that though???  The thing has only been spinning on those rollers for 36970467 days (it was so shriveled up that it looked like a balloon with 1/2 the air taken out.  Fortunately, I think it also tasted like rubber so at least the experience was consistent).  Late night runs to the nearest gas station were a nightly occurrence on our trip because generally we ate breakfast, skipped lunch and then had a big supper.  So by midnight or so your body starts screaming for something.  Mine never screamed loud enough to make me eat a gas station hot dog though and I am not sure that it ever will. 

5.   It is nice that I get to do these trips with my brother. This is our third year now and each trip has been different, filled with challenges and fun.  We will have some good memories when we are 82 (if we live that long).  The credit for this has to go to our wives who graciously allow us to blow family holiday time and money on this silliness.  Sari and I have had a lot of unexpected expenses this past summer and so I (several times) offered to cancel the trip and stay home.  Each time she said, "No - you are going!"   Now, that tells you not only how nice she is but also how big the insurance policy on me is.  I think she was banking on the fact that Lenny and I would do something really dumb and she would cash in.  Unfortunately, while we did lots of dumb things, no cheque was paid out.  Sorry, Sari!  We will try harder next time.

6.  In the past, whenever something has gone wrong in our lives, Sari has said, "Well, it will be an adventure!"   Usually, I HATE when she says that!!!   It just makes me mad!!!!  But you know what???? It is really true.  Had Lenny and I left home and got back with no mishaps then we would not have many stories to tell.  Like life in general, the stories come mostly from the unplanned parts.  Like it or not at the time, those are the things you will remember and sometimes even laugh about later.

In the end, I think Chris Hadfield would have been proud of us.  We were good astronauts who kept solving the next problem and got ourselves home (see the first post of this series if that made no sense to you).  We had some help along the way (human and other I would say) but we made it.

I am already looking forward to next year's trip!