Mosquitos!

Day 24: Chinook to Malta--70 miles

Milestone note: We have been 21 days in the saddle; the same as the Tour de France participants. But we've been half the distance that they go (although we may have spent as much time in the saddle as they do...)

When I started this trip, I figured that once we got past the Rocky Mountains, we would see nothing but wheat fields and every day would be the same. That's not true! We have moved from wheat and other crops to a very green, fertile river bottom with hay, sheep, cattle, horses, and our first crop of SUPER DUPER mosquitos!

Today's ride took us through another Indian Reservation--Fort Belknap. We stopped at the visitor's center there and learned a lot about the local Indians. It was very interesting! They also mentioned that we were headed into mosquito country--to watch out when we headed to Saco and Hinsdale. We thanked them, but didn't worry too much since we weren't going to see those towns until the next day.

Not 15 minutes afterward, we stopped to have a drink of water or something. We were swarmed by mosquitos! If you weren't moving, you were food. Our stops were punctuated with slaps, jumps, and cries of "Let's get moving!!!"

Our exposure to American Indians (they prefer to be called that rather than Native Americans) has been very enlightening. It occurred to us today that their culture was not specifically environmentalist--they were environmental in that they used the environment for everything it could give them and didn't waste anything at all. They were part of the living system. From that culture of being part of the earth's system, they have understandably had a difficult time being on reservations, etc. Today on the reservation, we again saw a lot of glass on the shoulder of the road. And just as in the last reservation, a car went by and a young American Indian man yelled "Boo" or something like that at us. (Of course, I nearly fell off my bike, but tried to maintain, baby.) Why is it like this? My theory is that there are many years of pent-up anger--some may be drowned in alcohol and some may come out as youthful pranks. But there it is, and should be acknowledged before they move on. The good news to me is that the American Indian cultures seem to have been moving on to working within the system to be successful rather than letting the system beat them down. They are becoming more successful and confident as the years go by, and I think they're allowing their true, innovative selves to flourish again. I think we'll see a difference in these reservations in the next 20 years. Especially in Montana, the reservations are in beautiful places with lots of natural resources, and that's encouraging.

To avoid mosquitos, we stopped at the school in Dodson and ae our lunch on the steps. We talked to the janitor and the superintendant. They were both very nice and we enjoyed our time without mosquitos! We then cycled the last 21 miles to Malta and found the GN Motel--a ways away from the railroad tracks AND the mosquitos! We were fortunate to find a place at all because there was a garden club convention in town--we got the last room available at our hotel and David got to carry our heavy bikes up to the 2nd floor! Let's see a Tour de France guy do THAT!!!