Malta Mt to Glascow Mt.

I had to wonder what the M-ettes are at Malta High.

When I first saw t5his store I was all excited about checking it out, but of course it was closed.

There were 2 of these extra extra wide loads on route 2 yesterdy. They were some sort of buildings that took up most of the berm on the right and half the left lane as well. There were 3 warning vehicles that let you know what was coming.

I rode by several roadside/field burns of at least 10 acres each. You could see where the fires had been put out by fire crews. From talking to some locals apparently somebody was shootong roman candles into the side ditches along a 20 mile stretch of route 2 starting several fires.

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It is 75 miles from Malta to Glascow and at least for me it was mosquito gauntlet alley. As I write this I have 50+ bites on legs/arms and the worst is my back which is like one big red rash of bites. I had used a bunch of Deet and OFF on arms/legs they were only partially successful in stopping bites. What I was not aware of was that my back was getting bit thru the mesh back of the bike seat. I did not spray repellant on back and am paying for it today. These Montana mosquitoes are tough smart bastards and Calamine lotion the day after only does so much.

Actually as I was leaving Malta yesterday morn a lady in the grocery store parking lot asked me what direction I was heading. When I said "east" she said "look out, you are heading towards Saco , the mosquito capitol of the world". I said "how can they be worse than they are here?" and she said, "They are not so bad around here because we have been spraying, the mosquitoes here are the rejects from Saco. In fact I have a brother in law in Pennsylvania who would not believe how bad mosquitoes are around here , so we flew him out for a week a couple of years ago, we have not heard from him since".

There were places yesterday that I had to take off my glasses because the mosquitoes kept getting caught between the lenses and my eyes. The only relief was when I was traveling 15 mph or more but there was a 10 mph head wind and several good sized hills so there was a lot of under 15 mph speed.
I have a feeling that mosquitoes will be a big factor in my bike life for quite awhile. So far I have left a trail of fat dumb and happy critters all over Montana . I am sure that I am big news on the mosquito network and there are a bunch of them licking their chops down the road in eastern Montana, North and South Dakota and probably all the way to Washington DC. I can hear them now "Come one come all, Bring the whole family, It is Christmas and Thanksgiving in July, this guy is like a slow moving Golden Corral Chuck Wagon and he is heading your way. There is a lot to like about this bicyleist, so enjoy".

Son of a bitch!