{"id":274,"date":"1988-07-09T05:39:00","date_gmt":"1988-07-09T05:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/?p=274"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:09:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:09:44","slug":"darby-mt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/darby-mt\/","title":{"rendered":"Darby, MT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I rode 11.5 miles out of Missoula before realizing that I had only $65 in my wallet. That was scary, given that the next large city (and thus ATM) was about 2 weeks away. In fact, some of the few First Interstate (my bank) branches didn’t have ATM machines. I could live like Steph and make $65 last, but it would be miserable. I turned around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mower ahead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On my way out of town, I spotted Alan. He confirmed that Debbie, Brian, Peter, and Diane had rented a car and gone up to Glacier. They were supposed to be back soon, but I wasn’t going to wait on the outside chance that I might see them. Instead, I sucked Alan’s wheel for the next few hours.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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I drafted Alan all day. He could maintian 20 mph on the flats for hours. I kept up, but it wasn’t easy. Did I mention that he smoked? Most likely, he took this picture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I related to Alan the story of how Stewart broke away from Stephanie because he was starting to like her. Alan told me that Stewart had expressed his sentiments more bluntly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Alan. We’ve probably pulled into a town for lunch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We stopped at the Tipi hostel in Darby, Montana. It was Saturday. The proprietress of the hostel was Jenny Sweet, who was 13 years old. She had started the hostel on their family’s farm when she was nine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Due to the turnaround at the beginning, I had logged 86 miles that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alan gave me tons of advice on the road ahead, which I eagerly took down in my journal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, July 10, 1988<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The next morning, Jenny took Alan and me to milk the goat. Jenny made it look easy. Actually, it was quite difficult to do. She must have had strong hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jenny Sweet milking the goat. The goat was very eager to be milked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alan giving it a try.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And me. It was hard to get anything at first; I was afraid of hurting the goat. Jenny told me that I had to dig in, and the goat didn’t seem to mind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The milk was used to feed her calf. It was all gone just 30 seconds after putting the bucket down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our rest room was in the barn. Regular sit-down toilet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alan left, but it being Sunday, I stayed over for a day of rest. There were no churches to my liking in town, only the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. There was a Seventh-day Adventist church in the next town, but it would have been too much work to get there. After all, I was resting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the shade of a pavilion at the city park, I met Norton Bell. Small world! He was a Western Wheeler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he left, I had a great time talking with the local children, showing them my bike and camera. The children outside of the big cities were fearless; no one ever told them not to talk to strangers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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My journal recorded the names of the children as Jolene Wilson, Crystal Leean Luna, Jeannie Wilson, Warren Wilson, Vince Luna, and Mondo Luna. Also, Sharie Wilson, their mother. They were staying with their grandmother, Martha Stogsdill. I can’t exactly match the pictures, but suspect that the taller girl here is Jolene, and the smaller is Crystal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Just hanging out in the park across from the gas station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I let the kids take some pictures, but am not posting most of them here, as they’re not the best.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This is Jenny’s father, Bill Sweet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I rode 11.5 miles out of Missoula before realizing that I had only $65 in my wallet. That was scary, given that the next large city (and thus ATM) was about 2 weeks away. In fact, some of the few First Interstate (my bank) branches didn’t have ATM machines. I could live like Steph and … Continue reading Darby, MT<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pididu.com\/wordpress\/bike1988\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}