June 30, 2003 Today is a rest day in Great Falls, MT. Great Falls is a town of about 60,000. It has a couple of colleges, has a lot of the national chain services and has done a reasonable job of maintaining its downtown area. It is fairly quiet except for 10th Avenue, and that is a zoo - it is route 200, a main East, West route through this area. The bike was in the shop today for a little maintenance. We had a new drive chain installed (It seems that hauling the trailer eats chains), wheels trued and some shifting adjustments made. We head into the mountains tomorrow, and we want the bike to perform as well as possible. The bike shop is part of a larger sporting goods and outdoor store called Scheels. Most of their work is on mountain bikes, but since our drive train is mostly mountain bike, we felt we were in good hands. We took a trip out to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center this morning. This facility is run by the Forest Service, and is well done. Unfortunately, when you see several of these facilities, there is a lot duplication. However, they did have some special things to see, and the center is located right on the Missouri River. The best exhibit they have is a diarama of the Corps making the portage around the Great Falls. They had to travel over 18 miles of very unfriendly ground to get around the five falls. Unfortunately, they had a very steep cliff to climb, and the diarama protrays the Corps pulling one of the canoes up the hill. This was the most challenging physical activity to be experienced by the Corps, and if they had been unsuccessful, there probably would not be a Lewis and Clark Trail. We spent a fair amount of time "lightening up" today. We removed 22 pounds of food, lights and batteries, spare clothing and various other items from BOB to make the trip though the mountains a little easier. We sent the food forward, two stops at a time, and sent the miscellaneous stuff to Missoula. Of course, we will have a big hill to climb (Lolo Pass) out of Missoula, but figure we will be better prepared to handle the load by then. FedEx was rather amused by what we were doing. LaValle had to have a little orthodontic work done today - one of the chains on her braces came loose earlier in the week. They were very efficient, and didn't charge her a thing for the work. That was very thoughtful of them, and may well be representative of the attitude of the local people. Tomorrow we move into the "big hill" part of The Big Sky State. We start with a 92 mile trip to Helena - that is pronouced here as "Helen-a", rather than the way we pronounce it. Helena will be the last large town we will see for a while. Our 450 mile loop takes us through several small, mountain towns. Ron