Day 54: Where the Crawdads Sing

July 29, 2022 in Missoula, Montana

This morning, after a very strange combination of vanilla yogurt, blueberries, and Rice Krispies, I set out to ride 68 miles in the first group with Bry.

The beginning of the ride was beautiful with low traffic, but unfortunately for me it was all uphill on gravel, and I was immediately quite hungry and angry. Hangry, if you will. Also, we did get lost once, which didn't last long but was still a bummer.

After finding our way again, we got on a bike path and rode all the way to lunch. I was so happily surprised to see that they stationed it outside a Subway, and I got a 10 am rotisserie-style chicken sandwich. Bike and Build changes your standards for meals quite a bit.

After lunch, the bike path became a bit more unpleasant. It was right along a highway, so it was quite loud, and the closer we got to Missoula the hillier and less well-kept it got. Usually, I like bike paths because they give you a break from the stress of the road, but that wasn't really the case with this one.

Even though it was a short ride by our standards, it was all-in-all far more unpleasant than I had expected. It is definitely one of those rides I am very glad to never have to do again.

Once we'd made it to town, I decided to skip a large group activity in favor of a long shower and a little quiet time. I checked out an awesome coffee shop called Clyde Coffee and did some computer work for a while.

I tried to post my backlog of blogs, but they both wouldn't load in my brain and wouldn't load on my computer, so I cut myself a break and walked to a local bike store to pick up snacks and a new snack bag that attaches to my bike for easy access. The owner there had a dog named Ruth, and she was perfect.

After my errands, I walked back to repack my bag and get ready for dinner. We all walked to the host together and had pizza and brownies before people split off to do their own thing.

Everyone was going out to bars I can't go to again (super cool when they do that), so I grabbed the only other 20-year-old and we went to the movies! We got shockingly delicious popcorn and say "Where the Crawdads Sing," based on the book I read this year.

I thought the movie was fantastic––good acting, true to the book, suspenseful, beautifully shot. I would definitely go see it again with my mom.

After walking back to the host, I fell asleep to a marsh sounds playlist on Spotify, matching the mood of the evening.