the final days...

Kristin and her folks at their beautiful home in Missoula!
Pete and Rachel came to visit in Missoula! Kristin's sister took this photo, we didn't really try to match like this.

Us at the top of the pass on our victory lap through Glacier National Park!Me and Aaron at the top of the pass!

The pickup! No more biking, Kristin's sister to the rescue (don't get me wrong we loved every minute of the trip) it was just good to be done.

We were picked up by the Park Rangers because we were 15 minutes late biking off the road, thank goodness no fine.

View on the bike ride up Glacier's Going-to-the-Sun road.

Aaron and David!

Kristin, Aaron, me, Shelly and David in Glacier, friends reunited!

We made it!

Me and my celebratory single scoop of ice cream.

One break we took somewhere on the road.

day 19:
We made it! We arrived in Glacier National Park on Thursday afternoon. Kristin biked with vengeance as we pulled up to a restaurant in Glacier that had a neon light reading CONES in big letters. "I think this is the place we used to come for ice cream" she stated as she walked right in and told me to order her a double scoop of Huckleberry ice cream. "Have you ever been her before" the soda jerk asked me. "This is one scoop" he explained to me as he continued to stuff more and more ice cream into the cone. When Kristin came back from the bathroom I asked her I asked her if she still wanted a double scoop. She looked at me and asked if I was getting a double, no way I said laughing. The single was HUGE!

After our ice cream we headed to meet the Kindigs, Shelley's family (who just so happened to be in Glacier for a family reunion) at the campground. They weren't there to be our greeting committee right when we arrived so we attempted to entertain ourselves, just as we were deciding to head down to the lake and take a swim they appeared. What a greeting we received, question after question was thrown our way as we all made our way down to the glacier feed lake for a swim. That night was a delight as we hung out with the family, played music and ate smores. Nearly 1300 miles later we arrived at our final destination and boy did it feel good.

The next day we made our victory lap. We took off bright at early at 7am to head up toward the pass on Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park. To our advantage the road was closed to everyone but pedestrians and bicyclers from mile 16 on so we made our way up the pass vehicle free from that point forward. At mile 25 they had the road closed to everyone and we sat and absorbed the beauty for quite some time before making our way down and to the very same restaurant we had stopped at the day before for ice cream for our final celebratory burger and ice cream. The next day we packed up to hit the road one more day. Thank goodness that same day for Kristin's sweet sister, Kelly, who rescued us from a crazy head wind and horrible roads with no shoulder to take us back to Missoula where we would hang out with Kristin's family and meet up with Rachel, a former roommate and dear friend, and her husband Pete, who now live in Boseman. It felt good to be off the bike and in the social zone after weeks of entertaining ourselves.

Overall I wouldn't do the trip any differently. Beautiful sites and people, the trip was a gift on so many different levels. Thanks for reading alongside me.