If you're up for expending very little energy while enjoying good food & company plus an abundance of cycling comradery, Missoula Montana is great place to do it.

I'm in a (cheap) motel about a block away from Adventure Cycling headquarters, I spent several hours enjoying their hospitality, which includes a lounge dedicated to traveling cyclists, complete with internet access, liquid refreshment, and cyclery ambience.

Met several traveling cyclists (all west bound), one of has ridden a fixed gear bike all the way from Virginia, running 100 miles per day. We're getting together this evening for a downtown event that sounds similar to Charlottesville's Fridays after five, with music, food & liquid refreshment.

Missoula has similarities to Charlottesville in size, university component, left leaning political climate. But here a significant percentage of the population are riding bicycles, and the city has a truly functional network of bike routes. Charlottesville has moved in the right direction in recent years, but many of the bike lanes are painted onto existing roads, preserving on-street parallel parking, which puts the cyclists right in the dreaded door zone if they ride the bike lanes.

When the bike shops opened, I cruised around town (sans BOB) and located new headset bearings in one shop, and at another, a mechanic with the tools & time to press the old out and the new in. The bke now handles like new without the on-center notch I'd grown accustomed to over the years. Didn't much matter when I was riding this bike as a mountain bike.

Went to a photo shop & downloaded about 200 images from the camera to a CD. On to the PO where I mailed the CD and a few maps back home. There'll be some images up here before too long, as Jonathan gets to it.

Back to the motel, took a nap.

Went out & found lunch.

Hung out some more at Adventure Cycling, went to a grocery store.

Another nap.

Westerly winds predicted for tomorrow, I'm headed for Great Falls.