Friday On My Mind. Day six, Butte to Livingston.

Off a bit later this morning, for two reasons:

1) I knew it would be a bit fresh yet again- but really, wearing overshoes in September?
2) It was a tough call on whether to head for Livingston, or try to cane it to Big Timber and risk knackering myself...

Stick or twist? Just try pedalling son.

In the event, I went for option 1...probably was the right decision. As I climbed away from Butte, even option 1 seemed optimistic when I changed down to the little chain-ring, and chain tried to double-back on itself. This happened once before in September 2013 on 'The Italian Job'.

My chain decides to try yoga at a very inopportune moment.

That time, the front disraeli gear was a goner, but today just as I was about to loosen the mech, the chain jumped back to how it should be and it is working ok...so a massive relief.

 Felt even better once I crested this: still a stupidly long way to go, but it's a win!

Small victories, right?

And of course after the up, comes the delicious downhill bit! Some trucks are obliged to reign it in on long stretches like these: similar rules don't apply to smaller HGVs like me though...

Yes! Managed to pass this guy downhill.

Now *that's* a run-off/ski-jump!

Tenner says they don't have Double Diamond.

A tad unusual even for the hard shoulder, surely?

Hard to be sure, but the sky looked perhaps, 10% bigger again...temps got up to 27c. Beautiful!

No, not for me this time.

Tough crowd in tonight.

Er, think I would like to, but time precludes...

The finest 'false flat' yet: an uphill gradient of 2%, bizarrely!

Named after Radio 2's Travel Bird. All I know is that there is downhill after it. And no congestion.

Tried (and failed) to outrun C. Jones &Co..

I arrived in Livingston just before 5pm and passed a bike rental shop. I stopped and asked if I could borrow a track-pump to boost my Schwalbes: no problem, and when I mentioned about the shame of having to buy WD-40 for my chain because the Brains Trust at Manchester Airport had confiscated my contraband, the bloke then gave me a bottle of chain lube gratis. Nice one!

After that, it's admin time and then head to downtown Livingston, which is jumping on a Friday evening: excellent, except for those saddos who have to curtail activities, hah-hah!

A happening joint, downtown Livingston. Great beers!

So I've cancelled a couple of more motels because of the lost distance/time: we're now making this-up on the fly. No change there then! Right, have a great weekend, and why not get the bike out for...actually on second thoughts, don't do it...have an ice cream.

In the meantime, here's The Boss with a decent cover for you...cheers!

G'day Bruce! I'll get my coat...

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