Day 21
   
   5/18/01
   Mile 2162
   Ft. Benton, MT
   
   The wind, my god, the wind.
   
   I was on the road by 7am after eating, of all things, half a pound of
   chocolate chip cookies for breakfast - atrocious, to be sure, but in
   terms of ingredients not much different from chocolate-glazed
   doughnuts, which is something a goodly percentage of the population has anyway.
   Far from a store, I made do with what I had.
   
   The headwind, which had not been too bad yesterday, returned with a
   vengeance about 8am.  It was a cruel day, forcing me to fight for
   every mile, draining my energy, and putting a "tax" of over 50% on it - that
   is, I had to work the equivalent of more than 15 miles to get 10.  O,
   to be headed in the other direction!  I briefly turned around to see the
   effect; I was blown down the road with no pedaling required
   whatsoever.
   
   It blew all day long, 20-30mph in my face, right up to the end, and at
   times I was not sure if I was on a bike or a Roman slave ship.  Look
   at the bright side, I told myself. At least you're getting more
   ventilation than slaves in the galley.
   
   There was a grocery store in Denton, so I stopped and ate a couple of
   bananas to counteract the cookies I'd eaten at breakfast.  Everywhere
   I go, the locals remark about how strong the wind is and how hard it
   must be to ride in it.  If they only knew!
   
   Approaching the colony of Square Butte, the road suddenly drops away
   from the surrounding prairie into a canyon not visible until the last
   minute.  Here, a vast area was carved out in perhaps a single day when
   the forementioned ice dam broke some 15,000 years ago and violently
   released the water built up behind it in a lake.  The butte itself is a
   "laccolith", a giant bubble of magma squeezed up between sedimentary rock 
   and left standing when the softer sedimentary parts eroded away.  As it 
   stands, it seems to make the perfect backdrop for this little colony for an old-west
   movie.
   
   Mostly, this area is short-cropped, windswept grassland. Moving
   further west, I saw colorful pheasants rushing along the ground when I
   approached, moving faster than seems possible with such short legs.
   
   Towards sunset I reached Ft. Benton, which is a lovely historic town
   on the waters of the upper Mississippi.  Interpretive trails lead along
   the water's edge, passing a statue of Lewis and Clark, and a
   reconstructed keelboat of mid-1800's design.
   
   I had work to do on the bike, needed to seam-seal my new tent, and
   make my log entries.  Another late night, almost midnight when I finally
   got to sleep.

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