Day 21
Virginia City, MT to
Ennis, MT
Distance: 15 miles –
Semi-Rest Day
Very small TITS (the
joke that just keeps on giving)
The best laid plans of
mice and men… and touring cyclists.
Today, I had been
looking forward to cycling to stay with Valerie’s Aunt Jeanne (of Eugene) in
her family cabin between Virginia City and Yellowstone. Unfortunately, however,
Jeanne is unwell and so we agreed last night that was better for me to bypass
the cabin and wend my merry way on with the usual route.
GET WELL SOON JEANNE!!
And so I was left with
a quandary, given the options available: (1) cycle 90 miles to Yellowstone
today on weary legs and try to get last minute accommodation; (2) stay put in
Virginia City and cycle 90 miles tomorrow; or (3) cycle 15 miles over the “Pass
with No Name” to Ennis, and then 75 miles tomorrow (there being no
accommodation between Ennis and Yellowstone).
I went with option 3.
It seemed quite
strange lounging around until 9am to eat breakfast at my “traditional Virginia
City house” B&B on a cycling day, even a semi-cycling-rest-day, but that
wasn’t the only odd thing. When I emerged from my room, the breakfast wasn’t
ready, but the table in the breakfast room had been set up in old-formal style
with ornate silver cutlery, fragile glass tumblers and delicately painted
crockery. The coffee was in elegant glass and silver jugs sitting over candle
burners. And the waitress was a lady probably in her early 60s dressed head-to-toe in
traditional dress.
Scarpering back to my
room until some moral support arrived (and because they told me to go away and
come back) I emerged again around 9.30am and found that I was still the only
breakfast diner present at the Inn.
Wondering if I was in
some freaky kind of horror movie, or ghost story dream, I decided to try my
luck and asked if I could eat anyway since I was starving, to which they
reluctantly agreed. Breakfast was nice enough, but it came with a history
lesson, tour of the house, and some very bizarre chat. It seemed like I was the
only normal one… and I couldn’t help but keep wondering what had happened to
the other guests, and whether I was next.
I am happy to report
that I escaped alive and unscathed (and it is probably mean of me to have
suspected anything different) but I was quite relieved to drop by on my way out
of town to speak with Karen, the owner of the B&B that I had initially
hoped to stay in but which was full last night. We had a lovely chat (we had
emailed quite a bit over the past few weeks) and l left feeling back in the
real world.
On my way out of town,
I passed by the remains of an old gas station, of which I decided to get a snap
for today’s blog.
And then it was over
the pass and into Ennis in the shake of a lamb’s tail, or the squawk of an
Osprey (I saw another nest today) located right next to the sign for the fish
hatchery - the cheek of it.
Arriving in Ennis, I
heard “Hey cyclist” being called out from across the street, and rode over to
speak to a group of six going in the opposite direction to me on the TransAm,
including… a Brit! And there was me thinking I was the only one in the village.
A quiet day after that
resting the little leggies, doing some admin, booking accommodation etc, and
getting myself ready for tomorrow’s ride which, for some reason, I think could
be a tough one.
Me x
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