Hunger continues to be on the top of our minds and the bottom of Brian’s

stomach.  Our situation has an easy fix, and we remind ourselves of the millions of famished people throughout the world who are not as fortunate. We’ve recently been in touch with David Altman, whose cross-country journey bicycle trek begins in January 2000 and he hopes to raise $ 1 million for "Mazon" to combats world hunger.

Today, in the Montana Standard, we saw an article about a former Olympic athlete on a 12,000-journey bicycle journey to raise awareness of child abuse. Are people actually doing more philanthropic activities or are we just hearing about them more?

Keeping life’s travails in perspective is simple on this trip and I attribute it to being surrounded by gorgeous scenery. Today’s ride along the Madison River was almost breathtaking, as we watched fly-fisherman gracefully cast their lines in and out of the water, searching for trout.

The wind was terrifying as it whipped through the mountain ranges, luckily it was at Brian’s back. We looked in the opposite direction, as 40-mile an-hour head winds transformed a cyclist into a pedestrian. Pushing her loaded bicycle up the hills, she declined our assistance. 

A cornucopia of shops and saloons greeted us in Ennis and Shelley and I explored the most interesting, including a health food store, appropriately named "Changing Winds". Engaging in conversation at the shop, we described Brian as the "skinny guy on a bike blowing through town" and within 60 seconds, Whitney, one of the patrons looked up to see Brian whizzing though town and explained, in new age terminology that nothing randomly happens.  We learned more about life in Ennis and Whitney’s pyramid home and it’s exclusive use of solar energy.

Brian told Whitney of his work as an environmental engineer, but squelched the part about being a federal employee and we were happy we’d done so later when we caught more of the local flavor at the Claim Sake Saloon. After hearing the bartender complain that federal health regulators prevented dogs from entering the saloon, we decided that for the rest of Montana, Brian’s profession would be "wood-worker".

Remembering we were in the heart of notoriously anti-government Montana, we played with the dogs that freely entered and exited the saloon. Our favorite was the pool-playing pup who used his paws and nose to sink the balls into the pockets.