Cutbank, MT

Eastern Montana, here we come!!! We spent the morning riding over Maria's Pass, across the Continental Divide (Gwen's life dream is to cross the Rockies on a bike, so she especially was very excited) and the afternoon descending into the plains of Montana. It was incredible, the landscape completely changed when we crossed through the pass. We rode from a mountainous, lush forest into a dry, flat plain. Now we can see for miles all around us, which is something that I have never experienced before, and it really took me by surprise. It is a mixture of beautiful and overwhelming.
Only a few minor issues today, the largest of which was an incident with the car keys. At the top of the pass, Mrs. Stoner realized that the car keys were nowhere to be found, so we spent fifteen minutes helping her look for them. After a little while, we decided to keep riding and let her catch up to us. Just as her brother in law Jim (more about him later) was about to drive off with the trailer attached to his truck, they found the keys to the Tahoe and all was resolved. But I must say, that gave us a little scare and we will most definitely be keeping at extra set of car keys on us now. Another small problem was flat tires... three in only ten minutes! First Gwen, then my dad, and then Me. Below is a picture of my dad's hands, covered in grease from changing the tires.
Over the past few days, we have gotten to know Mrs. Stoner's brother-in-law, Jim. He stayed with us last night at our campground and provided after-dinner entertainment with his wild stories and good sense of humor. He told us stories of eating rattlesnake babies, fighting off bears, and his crazy "confused" dogs. The most interesting to me personally was his story of how he, a few years ago, was given two days to live. He had a brain tumor, but with faith and the help of his friends and family he got through it. That hit me pretty hard, and made me feel confident that what the Cyclists are doing is truly an important thing.
We had a delicious dinner at the home of Mrs. Stoner's family, with more food than even we could handle and two super cute little boys running around. Parker had a Wii battle with Hayden, the five-year-old boy. The played three rounds of MarioKart, and I gotta say, it was pretty embarassing. You would think an almost seventeen-year-old boy would be able to hold his own in a simple video game, but Hayden showed Parker how it was done. Below is a picture of Hayden kicking Parker's butt while we all enjoy some good entertainment.
I have found many fun things to do while I ride, made up many songs (one of which Gwen told you about...) and many games. I have learned to compose letters in my head, and I have made so many lists that I can't even count them all. A list I made in my head today is called "Parkerisms", and it features many (but of course not all) of Parker's famous sayings. Here it is.
Parkerisms:
-Sorry! Sorry... I'm so sorry.
-No big deal.
-Extreme!!
-Honestly...
-In the sense that...
-To the MAX!

That's all for now.. I'm sure we'll think of more later. :-)