Today was to be a relatively “easy” day. Just 40 miles so we enjoyed the sleep in waking at 8am rather than the usual 6am wake up call “Lenny are you awake” from the human alarm clock that is William Kerwin.We expected the cycle to take 2.5 hours.Also we had an interview lined up with KXLF TV station in Butte upon our arrival .Our premier TV performance
Young McNamara lead the peloton under the blue skies of Deere Lodge towards Butte, following I-90 road .The road itself could not be faulted, it was perfectly smooth with few uphill climbs, very little traffic and a wide shoulder size to accommodate the 3 of us to cycle side by side.
But as is per usual for COA there was a twist in the tale and drama was never far away
Approximately 15 miles outside of Butte there was road works taking place…
The hard shoulder was occupied by a a construction vehicle and cars were bought to a slow pace/standstill in the other 2 lanes but COA not wishing to be delayed for the scheduled interview with KXLF TV news proceeded to overtake the traffic and cycle through the tarmac which just been laid down by a steam roller.
After seconds of cycling we realised quickly that the tarmac was sticking to the tyres like glue.Not only were we destroying the newly paved road we were also destroying our own tyres.45 minutes on we were still pulling pieces of tarmac..until one of the construction workers called Steve came to the rescue out with DUV40 de greaser which done the trick…we were back in business and one hour later were in Butte
This was a schoolboy error that the 3 stooges would be proud of. Do not try that at home guys
After grabbing a bite to lunch we made it to the big interview with KXLF .the interview
The link for the interview is the below…
http://www.kxlf.com/news/irish-cyclists-riding-for-cancer-stop-by-kxlf-studios/
And before minds begin to wonder, yes it does look like I thought the camera was on the ground before me but in reality the sun was in my eyes and a certain McNamara had mislaid my sunglasses prior to the interview.
Seriously though, a massive thanks to local reporter Melanie Yuill for taking an interest in our cycle
Following the interview we then went to the house of Patrice Evans, who kindly hosted the team that night. she whom is pulling the strings for this weekends Irish Ri-Ra FESTIVAL in Butte this weekend and will be organising a booth for us to fundraise on Saturday 14th August. Patrice and friends even brought us along to a picnic where we met where we received a royal
The people of Butte whether it be the strong Irish American community there or not we were treated as family and we can’t thank you guys enough for this
[…] I see that Mark has already blogged about Wednesday. It was the one night in Butte that the five of us were together. A big thanks to Patrice Evans […]
Great to meet you lads, I hope the trip is very successful for you. We are glad you were here in Butte America for the the An Ai Ra Montana Irish Festival, but it does make for busy times and in some ways it’s hard to meet folks when so much activity is happening about us.
However, it was great craic and we are so glad you were able to make it work out.
Come back home, Monica Evans Cavanaugh