Before even leaving town, I was encountering rain, sun, I thought that I was going through it all, but little did I know... Not far down the highway, I began to feel the

HAIL

It was too dangerous to ride, this hail was the size of ice cubes. I always thought "golf ball size hail" was an exaggeration, but here it was! Hail the size of GOLF BALLS. And It Hurt!! I ducked under an overpass to wait it out. I was joined by several cars that also though this weather was too extreme to drive in. They checked in to see if I was ok--"good thing you have a helmet!!" I had never seen such weather in my life. And checking the radar (a tip I picked up from Larry in Dillon) I could see that there was to be no relief.

There seemed to be a break in the weather, so I left the shelter of the overpass to keep going. But this was just the start. There was a ferocious storm coming and I saw it in the sky and I saw it on the radar. I was traveling along a major highway and there seemed to be no hope in sight: bad storm coming and no place to shelter. So I was desperate for a place to take refuge from the storm that I knew was coming. This refuge was the Montana Grizzly Encounter, a refuge for grizzly bears, home to a relatively famous grizzly, Brutus, who's been in movies and has even been the best man in a wedding.

I sheltered in place--the storm blew over and they had to bring the bears into shelter and the humans sheltered in the gift shop. I was there for three hours while I waited for this incredible storm to pass--wind, rain, hail, and clouds like I've never seen. So by the time it passed, I set off again for the next town, but it was late so I didn't go far before retiring for the day. I went to the theater to see the Incredibles 2 in the very cool town of Livingston, MT.

On this evening, my brother's first child, Connor, was born.