Day seventeen: June 26

Today was family day. Family day spending time together doing things whistler would like to do outside of his chariot. Today was our day off the bike, off the saddle, out of our shoes. This morning however; we were greeted by a nice storm outside. First the dark clouds rolled in, next heavy rain and hail, 60 mph winds.. The weather report said stay inside and covered. Today we were supposed to go downtown to the dragons hallow (park), we were going to be delayed a bit it appeared. 10:35 the storm rolled in, by noon the storm had rolled out and so did we. We bundled up and headed into the cold 55 degrees of cold to play, enjoy our day! We ran around the park, tried to get whistler to ride the carousel, walked through alleys to view the trash bins, checked out a great store full of different

things (would have been a great place to shop back in college. It had rugs, furniture, dishes, even cards.) Then we headed back for a nap! Our nap took us right into evening, just in time for dinner,continued cold weather, and another trip afterwards to the park at 9:30 pm. This staying light outside throws us all off, but whistler asked to go not understanding how late it actually was..

Those we met along the way

Those we've met along the way

We never knew what to expect when we first began planning our trip. We knew from the beginning it was going to be an adventure, a ride of a lifetime! We never knew what great and giving people we would encounter along the way. Beginning back home with our friends who shared a few of their forms of energy with us (thanks Cliff for the five hour energy-Nick used that right away and has even bought more), thanks Barbera and Jeff for the calling card and Walmart cards too. In Bellingham with our grammie Carol, into Winthrop meeting Alaina (a 12 year old) who shared her time playing with whistler. He took a liking to her the moment he saw her on the playground equipment. He was all about taking photos with her, but as soon as I asked to take a picture he said no mom. Her grandparents told her if she did good in school she could travel with them cross country while her grandpa (turning 70) rides bike from Washington to Maine. Her mother began training and decided she was going to bike alongside her father to Maine too. Alaina and her grandma followed by RV and spent time at different campgrounds along the way. It was hard for her and whistler to say goodbye. Traveling through to Waconda we were stopped by a couple driving in their Subaru; they pulled us over to share information about the upcoming roads and things they have experienced through their own riding. What could have been taken as trying to be a know it all, turned into a couple we grew very fond of.They offered us a great place to stop once we got into Waconda (Waconda Café-great location, food, conversation). We had the opportunity of running onto them one last time before leaving Washington (Nick and I both were happy for that opportunity, had they not been heading into Spokane we would not have seen them) if you are in the area look for Skip and Sharon.. Not to mention all the camp hosts and people we met staying at the site too. The generosity of our host in Wallace and giving us a cabin, chatting, and providing a great restaurant/brewery we still talk about). The few couples we met at the rest area yesterday as we were making our way to Missoula. Those of them who were sincerely interested, the grams who wanted our picture, and the couple who offered us water or food from their supply. And what now brings us to all the gals at Comfort inn for asking their questions, showing pure excitement about what we are doing, for finding whistler's toy four Wheeler, and wanting to ask more questions and offer their help each time we pass the front desk. Thank you to the gentleman at the carousel who gave us free tokens for the ride (we tried to take whistler on the carousel but he only wanted to sit on a horse and get off), good thing because as soon as that carousel starting moving it went so fast, the lady working said it was the second fastest carousel in the u.s. at 11 mph. We know there were others and there will be more we continue to meet and we may even come across another like Bill (he who helped us up Sherman's pass-now that Nick is fired up we may not need to hitch a ride)!!

Pictures are out of order: this morning we were greeted by a pack of elk. Beautiful way to begin our day. We made it to the smile mile (Nick was waiting for the perfect moment to add the s). Cooling off after a hot day, a long ride. Ice-water? Once we arrived to Missoula and cleaned up we walked downtown, we came across some guys working the river or was the river working the guys?

Day 16: June 25

Alarm went off this morning, well actually we both woke up before the alarm did go off. We knew today was another mileage day, so getting to the rode earlier the better. The earlier we ride the better chance of beating the heat and better the chance of beating any head winds. Nick and I got up and got things ready the best we could: whistler however, continued sleeping in the tent as though we had no where to get to. We try and pack everything we can moving him around until we are down to his sleeping pad. We still managed to get riding before 7:30 and onto the interstate we headed. Todays destination from St Regis at exit 34 east to Frenchtown 57 miles later. Nick once again seemed to be riding on fire, I on the other hand felt as though I was riding with weights in my legs. I kept looking back at the Burley just to make sure I was not riding with a flat. I kept checking my tires for flats, no flats. Nick was able to get ahead of me, but continued checking back to not get to far from his sight. We biked 2:25 before stopping at the rest area to fill bottles and for me to stretch. 25 miles behind us at this point. Back on the rode heading to Frenchtown. Nick still seemed to be riding strong and I just had to mentally ride strong. I know all I have to do is keep pushing one pedal at a time. The sun was beaming down, hot as ever. 30 miles later we arrived to town, but wanted to go further to Missoula. We thought about it and decided if we biked another 20 miles we could cover tomorrows ride today and have a day off tomorrow. My legs could appreciate a day of rest tomorrow no matter how much I make them work today, I knew in the end this would be well worth the go. I kept watching the mile markers waiting for 105 to arrive and at the same time pushing hard enough to stay with or slightly ahead of Nick. Each mile we got closer we knew we were accomplishing a great riding day. Through those tough moments, the outcome was worth fighting for. We both cheered each other on one mile at a time and soon enough 105 was ours. With Nick worrying about someone pulling over to tell him I was behind him and me worrying that the cars passing would think I was weak, we realized no longer mattered because we now owned our ride today. We owned all 73 miles, we owned 6:46:16, we owned our above 10 miles per hour pace. Tomorrow will be for whistler as he deserves another day from his chariot. Thank you Nick for pushing us today and thank you whistler for not throwing a tantrum. ...

Day fifteen: June 24

The alarm went off at 5:20 this morning. We left Wallace at 7:15 am, got a great start to our day as we headed on the trail for a little over 6 miles, picked up I 90 for lookout pass.it was about 12 miles to the top of Lookout pass, cross the border into Montana and downhill, some flats, riding right beside the fast moving cars, logging trucks, semis, trucks, and all those other vehicles traveling East. We were on fire today, hydrated, good nutrition from dinner last night and good fuel for our ride. We were set. No distractions, no reasons for pulling over today.so one would think... After the majority of the ride we came into a little situation (flat tire-rear), thank goodness Nick knows how to fix that. With only 8 miles left to ride he came across something leading to a slow leak. One would think pulling over to fix it would be the right thing to do; however his determination to finish our 48mile day taking us into St Regis was more important. We stopped quickly trying to avoid a situation with whistler, put air in the tire and road like a bat out of hell. We continued riding this way into town where we stopped at the store for something to drink. The tire was completely flat at this point and still Mr mechanic did not feel like taking off all the gear, or the rear rack (which would have been another 30 minutes and he could just do it when we got to the camp), he filled it with air and continued riding to St Regis campground (1.5 miles more to go) ridiculous right!! Anyways we made it and unloaded our things. Eventually Nick got to the flat which ended up throwing the tire away (nice going)! Truthfully we had an amazing day and rode really well leaving ourselves feeling very productive, so flat tire or not we weren't going to slow down and definitely not be stopped! 48 miles Time: 4:38:23 Average pace: 10.1

Day fourteen: June 23

Today is our last day in Idaho. We had a short and sweet ride along the trail into Wallace. A very small and cute little old town. As we came into town a wedding was taking place (right in the heat of the day), the trolley was running it's ghost tour(14 dollars too much for each of us to pay), and no campground to be found. Around the corner luckily was an RV park that had one last opening for us. Polaris ATV was having a 45 mile trail ride, so their park was full. The host had an opening in one of their little cabins (which was cheaper than some of the tenting we've done), which made nice for something different to do. It felt like we fit right in with the polaris party... Wallace RV park a real great place to stay if you are ever passing through and a great restaurant /brewery (City limits) right on location... Great way for us to end out stay in Idaho!

Day Thirteen: June 22

Bellingham (staring point), to Rasar State Park (44.17 miles), to Newhalem (40.39 miles), ride through North Cascades a little over 40 miles and continued through the North Cascades for another 40 miles into the town of Winthrop, to Omak (between 40-50 miles), to Waconda, left Waconda headed to Colville (55 miles), to Loon Lake(roughly 38 miles), to Spokane (about 30 miles), left River Side Park and rode into Coeur d'alene Idaho (52 miles or so), rode a little further just outside of Coeur d'alene (15 miles maybe a little more), to wolf Lodge Campground (32 ish miles), today we left and rode to Kellogg (31.27 miles)... Todays highlight of our day was seeing the moose grazing in the waterside along the trail of Couer d'alene... Big brown body, beautiful as he was. Whistler too found joy from seeing the moose. This time we were feet closer to the moose, rather than separated from the highway as we were the other day. We continued on our way right into Kellogg Idaho. A lot happening here this weekend; the town is kind of busy with recumbent's. There is no camping anywhere in Kellogg that we could find, so we had to check into a hotel ( laundry, hot shower, pool time)...one by one we watched these people show up to the hotel with their recumbent bike. Everyone greeted everyone, next thing you know they set up right outside the entry way talking story, riding their recumbent around as to show off their piece of machinery.. there is some ride taking place tomorrow, gotta find out more details later... We did question whether or not we could stick around one more day for the downhill racing this weekend, but most likely we will get back on the trail and continue our journey as we make our way towards Montana! The trail should pretty much bring us right across the border, depending on our start time, we may take two more days to reach it! As for now we just might continue watching these people as we peek through our hotel window (who needs t.v., we've got live entertainment)...