Bike Trekking

Time is running out...

2011-10-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about living in a four season climate area is the frenzy with which the inhabitants celebrate good weather. I met someone who moved here from San Francisco and at the same time she was bemoaning the chill and length of our winter, she noted the vibrancy of spring, both botanical and zoological.
This weekend has been so beautiful that everybody and their mother is outside. Jumping in the fray, I determined to do a century
Traveling from Buffalo to Lake Ontario, along the shore, dropping down to Medina and the Iroquois Wildlife refuge near Alabama, NY, the dominant impression involved "where the heck were all these snakes the rest of the year?" Seriously. Tiny little garter snakes less than 6 inches long, sunning themselves along the road appeared about every 8 miles. Some were dead and the live ones were easy to avoid, but it was a little weird.
I had never been to this refuge. There was a sign at the beginning of the road I chose, which warned the bridge was closed 1 mile ahead. I ignored the signs; worst case scenario, I would have to come back. But really. How often are they seriously speaking of bicycles? Sure enough the bridge was ped only and crossed a really beautiful span of the swamp.

It was interesting to see the crops not yet harvested. Grapes-heavenly smell, cabbage, not so much, apples and soybeans, which it took me an astonishingly long time to recognize.

Such a beautiful day.

Which way now?

2011-09-18T11:31:00.001-07:00

I am probably postponing my GDMBR ride until 2013, but it's not too early to work on some skills for that ride. Dwight and I joined a beginning orienteering session at nearby Chestnut Ridge Park, sponsored by Buffalo Orienteering.
I didn't realize orienteering is a sport; turns out it is a pretty cool one. They showed us how to use landmarks and a compass to find flags in the woods. The flags were marked on the map.

for the Great Divide Route this could be very helpful, since most guides suggest you bring topo maps.
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Checking out IPhone apps for cycling

2011-09-18T11:12:00.001-07:00

Leyla has a much newer and NOT jailbroken iPhone, so she scopes out the app store.
Her newest find is called Route Loops. Supposedly you can tell it how far you want to go and it will calculate a route for you from your current location. Highly skeptical, we started out. This app gets a silver star rating for our one trip so far. It kept us on manageable roads and was not outrageously zig zaggy, but regardless of which direction we had travelled the loop we would have gone the wrong way down a one way street at least once.

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Cruising in Canada

2011-09-18T11:11:00.001-07:00

Went out for a 40 miler with locals. Canadian customs is getting a little weirder. Not only do they change the rules, but the questions are getting stranger. Meanwhile, US customs are normalizing relations with their citizens. Odd twist.

Four of us traveled on the Friendship trail to Port Colburn, diverged onto the roads, then looped back to the trail. Blair showed me a new and improved way to get back on the Peace Bridge.

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Impromptu Minneapolis

2011-09-03T14:57:00.001-07:00

6:45pm Minneapolis airport: Delta airlines asks for volunteers to lay over 24 hours, hotel and meals included, $400 travel voucher.
7:15- I'm all set and rescheduled for tomorrow, same bat time, same bat place.
24 hours in Bicycling Magazine's #1 ranked bike friendly city, and the whole day sponsored by Delta.
At the Mall of America Ramada hotel (which treated me just as well as if I had paid for the room), I used their public, very fast computer to look for cycling info and print 3 pages (no charge).
Results: a whole listing of shops renting bikes, info on obtaining path maps and countless links to further info.
Picked one close to the Hiawatha light rail.
9/3 6:00am woke, showered, packed, checked out, asked to leave my duffle, used the Delta meal vouchers for breakfast and lunch (Ramada packed me a box lunch) and walked the short distance to Mall of America.

7:30 jumped off at Lake to walk a quick 1 mile to Freewheel Bike Shop.

Amazing. They rent really nice carbon Treks- $50.
Problem- they have to put a hold on your credit card for the value of the bike. $1,400. Several years ago I asked my CC company to reduce my credit limit to avoid cc fraud. I am at that limit (set it pretty low, didn't I- thought I was sooooo smart). Called CC company- could they please up my limit? BUT OF COURSE! What a stupid question.
Crash couse on using a CO2 cartridge to inflate presta tubes. All new to me. No toe clips. At least I had a helmet and mirror. How embarrassing, I had to go back to the shop to ask how to shift. Such an old school girl, with her bar end shifters, toe clips and steel framed bike.

Followed the Greenway Trail until I saw a likely candidate for a riding partner. Out for several hours, avg 17- 22 mph. Sounded plausible. Then he was joined by 3 others. Really lean guys. It should have flashed a warning. Didn't. First half, about 15 miles, well within my speed limits. Second half, not so much. On two occasions at least, they waited for me. No computer, so I have no idea how fast, but I would guess well over 20 on the flat. After about 5 miles they slowed down again, but a little off, I had to draft to keep up then. This group... maybe part of a triathlon team out of Urban Tri shop. They could have and probably should have kicked my Buffalo butt and dropped me. But kindness ruled. So sweet. I know, I know. But I really enjoyed myself.

After they finished, I kept going to cross the Mississippi into St. Paul, then back into Minneapolis, around "The Lakes" and back to the bike shop. I joined forces with a rider going the same way who knew the route. Such a pleasure. He went a more manageable pace. Kudos to the cycling community of Minneapolis. Very welcoming. I think I did 45-50 miles, but am guessing.
Compare Portland to Minneapolis: apples to oranges. One is more fabulous for recreational, the other maybe for all around commuting. Maybe. Both nice. What says you? 6 months in Portland, 6 months in Minneapolis. Would you like to guess which 6 months would belong to Minneapolis?
Full light rail train cars. On a Saturday. And the trains had bike hooks. The amazement never ends.

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Galveston, TX hotter than...

2011-08-31T09:42:00.001-07:00

We did 32 miles from Port Bolivar to Galveston in 105 degree heat; ah the memories of the Trans Am, eastern Kansas and western CO.

There was a ship that looked from afar as though not moving, until we got quite close. It created a large wave at its bow and I saw it hits something. As it happened again, I realized the it wasn't hitting something, there were dolphins jumping its wake. I love dolphins. You gotta eat and work, but you can have fun while doing so.

Afterword, we did what I wish we could do after a long hot day on the bike. We drank margueritas.

Kansas biking

2011-08-31T09:22:00.001-07:00

Came all the way down to Kansas to visit a TransAm buddy. He popped a 60 mile day trip on me and we went out with two of his freinds. 60 turned into 72 pretty serious miles in 100 degree weather. I commented that it was impressive Bill has any friends when he subjects them to grueling rides. We all held up pretty well though.
Bill, me, Kenny, Mary Jo and SamO the dog.

Look out Kenny. That combine is a mighty wide load!

Cold drinks. In the sun it was probably over 100.

A tractor was slowly and painfully overtaking us. It struggled because its passing speed required almost 2 minutes to pass us and in that time a car would often appear from the other direction.

Nice day, nice people. Kansas.

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Finger Lakes day 5

2011-08-16T03:59:00.001-07:00

Rained all night, but a good tent and good siting kept the water at bay (hahahaha, I am so funny). We ate a light breakfast, then made our way to Ithaca. Got into the coop satellite location and bought second breakfast, then visited the used bookstore, where we engaged in deep discussions about activism, cooking, books and life experiences. We spent a lot of time doing this, then returned to Viva for margeritas and lunch and jumped to Mate Format for coffee and to escape the rain. In the short interval between showers we dashed to the main store of the coop. Spending a lot of time checking out the goods, we then ate gelato and sorbet while waiting for the rain to stop. It never did and at 8:30 we headed out in the dark and rainy night to return to the CG. There we hung out in the pavillion with other groups trying to escape the rain., passing the time playing games and watching out the bat inside.

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Finger Lakes day 4

2011-08-15T05:25:00.001-07:00

No hurry today. We will probably stay at Buttermilk Falls for three more nights, so I zoomed down the hill and go a new site assignment and cranked back up. Out of the 6 or so sites we had noted as being better and empty, only one was available.
Breakfast of rolls and pesto, carrots, pretzels and trail mix. We didn't get going until 11:30, but then had a good time again eating at the Farmer's market.

On the way to the science center we dried our clothes and afterwards tried to go to the coop. Downtown pretty much shuts down at 6 on Sundays, so we ended up at a restauant for dinner. We had stopped at a toy store to look over their games and picked up a bananagrams type gave involving numbers called Sodomoku, which we played during dinner. The restaurant was Mate and the whole group running it had long hair and were very hippyish. The food was fair, but the interior was what got us into the cool zone. Decorated with wood and branches, the place looked like the inside of a log cabin where people didn't have a saw mill to mill lumber. The branches were fitted together cleverly and the whole place had a skilled wood artist look about it.
We got back to the SP at around 8:15 and Jamie showed up. We were pretty loud, but quieted down by 10 in time for quiet hours.

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Finger Lakes day3: 36 miles

2011-08-14T04:22:00.001-07:00

We had agreed to get up early and bolt to get to the Ithaca Farmer's market by 1 at the latest, so up at 6 and out by 7.
Breakfast was in Moravia at the Eatery. Yummy breakfast wraps and cinnamon muffins.
Rachel said the miles were easier and maybe we did mostly uphill yesterday. That may make for more of a struggle when we finally go back for the car. The descent into Ithaca on route 34 was a little hairy due to a very narrow shoulder, but the speed limit was 45 and we were going 30, so most drivers didn't get too upset, but we won't climb back out that way. The farmer's market was delightful and we ate a pint of heirloom cherry tomatoes, two scones and half gallon of cider. There were vendors there selling silk screened t-shirts, clay pots, hand woven baskets and canned foods like chutney. The clientele was interesting and varied, though more through lifestyle than income level. I answered an online survey about the short bike/ped trail we came in on and one question was about gender: male, female, other. Very nice.
At the Visitor's center we found out there is a large race at Watkins Glen and the whole area is filled up. The lady at the visitors center suggested we call the State Park's direct line to see what could be arranged, so this we did. The office told us they were full, but to call the park manager and in this way we spoke to Kathy. She squeezed us into an "emergency" site. So sweet.
Buttermilk Falls has no bike path directly to it, so we got dumped onto a high speed, high traffic, no shoulder road for a quarter mile span. We even went under a nice pedestrian bridge, but were later told there was no access to it and it went nowhere. Kinda stupid, considering there was a nearby bike path. Also, you can follow a low traffic road most of the way and if you know what you are doing you can go up a dead end to a tiny trail which leads to the park office. Really surprising that the bike paths and such are not better developed and utilized. Probably kind of a typical "not enough dedicated people" kind of thing. Some people are obviously working on it.
The road to the campground seems to go straight up. This is the first time I needed my granny gear and I couldn't get into it, so I walked a portion. Beautiful CG, quiet and small. We pitched the tent, dumped the panniers and rode back to Ithaca for dinner at Taste of Thai.

So yummy. Got back at 8:30, blinky lights a blinkin. Shower, Chill Out game and sleep.

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Finger Lakes day 2- 22 miles

2011-08-14T03:45:00.001-07:00

8/12
Got up and lazed around after Patty and George left for work, then rode to the LBS and had them adjust Rachel's borrowed bike's derailleurs and rear brake. Truthfully I should have done these things before leaving, but time was tight and Rachel was suffering from a lack of gears. Breakfast then we were off.
I was busy misinforming Rachel about the farm knowledge Bill attempted to impart, when Rachel noted how it would be nice to have all that info in a little book. That's when it struck me: the Pocket Bill farm reference book- just enough Bill, but not too much.

Oats, soybeans, corn and hay fields abound. We saw several different types of combines, including one towing a hay fluffed (smile/wink).
We met a couple from Rochester while lounging by the side of the road eating pretzels. They introduced us to the maps generated by the Onondaga bike club of Finger Lakes routes.
Today rolling hills mostly, we mostly stayed off state routes.
In Moravia we stopped at a grocery for lunch/ dinner and shared a pint of Ben and Jerry's Steven Cobert. Waffle cone and caramel. Funny, but not as tasty as some. We also picked up 2 quarts of blueberries, cottage cheese, salt and vinegar potato chips, oj and carrots.
The 2 miles more to Fillmore Glen SP went quickly; we barely got a site because it was Friday, Showered, ate and played Bananagrams, of course. Rachel spent time creating blueberry people and eating them.

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Tiny tour- Finger Lakes in NY

2011-08-13T15:26:00.001-07:00

8/11
Left the car at a used car dealer at the southern end of Owasko Lake, a small lake west of Skaneateles and east of Cayuga. Beautiful roads with some small hills and a little rolling of hills led us to Skaneateles at 7:30, 1 1/2 hours late. We were hosted by Elizabeth's parents Patty and George. Super sweet and very interesting to talk with. They have similar bends to us; nature nurturers, mindful of what they consume (prob moreso than us) and just thought-full/ thoughtful people. They fed us home-made pesto and squash from their garden.

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Biking in Ireland (though I am not)

2011-07-15T14:17:00.001-07:00

Some observations about cycling in Ireland:

The streets (all of them, urban and country lanes) are extremely narrow with little or no shoulder (except the highways). In the country the visibility is often very limited by twisting roads and high hedges or stone fences. We are talking about sometimes 30 feet.
Country speeds are quite high by US standards. 60 mph is the norm on these narrow roads
drivers yield to cyclists every time, often to their own disadvantage or the curse of other motorists
cyclists were seen under all circumstances, from narrow urban roads with trucks and buses to country lanes seemingly in the middle of nowhere, as well as on highways, were there were broad shoulders
There were many touring and casual cyclists and hoards of commuters
people obviously use their bicycles for transport every day, as most were outfitted with pannier/s
less than half wear helmets and those wearing helmets were often on racing bikes
most riders were adults
riders were never observed being "squeezed" by passing cars
some communities have identified cycling "routes"; Roundstone, near Galway seemed to have quite activily pursued the routes and been given extensive feedback by cyclists

Though cycling here is not for the faint of heart, I would likely return to bike Ireland, but would probably plunk myself (via public transport) down in a town away from the hub-bub of the few urban areas. If I get the chance, I will look into and report how bike friendly the town to town public transportation is, for example if you flew into Dublin, how easy would it be to get a conventional bike to Roundstone? Cycling in Dublin alone would be a fabulous way to get around (again, not for the faint of heart).

As for communications and routing, there are information centers in the major towns and cities. AAA was useless to me when I contacted them before leaving. t-mobile (phone carrier- US) was excellent, per usual. They have poor service coverage in rural areas, but their customer service exceeds all. They told me to remove the sim card on our smart phones, since roaming is impossibly expensive in foreign lands. We asked them for an unlock code for one smart phone, a MyTouch and they gave us this promptly. We bought a foreign sim card at an airport phone store in Ireland and the man there helped us through the install and activation, though we needed to play around with the settings ourselves (there are sooooo many models). When the phone later locked itself, I used wi-fi and Skype Out to call t-mobile and they emailed us directions to unlock it, even though it was the foreign sim card which locked up. Their info and the info on the sim card ultimately helped us unlock that sim card. Kudos.

The GPS unit we paid extra for with the car is useless. Possibly user error, it is really not smart or intuitive. The phone GPS (50 MB per day included in the phone sim) is quite good, especially in urban areas, and the maps are fine in the rural, on the occasions when the data fails. Map most often used (surprise, surprise) is a spiral bound "official" atlas.

Wireless- we are staying exclusively in B&B's, since a good deal, including the rental car, was available. The wireless in these B&B's varies from poor to great, with most of it so far at the poor end. At one B&B, I was forced to stay in our kid's room, next to the wall, to get a signal good enough to hold.
Finally, Skype Out is a worthwhile investment. I think I pay $25 per year for this. It allows my computer or iPhone to use wireless to dial US numbers without additional cost. I called t-mobile and could call phones in the US at any time without any fees, since it all goes across the internet. People can't call me with Skype Out, however.

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GAP near Pittsburgh, PA

2011-07-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

We spent the Fourth in Pitt watching fireworks from up on high.

I took Bill down to Pittsburgh, PA to start his trek down the GAP and C&O to return to his car near DC. Riding 15 miles from Versailles (near Pitt) brought back memories of the first time I did this trail. The GAP part at least is quite smooth and easy. We were doing 16.5 on its limestone without much trouble.
Though more of the path between Pitt and McKeesport has been completed, it is still not quite there. That group is sure working hard, though.

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Olcott to Buffalo

2011-07-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

Up early, but slow to start. We all ate breakfast at the cottage, then Linda accompanied us to Wilson, where we parted ways.

The trek to Buffalo was pretty uneventful, though interestingly, though I have gone to Wilson from Buffalo several times, again I have never gone the other way. Bill whined about the only hill in this part of the country: the Niagara Escarpment. I tried to tell him to look at it as a final challenge for this area; you are actually climbing Niagara Falls, for this is the drop which is the cause of that cataract.
We didn't even stop for ice cream, though we did about 50 miles.
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Holley to Olcott

2011-06-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

As an asside, it should be mentioned that in order to keep myself close to the Amtrak two bag limit and also for me to be able to carry all my things in one shot, I elected to go without a sleeping bag. Looking ahead at the weather report, the lowest nightime temp was predicted to be 55. This turned out to be unwise. My bag is down and quite small, takes up only about 4
Times the space of the liner I did bring and 55 is pretty cool when lying on the ground. I repeat that last night I wore almost every stitch of clothing I had brought, including three short sleeved tops, smartwool bottoms, pants and rain pants, two pairs socks and my Gore jacket. Still cold. Still cold. Did excercises. Only helped for 30 min.
Lesson? It would be better to leave behind the second set of cycling clothes or bring an empty bag to bungie on the rack for food or whatever.
Despite this Holley was one of the most pleasant sleeping spots one could ask for.
We returned to town for breakfast. So pleasant.
The towpath is well kept, except for a small patch near Medina, which goes over a deep rivine and creek far below.
We watched them raise a bridge to allow a canal boat to pass. That boat and several others are obviously charters and looked pretty cool.

We got snacks and a bag lunch in Medina and parted from the path near Gasport.

This is Bill and Linda. People asked if Linda and I were sisters. Curly hair. I think Bill is very lucky to travel with two such lovely ladies.
We traveled up towards Lake Ontario and Olcott, always conscious of the chimney from the Somerset power plant. It reminded me of the prarie castles (grain elevators) of Kansas. You could see them for 20 miles, but they never got closer.
Nearing Olcott we found an ice cream stand. Having overshot our mandatory 30 miles, we gratiously accepted its siren's call.
We arrived at Linda's cottage and got to meet her parents before jumping in a car to drive back to Syracuse to retrieve Linda's car.
A grocery store provided us with dinnerous stuff so we could pretty much collapse on our return.

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45 miles, no ice cream

2011-06-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

We headed into Macedonia for breakfast and possible laundry.
Sorry to be so negative, but how can they mess up a vegetable omlette? Put a really gross sauce on it with no herbs.
There was a beautiful empty cobblestone house. I am not sure I would call it abandoned, but the grass was two feet tall. Hard to believe that house would not sell.
Returning to the closed bridge, Bill suggested we use two people to lift each bike over the cable barrier and this worked fine.

The day was cool and overcast and probably never made the predicted 77. We met a few other touring cyclists, including one from Wisconsin. He had crossed Superior on the ferry and never had heard of Adv. Cycling.
Lunch was in Spencerport.

They could have gotten more money out of us, but offered poor service and uninspired food choices. The Ac directions through Rochester confusing and I was busy second guessing myself though I have been through there at least 5 times. I don't usually go in that direction.

Holley has a beautiful canalside with a camping area, but there was no bridge attendant to help with the access code for the shower and bathrooms. Going into town for ice cream, Bill talked to the town clerk, who called the bridge attendant to get the code!
Although there was no grocery store per se, there was a huge "mini-mart", from which we procured cheese, crackers and Mike's hard lemonade. The evening was completed by visiting a lovely falls in the nearby park. Loads of poison ivy deters leisurely strolls through the woods however.
Second note to self: too cold without sleeping bag. I put on every item of clothing, collapsed the tent's vestibules and put my panniers under my feet. Absurd in the end of June. A surprisingly restful night fraught with waking to make sure my full back or front was against the sleeping pad to maximize its warmth potential. But I didn't have to admit defeat by getting into Bill's tent!
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Contrasts 50 miles

2011-06-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

A lovely start to the day, with moderate fog over Lake Ontario looking out from FairHaven State Park. It rapidly cleared while we breakfasted in town. There we met a couple from Montreal a few days into an extensive tour. They are going to be doing a Lonely Planet Guide to inexpensive bicycle touring.
The cafe had wireless, but some fool IT person told the owner that the name of the wireless network and password could not be changed. As a result, the network was generically named C390 and the password was about 25 characters long, including 15 zeros at the end. If she had had the password to get into the router, I would have fixed it for her.
We toodled up to Sodus Bay, ate local cherries and strawberry rhubarb pie

and got caught in a warm thundershower.

Unable to find a decent lunch stop in Williamstown, we grabbed sandwiches from a grocery. Bill picked up wine and local cheese and we got crackers for the evening.

Hopping on the Erie Canal towpath at Palmyra we headed towards Macedon to camp. Passing by the hiker/ biker campsite at lock 30, we tried out the marina, but there was no one in attendance. The bridge to it was barricaded, but I took off my two panniers and lifted the bike over the barricades. Instead of the marina, there was a huge set of ballfields and after a little searching and help from some soccer players, I located him and got permission for us to camp out. No showers, but clean flush toilets. The caretaker, Lorb Miller, managed to locate the person who locks up and the toilets were left open for us. So sweet.
Washing, wine and cheese and bed. Frogs serenaded us.

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Tiny Tour

2011-06-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Gave Amtrak another try. I haven't ridden a train in twenty years. The cost has been too high and I have memories of being unable to get a seat. But $27 for a single person to go 120 miles with the folding bike was too good to resist. No other bikes are allowed on trains without baggage cars and most trains lack those cars.
I would have had to make two trips to put the two panniers, the handlebar bag and bike on the train, because the angle of the steps and my inability to lift the bike one handed over my head would have made it impossible. Instead a porter at the top of the steps grabbed it and moved it to a stow area for me.
The train was 1:15 late to Syracuse, but otherwise it was a pleasant trip.
Bill picked me up there. He and Linda had arrived There after finishing an Atlantic tour.

50 miles from Syracuse we landed in Fair Haven on the shores of Lake Ontario. Beautiful sunset.

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Temp drop

2011-06-24T08:09:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday I rode from Buffalo to Wilson on the shore of Lake Ontario. Leaving Buffalo, the temperature was cool and expected to rise to 80. In Wilson, 40 miles away, the temp never topped 68. Brrrr. On the way, I performed my smallest rescue yet. Any smaller and I would have thought it a rock.

That is my bracelet encompassing this tiny turtle. I passed it by, sighed and went back for it.

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Talking to strangers

2011-06-16T21:20:00.001-07:00

Riding home from work, I passed a woman on a fully loaded bike stopped and on a cell phone. I just asked her if she needed a place to stay and she indicated that she needed a bike shipping box, so my family helped her obtain one, fed her and listened to her stories while telling some of our own.
I am always astonished how many touring cyclists don't know about warmshowers, similar to couchsurfing. If you tour and need places to stay, I would strongly encourage you to sign up. If you just love cyclists, you can host. In some way this allows you to live vicariously when not on tour. There is even a smartphone app for it.
In addition to shelter, warmshowers hosts often have the resources and or knowledge to help you figure things out.

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Festival time in Buffalo

2011-06-16T21:11:00.001-07:00

Many visitors to our area comment on the joie de vivre of Buffalo's population in good weather. Festivals abound and the streets tend to be filled with people.
The Allentown art Festival draws thousands of people from the Upstate NY area. I was surprised at the lack of bicycles locked around the festival area. Maybe we just entered from the wrong direction. We had little trouble finding a place to lock up.
Here is a totally open rack with nifty adornments.

There is also a "locally owned" section of the festival. One vendor had bright green T's with "share the road" on them. Bought one, of course.

More cyclists than ever

2011-06-16T21:01:00.001-07:00

This just in from the Center for Unintended consequences:
As Buffalo sees a surge in cyclists, it is beginning to be more dangerous to skimp on following rules. In the olden days (a couple years ago), slowing for a stop sign was always adequate. Now there is rapidly increasing chance that you will suffer from a collision, not with a car but another cyclist. The same things which make cyclists invisible to motorists are what makes bike collisions so likely. We roll up to a stop sign, don't see any large obsticles coming, so we keep going.
My daughter was broadsided by someone going the wrong way down a street. He assumed that since he saw no cars, he was okay as he cruised into a blind intersection.
The next day I was surprised by a cyclist when we ran through an intersection at a 90 degree angle from each other without stopping.
The day after that there was another similar incident.
Awareness needs to increase for all parties, but it is kind of a nice problem to experience, since it shows the vast increase in cycling traffic.

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Green Options

2011-05-21T19:22:00.001-07:00

Like many cities, Buffalo has a number of reuse organizations and a few which concentrate on alternative forms of transportation; alternatives to driving, that is.
Green Options is the main one of which I am aware and it includes kind of a sub organization called Buffalo Blue Bikes. BBB's function is to take donated bikes and place them in densely populated areas where members can borrow them.
Today was a beer centered fundraiser. I volunteered to pour beer, which is maybe like putting me in charge of the M&Ms. But I don't really drink much; it just makes me less efficient. Here is a picture of the bike valet parking, which was increasingly popular as the day progressed. Yummy beer: Flying Bison.

Here is an image from a nearby commercial area called Elmwood Village. Note the mostly full bike racks.

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Training 3

2011-05-21T05:25:00.001-07:00

It is always refreshing to discuss bicycling with other cyclists. As much as I enjoy telling non-cyclist, roadies and commuters about the joys of touring, it is simply unusual for me to find other touring cyclists.
The knot challenge. Don't let go of someone's hands, but untie the group.

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Training Day 2

2011-05-21T05:22:00.001-07:00

Even though this is is an Adventure cycling training, since it focuses on leadership there is very little cycling involved, of course.
We did go out for a quick jaunt in late afternoon. The purpose was to model what a group shopping trip might be like. Not quite an accurate picture, since there are 24 of us and a normal tour usually maxes out at around 12. In addition, since there is a fridge and we don't have to carry the extra, we shopped for the rest of the week as well and sent it all back to camp in a car. Normally there would be just 2 people in the store, but we all went in, because all are responsible for the cooking.
All ranges of bikes were represented, from folders, to old school to mountain and carbon fibre racing.

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Adventure Cycling Leadership Training

2011-05-21T05:21:00.001-07:00

Six months ago I decided to sign up for this leadership training and that is pretty much what it takes to reserve a spot. The motivation comes from an epiphany I had after coming back from Portland last year. The best way to advocate for cyclists is to get more cyclists on the road. Currently commuting is my basic advocacy. I took an online survey last week for a cycling advocacy group and one of the questions was: to about how many curious people do you talk about beginning cycling (in other words, "how do you handle the logistics of cycling"? After some thought, the math astonished me: about 300 people a year. I end up advocating almost once a day. And these are people asking me for information, I didn't necessarily bring it up.
So how did I handle the logistics of this trip?
I bought the trailer conversion kit for the suitcase my Bike Friday packs into, put it together and gave the whole deal a 20 mile test run. This suitcase is able to be checked as regular luggage. My gear went into a duffle and I used my handlebar bag as a purse. It was imperative to remember to pack my first aid scissors and nail clippers in the suicase.
This training takes place 57 miles from Richmond, VA. I met up with friends from the Trans Am trip from last summer and one of them rode to the training me, while the other drove the car.

You know you have cool cycling friends when the driver wishes she could ride instead of driving the car.
A beauttiful day to ride, especially since the spring has been so long in coming and great company to boot.
We relied on printed directions from Google Maps for bikes. Pretty excellent until the last 10 miles when the directions became confusing and were reduced to "turn right in 365ft" and there was a bend in the road, but nothing else. Google maps on the phone was also not useful,since there was no signal. A VA map might not have helped either, since we were off the beaten path. 57 miles turned into 77 miles and we got to the training with 15 sqeeky minutes to spare.
We crossed the James River,

saw hog farms, a Cyprus swamp and generally enjoyed the day.

The evening was consumed by the training meet and great and initial scheduling.
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Google Maps, cycling directions and MyMaps

2011-05-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

Missing from Google Maps cycling directions is a way to save those directions to the MyMaps application (available if you have a Google account only). A save option is available if you use the driving directions, but not if you want to route using no tolls, walking or cycling.
This site does a pretty good job of hinting at the fix for saving cycling directions to MyMaps. The missing piece is this:

Paste the "link" email results in the address bar of a new tab, then add &output=kml part to the end of the address; hit return- this will cause google to ask if you want to save the file, which can be imported.

One warning- the directions format differently after you import them to MyMaps. If you like them the original way, you should print or convert them to a pdf.

Becoming more normal

2011-05-01T09:15:00.001-07:00

Doing most things, including errands, shopping and commuting has been mostly my domain in Buffalo, especially in the winter.
Things are changing, however. There were more cyclists out this winter than ever before, some even pretty hard core. Shopping has continued to be where I stand alone. Some people do run for small things or emergency items, but doing a family's shopping is unusual.

Today I parked next to this very unusual bike and thought "Wow".
It made my little trailer and milk bottles look wimpy. In addition to the huge box on the back, there was a small hard case box on the front. Both the yellow rear box and front had padlocks on them.

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Making the best of it

2011-04-24T05:46:00.001-07:00

It is difficult to motivate myself to get out there and ride for fun when the weather is so unpleasant. The 30-40 degree temperatures could be dealt with, but in conjunction with the daily precipitation riding became untenable.
Friday's forecast looked much more pleasant, beginning with temps at freezing at 7am and building to near 50 later in the day with no precipitation.
I jumped on my bike and headed out of town. The nice thing about agreeing to meet someone somewhere far away and they are driving, is that they can rescue your sorry butt if you don't make it. So I agreed to meet this cute guy, to whom I'm married, 90 miles away in the Finger Lakes.
He passed me and stopped to chat at about 70 miles out from Buffalo, tried to give me a lift, then moved on. I was kind of tired, but a goal is a goal and I only had 20 miles left.
How did I route myself? I started out following a set of google maps for bikes printed directions, but quickly (30miles in) realized that the extra miles google added to keep me off major thouroughfares was going to add about 10 miles. Since I really haven't trained this year and the weather wasn't fabulous, I decided to stick to route 20. The speed limit is generally 55, but it goes through small towns and has a 5 foot shoulder.
Listening to RadioLabs podcasts pretty much the whole way, I noticed little orange plastic tags nailed to the shoulder. They were seemingly quite random. At one point I slowed to look more carefully and found they were actually tiny orange bowtie pastas. So bizarre! They lasted about 20 miles, barely decreasing in frequency until Avon, when I must have diverged from their path. All sorts of scenarios jumped from my head on this one. Someone abducted and stowed in a trunk or some little kid in a carseat dropping a 40 lb bag out the window one bowtie at a time...

I arrived in Canandaigua at 5pm, tired, hungry and stiff, but in good spirits and far from spent. Staying at Bella Rose b&b. Very nice, sweet hosts and excellent breakfasts. This is wine country!

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Adventure Cycling Flickr Post

2011-04-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Oooooh. 15Kb of fame. 4/5 of the way down. See us all! (1) Bobby, (2)Rich, Nick and Mac, (3)Mike, Heidi, Jamie, (4) Sara, Leslie, Janelle, Ted, Bill. Soooooo cool.

Returning to Bicycle Gearing

2011-04-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

I came across my original table for calculating the gear ratios and gear inches of my original road bike. Searching through my older posts, I realized I never put that information out there, even after I had decided to buy the Bike Friday New World Tourist. Determined to not dive into spending more money without guaranteed results, I had used this very fine site to determine the inches and ratios of each bike to make sure I would be gaining something meaningful.

Steps:

make a table with the number of teeth on each chain ring in the front and each cog in the back
divide the front chain ring teeth by each of the rear ring cogs to get the proportional (ratio) size difference between them for each combination
mulitply the size of your wheel by the proportion (ratio to 1) to get the gear inches.

Note in the case of my two bikes that I lost a little at the top end of the BF (I can't pedal downhill as fast), but gained significantly at the bottom end. The highest gear inch on the BCA is over 100 and on the BF it is only 94.55. The lowest on the BCA however, is 28.93. On the BF, I can get all the way down to 18.75. Screaming downhill was far less important than effectively chugging up those steep hills. My top speed on the BF was 49mph, by the way.

Still snowing; Work on blog

2011-04-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

Totally unrelated to bikes, bicycling or touring. Indoor hobbies- no not that one.
I decided to rework my blog, since it is so depressing outside. I can look at my bright, cheery computer screen.
One of my issues was that my blog only had 2 columns, causing the right column "stuff" to extend way too far down the page. Also, my pages where taking up space in the right column. Thinking I had to get a new template, I began searching for a new 3 column template, when low and behold a thing of beauty popped up in the results. This kind and industrious person scoured the internet to simply turn a 2 column template into a 3 column. And she/he DOCUMENTED it for the rest of us!
This is why I harp at work at documenting discoveries. So sweet. And quick (for me).
So a SHOUTOUT to the perseverance of a fellow blogger.

2011-04-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Weather report

Early last week- weather report for this week:
highs in the mid to upper 50's, lows in the mid 40's, very little rain

Middle of last week:
highs in the mid 50's, lows in the low 40's, chance of rain

End of last week:
highs in the low 50's, lows near 40, chance of thunderstorms

Reality:
Highs near 40, lows in the low 30's, snow

I looked out on my planned trip to the Finger Lakes on my ONE WEEK BREAK and saw 26 mile per hour winds and snow. Then I wimped out. Maybe I'll leave on Monday. Nope. Still snowing. Maybe Tues...

Cleaning bike instead. White BCA is perpetually nicked and dirty. So I am trying out black nail polish, paint pens and sharpies. Here is pretty much how I was thinking it would look. Pretty amazing, but we'll see if mine comes out nearly as spectacular. The BCA name is a little odd. With a mixed brand history, it seems unclear whether I got a really high quality bike, but it has lasted extremely well in my hands. Some leads state BCA was related to Ross.
I've started by making some doodles on paper. I realize the paper is flat and the bike is not, thank you very much.

2011-03-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

NO RAINPANTS or SNOWBOARD MITTENS this afternoon! 34 degrees!

Business First called me for an interview today. It was an interesting experience. I wrote down some notes to self of things worth mentioning: since I work with so many people each year (teachers and students) and they know I ride a bike to work, when they see a cyclist they think, "Hey, I wonder if that is Ms. xxxxx, maybe I should be careful". This is probably the greatest advocacy cyclists can be involved in. For every one person on a bike, they have scores of fans; family, friends and neighbors. All these people are more careful of cyclists than they might be otherwise.
As for the cycling scene in Buffalo? It is improving. Hardly anyone ever honks at me, even though I continue to travel at least 2 feet out from parked cars (probably jinxing myself, but I have never been hit or doored). Hundreds more bike racks (thanks Green Options) and a school district which has never hindered my ability to commute.
Cheers to living in Buffalo!

Long winter

2011-03-26T10:46:00.001-07:00

So. Seemingly long winter. On an unseasonably warm Saturday, my husband bet me the snow was done. 4 days later and 8 inches deeper I laughed at him. It was one of the few days I have driven this winter. Nasty 2 inch ice and 5 destinations detered me.
This morning I took this picture of my lonely bike in the Co-op bike rack, gloating because I was the only stalwart one out in 18 degrees, when someone else rode up.

I am reading "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne. In the preface he remarks that the state of cities is improving as people begin to realize there is more to life than sprawling lawns and parking lots. This seemed too much to hope for, but maybe not.
Walking through a business section near my home, there was a man looking for boot laces, which couldn't be found in the nearby stores. Employees recommended he go to a chain store in the burbs, but I jumped in and recommended a chain store in the city (better of two evils). The man commented that that would entail getting in a car (+1 point). I told him it would not and he agreed he could use the bus (+1 point for thinking on it rather than knocking the idea down).
A second note: a friend told me her son refuses to allow her to drive 3 hours to retrieve him from college, because it is a foolish use of gas. He wishes gas was $7.00 a gallon. He won't eat meat because of the resources it sucks.
So much hope and optimism.

To top it all off: blinding sunshine in large quantities. Had to remind myself why I don't move to Portland.

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Deep Breath, Move On

2011-01-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

So I had a job shift again, but I didn't have to reapply this time. Made me kind of angry. I took the rest of the day off and went out riding. 22 miles. Really felt fine. 27 degrees and light snow, but moderately clear roads. The key to riding at any time is routing and this holds especially true in the winter. Roads with narrow shoulders become roads without shoulders and drivers are less likely to expect a cyclist.
I went out with a Foxwear base, Smartwool turleneck and Gore windproof jacket on top. On the bottom, Foxwear mid-weight tights and J&G rainpants with leather sneakers. Normally I would wear boots, but I thought I would try the sneakers with thick wool socks. This barely did the job of keeping my toes warm. When I got home, my feet were quite cold. I used a balaclava and Burton snowboarding mittens and both of those were good choices.

2011-01-23T18:06:00.001-08:00

Two months of winter commuting

I shifted jobs, so to speak. Instead of being responsible for one building, I am part of a team responsible for 6 building. I try not to switch buildings during the day, but instead to make multiple appointments in one building and stay there all day. I am not opposed to cycling from one to another, but when the temperature dips below 45, I have to switch clothes and it is time consuming to dress and undress. The time between buildings is not a problem. Gruesome detail: in a pinch, if you arrive stinky and have a change of clothes, you can use hand sanitizer to freshen up. Works by killing the bacteria causing the odor.
I recently purchased Foxwear tights and a NTS (next to skin) polar dry long sleeved top. Very impressive. Keep in mind that the guy is almost a one-man-band. He take the order, sews the stuff, and ships it. The tights are polar tech 250 weight, water/wind repellent and warm. Sometimes I wear them by themselves, but combine them with Gore rain pants if it drops below 25 degrees. The top has no zipper (and I would not recommend against getting zippers on polar tech- the guy struggles with sewing them in flat). It is the 2nd thinnest grade, pale yellow with black stitching and performs almost as well as my smartwool. I often layer the two, with the polardry next to my skin. Pricing is great and he will make it like you want it. I asked him to give me a little extra in the looseness of the tights and to make them 2 inches longer than the inseam measurement he asked for. I like to tuck my tights into my boots. So nice.
I also bought a Gore sunshine yellow jacket. Wind and water repellent, I got caught in a shower and arrived dry underneath.

Touring in late fall

2010-11-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

In early October I stated my desire to ride to the annual tech in Ed convention in Rochester, NY from Nov. 21st to the 23rd. People nodded and smiled. She'll give up on that idea; she forgets it's cold in November. But 32 degrees isn't so bad. As a matter of fact, it was 40 when I left. 94 miles. The thing that almost got me was the day length. And the fact that you can't average 18mph on a limestone trail. But I did it. It took 8 hours.
I got away with a long sleeved silk top, long sleeved smartwool top, wind resistant gloves and the brilliant Foxwear leggings. I also was never quite able to lose the thinsulate beanie. But by the time the sun was going down I had to add in a fleece and was reaching for the rain coat.

Behind me note the "bridge", which is the remnant of an aqueduct which long ago carried the Erie Canal over the Genesee River. Yup. Though some rivers were utilized for the canal, this one needed to be avoided to keep clear of a major elevation change. When the canal went kaput, the city capped the aqeduct and turned it into a bridge.

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Do they know who they're dealing with?

2010-11-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

November 1st? Are they kidding? It was November 20th and I was out there daring a snowplow to run me down.

BTW- the white SUV in the photo belongs to a guy who turned around and came back because he thought I took a spill while riding on the sidewalk. In truth I was just lying on the ground trying to set the camera up for a timed photo.

2010-10-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

My apologies to the person (iz) who tried to post a comment/question: What do you mean under the FAQs "How did you feel when you finished?" when you answered, "Overwhelmed by the complexity of life". I moved that whole post to become a separate page and lost the comment. But this is probably important enough to make a whole post about.
So here goes: When I returned, I had been on the road for almost 3 months. For 3 months, there was no real schedule, no commitments, no appointments and very few choices. I carried 3 sets of clothes: two cycling outfits and one for civilization. If one cycling outfit was dirty, there was only one choice. In a grocery store, there were not too many choices. Frozen foods were totally out, anything which required an oven was out, meat was out and extremely perishable foods were only choices if they would be eaten quickly.
When I got home, I had a closet/dresser full of clothes from which I could not decide. The morning after I got home, I went to work for a half day. Opening the closet reduced me to an idiot, who stood trying to make a decision. It took me 15 minutes. The total amount of "stuff" in my house was unnerving. I wanted to get rid of everything. That morning, since the only thing I had in my panniers was a bag of dried apricots, that was breakfast. It did not even occur to me to look in the cupboards, even less the fridge.
I couldn't even go out with my friends I was so overwhelmed by the decisions which needed to be made and the tasks which needed to be accomplished. Simple things, like cleaning and making dinner or having the tires rotated on my car (yes, I actually have one) were like life altering decisions. As funny as it sounds, it was quite serious. Thinking I was just bizarre, I spoke with others who have left home for extended periods of time, such as Peace Corps volunteers and other cycling tourists. They had all experienced the same phenomenon.
Did I recover? Now back 2 months, I still haven't fully recovered. I am restless and have purged my house of many of my possessions. I go out on long day rides. I long for the next tour expectantly. I have made attempts to simplify. Not all negative.

2010-10-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Funding for improved bike trails and lanes is covered under the Federal Highway Trust Fund. AAA Mid-Atlantic has asked Congress to remove the allocation for funding geared towards these improvements, even though out of 89 Billion, only 1 billion is earmarked for improvements for pedestrians and cyclists. I would encourage people to sign the petition to AAA to censor their Mid-Atlantic branch in its attempts to press on with this endeavor. The Rails to Trails organization has done a great job of gathering the facts and accurately quoting details from the controversy.

2010-09-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

Portland for 5 days before heading home

I spent 2 days driving around with my whole family, then 3 more days just with my daughter. Portland would be such a fabulous place to live, if not for the weather and lack of jobs.
What makes Portland so fabulous? The whole bike culture. In Buffalo, if you needed to make a left turn, you would wait until traffic cleared or proceed to an intersection, then use the light to make your left. In Portland, you stick your arm out to signal your intention to turn left from the bike lane on the right. Even if there are three lanes of traffic going one way behind you, they all stop so you can pass in front of them. Story #2: Five of us with bicycles needed to get on a 3 car train, the stop after the location of the Italian Festival at 5:30 at night (no comments on the choice of stops). We broke into 3 groups to get into separate cars. I pulled forward into the car with my bike and realized my daughter and I were not going to make it: too many people. As I looked backwards to begin backing out, then forward again, the whole mass of people had parted to let us get to the hooks in the train to hang our bikes. Just like that. When we got to our destination, all 5 of us had experienced the same phenomenon. It is not that every driver and pedestrian was fabulous, but that the majority were. It made Buffalo pale in comparison.
Here are some pictures of the special bike boxes to protect bikes locked in one place for an extended time (one rents most of them):
Here is my Bike Friday leaning against a rental bike box. This one was at a park and ride lot. I suspect you can leave your bike there, then take your car or the train the rest of the way home.
This one is a hinged device, which swings down onto your bike and "skewers" your diamond frame and each wheel. It locks the main components, but is really only good for a day, not an overnight.

This cover is hinged and drops down over your whole bike, then locks into position.

Manzanita to Astoria, OR 46 miles

2010-08-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Last morning of packing up.

There was a cyclist with a BOB trailer modified to carry his surf board.

Left with everyone: Janelle, Bill, Sara, Ted, Jamie and Heidi with the special addition of Marissa, whom we met at the campground last night. Marissa was doing a loop from Portland (a Lewis and Clark student) to Tamarook to Astoria and back to Portland. She was a new cycle tourist using borrowed equipment and discovering that her bike did not really have adequate gearing for touring. She was doing phenominally well considering.

We lost Sara while taking a shortcut. Sara's shortcut cut off more than ours, so while we waited for her, she was ahead of us with Ted and Janelle, who had missed the shortcut entirely.
Silver Lining: Bill and Heidi got to get coffee while we waited and Marissa caught up!

At an overlook, we commented on all the imaginary wildlife and creatures we saw swimming in the ocean and fog, while Bill talked on the phone.

Heidi rang Bill's bell to notify him we were ready to move on, but he didn't take her seriously, so I rang it a gazzilion times. It was very inordinately funny at the time.
This section of the route included a tunnel.

There was a button to press which lit up a warning sign to drivers that there were cyclists in the tunnel, but fortunately no cars came along while we were in the tunnel. I don't know if Marissa shared the same luck. She doesn't have to be in Astoria until Friday, while we are due in by today at 3pm.
Along a really busy section of 101, Jamie said her knee really hurt and asked to stop. So we did. Right there. To multi-task we pulled out lunch stuff. This also gave Marissa a chance to catch up. She sat on the road with us against the guard rail and ate an apple, then proceded to toss the core behind her. What are the odds a car would be coming up the on-ramp that happened to be on the other side of the guardrail?

A southbound Pacific Coast cyclist stopped and commented on our lovely choice of lunch stops and it turned out he, Jamie and Heidi have mutual friends.

We decided to regroup in Seaside with Janelle, Ted and Sara. While trying to find each other, Janelle mistakingly thought we were in Astoria, because she was reading a text from her husband and thought it was from me. This led to some funny conversation as we tried to sort out who was where. Seaside's boardwalk proved a challenge to negotiate, given all the bodies, dogs and small children darting out. It was amazingly busy, considering it was quite cool and foggy.
When we moved back to the streets we tried to take the lane since traffic was moving so slowly, but it was difficult to hold nine cyclists together. We held together until the last big hill identified on the map, when we divided into 2 groups.
The directions included things like this: At water treatment facility, continue straight across private road. I did manage to take the correct roads and was followed by Janelle, Ted and Marissa for most of the way. Bill, Heidi, Sara and jamie went the wrong way, but ended up in the right place anyways. They asked to regroup in a certain place, but since they were not on the route, we missed them. A little comedy of errors.
Finally, we were able to regroup at the Astoria City border. Our little Peleton worked its way toward the finish line, but one of the roads we were supposed to take was barricaded for the first 50 feet. No Problem. We just detoured through a parking lot to get around it. A DQ parking lot. NO WE ARE NOT STOPPING, EVEN IF WE HAVE GONE 30 MILES!!! Next up? A really steep hill. Oh, cruel fate. One of the steepest hills on the route. Two of us had to walk it. Fortunately it was pretty short. Up and around, twist and turn, through center of the city and... Violà, the Maritime Museum!
None of our peeps were there, but a tourist recognized what must be an important moment in history and took several pictures of the group, promising to email them to Jamie and me.
Bob, Dwight, Elliott, Rachel and Aaron showed up shortly and then there was a giant photo op.

It didn't seem right that Bill had no flats this trip, so I thought I might fix that.

Ted, Janelle and Bill ran off to ship their bikes, we said goodbye to Marissa and everyone else made for the restaurant, were we made merry until quite late and drank champagne, compliments of my parents.

Last order of business was to drive Jamie back to Bay City to retrieve Sara's car. It was fun to drive back part of the route.
What an exceptional adventure. This was the best group ever and we were very lucky to have such great support from our families. I will miss you all until we hopefully meet again.
Thank you.

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Pacific City to Manzanita, OR 67 miles

2010-08-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

We rode together, conquering some serious hills until Netarts, where we parted from Ted and Janelle. They took the shorter alternate to Tillamook to get to the library with time to work on blogs, while Bill and I went to Ocean City for second breakfast.

At the restaurant we watched people flying rc planes. It was pretty much perfect weather; cloudy with no wind. I must admit that we have experienced far less wind than Heidi, Jamie and Sara seem to have experienced.
The two routes both had 2 big hills, but our route had a horrible road surface with deep potholes and dappled shade, making it difficult to see the holes. As a result, a nice potential 31mph downhill was stalled to about 15 mph for safety as we desired to remain on our bikes rather than under them.
In Tillamook we reconnected again briefly with Janelle and Ted at the library, but since they had just eaten, we decided to stay in town for lunch.
Outside the library we Met 3 pacific coast travelers, headed for Venezuala, Panama and one striving to go as far as possible by Sept 8th.
At Bay City met back up again with Ted and Janelle.

Jamie, Heidi and Sara had driven back down to finish the ride with us, though technically they finished several days ago when they made it to Florence. They still wanted to go all the way to Astoria.

We drafted for quite a while, but then lost Janelle and Ted until the Manzanita grocery. Jamie, Heidi and Sara had gone towards the campground, but Ted, Janelle, Bill and I decided a pub was in order. We rode to Nehalem campground in our own personal fogs.
The hiker biker site was far superior to former examples, including sand tent pads and multiple picnic shelters, as well as flat ground.
Last note of the night is a great quote of Heidi:
How do you tell if pasta is cooked? By how it feels when you swallow it.

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Springfield to Rickreall, OR 68

2010-08-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

It was pretty cool in the morning. Our jackets and shirts were on and off as we froze and sweated.
We slinkied all day with Janelle and Ted, catching up, then passing or being passed.

In Corvallis we located a bakery with fabulous choices for snacks and lunch, but snacks won out. We ate pie and drinks.
Desperate for a bathroom, i was passing several before I screamed to a halt at the very last set and was too lazy to go back 100 feet to another. The one I chose was devoted to spiders. I had to reach through webbing that rivaled horror movie effects in order to open the door (which looked as though it might have been nailed shut at one time), then I had to make space for myself on the seat and relocate several spiders to take some toilet paper.
The route was actually pretty level today, which might spoil us for any future hill endeavors.
Saw another Datsun!
We hit a headwind at end of day, but survived. We ended up at the county fairgrounds and found a sign that indicated the camping was closed to the public. I voted for just integrating into the existing private campers, but Bill asked the supervisor, who said, "fine".

We helped dismantle waterfowl exhibit tents. Here Janelle, Ted and Bill move a mobile cart full of folding chairs.

The only event going on after we were finished was Dockdogs, a competition to see which dog could chase a thrown toy furthest off a dock. They had a portable dock and pool!

If there were a museum for antique playground equipment, most of their equipment would have been repressented, though it would be roped off do to safety concerns.

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Rickreall to Pacific City, OR 64 miles

2010-08-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

The road was busy and not incredibly pleasant. We stayed on it (18 to 101) anyways, even though the route veered off, because we figured it would be shorter and less hilly.
We saw our first mileage sign for Astoria.

I don't know why we were all smiling at the top of this hill. Maybe we were all thrilled to be closing in on the coast or maybe we were all slap happy...

Dance moves?

Pacific Coast! We were told that sunny and 70 degrees was atypical for the Oregon coast, that cool and foggy was more typical and that we were lucky.

Lunch was a mix of store bought sandwiches and stuff from our panniers. It was so serene and we relected a lot on the impending end of our trip.

The group split temporarilly at Pacific City. Ted and Janelle went to the library while Bill and I went to scope out accomodations. I checked the campgrounds and Bill checked hotels. Peak vacation time: you can probaby predict what Bill found. I found the private cG full, but the county campground was almost empty. What I noticed first was the proliferation of feral domesticated rabbits.

And finally, ice cream, then pizza for dinner and a surprise photo before bed, a VW bug with a surfboard on top!

Eugene take 2

2010-08-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today we really slacked.

We went to a car show specializing in cars from the 30's to the 60's, then finally reconnected with Ted and Janelle at the local library. After a trip to Target and an unsuccessful trip to the post office we went to the hotel to get rid of Ted and Janelle's baggage, then ran to get dinner. A guy at Target asked if we already had a place to stay. He didn't even ask if we were touring (Janelle and Ted still had the trailer and panniers). And he was Asian and acted as though he was a little shy to ask. Amazing. We were in a hurry because Janelle, Bill and I were returning to the car show to watch American Graffiti.

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Eugene to Eugene 0 bike miles, numerous foot miles

2010-08-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

We walked around Eugene today going to Trader Joes (darn tourists- neither Bill nor I had ever been to one) and the library, as well as looking in the bus station and a Danish furniture store. Tons of cyclists and bike lanes/ paths in addition to automobile drivers who expect cyclists and take them into account make Eugene the finest place to be a cyclist I have ever been yet.

These people are tubing down the Willamette River in tire tubes. The one guy is wearing a Viking hat with horns. Typical Eugene. In the evening at the grocery store, a woman was wearing an antelope hat. Typical Eugene.

I saw 2 Datsuns! Land of the older car.
We had planned on going to see a free movie outside town and taking a bus there, but instead we bought groceries, ate in our room and played Bananagrams.

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Springfield to Eugene, OR 8 miles and sundry

2010-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

We lazily made our way into downtown Eugene. Breakfast at the Morning Glory Cafe was fabulous. I had a tofu scramble and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Bill was maybe a little surprised by the alternative lifestyles represented. Lots of colored hair and tatoos.
Next was a visit to Green Gear, aka Bike Friday.

We met one of the founders and his daughter, as well as members of the staff as they were walking out the front door. I was surprised that they were as interested in our Trans Am tour as they were. One would think they would see many coast to coast touring cyclists. I also thought more of them would have done the tour themselves.
It was pretty cool to see how the bikes are made and the small scale operation, which cranks out about 10 bikes per day.

It was also cool that they were excited to show us their prototypes for new designs and to have them talk about innovations in cycling like belt drives.

I ordered the parts to convert my suitcase into a trailer, touch up paint, had them replace the chain, two of the chainrings and the rear cassette, as well as swap my rear folder tire out for another Schwalbe Marathon.

The drive train might have been saved if I had replaced the chain in Lamder, WY when that bike shop had told me it was really worn.
Lunch at Izzy's (really suffered in comparison to Morning Glory) and then hunted for a hotel downtown. Eugene is highly diversified in terms of philosophies and money, but not racially. We walked quite a ways along bike paths on the river to go see Inception (movie). I was worried about walking back after dark, especially given the large number of homeless, but it wasn't an issue. The movie was a little out of the box for Bill. It is nice to see him expanding his horizons.

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Sisters to Springfield, OR 90 miles

2010-08-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Last night someone told us that the last 5 miles in the 15 mile climb to McKenzie Pass were straight up, so when the first 5 miles were work and the middle 5 miles were more strenuous work, I thought, "wow, I might really struggle with this pass". Then the last 5 miles began. We came out into a view point to see a huge unexpected lava field.

After that, there was little real climbing, mostly just a mildly undulating ride at the edge and then through the lava.

At the top was an observatory, with holes made to sight the surrounding peaks.

Notice that someone defaced the pedestrian crossing sign.

After that was a 30 mile descent losing 4,000 feet. I don't really feel we worked hard enough on the entire trip to deserve that descent.
The extreme drop in elevation and the shift to the western side of the Cascades brought phenominal change in climate; it was now very lush and rain forest like.
At McKenzie Bridge ranger station we ate our muffins and fruit, then ordered sandwiches from a cafe down the road.
A headwind developed, but since we were still generally going downhill, its impact was decreased; we still managed around 18mph. Other than stopping for cold drinks at most towns, we pushed on without breaks. The road had a decent shoulder most of the time, but drivers were generally in more of a hurry than in recent memory.
A great bike lane began in Springfield. The drain grates had small spaces between the bars and the bars were oriented perpendicular to the lane. In addition, though there were man hole covers frequently, they were pretty smooth and level with the asphalt. Really nice.
When we stopped to get our bearings and check our location, a guy told us the hotel we were looking for was a long ways away and offered to put our bikes in his truck. It was only another 10 miles. We arrived there at around 8pm and ate the sandwiches from long ago.

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Ochoco Pass to Sisters, OR 73 miles

2010-08-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

Such a beautiful morning. A very quiet peaceful night. It was not exceedingly cold, about 50 or 55. The descent was not as steep as I would have predicted. This was just as well, because you could pedal to keep yourself at between 19 and 21 and keep your knees and core warm.
We passed Ochoco Lake at about the 23 mile mark without an open grocery or cafe and had to keep going to Prineville for the most uninspired second breakfast in a while.
The AC adendum suggested an alternate route out of Prineville that supposedly had improved shoulders. Obviously, since we did not take the route on the map, we have nothing to compare it to, but the should varied in width from 4 feet to 1 foot and the surface varied from smooth to worse than a recent chip seal (that's where they lay down tar and then throw gravel down on top, tamp it down a lot and let the cars finish the job). The temperature was about 90, but we were not pushing too hard; mostly either downhill or flat.
In Redmond, i wanted a salad, but noooo. Instead we stopped in front of DQ to look at the maps. I bet you know how that turned out.
Bill took the opportunity to call Janelle and make sure everything was copasthetic.
He also tild me that drafting takes a toll on front person. I can't tell when to believe him. So I refused to draft off of him.
It seemed like this side of the pass should be less arid than the other side, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
We stopped to look at cars for Bill to use as his transportation home; I think he would have to spend about a year on one of these just to get it useable. Maybe he should just ride back, it would be faster.

We had our first glimpses of Three Sisters, Jefferson, Washington and Bachelor. Here is Jefferson:

It is amazing how much snow is still on these mountains. It makes them more impressive than the Rockies.
Just shy of Sisters we could see a storm developing and I was almost wishing to get wet, but it got there and left before we did.
Sisters is "tastefully touristy". We had gotten hints about where to eat, so first we left a note with a friend of Bill's and went to Angeline's. This was the first time during this trip that I have been to a restaurant and been stymied by the menu. There were so many vegetarian choices it was difficult to choose.
Kim, the family friend, showed up there to say hello and invited us to stay with her and her husband Kevin. We took a quick sojourn to a bike shop (Blazing Saddles), but they had neither a tire nor a tube for me. BMX is probably not huge here. Then Kevin strapped our bikes into his pickup, which was all prepared for two bikes, because they put theirs in it all the time.
We got to take actual showers and wash our clothes in a washing machine!
Kim and Kevin took us to a pub for dinner and we crashed upon our return to their home.
Remember the name of the tour? An Affirmation of Human Goodness!

Mt. Vernon to Ochoco Pass, OR, OR 80 miles

2010-08-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

We saw our first coyotes this morning and then rode within 3 feet of a coiled rattlesnake warming itself on the edge of the road at 9 in the morning. Bill was in front and I was drafting off him. He was in the zone and didn't even notice it. Since I was so close to him, I never saw it either, but heard it as we passed, then looked in my rear view mirror to see what had made the noise. We were doing about 17 mph, and so didn't stop, but at its widest, it was about the diameter of a soda can.
A couple with BF Air Glides in their car turned around to come back to talk to me about my BF New World Tourist. The BF generates more conversation the further West we go, which I find interesting because it is less of a novelty in the West. Maybe it is because people are considering buying one and want info, whereas in the East it is their first exposure to any folder.
McKee Creek was an agonizing pass with about a 2,000 foot gain, very hot and dry.

In Mitchell the grocery is closed, but at the cafe I drank at least 5 large Arnold Palmers (half tea, half lemonade), had a veggie burger (welcome to Oregon), potato salad and a chocolate brownie, then had stomach cramps. I was probably dehydrated, which explain the difficulty of an otherwise not outrageous pass.
Bill made an executive decision to yet again move on and climb the next pass, Ochono, and camp on its summit as a mark of dominance.
We were both quite tired but made the pass, slowly but surely.
Ochoco Divide CG was pretty with tall pines, but shockingly, no water. You could buy some from the CG hosts, but no spigots. This is only the second time in my experience I have found a USFS CG without water.
No insects!

Baker City to Mt. Vernon, OR 90 miles

2010-08-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

We saw Irv and Susan again as we all made our way out of town. They were out on their bikes headed for a coffee shop. Then about 5 miles out of town we came across two people traveling towards us. Shaina and Ming were traveling around, coming from Sacramento and moving towards Glacier. Shaina was riding a Bike Saturday recumbent with the trailer. I had to stop and chat while everyone else moved on. Couchsurfing.org/rkmlai is their couchsurfing username. They were delightful to talk to and I wished I had had more time with them, but I was falling far behind the group. They told me I definately would not get service at Bike Friday in Eugene on a Saturday.

Not a lot of variety today. Up down up down. Highlights: a mule deer lying very close to the road under the deep shade of a pine (smart deer- it was about 90 and very dry). A couple of chipmunks (see how excited I get over basic wildlife, I am so desperate to see any). A spring coming out of the hill that Ming and Shaina told me about (wish I had stopped- I thought it was dry). Cows in the road.

This weird sign, which must have been directed at a local organized ride.

I caught up with Janelle and Ted, but Bill had slipped ahead and I never caught up with him. For the whole 53 or so miles I was thinking about how to get to Eugene on Thurs night, so I could go to BF on Friday.
When I got to our scheduled destination of Austin Junction and found Bill, I told him of my decision to keep going. He expressed his desire to keep me company. There was no way to call or text Janelle or Ted, so we told Carol and Dave (who were going to stay at the campground there) of the plan so they could tell Janelle and Ted. I also told an Eastbound cyclist with the expectation she could not miss them and asked her to relay the message.
I was unimpressed with the restaurant: service was slow and a salad, ice cream or bottled tea were expensive.
We ate a small meal and then headed out again at around 3:15.

The 7 mile climb to the third pass of the day was worth it. The next 37 miles were either downhill or entailed a tailwind. We stopped for something cold to drink in every town and it was nice to have an option to stop for the night every 15 miles or so.
Landing in Mt. Vernon, we located the Bike Inn, a bike only lodging which Jamie and Heidi had enjoyed. Beds, a kitchenette, goats, dog and cats were all ours. There was a note to please take care of the dog if the owner was absent. Pretty cool. Here is a photo of one of the three goats taken from the kitchen window.

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Richland to Baker City, OR 47 miles

2010-08-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

We returned to last night's cafe for breakfast and were rewarded with Carol and Dave's company.
Bill enjoyed his apple pie last night so much he ordered one to go after breakfast.

The route traveled along the Powder River. There were lots of eagles and hawks, but no antelope or sheep. I don't know where the people hide all the wildlife when we pass by, but I hope they stop.
Climbing overall all day, but still there was some downhill, including the final long one into Baker City.
There was an Interpretive center at the top of hill. I would have liked to visit, but the hill and the fact that I had run out of water detered me. I thought of leaving my bike at the bottom and hitching up, an idea I later found Carol and Dave had executed.
There were no services at all today, which was not missed except the water.
Entering into Baker City we stopped at the RV campground, they hadn't seen Janelle and Ted, so we kept going to the bike shop so I could pick up a spare tube and maybe a tire.
Ice cream shop
Met Irv and Susan were riding Novara Flyby Shuttle Folders in Baker City. They also own a teardrop camper.

Ivy offered up her house first, then Sandy and Rod Lewis offered. Sandy said they didn't live at the end of a gravel drive like Susan and Irv's, Susan noted that at least they had indoor plumbing. Good friends all; if they are representative of Baker City, it is a great place to live.
We accepted Sandy and Rod's offer, but collected groceries first. We camped out on their land and enjoyed their hospitality and pets.

Remember the tour name? AHG An Affirmation of Human Goodness.
I question if people ever really understand how much we appreciate the small and great help they give. Maybe you have to be outside for months to really have a good idea.

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Cambridge, ID to Richland, OR

2010-08-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

I think Bill was trying to kill me this morning. Uphill for 16 miles with an elevation gain of 1,331 feet full speed. We saw actual wildlife, even though it was only mule deer. No rattlesnakes. There was a a letter to the editor in a local paper that told of a hike running along the road we traveled where the hiker spotted 70 rattlers in a 20 mile stretch.

We crossed into Oregon! I am in Pacific Time 'till the end now!

In Oxbow, OR, there were tantalizing signs warning of mnt goats, but alas... we saw none.
Halfway was a cute little town. Even though some of these towns have low populations, they have still managed to keep their stores. It can't be all tourists either, because they stay open all year.
The second climb was not as long as the first. Switchbacks degraded :) the ride.
We rode on and off as a group today and finally rejoined at the RV park in Richland. I set my bike up against the fence in the shade for about 30 min. and then moved it to a spot in the sun and 15 min later the tire blew with a bang. Bill attributes this to my excessive downhill speed. Hmm. Good thing I was done riding for the day.
Bill tried to soak me with the faucet, but I rolled myself up in his unsetup tent. Good quality tent, BTW. It kept me quite dry.
When checking out the library, we noticed that it was closed today, but the librarian was inside the building. She let us in, too and let us use the computer to check emails. How beautifully small town. As much as I love Buffalo, I can still appreciate the pleasures of living in a small town. Dinner was a salad and pie at the cafe.
A family group in the RV park on vacation offered to serve us breakfast in the morning; alas they were having biscuits and gravy! Not vegetarian.
There was supposed to be a meteorite shower tonight, but I am tired, sleep takes priority.

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New Meadow to Cambridge, ID 68 miles

2010-08-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I told Janelle to throw something at me if I snored. She said that if she could sleep through freight trains, she could sleep through me. I told her I would try to add a whistle so I would sound more like a train.
We enjoyed the mini, but tastey breakfast offered by the hotel: since it has a coffee shop attached, we got our choices of coffee, tea or hot cocoa and a baked good. Yum.
No more rain, but the fog was so thick it was impeding my forward progress. We do have blinky lights, so we had them on, but with virtually no shoulder, the traffic was a little dicy. Starting temp was 50 degrees. That isn't the coldest we've seen, but pretty cool. I had on: jersey, smartwool long sleeved, rain coat, cycling shorts, smartwool tights and stretch gloves. It took me 30 min. to lose the rain coat.
Odd how the fog was suddenly gone and the sun did shine. Looking back, you could see the edge of the fog as a stark line.
We mostly climbed away from New Meadow and the shoulder improved.

Bill says he has a hitch in his gitalong. I'll leave you to guess on the translation from Kansan. Maybe Babelfish might help.
Ok. Here I go trying to explain a family joke:
In 2004, when my family traveled out west, we noticed that in one state there seemed to be an incredibly high incidence of pickups with three dogs in the bed. Then we made a joke that there must be a law requiring 3 dogs in the bed of every pickup. A pickup with only 2 dogs would be stopped by the cops and the driver would nervously explain that they were currently on their way to the pound and that a dog had just fallen out. So this long winded tale is to explain the next pict.

If you look carefully, you will notice that in the back of these two trucks, whose drivers were related, there are three dogs. I supose they must have changed the rules, so that the additive property could make these two trucks legal. Private jokes often don't bear up to explanation.
The terrain was back to rolling arid with sage brush at the end ofthe day.
We stayed at the Frontier Hoyel and RV park. Really nice people own this. The camping is on the backyard and quite lovely. What a cute town, but struggling against a nearby Walmart. Walmart is a consistent small business killer and decimator of downtowns.
There is a hot tub for Bill's gitalong.

These two ladies are traveling from Eugene, OR to Montana. They bought their matching Bike Fridays at a BF black Friday sale. Never heard of it, but thought it was funny.

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Riggins to New Meadow, ID 38 miles

2010-08-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

The temperature was at the level where it was too cold for just a jersey and too warm for an additional layer.
Slow uphill, but not too diff
The view at top of the climb with a creek seemingly coming from nowhere was a surprise. Someone at our restaurant rest stop told us the road there would be horrible and she accurately reported this fact. Fortunately, there was probably lighter than usual traffic because it was raining. At the top there was a plateau rather than a downhill. Again the phenominon where the creek appears to be flowing uphill. Many more blackberries and persimmons, but we didn't stop.
Here are Janelle and Ted trying to figure out the intricacies of Ted's phone. The story of our lives.

In New Meadow we stopped in the "visitor information center", which was really no more than a kiosk with brochures. The RV campground was reluctant to allow tents and totally opposed to 4 of them. They did not have a laundry and it was 3 miles out of town.
The rain and cool temperatures made us whimpy, so we stayed at a hotel again. Kind of run down, it was warm and clean and had beds. Since the real restaurants all closed at 3pm, Bill and I had eaten a bigger meal for lunch and purchased groceries for a no cook dinner.

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Harpster to Riggins, ID 65 miles

2010-08-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last night I woke up to something... I thought it was something growling, so of course I said "hello" really loudly to scare it off. This morning Bill said he got out of his tent because he thought there was someone messing with us by standing right next to his tent saying "hello" and Janelle was woken up by it as well. Bill had already been awake and never heard a growl. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut. I was just trying to keep that bear out of our campsite.
Lots o thunder an lightning last night, but little rain.
This is a picture of the food I have on a typical morning in my bags:

2 bananas, nectarine, dried humid, bag o baby carrots, 1/2c min. Rice, 1c couscous, 2 Cliff bars, cut fruit, Naked juice, cashews, dried apricots, wheat thin crackers and a cheese stick.
It looked so easy on the map. Yes, a climb, but whatever. So it was up 3,000 feet over 11 miles. But, criminies. Breakfast included an enormous omlette with actual chopped fresh veggies and real mushrooms (not canned) at Hilltop Restaurant in Grangeville. And did I mention real cheddar cheese?
The first section of roadway up to the pass where they diverted us from 95 was strenuous, but beautiful. It reminded me of some of the national forest roads I've been on.
We met Dave and Sylvia from Connecticutt on Old Highway 95. They said they couldn't believe they were seeing two cyclists so near to heaven when they thought they were lost. This section had a lot of sand on it, but taken slowly, was quite pleasant.

The road may have had the steepest change in elevation, mitigated by extensive switchbacks. My max speed was about 25. Had we shifted onto Interstate 95, I could probably have reached 50. So, the choice was dangerous and fast or dangerous and slow. The valley was incredibly deep and long.
We caught up with Ted and Janelle, but they had been unable to find the roads to keep off the interstate and had to experience a road with high speed and narrow shoulders.
We followed the Salmon River the rest of the way to Riggins. The odd thing about it is that, though we were traveling upstream, we appeared to be headed downhill. The river edge never seemed to get higher and the pedalling was moderately easy. When we stopped for a break, there appeared to be no tailwind. It was an interesting illusion.

My rear tire developed a bulge and on closer inspection I noticed it was about to have a blowout. The tread was torn up in two different places, including the site of a boot repair I did at home. These tires had less than 500 miles on them when I started and I have been doing periodic spot checks on their condition. I can only guess that the damage may have been caused by running over two cattle guards. I swapped the tire out for my folding spare.

In Riggins, we located the RV park, but the owner wanted $15 per tent and $3 more for a shower. When I asked of we could just camp on an RV pad for the $20 RV price, he started becoming beligerant, telling me how much it cost to maintain the grass. I started to tell him it cost more for RV hookups and was going to move on to the cost of road maintenance, but he told me to get a hotel. At that point I would have paid $120 for a hotel room rather than give him a penny. I went to find a hotel room, while Janelle and Ted decided to stay.

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Lowell, ID to Harpster, ID 37 miles

2010-08-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

We ate out of our packs and then headed out at around 7 am Pacific Coast time. Janelle unearthed a toad from under her tent.

I begged Bill to stop to pick blackberries, but he refused until Jamelle (who had just noticed them) slammed on her brakes in front of him and declared her intention to pick some. Why didn't I do that?

The first town we stopped for breakfast at refused to serve people like us; we were not guests. Hmmm.

We ended up going 23 miles to Kooskia for second breakfast, which had no phone service or open library. Feeling a little guilty, I did use a restaurant's (at which we did not eat) open wifi.
While Janelle and Ted did laundry, Bill and I moved on to an RV park just past Harpster. We passed through some construction on the way and I had my first non-recoverable asthma attack, brought on by some really dirty road equipment exhaust. I really hated to do it, but I used my inhaler.

At the RV park I went swimming in the Clearwater River. The depth and the current were such that it was like having your own lap pool; you stayed exactly in one place while swimming upstream. The water and air temperature were fabulous.
After milkshakes, we ate dinner out of our packs from the reprentished supplies purchased at the grocery in Kooskia.
A noisy thunderstorm passed over, while dropping hardly any rain. We had set up 3 out of four tents under their picnic pavillion.

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Jerry Johnson to Lowell, ID 52 miles

2010-08-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

There are no services until we stop for the day, so we ate out of our packs. I really like the couscous, but the flavored stuff has too much salt. It would be better to mix your own.

We all stopped to have snacks, but left before Janelle and Ted because I wanted to use an actual bathroom at the historic ranger station.
The ranger station was more of a complex and included a cabin which had been dismantled, floated down the river and reassembled.
Apparently Jamie, Mike, Heidi and Sara passed us, because I found a hairbrush in my front pack Sara has been passing around.
We rejoined Ted and Janelle in Lowell at around noon Pacific time.
The RV park we are staying at has a pool, hot tubs and showers, but no laundry. Two rivers join here to become the Clearwater. Watching the sun go down over a sand (pebble) bar was soothing.

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Missoula, MT to Jerry Johnson's Hot Springs, ID 68 miles

2010-08-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

I met Bill, Janelle and Ted at Denny's for breakfast, leaving behind Sara, Mike, Heidi and Jamie at the couchsurfing member's house. We slept last night on the open porch. No insects and low noise made it a really pleasant place to stay. I feared automatic sprinklers would come on, but this never came to pass.
We returned to Lolo the way we came. I did not realize Missoula was basically a spur, though I probably would have gone that
way regardless.
We stopped briefly at Lolo Hot Springs because everyone else except Sara had. There was a restaurant there and a couple we had met in Virginia City, MT Carol and Dave were there.

Cranking up Lolo Pass, we got a group picture, which included Sara for once, but not Heidi. Believe it or not, the visitor center had wifi, so I posted to this blog. No phone service; I should have used Skype to call home. We are now on Pacific time and in Idaho!

A beautiful suspension bridge leads to the hot springs trail, but Bill and I were too lazy to hike it.

Janelle and Ted did. I am surprised that Jamie, Mike, Heidi and Sara didn't stop. I think they may be trying for a century. This is an area with large stretches without services, so that would make sense.
We stayed at the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs Nat. Forest CG. Very peaceful.

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Missoula rest

2010-08-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

VW documentation.

Believe it or not, this store is called Good Foods and lives up to the name!

AC office at last! Pretty cool place and worth the 26 extra miles.

And then The Amigas and Mike showed up!

A rest day is not complete without a strenuous hike. This is the top of the "hill" on which the concrete "M" for Missoula lies.

Jamie had a local connection who streered us towards a Roller Derby game.

We locked all the bikes together. It looked just like a police stolen bike auction.

I used my iPhone to look up the rules; we were clueless, except Jamie.

The chalk writing on the wall left its impression on our backsides.

Roller Queen; my heroes!

Here is Cat, our local informer.

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Darby to Missoula, MT

2010-08-06T04:50:00.000-07:00

We ate breakfast at the same restaurant that Bill and I ate lunch at yesterday. They have a sign on the wall that I told Bill should be his mantra: when you are in a hole, stop digging.
Last night I got a particularly helpful text from Jamie: avoid the wide paved shoulder after Darby. The three of them experienced 3 flats in 2 miles.
In Hamilton we stopped to use the library and Janelle needed a package from the post office. Ted was taking video while riding in traffic and I figured he was going to get hit by a car and that would be the fatal footage.
After the library I chose to travel alone. We had gotten information from several sources about the route into Missoula, so we decided to go off route on a road under construction. This advice was exceptionally astute. About 1 mile out of Victor the construction began. The wrong side of the road had been paved for a mile and traffic was not yet allowed. After that, there was 1 mile of incredibly smooth, hard packed dirt, also closed to traffic and then about a mile beyond the end of the construction a bike path began. It took me all the way to Lolo. It is amazingly pleasant to ride however without having to constantly look in your mirror to see what is behind you. I rode with both earbuds in and my helmet strapped securely to my... rack.
In Lolo the bike path ended and I was forced to don my helmet and did not even feel comfortable having one ear bud in. The shoulder narrowed occasionally to about 2.5 feet, which probably seems adequate to drivers, but shoulders are frequently loaded with debris, which cyclists need to avoid, making it an obsticle course.
I tried to take a picture of the cows so close to the path, bu they moooooved away as I dismounted.

Upon reaching Missoula, I entered a Safeway looking for cold drinks to enjoy while I waited for everyone else. I got a Naked juice and an iced tea, buy wanted a single beer, so I loitered in the beer isle until someone started to look in the micro brew end of the cooler, then proposed that I buy one of his six pack. He was surprisingly agreeable, but we both felt a little like we were doing something a little off, like buying beer for a minor. I wrapped my AC map. Around it in case there is an open container law.
When everyone arrived we tried to find the Rei, but it wasn't where Google maps said it was.
I moved on to stay with a family Sara had hooked up with, the Kesslers.

Greg and Marcie Kessler took us in and despite being in the middle of packing to leave for the weekend with their two charming sons, were exceptional hosts, tag teaming coming out to talk to us in the kitchen. They even cooked us dinner. Sara, Heidi, Mike, Jamie and I had a blast.
Remember the name of the tour? It has been a while since I was offered help: the Affirmation of Human Goodness.
The evening ended with
Heidi and I talking late into the night (late for me).

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Jackson to Darby, MT 77 miles

2010-08-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

After breakfast in Wisdom, I noticed a landing strip and immediately after a plane buzzed the road over Ted and Janelle's heads and landed. Missed opportunities, I failed to get my camera out and shoot the picture:(
Hey, Dad, can you identify these flowers? They had three petals and three pointy sub-petals (can't remember what those are called...). They reminded me of trillium. They stood about a foot tall and had almost non-existant leaves.

The ride up to Chief Joseph pass was beautiful, with pines and an understory of fine green grass, which later turned into something less lush. The downhill, however, was major disappointment. Looking at the map I judged the grade more than adequate to reach 50 mph, but never passed 32 mph.

When we prepared to choose left or right at the intersection near the summit, to the left we would enter Idaho,

And to the right, Montana. SHOULDN'T WE BE GOING TO IDAHO? ... but no, we have to go to Missoula!

There was a Continental Divide Trail hiker in the tiny town of Sula. He commented about bear problems really being people problems. So accurate.
While in Sula, someone mentioned that there had just been a rock slide reported at Chief Joseph pass on 93, but we didn't see it. It is possible they meant route 43 on the way to Lost Trail Pass.
I will whine on behalf of the group: we had our fabulous downhill downgraded due to the consistent and increasing headwind, which made us PEDAL!
Sara is apparently ahead of us, so I guess I worried for nothing. We will meet her tomorrow in Missoula!

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Dillan, MT to Jackson, MT 48 miles

2010-08-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Left the KOA at around 7 and went to breakfast at a restaurant, where we saw Rich from last night. Shortly after the other Eastbound couple from California showed up.
Since Safeway was on the way out of town, so we stopped there for lunch supplies.

We must have missed a turn to get out of town, so we ended up traveling a short distance on the interstate to get back on route.
Long distances without a lot to distinguish the miles. We cranked up two long passes, losing almost all the elevation gained in the valley between.
At the top of the second one, I wanted Dad to roll his eyes, smile and state, "the weaker sex".

On a mostly downhill ride into Jackson made another attempt to surpass my previous speed record of 49, but only managed 47. Sigh.

We met Gwyn from New Zealand. He is spending about 80 days cycle touring in the West before moving on to Europe and Japan to complete a years worth of touring.

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West Yellowstone, MT to Ennis, MT 74 miles

2010-08-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

Met up with Sara at breakfast in town. She had shared a hotel room with Mike Mizor.
Someone erected a cell phone tower and disguised it as a fake pine tree; I wish I had taken a picture of it. Almost no one else noticed it.
We saw Ted and Janelle and i called out Boowoo to them, which was immediately followed by an ouch, ouch, ouch as I ran over the rumble strip.
The route parallelled beautiful bluffs.
Caught up with Mike Mizor, who Bill noticed had a bald tire. Ted kindly sold him a tire. I am not sure he would have gone much further, considering parts were delaminating.
We also caught up with Sara. She had stopped to prepare second breakfast. Mike also caught up with her and then Mike and Bill rode together while I zoomed forward looking for a bathroom. Mike pointed out several trees he thought might do, but I wanted the real deal.
Janelle shared a family sized cinnamon roll she got when we stopped at an RV camp store. It is not uncommon to find homemade cinnamon rolls in unlikely places.
At lunch Bill and I met 5 eastbounders.

Seems like a late start in the year, but probably not. They gave us the lowdown on upcoming problems and thrills and reciprocated.
The rest of day was a blur, apparently with a headwind for most of it. Low blood iron caused my head to float 2 feet above my body. I drafted off Bill for the last 30 miles. I had the strength to keep up, but was afraid I would fall over and Bill would run over me.
We met up with Sara and later Janelle and Ted at Ennis restaurant.

All but Sara wil be staying at an RV campground. Sara will camp at the high school. Janelle had the most perfect tatoo.

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Grant Village, WY to West Yellowstone, MT 50 miles

2010-08-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

We traveled for a little while with Jamie, Heidi and Mike to Old Faithful and watched it erupt 2x.

We crossed two continental dive passes of over 8,000 feet. We have probably crossed the divide at least 8 times and have not yet finished with it.

When we joined forces with Ted and Janelle after Old Faithful, we stopped some of the pools, small geysers and mud pots.

We followed the Firehole and Madison Rivers for most of the day. Caught at the head of a storm, we managed to receive only strong winds and small hail. The "Welcome to Montana" sign within the park was pretty wimpy, but there was a nicer one outside the park at West Yellowstone.

It was mostly downhill to West Yellowstone.

We stayed at an RV park in West Yellowstone an were subjected to severe thunderstorms until midnight.

Dubois to Colter Bay, WY 76 miles

2010-07-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

We started out from Dubois a little later than we have been getting going, around 6:30.

I ate a lot of food from my panniers and the first time we stopped, it was patently obvious I should not stop for breakfast; my knee started hurting as soon as I stopped cycling.

About 4 miles up the 8 miles to the top of Togogatee Pass,

there was serious construction; they are rebuilding the road. This time, unlike in Colorado, they stuffed me in the bed of their pilot vehicle.

Riding the bike up would have been exceedingly difficult.

They dumped me out just short of the top. I can't say I was really upset about the aborted ride up.

At the top lay Wind Lake. Still and underutilized, the picnic area was stocked with a fresh banana and Kellogg's strawberry granola bar. I left them for someone more needy. It was quite odd and funny.

I took the ride down slowly, taking loads of photos and generally enjoying the fabulous views of the Tetons. There was more construction on the way down, buy it was navigable, and well... downhill.
Bill passed me, but thought I was seeking solitude, so he didn't stop.

Very first glimpses of the Tetons. I have seen them several times, but they still take my breath away. The best photos were taken with a regular camera, so they can't be seen here yet.

At the bottom, I thought I might stay alone in the National Forest CG Hatchet; I have a phone interview tomorrow morning and thought I would sleep in somewhere I would get good phone service, but when I texted Janelle to ask what their plans were, she said they were going on to Colter Bay, 18 more miles, so I decided to join them. I thought the phone service would be even better there. Wrong. In my short time at Hatchet, a hummingbird took great interest in my rear blinky light.

We would have had to pay $12 per cyclist if two of our party had not been elligible for senior passes ($10 for life). A car with unlimited people inside would have been $25.
There was a moose jam not far from the entrance gate, but the moose had camoflaged itself by the time we got there.
The miles to Colter Bay were quite pretty, though heavy traffic and a narrow shoulder made it difficult to look around. Even if you could cross to the observation pulloffs on the opposite side of the road, it was difficult to cross back over. At Colter Bay we met up with Sara, Mike Mizer and shortly, Mac and Nick.

For dinner we went to the restaurant and had a pretty pricy meal. The consessioner has a program to entice foreigners and out of staters to take jobs in Yellowstone for the summer. I had forgotten how diverse that made it.
Heidi and Jamie showed up around 9 pm from doing the Jackson spur. They were not loaded. We met up at an intersection in the campground and compared blinkies. Rich showed up soon after, but Mike showed up long after dark; he was fully loaded.
In camp we also met a couple going east and a gentleman doing the Great Divide. I would have likes to speak to him, bit did not realize what he was doing until later.
At the store we were looking for wi-fi or phone service, for that interview tomorrow. We finally ended out search at the cabin rental office.
Later at night we have several mtgs at the bathrooms. What can I say, it's where great great minds think. It's also where great phones go to charge.
There are sites specific to bikers and each one has a Bear bin.

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Lander to Lander, 0 miles

2010-07-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Wow. That must have been some headwind. We made no forward progress today.
Sara, Rich, Jamie, Heidi and I assume Mac and Nick left today for Dubois. We hung back to give Ted a much deserved break. An amazing ability to handle pain.
We saw Heidi leaving town at 1:00 pm and assume Mac and Nick left shortly afterwards. It was already hot and that is a 74 mile trek and uphill.
This morning was occupied with the task of journaling, breakfast and laundry. The afternoon was consumed by lunch for everyone else and unsucessfully getting a haircut for me. Barber flat out refused to cut a woman's hair and the "beauty parlor" wanted $20. I'll let one of my tour mates cut it if I really get desperate.
They all had ice cream in Gambles. I think I remember Gambles from my childhood, though it might not have been the one in Lander. It has changed radically. Mostly filled with tourist items now, I remember saddles, jacknives and western wear.
Such a sucker for bookstores, I stopped in one to pick up a brand new fantasy paperbook and another to buy Bananagrams. At the end of the trip it will be given to Bill or Janelle.
We returned to charge our phones in the laundry room and play the game, then played some more down by the tents.
I should be swimming in the river.

At around 6:00 Bill and I went back to the BrewPub for ... Veggie burgers! A more gentrified town than I first thought. Then a visit to the grocery restocked me with bear claw pastries, wheat thins and grapes, then staples of every well balanced diet.

The guys strategize.

Jeffrey City to Lander, 57 miles

2010-07-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Such a beautiful campsite. Watched the sun come up from one side and the full moon go down on the other. The moon was so bright that through the tent it looked like a security light.
Left around 6:30 am; the mosquitos were absolutely intense, so we didn't even have breakfast. I kept my pants and fleece on until we returned to the roadway. No breakfast.
We rode all the way to Sweetwater for breakfast and there Bill set up his stove to heat water for coffee and oatmeal. He heated additional water for me and I tried out my instant herbed couscous for the first time. Too much salt for use at home, but WOW, great for a road breakfast. Wonderful alternative to oatmeal. There were nice shelters and restrooms, but I resisted the temptation to take a sponge bath; we will be in Lander in 39 miles, with access to showers and a laundry. There is nothing to make you appreciative of potable water like an absence of it.
The crazy woman from the Jeffrey City restaurant (wouldn't sell a baked potato without the meat dish) had told us yesterday that we should push on to Lander because it was mostly downhill. I think she is suffering from uranium radiation poisoning; she seems to have forgotten the uphills. This happens a lot with car drivers, but there were some nice downhills. Have I mentioned how much better east to west is?

9 miles out of Lander there is a cross roads and an RV park. Stopping there we found they had cold drinks and ice cream bars. Oasis.
A really beautiful ride to Lander awaited us. Red stone bluffs and views of the snowy range.

I think I was in Lander about 6 years ago and liked it. There is even more to like now. Its population is greater than its elevation, it doesn't have a huge big box strip and still has a vibrant business district.
I picked up a package from the PO my husband sent me (big shout out to him: Sara loves him), so the test of the postal service was successful. The second package had not arrived, so I asked for it to be forwarded to Yellowstone. That will be a different kind of test.
A great bike shop called Gannet Peak Sports tightened my head set, again. They opened it up degreased it a little and then carefully tightened it again. When I get to Eugene, I will ask Bike Friday to look into this problem. We bought some other items, such as a side opening water bottle cage for me and a headlight that mounts on the fork for Bill, but they had no fun socks. Sigh.
We overbought at the grocery store and went to eat lunch outside the library. Sara called and said she was at the city park and then we discovered the entire boatload of Amigas and remaining desperados were all in Lander! So exciting. EVERYONE is back together! Janelle and Ted arrived. Ted had the bike shop look at his hub and they found a simple no parts needed solution! We had long conversations with Jamie and then set up camp at Holiday Hotel. Funky, but quiet and only $8.50 per person for the river campsite we sought out before, a shower and coin laundry. Nice

We hit a Micro brew pub! Do you see all these exclamation points? This is a great town! Bicycles of all sorts are ridden by all sorts of people for all sorts of reason.

Even Bill loosened up, but not too much!

Ted did not.

Janelle and I enjoyed the jukebox.

Jamie knows her limitations. They are leaving really early tomorrow for Dubois. Heidi and her don't hold still long enough for clear pictures. I think that is so later they can say, "that wasn't me!".

Rawlins to Jeffery, WY 70 miles

2010-07-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

We left really early to again avoid the head winds. In Lamont we hoped to eat breakfast, but being Sunday it was closed. We crossed the Great Divide trail, but we were doing a beautiful downhill and refused to stop to look. We also crossed the Continental Divide twice today.

Moving on to Muddy Gap, we found the gas station to have outrageously expensive food. I got two bottles of iced tea for $5. There we met a couple who told us dire things about Jeffery City, including that we should not devulge to the restaurant people that we were vegetarians.
Later we met Ross from Astoria. He is moving to Laramie and gave us a message from Sara that she had caught up with one of the desperados and would move on with him. Ross' brother and a friend work the 10th st used bike store in Portland, the shop I think helped my daughter Rachel fix her bike.
Out on the road someone in a Liberty Jeep Wanna Be tried to stop me by pulling over on the shoulder (forcing me out into the roadway to avoid him), sticking his arm out the window and saying "whoa". I am not a horse, so of course I didn't stop. He stopped Bill instead. He yelled at him for being too far out in the road and when Bill tried to discuss it with him, the guy said "don't lie to me or I'll take you in right now". Bill implied it was a good thing I didn't stop or we probably would have ended up in the pokey. As it was, we later decided the pokey might have been better than where we did end up.
In Jeffrey City, we found the same guy at the restaurant, but he pretented not to notice us. I sang Haleluia (by Jeff Buckley) as he got into his vehicle to leave.
At the restaurant, the only choice for us was a grilled cheese with fries. We tried for a salad, but were informed that they no longer have the ingredients for salad. No ice cream either.
The "campsite" is an old abandoned Elks picnic shelter without water. The bathroom consists of flush toilets that have no water and a box on the floor as a pit toilet. Maybe it is so dry here it never leaks out the bottom onto the concrete. We have almost hit bottom, but there really is no other place for 19 miles, and that would only be another campsite, no other services. Mike Mizer showed up, poor soul, and was making the best of thingss. He pitched his bivvy on a picnic table and hid from the mosquitos. At around 7pm Bill and I decided to try to camp next to the river. Janelle and Ted had gone off to the bar to have a beer and play rummy unmolested by mosquitos, and we thought we should at least have a pretty place to camp if we were going to have a primitive site.
We never could find a road to the river, but settled for opening a ranch fence gate and going a short distance on a dirt track. Someone in a pickup beeped and waved; this may have been the land owner, but I felt it was permission. Generally, if something isn't posted and you close the gates, ranchers (so I think I have heard) don't really care. On the road we saw a horny toad, the first either of us had seen in years.
We had assumed there would be no or few mosquitos, because there was no water: wrong. There were loads. We both quickly made camp for the protection of that wonderful invention called mosquito netting. Every time you got back in your tent you had to kill the 20 mosquitos that you carried in. Still, all in all, it was a superior spot to the ex-elk shelter.
Incredible sunset and moon rise with a panaramic view of the country, including antelope.

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Riverside to Rawlins, WY 69 miles

2010-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Got up and left at 6am to avoid the wind. We ate breakfast in Saratoga and thought we might see Sara, but she had moved on.
There were coyotes on the range today, one 25 feet away from the roadway was trying to find a way through a tightly woven fence. The other was alone just before interstate 80.
Bill had just commented that there were no herds of antelope around and presto a herd of about 25 appeared.
The Trans Am routed us onto Interstate 80, a very interesting experience. With a wide smooth shoulder, there was a rumble strip to ward away the cars and trucks. Loud, but not so bad.
In Sinclair, we experienced the Sinclair refinery in all its glory. We both thought the town looked like a company town. Amazingly enough, I had one of the best meals there at Su Casa.

There we met Mark from California who is cycling the Trans Am from w to e, raising awareness of finning, a term which refers to the practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and dumping them back in the ocean to bleed to death. This reminds me of the practice of killing bison for their hides or rhinos for their horns. His webite is endfinning.com

Ted disassembled his rear hub, cleaned and tightened it in an attempt to correct a freewheeling issue.
We ended up staying at RV World. Both campgrounds were private but this particular one had a pavillion, whereas the other had no shade at all. Whatever. Showers and running water. Things could always be worse.
I went back towards town, in part out of boredom and in part to get something cold to drink that wasn't soda pop, and Bill called me to tell me he found an ice cream shop.

There we met Mike Mizer from near St. Louis. He began from there and does about 30 miles per day, with no real deadlines. He and Bill compared their Trek 520 models.
We left the ice cream shop at around 6:30. By then the temp had cooled and we could eat a little something for dinner and shower. Beautiful sunset and a full Halloween moon, complete with streaky clouds.

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Walden, CO to Riverside, WY 49 miles

2010-07-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Started out at 8 am. We stopped at the grocery store just outside of town to stock up. There will be basically no services for the next 50 miles.
Not much to say today. We crossed into Wyoming and a crosswind turned into a 5-10 mile an hour headwind.

Major long gradual climbs turned into forevers and downhills did not afford much of a break. We saw antelope for the first time today.
I made it into Riverside at around 1pm and was pleasantly surprised to find a campers or gas station mini- mart with Lipton iced tea.
A text message from Jamie encouraged us to do 18 more miles to Saratoga for cheap camping and free hot springs. Sara decided this sounded appealing and waited until the wind let up to go there.

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Kremmling to Walden, CO 74 miles

2010-07-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Tell AC no restaurant in Rand
We headed out this morning a little later than we have been, since it is cooler now, around 6:30.

It was 15 miles to second breakfast in Hot Sulpher Springs. Things have gotten much more expensive since we got into the mountains. A visit to the hot springs would have cost at least $18 and left us too relaxed to go any further, so we decided to forgo it.
My legs were exceedingly tired right from the get go, which made it difficult to envision doing 74 miles.

The route traversed creek dominated valleys and I kept expecting to see moose or bear, but though I was on the lookout, I saw only prairie dogs and an occasional cow. The climb up to Willow Creek Pass was more difficult than Hoosier, possibly because we had put in 40 miles before getting there.

It looked like it was about to pour at the pass, so we came right down, however this pass offered some ups along with the downs. Clear cutting of lodgepole pines afforded nice views; it appears the lumber companies may be given access to the millions of lodgepoles affected by bark beetle.

Rand had a dinky gift shop masquerading as a general store. We bought drinks and ate the cheese sandwiches prepared by the restaurant.
Whereas the small towns of the plains had gas stations with mini-marts, the mountains have nothing of the sort. In Silverthorn, Janelle suggested that at Burger King we get extra veggie burgers to go. This was such a good idea. Pre-made sandwiches hold up fine if you just avoid the mayo.
We met someone doing the National Parks Route and he promised us a tailwind and downhills all the way to Walden.
Heading out of Rand storms were developing all around us and the wind was picking up. About 5 miles out of Rand the headwind picked up and I could only do about 5 mph. Bill suggested we seek shelter behind a stone gate pillar, which might also afford us some protection from rain. I was highly skeptical. We stayed there about 30 minutes and the wind did indeed die down quite a bit. Someone drove through the gateway. He didn't look too friendly. He was probably thinking he should move "complete the gate" up on his list of priorities. By the time we headed out the headwind was shifting and shortly thereafter turned tail and pushed us all the way to Walden.
Walden offered us ice cream, Sara and a $70 hotel. Janelle and Ted came in about an hour behind us. Ted is my hero today. Still not 100 percent healed, he still managed to do all the miles.

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Fairplay to Kremmling, CO 100 miles

2010-07-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

I rode my bike back out to the main highway, even though the road was rough. My bike is ill equiped to hang on a bike rack. It is quite harrowing to look out the window and watch it. The lack of a top tube is awkward and apparently the front tire had been striking the ground; bad juju.
Our great group before heading out.

Left to right: Ted, Sara, Janelle, Dawn, Bill and me!
An amazing house: thanks to Sara's sister and brother-in-law for the use of it.
Fabulous views!

At the top of Hoosier Pass

From Fairplay to the top of Hoosier pass we climbed 1,739 over 4 miles.
There were 2 miles of repaving going on. I waited patiently for them to let the traffic going my direction go, then began to climb again. But if you can believe it, they did not wait for us to get through before releasing the oncoming traffic! And they knew this! What a bunch of total idiots. Half the roadway was hot tar. They sent a flippin SEMI down at me. He took up every inch of pavement, so after refusing to get over so he had to stop, I had to stop, get into the deep gravel off the pavement and then get back on and try to start riding again. At that point I was so angry I refused to get off for anyone. Very choice words for the flagman at the top. He didn't give a hoot.
A little passive aggressive streak in me: I kicked over the "Pavtech thanks you for your patience" sign after the construction. A pretty big metal sign, it made quite a racket when it crashed. I HOPE THEY STRUGGLE TO RIGHT IT! Did I mention I think they are idiots? Rant over.
None of that could diminish my pride in our group for going over Hoosier. It was (group consensus) a little anticlimactic (pun intended). Don't get me wrong; it was a challenge. We just expected it to be more difficult. Bill asked me if I knew how much further and I said I thought 2 more more miles, then .2 later we were at the top. I thought it was a rest area and almost rode by it.

Bill's wore his fabulous socks just to go over the pass. They have sharks on them. Don't covet thy neighbor's socks.
Go Bill!

Sara: nice job!

Here is UPS delivering a package to me at Hoosier Pass.

Go Janelle! She pulled that trailer through that construction! My hero.

Dawn, bringing us supplies. Today is her last day with us and we will miss her. Who will bring us cool drinks and be waiting ahead of us to cheer as we go by? Seriously.

Carbondale to... Carbondale
Group consensus; Hoosier pass was a little anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, it was a challenge. It just wasn't as difficult as we envisioned. Part way up Bill asked me how much further the top was. I stated about 2 miles. .2 miles later we were there. We actually thought it was a rest area and I almost kept going.
In Breckenridge, Dawn cheered our arrival, the Alpine Sports (SHOUT OUT!) bike shop tightened my head set and we ate second breakfast. When Dawn leaves us tomorrow, who will bring us cold drinks and cheer us on? I'm accepting applications. Someone needs to step up to the plate.
We missed Ted in Silverthorne. He waited so long that he figured we must be ahead of him. Oh, yea of little faith; how quickly you forget our propensity to get lost. In Frisco, Bill, Sara and I decided to forgo the route and instead opted to further check out the beautiful bike path to Vail. In the rain. In fact it rained on us from Breckenridge to Dillon, while we haplessly wandered Frisco's labyrinth of bike trails looking for the one towards Dillon.
Regrouping in Silverthorn, we rode on to Heeley. Beautiful route, but we would have happily taken the shortcut propose by Ted in a voicemail had we had phone service. He had discovered there were no services there and moved on to Kremmling. Janelle said she was done for the day, but we know she lies!
Kremmling was one of those towns they move as you get closer. Dawn found us on the road and watered us up, while the mosquitoes sucked us dry.
In Kremmling I discovered, to my horror, that I was a mere 7 miles short of a century, so I rode 3.5 miles more up the road. Bill says this doesn't count and he is going to deface my blog if I claim a century. Please reminde to eke my revenge later.
Dawn drove some of us back to town, where we ate dinner and drank margueritas.

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Route 50 and 9 to Fairplay 72 miles

2010-07-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Left Dawn before dawn. It was about 65 degrees, so I started for the second day in a row with arm warmers on and added the rain coat. Dawn had purchased subs for us last night, so I ate half for breakfast and the rest of the spaghetti from last night.

Bob Kippley brought Sara back to our fold. She had remained in Canon City last night. Remember the tour title: The Affirmation of Human Goodness.
Met Jim and Sharon out of Denver going East. (jimandsharonsbigadventure.wordpress.com). They have no set schedule, but told us to go into Guffey; very out of the box.

We mossied into Guffey for breakfast. That would be third breakfast for those counting: spaghetti, 1/2 sub and Guffey. The elevation there is 8600. Interesting town. It's probably what Steamboat Springs was before it became yuppized. Or Breckenridge.
We did a lot of climbing. Most were long gradual climbs, which wore me down a surprising amount. From Guffey to Fairplay was very moderate in gains and losses: the section leading up to Guffey from 9 and 50 was the most strenuous and ranked the greatest elevation gains.
Here is the first glimpse of the Preaidential Range. We had milkshakes in Hartsel, where we met up with Dawn again.
Ted was waiting for us by the side of the road with cold drinks; a very nice reunion!

A supremely long gradual downhill led to Fairplay and Janelle and I felt that it was somehow undeserved.

Fairplay's elevation is 9000. We think we gained about 4,500 feet.

Dawn met us at the grocery store there and guess what? She had cold drinks for us? She and Ted cheered when we came in. She had some doubts about us making it. Eat crow, Dawn!
The bikeshop in Fairplay was useless for anything. The guy didn't even know what a head set was.
We moved the bikes to Sara's sister's house via car and bike carrier. The road is fine for cars, but a little rough for bikes. A
beautiful house, remember the name of the tour: Affirmation of Human Goodness.
Bill and I went to Alma by car with his brother-in-law Larry, while everyone else cooked at the house. It was a really nice evening at the house later, where the nice mix included Dawn and the return of Ted.

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Pueblo Reservoir to routes 50 and 0

2010-07-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Flat, up, down, down, down. Headwinds out of the reservoir turned into hills we have forgotten how to climb. We ran out of water and energy at Wetmore, so went 1.5 miles down the Western Express to find a grocery store and water. They had two 9 month old mastiffs in that little store.
Turns out that if we had just kept going it was pretty much all downhill to Florence, where we reconnected with Sara for lunch. On the way we saw an amazing old grader, which would have been pulled by a tractor. Still in great shape it was very complicated with gears and wheels.

Rest stop in a cemetary.

A little dark, here's the view from our cabin at Mountain Vista (called Mountain View on the AC maps). Very bike friendly place. The owner said he would give us a 4 person cabin for the $20 tent site price if they were not filled up.

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Fowler to Pueblo, CO 53 miles

2010-07-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

We did not leave outrageously early this morning, but at around 6 am. We ate first breakfast in the hotel room and then swung around to join Sara where she had found lodging with a local.
The trains no longer carry grain, but instead carry coal and oil.
Second breakfast never came and neither did a restaurant lunch.
We started seeing cactus and saw a little prairie dog town right next to the highway.
In pueblo, we missed a turn, but it wasn't catastrophic. We just entered the city from a different direction. At this point Janelle's friend Dawn joined us in her truck Prius (her words) and she gave us some navigational help to get to the bike path which goes along the Arkansas River and right to Pueblo reservoir. The bike path was paved, but had consistent cracks perpedicular to the riding direction, causing a thump, thump, thump.
The visitor's center at the reservoir was closed, but we hung out there for a while in the shade watching gekkos run about. The campsites were there also, mostly treeless, but each has a shelter oriented to shade the picnic table from the west sinking sun.
We hiked up to the bluffs for a fabulous view of the resevoir and surrounding region, including Pikes Peak. We encountered our first coin operated showers; I didn't want to wait in line, so I cleaned up in a sink.
Bike path to Pueblo reservoir.

The reservoir.

Attempting to chill at the closed visitor's center.

Gekko!

Bluff hike

Top 'o the bluff

Haswell to Fowler, CO 57 miles

2010-07-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

Up at 4:30, out at 5 am. Beautiful sunrise.

Kind of cool to see all of our shadows on the roadside.

We are now seeing many mule deer leaping fences.
We traveled alongside the Neverending Train today. It appears Union Pacific is using a chunk of unused rail line at least 10 miles long to store empty automobile transport cars. They were a special haven for enormous spiders. A better deterant to keep people from climbing around on them is unlikely.
We passed two prisons today in 57 miles. I said they were prisons for bad cows. You know the ad where they show what happens when salad dressing goes bad; they open the fridge and show a jar of salad dressing with a pistol?
Our goal was Ordway today, but we miscalculated the mileage as 60 and it was 40. 9 am was a little too early to quit, so we cancelled our Warmshowers appearance, ate second breakfast and left to go 20 more miles to Fowler. Nice little town with a hotel, grocer and laundromat. We asked at the hotel if we could put 3 in the room (Sara found her own accomodations) and the woman said she didn't care I'd we put 6 in there. She also told us her dig was really friendly and that the sheriff was in the room next door. In the next breath she told us that if we left the door open he might come right in and I asked if she meant the sheriff or the dog.

Sheridan Lake to Haswell, CO 51 miles

2010-07-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

We got up around 5:00 and were moving down the road by 5:45. Even this was a late start, because we have been aiming for a pre-dawn start. Even though it plunks us into camp at noon, this scenario keeps us off the roads at peak heat.

This is grain. The permanent wooden structure appears to keep the grain off the ground.

Here is the shower setup.

The terrain shifted from flat to undulating and back again. Interesting how the environment changes over 50 mile increments.
Bill calls the silos Prairie castles. They often seem poised forever on the horizon.

Sage first appeared today.
The elevation in Eads 4213.
Jack rabbits have started appearing also.
The elevation in Haswell, the next town was 4538.

Here Janelle works on evening out her biker tan.

While looking for the natuon's smallest jail, we stumbled across a zip line in a small park. It was hung up part way down its cable, but Bill got it moving again, climbed the platform and swung out. Flying along the cable, he discovered why the pulley was hung up the way it had been. The pulley abruptly stopped, leaving Bill dangling like a participle four feet off the ground. I was on the phone and attempting to keep myself from wetting my pants, I was laughing so hard, but Janelle had the wherewithal to pull the rope towards the other end.
The nations smallest jail was... wait for it... small. I took a picture with my regular camera. I hope to post that picture and the movie of the zip line incedent when I get home.
A couple on their way to a birthday party stopped and gave us each a beer. Most of mine went to Sara. Budweiser. Snobby, aren't I?

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Leoti to Sheridan Lake, CO 52.5 miles

2010-07-16T04:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone slept through the 9- midnight moonlight madness at the pool, next to which we were camped. Apparently it only happens once a year and last night was it.
The wind had died to nothing by 9pm, but by this morning it had crept up, changing directions. We got up at 4:30am and were on the road by 6am. By 8:30 we had gone 25 easy miles. We stopped at a diner in Tribune, only to discover we had crossed another time zone. Mountain Time, baby!

This picture is a little dark, but I wanted to remember the moment. A farmer came by in a pickup and laughed at our photo op. He's probabaly thinking "darn tourists" (edited for content).

As we cycled towards our destination of Sheridan Lake, the SW wind picked up and the temperature edged towards 85.

Crossing into Colorado, Bill's prediction of worsening roadways came true almost immediately.

When we stopped for the ritual "Welcome to..." photo opportunity, several happy and welcoming honks were directed our way.
This sign immediately proceeded the Welcome sign.

We chose Sheridan Lake because of the AC map adendum and reports from the 3 Amigas. Whereas there used to be no services, there is now a deli/ mini-mart and the church there hosts cyclists. Virgil, the pastor came to the store and welcomed us. The church is roomy and he left a spiritual cd playing to greet us in his absence. We had stopped riding at 11:30am.
We napped, worked on journals, read and I went for a jog. It was too hot to go much more than about 1.5 miles.
In the evening massive storm came through. Mostly it missed us, but we got the wind, lightning and beautiful panaramic coloring.

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Dighton to Leoti, KS 50 miles

2010-07-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

We bolted from Dighton at 6am and were on the road before the sun came up. Not a bad strategy. In Scott City Bill and I stopped for a second breakfast. Sara and Janelle stopped for a quick snack and moved on and we did not see them again the whole day. We moved at a decent pace, but Bill was not feeling well, so we took longer and more frequent breaks. This put us always just behind Sara and Janelle, so we were unable to offer draft support. As a result, we were unable to make it the 75 miles slated for the day. No biggie, we just adjust the schedule.
Leoti offered us a pool and showers. Many kind folks reached out to us with offers of assistance, including rides, water and showers. Sweet people in a sweet town. Two people offered up the info that this was Steve Tasker's hometown when they found I was from Buffalo, NY. He is a Buffalo Bills football player.

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Rush Center to Dighton 64 miles

2010-07-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

This section of Kansas is really desolate. There are often no services, even though the AC maps state there are; some services only exist early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
We had only 100 degree water to drink after Ness City.

Twenty miles out of our destination, we took refuge in the shadow of a silo, the only object large enough at 1pm to cast useable shade. The temperature was probably 105 and the winds 20 mph. We stayed there until 4:30, which was a mistake, since the temperature never dropped and the wind actually got stronger.

Bill and I got into Dighton at around 8:30 and immediately hit the ice cream stand. There an entire group got out of their car to offer us the air conditioned space. So sweet. We also met the sag driver of a family trio attempting to cover 8,000 miles. She suggested a really local hotel, which was cheap and would cater to cyclists. Perfect. We ate at a well stocked 24 hour convenience store where we met 3 westbounders. They had heard of the 3 Amigas, but since they had always been one step behind, felt they must be phantoms. It was quite late when we concluded business and collapsed.

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Sterling to Rush Center 84 miles

2010-07-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

We met Janelle and Bob in the local restaurant for breakfast and took off from there. I filled my dromodary again, since I know there will be limited services today.
We got a text message from the 3 Amigos that they are in Colorado and hope we catch up. Our estimates put us in Pueblo by the 17th and they are taking a rest day there.
We made petty good time when going due West, but when we turned North, we turned into a moderate head wind. 24.5 mph vs 10-15 mph.
Larned offered just a convenience store, but we stopped anyways. That is a real no-frills working town. We are in the part of Kansas where you can see so far that the view can be the same for over an hour.
When we got to xxx we met up with this eccletic group.
Left to right:
Sadie, Steve, Christiane, Steve and Noah from San Diego. They are heading to Yorktown!

The town park has running water and picnic tables, but nothing else. For a bathroom, the gas station leaves it open all night. No grocery or convenient store here.
We celebrated Sara's birthday, if not in style, then at least with mirth. Bob managed to pick up Hostess cupcakes and candles and in combination with the champagne we had a wild time.

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Newton to Sterling, KS 60 miles

2010-07-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Sara and I were supposed to be up at 5am, but I did not set an alarm. We woke up at 5:30; no birds or sun to wake us! We scrambled to catch up to everyone else. Sammy got up just to drive us back to where she picked us up. We only needed the one pickup for the 4 bikes: Bob took Janelle's trailer, Janelle and the food Sammye so sweetly gave us. When we got back Newton, Bill's friend Jerry met us and escorted us to the town line.

Bill is our designated tire inflator. He is really full of air.

Saying goodbye to Sammye and later Jeff.

Nice sunflower field.

We had lunch out of Bob's car, then had a beautiful ride through beautiful scenery. We met Edward, a West to Easter, who is going to Maine eventually, then back tracking to Chicago. He may look us up on Warmshowers when he pops through Buffalo.
At one point we sat under some shade trees and Bill took a nap. It is a lot of work taking days off!
We had ice cream at the only town before Sterling, but should have held off, because there was much better ice cream in Sterling proper. So we had to have more. Since we went 60 miles, we were entitled.
Math question of the day (I know, school is out): if we have to go 30 miles before ice cream, how far would we have to go to eat ice cream 3x?
Sara, Bill and I set up in the park, while Janelle and Bob got a hotel room.

Brock, Nicole and Kelsi, cousins from Hutchinson, KS were playing at the pool at Sterling! Pretty cool kids.

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Belle Plaine, rest day 2

2010-07-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Puttered, did sewing repairs and picked up Bill's bike from the shop, where they looked at his bottom bracket. We also cleaned the drive trains and bodies of the other 3 bikes.
For dinner, we ate some of the gobs of leftovers and visited with Sammye's sister and one of Bill's riding budies, Deanna. Deanna also hosted Janelle and her husband in her house.
Sammye and Bill showed us the railroad depot they had moved to their property; it must have been a hurculean task.

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Belle Plains, KS rest day 1

2010-07-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

Jerry and his brother Dan and his wife Linda and their sister Gert let us check out their farm equipment. Bill is bound and determined to teach us the difference between a combine, a tractor, a sprayer and a grader. Together they farm about 4,000 acres.
This is a TRACTOR! It pushes and pulls things. It is NOT a combine!

Bob is not really looking at the tractor, he is looking at his WIFE! This is normal.

Bob should maybe buy his wife a tractor for her birthday. It would be a much better than the vaccuum cleaner he was planning on getting.

See how much women like tractors? Sara wants one, too!

Bill is actually looking at the tractor, not the women. This is normal, for Bill.

Sara is too cool.

Janelle has tired of being a nurse and has decided to pursue a CDL so she can drive one of these.

And here we see some of the people who tolerated our weird obsession with farm equipment: Dan and Linda!

We spoke to Gert at their original family home.

Here is a SPRAYER! It is NOT a combine! Very cool and a little complicated.

Everyone, except Bill, had to get a close look.

Sprayer are huge so they can straddle a row without disturbing the crop. Sunflowers get too tall to be sprayed by a sprayer; a plane must be used.

Jerry explains how the no till PLANTER works. It is NOT a combine!

The planter can fertilize, dig a groove, plant a seed, fertilize again and then cover up the seed in one shot. They don't use cultivators any more. That practice caused a lot of loss of soil.
This planter can plant 16 rows at a time. It folds up like a paper crane, then is rotated 90 degrees.

We watched a crop duster spraying a sunflower crop.

Jerry also showed us his COMBINES! But my phone's battery had died, so if you can believe it I have NO PICTURES OF COMBINES! And they were really cool.
Jerry also took us for a ride in his tractor! He thought he was just taking one woman, but then all 3 women piled in with him in his single seat cab. We told him he should get a less sexy tractor so he would attract a more manageable number of women.

Bill's family came to his house for dinner. Really nice people.

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Cassoday to Newton, KS 40 miles

2010-07-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

After the monsoon last night, it was difficult to figure out where to start with packing wet stuff. Such a mess. I really like the Ortlieb panniers, I can pack the tent wet and don't fret about it. Dry bag or wet bag.
Breakfast at the restaurant/convenient store was not really adequate. I had oj, peanuts and a fresh homemade cinnamon roll, supplemented by a Cliff bar. No services for the whole 37 mile day; this in preparation for upcoming 60 milers with no services.
Most of the group spent the night in a shed offered up by the store owners. Just so you get the picture clearly, 6 adults on the floor of a backyard garden sized shed with no ventilation in a night of pouring rain. I probably couldn't sleep better that way, but they reported they slept fine.
Today was the first day ever I could have fallen asleep on my bike.

I remember little of the ride, except arriving in Newton. We were picked up there by Bill's wife Sammye and his sister-in-law Vicky, in two pickups. So sweet, they took us to the
Coleman factory store and bike shop, then waited while we did our thing. Then Sammye cooked us a lovely meal with corn on the cob, lasagna and spinach salad. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal; you just can't get food like that in a restaurant. Affirmation of Human Goodness.

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Girard to Chanute, KS 49 miles

2010-07-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ate scrambled eggs and crescents for breakfast.
We left in the pouring rain and not even out of the driveway, Janelle had a flat. She and Bill pulled it into the back of the Uhaul and fixed it, while Sara and I hid under someone's carport.
A Road detour made the trip a little dicy, forcing us out onto a moderately trafficed road with a high speed, but drivers were quite respectful.
There was no really good place to stop after the 20 mile mark, maybe just as well, since everyplace is cranking AC. We were still wet cold in Chanute and decided on a hotel with breakfast and a laundry. The incredible torrent of rushing water might have been alarming had we experienced it yesterday, because there were frequent signs warning of impassible sections of roadway at high water. Yesterday someone in a pickup stopped to say, "can you believe it's raining in Kansas?"

We made a pass at Walmart, buying food for dinner and a new bandanna for me to replace the one I lost at the Uhaul store when tightening my head set. Margauritas were then on the agenda at another of the seemingly commonexican restaurants.
The 3 Amigos and their increasing cohort showed up to camp in the park across from the hotel.

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Chanute to Cassoday, KS 100 miles

2010-07-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Got a late start on the day; blackout curtains and a lack of birds left us sleeping until Janelle knocked on the door at 6:45 and announced she and Sara were leaving. Jumping up and eating breakfast still put us an hour behind.
In Coyville, Bill got a call that Janelle and Sara were with 2 of the Amigos in Toronto (planned end point) and were feeling too good to stop, so they were continuing on to Eureka. We caught them as they were leaving Toronto. Stopped there to eat lunch and we were blindsided by a shop owner who decided to put bacon in the potato salad. We gave it to the guys (Bobby, Mike and Rich), who showed up on our tails.

We had traveled with them for a short time in the morning, but they had fallen back.

Everyone joined back together in Eureka, where Janelle and Sara had decided they were up to the challenge of a Century ride with Jamie and Heidi of the 3 Amigos fame. I expressed my reservations, considering the dark ominous clouds we were headed for, the fact that my arm kept going numb and that I was experiencing some irritation in an unmentionable place. After applying bag balm to aforementioned place, we moved forward anyways.
We got poured on, but I spurred everyone on by singing :)
We did not stop on Rosalia, which is really good, because my knees tend to seize up if I stop and get cold. We did stop long enough to torment Bill with really crude jokes. We also complained that he told us: Kansas is flat (not this part), dry (hello, it was pouring on us) and that when it did rain, there was no wind (headwind, about 5ph). He also promised that Kansas had mostly exported its tornadoes to Nebraska (he better be right on that one).

We all made it. It was the first Century Janelle and Sara had ever done. A very happy group of 9 landed in Cassoday at the convenience store. Bill and I went to the park to set up our tents before learning that the store owner invited everyone to camp there.
Here is Jamie biting the head off a snake (gummy).

We moved our tents under the gazebo, but I left my fly off, because the sky was clear. At around 10:30, the clear skies opened up and doused us heartily for several hours. I hate it when Bill is right, even when he doesn't say, I told you so (which he usually does).

Golden City to Girard,KS 57 miles

2010-07-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Stopped in town at Cooky's for breakfast with Allen; blueberry pancakes!

We crossed into Kansas and stopped for our ritualistic photo session.

Each person has a camera, so each one is set on my bike on self-timer to record the moment. Elliott poo-pooed the strategy of using the bike as a tripod; he hasn't experienced my determination.

Everyone met back again in Pittsburg, KS for lunch. The jukebox had a weird ecclectic mix of choices and the oddity of selections compounded the weird outcome. Bill, Elliott and Sara each chose some tunes. Imagine the possibilities. I'll help you along by telling you that one of the songs was "Another One Bites the Dust", by Queen. There was a peculiar theme running through them, however, because a bad needle or something made them all sound like they were recorded during a thunderstorm (Dwight's comment).
Dwight picked up a Uhaul in Pittsburg and will use it to get him and Elliott back to our car. He met us in Girard.
Coming into Girard, Janelle, sara and Bill asked local John Bloomer where the city park was located and he instead directed them to a recently vacated rental home he owns. This was a supreme blessing, since a thunderstorm with a boatload of rain proceded to dump down.

We heard from Ted; he has decided to pull out from the tour due to a severe saddle sore. We are trying to convince him to rejoin us in Pueblo, CO or somewhere. Dwight and Elliott will travel back tomorrow with the Uhaul, pick up Ted, return him to St. Louis and then mozy on home.
At dinner in a Mexican restaurant where the staff spoke only limited English, the waiter taunted us by first telling us they could make us Margueritas, then telling us he was joking. Dwight has named us Bill's Angels. Bill has named us the Fallen Angels.

Chocolate ice cream awaited us due to the availability of a freezer. Remember the name of the tour: Affirmation of Human Goodness. A shout out to John and Susan Bloomer.

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Fair Grove to Golden City, MO 70 miles

2010-07-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

At around 10:30pm last night we scared a fox out of the pavillion. It really was not scared of me.
We lost Ted this morning. He was getting a little saddle sore and wanted a couple of days to see if he could recover. Since we are resting near Wichita, we can't really take days now. I have high hopes he will catch us after Wichita.
We had breakfast in camp from the groceries we bought last night.

Here is Elliott all decked out with his bike.

Here is a rail spur with a bunch of railroad building and repairing equipment on in. It looked like they built the spur there temporarily for it, but maybe not.

Too lazy to work our way back to the restaurant Janelle, Sara and Bill located, we ate lunch in pavillion in a not very friendly town.

Random thoughts: It was cool to see this huge farm equipment dealership, road kills now include armadillos and I noticed irrigation equipment for the first time.
I did a brute force turtle rescue today. It was in the oncoming lane, with a car coming at it. Since it was already tucked into its shell, I slowed and gave it a swift kick before returning to my lane.
There were still loads of hills and then they just seemed to suddenly end. Weird.
Dwight and I caught up to Sara and Elliott at their personal swimming hole and they kindly invited us in. Invitation only; I felt kind of special.

At the end of the day, we met Allen from New Zealand and Bill and I spent about 30 minutes resetting his bike computer. It is amazing how many functions can be controlled and set by 4 buttons.

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Hartville to Fair Grove, MO 43 miles

2010-07-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast at the cafe in town, the cafe one of the guys referred to as the place with "how to kill animals" on the TV. We were joined by 1 Amigo and two of the guys.

Quite a ways out town we met Lulu and Sue who started from San Francisco. Both hail from the East and are friends from college in Phili.

In Marshfield, the townspeople let us join their parade. We squeezed between the firetrucks and the elected officials. It was pretty cool, especially since we were joined by two Amigos and two of the guys and that both Bill and Janelle wanted to do it. We had to go super slow (2.3mph) to stay behind the firetrucks.
Rolling hills, tail or no wind. We caught up to some of the Amigos and guys and they returned a water bottle we left behind. They will move on to visit someone near Springfield, but we may see them in a few days. Surely they will pass us as we rest near Newton, KS to visit with Bill's people.
Ice cream in friendly Fair Grove, where they open their park/ historical site with bathrooms to cyclists.
A well stocked grocery store will make up for the fact that there will be no breakfast place open tomorrow, which is the 4th of July.

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Houstin to Hartville, MO

2010-07-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Elliott decided to ride with us today, so he and Dwight hurriedly got him ready, then went into town to have breakfast and said goodbye to Dwight.
In BenDavis we spoke on the forbidden topic of politics with the store owner. He could not believe anyone voted for Obama. One member of our group is staunchly Republican, but we mostly just smiled and dropped it.
We later heard that he told the 3 Amigos that there were a bunch of dreaded Obama supporters ahead.
One room schoolhouse.

On a steep hill, Elliott did a little bravado stunt and rode back down to do it again. Unloaded bike. May be a fluke.

Ted, no walking.

Elliott's second run.

Janelle, no walking.
Elliott was way ahead of me and I had yet to give him a lecture about dog strategies. As I was about to crest a hill I heard a great deal of barking and feared the worst, but Elliott had dismounted (he needed to know which way to turn) and placed his bike between him and the dogs. I raced up and rode right at the largest one growling and barking at it. It yelped and ran off.

On arriving in Hartville, we immediately sought ice cream. Apparently the grocery store burned down last month, so they had no bananas for splits. The town has rallied, though, and offers seniors a shuttle to the next town over. Also the Dollar General has started carrying bread, milk and eggs.
Dwight rejoined us. I told him there was a Uhaul return station here, so he will start riding tomorrow and then rent a Uhaul near Wichita to get he and Elliott back to the car. The car will be left here in Harville.
We finished the leftover sauce and pasta, salad and grapes.
Locals are shooting off a lot of fireworks right in front of the courthouse commons where our tents are set up. We have been joined by the 3 Amigos, three guys (Mike, Bobby and Nick) and then 2 guys going W to E. Pretty large crew. It is especially thrilling to see the 3 Amigos.

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Eminance to Houston, MO 46 miles

2010-07-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

Breakfast was in Eminance. I ordered 2 orders of everything and drank almost a quart of OJ.
Ted got a new hat... He now looks like he should be golfing.

I took Bill down because he stole the garbage. I doubt I could do it again, the element of surprise would be lacking.
There was nice firetower en route, which Bill bet me would be locked. It wasn't. We climbed to almost the top, but there was a locked platform, possibly to keep people from messing with weather monitoring equipment or something. I had a little trouble with vertigo, but of course Bill did not, so he just had to shake the tower.

We stuck together for the most part today.

Bill calls these Hay cows (kind of far off- you can see the bales in the field; there is no zoom on the iPhone).
Dwight provided a little sag for the day. I let him carry my tent, in part because Elliott was still asleep in it. He and Elliott showed up in Houston. We took a dip in the pool and Dwight cooked dinner.

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Centerville to Eminence, MO 46 miles

2010-07-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

We road 3 miles to breakfast.
At market/ gas in the middle of nowhere, we ordered sandwiches to carry. It is amazing to find these places in the middle of nowhere. They seem to defy explanation.
Soaking in the Current River, we had the place to ourselves and had lunch there as well.
Today gets the award for Most Impatient Drivers beeping their horns.
Bill decided he wanted some Bill Time, so we didn't see him again for the rest of the day.
Started seeing some serious hills. As Mike said, "there were some hills in the way, so I just rode right over them".
In Eminence, we had drinks or milkshakes, then my husband
Dwight texted me that he was 1 hour away. We soaked in Jack's Fork river and then Dwight and my son Elliott showed up in Circle B campground.
We spent some time projecting out our overnights to assist people trying to join us.

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Farmington to Centerville, MO 56 miles

2010-07-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

The bike path out of town was poorly marked and we decided not to go up a steep hill to try to find it, so we took the longer road way around a big state park. Whatever.
We stopped for breakfast in Bismark.
Johnson's Shut In state park offered great water fun and there was no admission for cyclists. A beautiful little river, perfect temperature, with boulders and holes and waterfalls all made it difficult to leave a really scenic spot.
I watched a bald eagle being harrassed by little birds until it sought refuge in the bottom branches of a pine.
The terrain was often flat and with the tailwind we flew along at about 21mph.
There was a scenic detour off route 32, on which we missed a turn, but overall, it kept us off a rather bad part of road with a debris ladden shoulder and cement pavement with joints.
I turned around to follow Bill down a deep gravel path towards a river access point. He had noticed a car stuck up to its axles. He asked what my opinion was and I told him I was thinking of a wrecker. No, not Bill. After thinking on it for a spell, he suggested jacking the drive wheel, shoving large rocks under it, then digging out the frame. I can't believe it worked. I think Bill is the patron saint of hopeless causes.

Chester to Farmington

2010-07-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

clueless- waiting for brain dump, which seems to have been put on hold

Okay, let's see if I can retrieve the memories of this day in retrospect.
I spent some time trying to return the package from Bike Friday, containing the short cage for the derrailer. The guy from Danville seems to have fixed the problem by straightening the hanger (which visually looked fine to me, but was way out of whack). Tried to pawn the package off on a Fed Ex delivery driver, but ended up sending it back USPS.
An incredibly informed police station receptionist hooked us up with a city map and highlighted all the important parts. We enjoyed the use of the Civic Center for showers, then retired to the a city park for camping, while Janelle was given a wayward tour (still on her fully loaded bike) of all the highlights of the town (she just wanted to go to the park) by a zealous bike fanatic.
Bill and I enjoyed the playoffs for local teen baseball. A double header, they finished off the games under the lights at around 10pm.
Some time after this the women's room was locked and in the men's room, the toilet was overflowing, so the bathrooms were basically unusable. A dog woke us up at around 5am.

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Carbondale to Chester, IL 57 miles

2010-06-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

Breakfast conversation: if Bill can arrange for us to drive a combine when we get to Kansas? We would have to start in middle of field and Bill would have to check the insurance policies. He said he could see it now: we would be combining hedgerows and forever people would recount the day we used the baler on Mrs. Smith's boxwood hedge. He laughs because he says I call everything a combine.
We decided on the levee
alternate route: shorter, flatter, no services for over 50 miles. We ate the extra food given by Carl the previous day and carried along by Janelle and Ted.
Fortunately, there was extensive cloud coverage, mitigating the heat. We got a first glimpse of the Mississippi. Recent flooding

of the Mississippi is still apparent, causing problems with farming the fertile "bottom lands".

The last 5 miles before Chester were very hilly.

Chester itself is a cute little town We started by gorging ourselves with cold drinks. Then, with help we located the Royal Order of the Eagles. They host cyclists in a building with 9 built in bunks.

Showers, food and drinks rounded out the options. We met David, who is going to Astoria, OR, but pacing himself and Mike showed up as well.
Bill and I went to get salads, of course, then visited the cemetary, a grocery and Mexican restaurant with Margeritas. We were too full to eat the dinner from the grocery.

I storm rolled in, but mostly bypassed us.

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