Rawlins to Riverside to Walden

Rawlins was a place to get some chores done. After having a fabulous lunch at a great Thai restaurant, we went to the Post Office to mail home some maps and things we didn't need anymore, and headed for the library. We knew that our friend Rick was in town and we were planning to have dinner with him and then head off in the morning, more or less staying together until Pueblo.

Our motel was across the street from his, and after some false starts, we finally were able to get dinner from the crankiest waitresses yet! We set off in the morning, and he had heard from his friend Read, so we expected to meet up in Riverside for our last night in Wyoming.

The day's ride included a stop for a great lunch in Saratoga, where there is a hot spring. Access to it was free, including changing rooms and shower, so we thought it worth checking out. As we exited the restaurant, we ran into Rick and Chris and Roger from England. So now we're a group! We went to the hot spring, and it was wonderful: the hot spring pool was far too hot, but we found that there was a pool made from rocks in the river. When the hot water mixed with the river water, it was just right.

We lounged in the hot spring for about an hour, where we also met David, Read's friend. He would be riding to Riverside also, so the seven of us would end up camped together. More about that later.

Also soaking were a couple from Texas who had sold their house and were on their way to Taos, NM with their house/horse trailer. They were winding their way around the west before settling down in Taos to "retrain" horses and their owners. Rouding out our soaking group were a family from somewhere on their way to the Rainbow Gathering in Steamboat Springs, CO. It was a great interlude, and as we left Chris and Roger arrived. Rick chose to forego the soak, saying that if he actually got in he might never want to get out.

Our ride to Riverside was tough, but beautiful. For a while it was the same old Wyoming: dry, sagebrush, desolate. But as we topped the last rise into Saratoga, we saw trees and grass! I almost cried it looked so beautiful. Our last miles into Riverside saw the landscape grow more and more lush. We stopped at the Visitor Center where we met Bill, a cowboy about 75 or 80 years old. He was the perfect host at the center, telling us about the area and wanting to help however he could. He highly recommended the Lazy Acres Campground, just a few hundred feet down the road. It was run by Larry and Judy, who he said "kept everything scrupulously clean." He was right. When we arrived Read and David were already there. We set up our tent and shortly thereafter the rest of the group rolled in. Of course we had the usual comparisons of tents, etc. Read and David are traveling very light and were of course both fascinated and appalled by our "traveling circus" as Dale from Hawaii had called the tandem and trailer.

Our group had gelled for at least that moment. Our choices for dinner were either the Bear Trap Cafe or the Mangy Moose saloon, both right across the street. We started at the Mangy Moose, but the bartender/cook/etc. quickly got overwhelmed because there was another group of five or six people and he didn't think he really could cook for all of us. The other group happened to include the chief of police of a town near Cleveland. (We didn't hold that against him, though) He gave our friends from England his card in case they get into any trouble as they travel east.

Eventually, both groups left for the Bear Trap Cafe, where actually we didn't fare any better timewise. Eventually we all got food. The waitress seemed totally confused by the idea of having to wait on people. I thought that interesting for someone who worked in a restaurant.

Our campsite was delightful; the Platte River rolled by about 15 feet from our head, so we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the water. It was actually a good night's sleep, with no noise but that. In the morning, we were gently awakened about 6 by the sound of bellowing cattle. (No roosters necessary). We were a study in efficiency as tents came down and bikes were packed and we moved on to the grocery store next door to pick out breakfast and lunch items.

Our ride today was to include a 50-mile trek to Walden where we would make a cafe/grocery stop. At that point, David would leave us to head to his cousin's house in Laramie. Read has progressed beyond the next pass and Rick's original riding partner John has already reached Pueblo. So now our group is 5. Rick, Bob and I had planned to ride an additional 25 miles to Rand in order to make tomorrow's ride over the pass shorter; Chris and Roger were convinced that was a good idea by the time they reached Walden. Alas, upon making several inquiries we found that the campground in Rand was now closed.

Ever flexible, we checked into motel rooms here in Walden and decided to make the best of it by meeting at 6:00 p.m. for a drink and then deciding on a place for dinner. The River Rock Cafe opens at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow and we plan to be there by that time for breakfast and get in some miles before coming to the pass we have to cross. Our destination for tomorrow is Kremling, and we hope to reach Breckenridge by Saturday night.

Boo hoo. Things already seem to be winding down. We fly out of Denver one week from today. We've already reserved a room at the Marriott there and have talked to the bike shop where they will ship our bike and trailer. Although we still have lots of adventure left, it really seems to be going by fast now. It's great to be part of a group: it seems to provide incentive and it is nice to be able to socialize in the evening even though we usually end up riding separately during the day. Our tandem makes the downhills an advantage for us!

So far, Colorado is wonderful. It's much greener here already and we can see why. We saw two rainstorms today, one to our left and one to our right. They were each probably 50 miles away. The distances one can see are truly astounding. The landscape is rockier and we are definitely back in mountain country. The breeze even feels cooler even when the sun is at its hottest. I'm sure as we climb to almost 12,000 feet at Hoosier Pass we'll see some more snow and maybe even have frozen clothes again. So although the barrenness of Wyoming did get tedious, when we look back, we've had some great variety. Onward and Uuuuupppward.

Rawlins, Wyoming

Once again, it's been several days since we were able to find a town big enough to have a library. Heck, it's been several days since we were able to find a town big enough to have anything! We left DuBois and headed for the town of Lander on Saturday. We needed to get there in time to get to a bike shop to get a broken spoke fixed. The man who worked at the bike shop was really nice; he told us he would stay and wait or come back and open up if we didn't get there in time. Of course, it was sort of a matter of pride; we arrived about a half-hour before the shop closed and it took about an hour and a half to do the work. Since Bob really did the repair, after all that he only charged us $4.00!

We stayed in Lander two nights, since we hadn't taken a break like that yet. It was wonderful to have a day just to rest and walk about town. I found out Sunday evening that Ward had spent some time in Lander, too. What a coincidence, since Wyoming is such a large state. We also met up with our friend Rick who has been appearing off and on since the second day of our trip. It turns out that his riding partner sort of went off on his own, so we agreed to meet today (Tuesday) in Rawlins, where he is going to rest for a day and wait for a package from his wife.

Lander was really the last place where we saw any green. As soon as we climbed the road out of town, the landscape started to really "gray" up. We missed Lander right away, since it really was a lovely town with several good restaurants, one right next door to our motel. It had a great atmosphere, including trees, and our tv got many channels.

There doesn't seem to be much more than sagebrush and dirt; the valleys are very broad. By Monday night, we were out of the sight of snow for the first time on the trip. Our destination for Monday night was Jeffery City, not very aptly named. We'd been warned by everyone (including the info on the Adventure Cycling map) that J.C., as the locals call it, is practically a ghost town. Rick, our advance scout, called (oddly enough there is a cell signal there) and said that the bar in town did have pizzas and that he ended up staying in the basement of the Baptist Church. The price was a lecture by the minister and he said he left a donation in the morning. At least there was a shower.

We felt encouraged by this information and set off for J.C. The only stop along the way was Sweetwater Station, where we ate lunch at the convenience store/bar/community center and talked to the lady who owned the place. She said Rick's difficulty with getting a room at the motel in J.C. was due to the fact that the lady who runs the motel is also the fire department dispatcher and there was a fire on the mountain on Sunday.

Fortunately, the fire was out by Sunday night, so that when we arrived at the motel, she was only her normal cranky self, but did take time to sign us up for a room. For $37.10 (cash only, please) we had Room 15. It was everything you might imagine it to be, but it was clean. And, she had told us, when the wind blows just right, you might get a channel on the tv. We did: one channel. Thank God it was PBS and not the Hunting Channel (sorry, Ward). We walked down to the bar (at least it's not hard to find things in that town!) and had a pizza. We had noticed a couple walking ahead of us and figured they must be in the same motel. When we got to the bar there was another loaded bike, so there were five bike tourists in all: the two of us, Roger and his wife Chris from England, and SHANE! Shane was really sort of a homeless person who just rides his bike from place to place. He was on his way to the Rainbow Gathering, so you can just imagine how that conversation went. We did enjoy company for dinner, though, and afterwards went back to the room to watch the channel.

This morning we woke up early and headed for Rawlins, the biggest town we've been in for quite a while. We actually made about half of our miles by 9:30, stopped and ate lunch at Grandma's Cafe. (Grandma was actually quite cranky, too; we seem to have entered the Valley of the Cranky Old Women). Our afternoon ride was a little slower, with a pretty hefty climb before we got into Rawlins.

Rawlins is a big town, at the intersection of Routes 30 (yes, that same one), Interstate 80 and several large Wyoming Roads. We will most likely be in Wyoming for one more night, and then cross into Colorado. I'm hoping for more green. The nights will likely get cold again as we climb toward Hoosier Pass toward Breckenridge. Maybe the women will be less cranky.

It seems that there are some actual towns coming up, so eating and camping will be less of a problem. Can't wait to check another state off my list of "states to be visited."

DuBois Wyoming

Boy, I wish we could do this more often. By the time we come to a town big enough to have a place to access the internet, we've had so many adventures they're hard to keep track of.

We last updated when we were in West Yellowstone, Montana. We rode from there into Yellowstone Park, where we stayed at the Madison Junction Campground. The down side was that it was one of those USFS campgrounds where they have no showers. Yuk. But the upside was that we met some really neat people in the Hiker/Cyclist camping area. They were Lorraine (4th grade teacher) and Peter (1st grade teacher) Cambell, Bob (school psychologist), and Linden (6th grade teacher). They were friends from all over the country, and met in West Yellowstone, parked their cars, and were planning to spend the next few days riding around the park. As you can imagine with a bunch of teacher-types, we spent the next many hours talking around the campsite. We exchanged addresses, etc. and they promised to let us know when and where they plan to get together again so that we have an opporutnity to join them. The bad part was that this was our introduction to mountain nights. Beginning that night, and continuing since, it's been in the low 30s by the time we wake up.

We left the next morning and did the "tourist run" through Yellowstone, stopping at the geysers, riding through Fire Hole River Canyon and finally ending up at Old Faithful. My first exposure to Old Faithful was in those Saturday morning cartoons (which apparently Bob never watched), so it was actually pretty exciting to see. The only negative thing was the amount of traffic on the roads through the park. At least the speed limit is low, so the RV's and trailers weren't barreling past.

We headed to Flagg Ranch Campground on the J.D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, a connector between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. How nice of Mr. Rockefeller to donate a five-mile x eight-mile stretch. This campground had hot showers, which we took advantage of and a nice restaurant at the lodge. I felt obligated to try the local trout on the menu. To all the trout fishermen in our life: stop throwing them back!!!!!!!! They are delicious.

The next morning was the record low for the trip: 29 degrees. The clothes we'd rinsed out and hung on the bike to dry froze. My stiff shirt made for an interesting picture. I put everything in the dryer in the camp laundry to thaw and dry while we rolled up tent and sleeping bags. Pulling out of the campground toward breakfast at the lodge, we stopped to talk to a gent from England who was doing the Yorktown, VA to Astoria, OR TransAm trail. He was able to fill us in on terrain, etc. because he had just passed through where we were headed. We've met up with many folks doing the long-distance touring thing; some we've even run into more than once.

That night we spent about halfway up to Togwotee Pass at the Togwotee Mountain Lodge, but camped behind it in another Forest Service campground. The Lodge provided not only hot showers, but hot tubs, so it was a little more luxurious than the last time.

This morning we finished the road to the top of the pass (9, 682 feet) our highest climb to date. We went up for 17 miles, but were rewarded by a wonderful dowhill run with a great view of the Tetons. We even stopped to make a snowball by the side of the road just before descending. At the top, we stopped to talk to two young men who had started out in Maine this spring and were headed for the west coast. They had the same packs on their bikes as we have, so we spent some time comparing equipment and talking about the routes, they telling us about what we would encounter going east and we filling them in on the westward situation.

We ended today early in DuBois because towns are getting farther apart in this part of Wyoming. There was really nowhere else we could reach today that had either camping or other accommodations, so we got a really cute cabin/motel room and are taking half a day off to get ready for a long ride tomorrow: about 75 miles to Lander Wyoming. The terrain has changed again to the red rock kind of scenery that I usually think of in Wyoming. The man who owns the restaurant where we at lunch said that this continues for about 20 miles and then changes to rolling lower hills with some more greenery.

It's been challenging, but every time we meet someone else touring we are reminded why we do it. What a great way to see this part of the country: really up close and personal. Wait until we start to torture you all with our pictures.

West Yellowstone

Yesterday was both a strange and typical day in Montana. We left Virginia City and went through Ennis where we stopped to update the blog. After Ennis, there was really a lot of nothing but the beautiful scenery we've become accustomed to. As we rode along Route 287, we looked for a place to eat. Alas, in this part of Montana it seems that the most common eating places are bars. About 3:00, we spotted a combination campground, RV park, eating establishment. Unfortuately, it didn't open until 4:00. We decided to make sandwiches with the tuna and buns we still had with us and were ready to settle ourselves on the front porch when a pickup truck pulled up and the owner and a friend got out. We explained our situation and asked if it was okay to sit on the porch. He said, "I'm just going in to clean up and get ready for opening. Come on in out of the wind and sit at the bar." He got us drinks and asked about our trip. After looking at our Adventure Cycling map, he showed us a place about 15 miles farther that had camping and served breakfast and lunch. We decided we'd head for there. In the meantime, he decided to make us French fries, since "it's no big deal to throw something in the fryer." Then his barmaid and a brand-new cook who just drove in from two states away for this new job showed up. Then one of his suppliers came in. We all chatted as we ate our French fries, and just as we were getting ready to leave we noticed clouds. We tought we'd wait a few minutes to see what the weather would do. Good decision. A hail storm ensued, just as a couple from Allentown, PA pulled up in their rental car. So we all waited out the storm. Keep in mind, this bar wasn't open yet! It rained hard for about an hour. The barmaid decided we needed hot tea, so we had some of that. Eventually, the sun came back out and we continued, after saying good-bye to people who by that time seemed like family! That's Montana.

That really has been our experience of hospitality here. I guess when you just don't see that many people, it's easier to treat the ones you see nice. We spent the night in the Campfire Lodge campground in a really cute tiny cabin on the Madison River. (According to Bob, it's about this time that Ward, Skip and Randy should begin drooling.) The place was all about the fishing. It was family owned and run and they were not serving dinner but sold us some canned goods from their restaurant kitchen that we could microwave in our cabin. We had a great breakfast there this morning and are now in West Yellowstone.

From here, we'll ride to Madison, Wyoming where we'll have to stop and camp since there are no rooms to be had at Old Faithful. We'd hoped to get those few extra miles in today, but it is tourist season, if early. Tomorrow we'll take in the sights of Yellowstone Park. It occurred to me that my first awareness of Yellowstone and Old Faithful was through those old cartoons we used to watch on Saturday mornings, so it will be great to finally see them in person.

We have never been out of sight of snow since we got here. There are always snow-capped mountains in the distance in some direction. We had a minor mechanical failure when the tire on our trailer blew today. We got it patched and then took care of replacing it when we got to West Yellowstone, which has a bike shop. Not bad for a week's riding.

By the way, our friend Diane mentioned that she couldn't leave a comment without signing up for an account. If you don't want to do that, just email your comments to our email address. It's nice to hear from people.

Ennis Montana

Note to Terri: next time I'm bringing my laptop!! We have come across many places with WiFi, but hardly any libraries. The problem is that at our age, if we don't get to update often, we forget what we've done.

Anyway, to pick up where we left off: we left Missoula on Wednesday morning with the lofty goal of riding all of 15 miles to Lolo. Attractions in Lolo: the absolutely confirmed site where Lewis and Clark stayed. (Don't ask how they know this; just remember it has to do with the latrine!) That was actually fascinating. They are working on putting the place together. There are two large yerts which serve as the ranger station/meeting place. We had the fortune to show up when there were about 25 retired National Forest Service rangers meeting for a tour. Talk about a wealth of information.

From there we headed up to meet Dan and Sally Wheaton, uncle and aunt of our friend Kim. They retired in PA and moved out to Lolo about six years ago, and welcome any company from back East. They treated us like long-lost relatives; we had dinner of Copper River salmon, salad, etc. and got to christen their above-the-garage guest house. Note to Kim and Burt: get the heck out there to visit. It was a great way to start the trip. They are interesting and welcoming people, and since Dan was an English professor before retirement, we felt right at home.

Thursday morning we headed out with Darby as our goal. I'll just mention right here that the scenery is almost indescribably beautiful and leave it at that. We followed the Bitterroot River for several days, so we were treated to the sound of running water everywhere. The weather is sunny, at least after the first couple of days, but the air is clear and cool and very dry. (Great for doing laundry at night.) Being able to wear long sleeves has helped with my sensitivity to the sun. It's rarely too hot for either long sleeves or a jacket!

From Darby we headed for Wisdom, Montana. It was on that stretch of the trip that we really began to feel that we were "Out West." We climbed Chief Joseph Pass, the toughest one so far. The obligatory tourist stop on that stretch was the Big Hole Battlefield where Chief Joseph battled the "heroes" who wanted to push his people onto smaller and smaller pieces of land despite treaties to the contrary. The battlefield site is a National Park. Upon leaving there, a high plateau leading down to Wisdom, we wondered why suddenly we were swarmed by mosquitoes. The woman who owned the restaurant where we ate dinner explained that it was due to the flooding irrigation they use there for ranching. "They just blossomed yesterday!" she said cheerfully. We decided that would be a good night for a motel!

The route out of Wisdom took us through more of the lush, very wide valley that the Bitterroot feeds. After riding over two moderate passes, we stopped Saturday night in Dillon, Montana, the biggest town since Missoula. We stayed at a KOA (enough said there; sharing the campground with a teenage baseball team in for a tournament was just lovely.) We were happy to have our earplugs along. The route out of Dillon included some more wide valley and a nice downhill run into Twin Bridges, a pleasant town at the confluence of three rivers (hmmm!). It was hosting a Father's Day Fly-In; we're not sure what that means, but there were lots of small planes buzzing around. It also seems to be a common thing for large ranches to have an airstrip. More than once we noticed a pickup truck parked way out in the middle of a field at the end of the strip. Probably the rancher flew off to the nearest Wal-Mart!

We climbed very gradually through Laurin, Sheridan, Alder and on to Nevada City and Virginia City. These last two were former mining towns that have been set up as tourist traps, oops, I mean centers. They were typical western towns with wooden sidewalks, stage coach tours and even a cabaret. It was interesting historically, since most of the buildings and houses were original. We chose a bed and breakfast over the campground there, since shade seemed to be at a premium in the campground and it was a mile ABOVE the town. The bed and breakfast was great. The hostess was actually from Queens. She got tired of city life and she and her husband moved out here about nine years ago. He is a glass artist and she runs the bed and breakfast and is a massage therapist. She did a good job, but she was no Sally Wheaton!

Our climb out of Virginia City was interesting. We had chosen to stop there rather than going an additional 15 miles to Ennis, since the 15 miles included a pass that was four miles up to 7,000 feet. Since we were starting fresh after a good night's sleep and a great breakfast, we thought we'd have a relatively easy time with this climb. After three miles, we pulled over for a "stretch-break" panting, sweating and blaming the altitude, rather than our age, for the hard time we were having with this particular ascent. That's when Bob noticed that our drag brake had been on the whole time. We outfitted the bike with this drum brake before coming out here to help us with the DESCENTS! He tried to pass it off as being a way to make the climb more challenging; I have reminded him after every stop to check the brake lever.

We will head today along the Madison River (Ward, Skip and Randy: you have to get out here!) toward Yellowstone Park. Mom: finally a new state! Montana is a manly state and I think we've seen the prettiest part of it. Wyoming and Colorado will have their challenges. Hopefully, we'll set out without the brake!

Finally on the Ground in Missoula

After a looooooooong flight day, we finally arrived yesterday in Missoula. On Tuesday, we awoke at 3:30 a.m. and our good friends, Peggy and Bill drove us to the airport. After some tense moments of getting our stuff checked in, x-rayed, etc. we boarded the first of many flights: Pittsburgh to Phoenix, Phoenix to Boise, Boise to Missoula. The last leg was on a propeller plane that only had 19 seats. Fortunately there was very little turbulence.

When we finally arrived in Missoula, we called a cab and decided to go straight to the bike shop to pick up our bike. This all worked out perfectly, since we got there about a half-hour before they closed, loaded the bike the best we could there and headed for the motel. We had decided ahead of time to stay at the same little motel we stayed at last time, since it was cheap and in a good location for walking around town. Ironically, we ended up in Room 103, the same room we were in two years ago!

Missoula is as pleasant as we remembered it. Being a college town, there is plenty of good food, and especially desserts! We found a great Thai restaurant called Thai Spicy (right up our alley, as most of you know.) The waitress was really impressed that we ate our soup without crying, since it's very spicy hot. Afterwards, we wandered around town looking for a good dessert place with internet access. It seems that in the two years since we've been here, laptops have become an almost indispensable accessory. So the internet access is WiFi, but nobody has terminals anymore (except for the reliable local public library!). So we had to settle for some really great Dutch Apple pie and relaxation.

By that time, we were really tired. It was 9:30 here, but 11:30 to our bodies and minds. We opted for sleep and were really glad that we planned an easy day today. We've spent the morning getting our gear rearranged on the bike. (That will probably happen 12 more times before the trip is over.) We needed some Coleman fuel, etc. so our errands have been run. Fortunately, since Missoula is the base for many outdoor activities all the things we could possibly need and some things we didn't know we needed are available on every block. We also updated our maps by stopping at the Adventure Cycling office this morning.

From here, we'll check out of the motel, eat lunch at one more great restaurant and head out to Lolo, about 15 miles away. In Lolo, there is a campsite where Lewis and Clark spent a month, waiting for the snow to melt before they crossed the mountains. We'll spend about an hour or so there, and then go to visit Dan and Sally Wheaton, the aunt and uncle of our friend Kim. She apparently yearns for visitors from the East, so we're going to oblige her by eating dinner with them and pitching our tent in their yard for the night. It's a slow start to our trip but will give us the opportunity to make sure everything is working on the bike and visit in an actual house before hitting the road in earnest. We're getting eager to be out on the road!!!!

Countdown!!!!

Well, it's been a while but several significant things have occurred so time to update. First, we found out today that our bike and trailer have arrived safely in Missoula and are already assembled and waiting for us. That was a relief, since things got off to a rocky start at the beginning of this week. Big Bang had a little difficulty with the packaging thing, and once we convinced them to take the back wheel off the bike, things moved along. Bob talked to the people at The Bike Doctor who not only assembled what we had but also fixed some chain and cable issues while they were at it.

My flamenco class finished up on Wednesday night. i will be done until the fall, except for practicing. Eva says I'll be in a recital in November, so I may need to call her sometime this summer for a refresher. After talking to my cousin Mary Ann today, I'm doubly glad I took the class since she said she learned in a seminar that learning new things is the best way to keep your brain healthy into old age!

My mom had her first acupuncture treatment on Thursday to help her post-herpetic neuralgia. It was quite successful. It will take several treatments, but she said she got more relief from that than from anything else we've tried. You could even tell in her demeanor how much better she felt. Marianne will take her on Tuesday for a followup and we are very optimistic that it will help enormously. What a relief. Bob and I watched a movie last night in the gameroom, and it seemed really weird that she wasn't there on the bed to enjoy the movie with us. It was the first time we'd gone down there to watch tv since she left and we really missed her.

Unfortunately, Bob's dad has been ill and has been in St. Margaret's hospital since early this week. He had some minor heart congestion and his gout has his foot in severe pain. He's been resting a lot and will probably be there at least until Monday. We briefly considered changing our plans, but after talking to Irene decided just to leave things as they are and monitor the situation. He has a way of bouncing back from these things.

I've been doing some riding on my single bike: all that steering, shifting and braking! Certainly different from being a stoker and only having to pedal. We have a definite plan for our first days in Montana. Once we get the bike and get ourselves together, we're going to visit the Lewis and Clark site in Lolo and also look up Kim Young's Aunti Sally. I guess not that many easterners pass through Lolo, so she's even willing to welcome us for a brief visit.

So now we're down to the minor details. Packing the last few things, and getting ourselves ready for liftoff.

Progress!

Today I dropped off the bike and the box containing the trailer and our camping gear to Big Bang Bicycles to be shipped to Missoula. There was a tense moment when the guy who waited on me with the trailer box didn't seem to have a complete grip on what we needed. Sometimes they just box stuff and people find their own freight carrier; that seems needlessly complicated for us, since once everything is boxed, it involves wrestling it to the carrier or at least home for pickup. So, our equipment has begun the trip without us. As we packed we realized that we were packing our only helmets, which would have meant that we couldn't ride at all until we met the bike in Montana. Had we been thinking quicker, we might have packed the brand new helmets for the trip and left the almost-two-year-old ones here for spares. Oh well. I am now the owner of a new sky-blue (just a shade less feminine than mine with flowers!) helmet that is basically just like the old one. Bob's is still white and, I hope, big enough. After some minor adjustments (like adding a saddle and pedals!) I'll be able to ride my Voyageur next week. That is, if I remember how to steer. There are definitely bonuses to stoking. Next week, we'll pack our clothing. That really is the easy part. Toiletries can be a little complicated, but we just need two days worth of riding shorts and tops. Everything goes in ZipLoc bags; that way if it rains we don't have to worry about anything getting wet. Plus, it helps to keep us organized. Our cold and wet weather gear went in the trailer box along with camping and cooking stuff, helmets and water bags and bottles. The plane trip should be somewhat simple, since all we'll need to take are the set of rear panniers which we'll check, and the front and rack bags which will act as carryons. Last time, we spent a couple of days in Seattle; taking right off from Missoula will simplify this part of the trip. I'm still debating as to whether I'll take the black jersey dress. I'm not sure I'll need it at either end, and I certainly won't need it in campgrounds!

The fun begins

Today I dropped off the bike and the box containing the trailer and our camping gear to Big Bang Bicycles to be shipped to Missoula. There was a tense moment when the guy who waited on me with the trailer box didn't seem to have a complete grip on what we needed. Sometimes they just box stuff and people find their own freight carrier; that seems needlessly complicated for us, since once everything is boxed, it involves wrestling it to the carrier or at least home for pickup. So, our equipment has begun the trip without us. As we packed we realized that we were packing our only helmets, which would have meant that we couldn't ride at all until we met the bike in Montana. Had we been thinking quicker, we might have packed the brand new helmets for the trip and left the almost-two-year-old ones here for spares. Oh well. I am now the owner of a new sky-blue (just a shade less feminine than mine with flowers!) helmet that is basically just like the old one. Bob's is still white and, I hope, big enough. After some minor adjustments (like adding a saddle and pedals!) I'll be able to ride my Voyageur next week. That is, if I remember how to steer. There are definitely bonuses to stoking. Next week, we'll pack our clothing. That really is the easy part. Toiletries can be a little complicated, but we just need two days worth of riding shorts and tops. Everything goes in ZipLoc bags; that way if it rains we don't have to worry about anything getting wet. Plus, it helps to keep us organized. Our cold and wet weather gear went in the trailer box along with camping and cooking stuff, helmets and water bags and bottles. The plane trip should be somewhat simple, since all we'll need to take are the set of rear panniers which we'll check, and the front and rack bags which will act as carryons. Last time, we spent a couple of days in Seattle; taking right off from Missoula will simplify this part of the trip. I'm still debating as to whether I'll take the black jersey dress. I'm not sure I'll need it at either end, and I certainly won't need it in campgrounds!