The End of the Road

Well we did it...biked coast to coast then from Maine to Florida.  Actually we cheated a bit by driving some 400 or 500 miles and missing Virginia and most of North Carolina, but what the heck, we rode 5800 miles and we had innumerable smiles!!!
On Monday we woke up at the beach, packed up, and rode about 60 miles to my mom's home in DeLand.  It was great to see her, great to arrive for some needed rest, but mixed emotions about the end of this phase of our grand adventure.  On Tuesday we went to mom's water exercise class; it was an ideal workout for our repetitive motion overused bodies!  She is a pistol when she is leading the class - a no-nonsense task master: play the piano, do the ballerina,  squish the spider, all to the count of 15!!!

On Tuesday evening Nancy's cousin from Kentucky swung by, picked us up, and we drove to Tampa for thanksgiving.  It is wonderful: great company, food, and festivities!  Soon we will return to DeLand to visit and end our time in Florida.  On 12/14 we will fly to Seattle then on 12/21 fly home to Anchorage.

We've been warped by the rain
Driven by the snow,
Tired and dirty,
Don't ya know,
But we're willin
To be movin....

Happy Thanksgiving to all and thanks for following along on our adventures!

Coming To An End

It's our last night on the trail. We are camping at a FL state park behind the dunes on Flagler Beach.  It's been cloudy, overcast and big northerly winds for the past several days.  Looking like rain, but just a sprinkle here and there.  We are partially sheltered by the the winds by palm bushes and dunes, we can here the constant surf and waves crashing. Seems fitting for our last night of this big adventure. In some ways it is hard to believe it is coming to a close oon the other hand feels like another break to do some more visiting. It's been an incredible journey, sometimes it's hard for me to believe we actually did it, it truly was a one day at a time accomplishment.
  We end our journey at Chris's moms house in Deland Fl and then to Tampa for Thanksgiving to spend with my bro and sister inlaw, my sister and our cousin. We will return to Deland for a 2nd thanksgiving dinner and extended stay with Chris's mom and sister , then to Seattle and then home to Anchorage.  We haven't reached the 6000 mile mark still have a couple  hundred miles to go, maybe we will take some day trips while in fl to ease out of the bike mode and keep adding on the miles!

The Sunshine State

Here we are in St Augustine, Florida, the oldest European city in North America.  But let's backtrack a few days so I can tell you how we got here...  After our big 81 mile day we left the next morning in the rain, had a few little adventures, and ended the day at a campground right across the road from the Okefenokee Swamp (or "national wildlife refuge" if you prefer).  At that point we were still in Georgia and I must say that we enjoyed Georgia.  We only saw a narrow ribbon of the coastal plain but the roads were more bicycle friendly than South Carolina and the farms looked more prosperous.  The pine tree farms are being actively harvested and we did see a lot of logs and chips and milled logs heading down the road in big trucks.  The next day we left in cold and foggy conditions; gloves and plastic bags on our heads was the uniform of the morning!  We really wanted to go into the refuge but we also wanted to move our show down the road so after riding to the first info kiosk and seeing one hawk we got back on the road toward Florida.  I warned Nancy that I wanted to stop and take a picture of her at the welcome to Florida sign when we crossed the St Mary's River.  She was fine with that but there was no sign, only a buckle your seatbelt, it's the law sign!  The afternoon was better with exotic birds and we ended the day at a hotel near the Jacksonville airport.  We had some navigation to do to get out of the airport so I was comparing our 10 year old bike map with the map on my phone.  I figured out a way to get back to the bike route and went over it with Nancy.  She took one look at the phone and pointed out an alternate route on a road that did not exist when our bike map was published!  It worked out great.  There was very little traffic at 7 am so we escaped the airport and Jacksonville and peddled our way to the ferry at the mouth of the St Johns River.  It was quite windy but once we turned south we just flew down the coast.  For a while we passed miles and miles of opulent mansions; many looked like they were built in the 1920s and, in grandeur, were between the White House and the palace of Versailles!  We arrived in St Augustine with enough time to tour the old fort.  There are a lot of tourists here and most of them were cold!  Our bicycle adventure is drawing to a close; in a couple of more days we will be in DeLand and visiting my mom and sister.

Our Southern Experience

We're starting day 8 of riding this morning.  It took us 5 days to ride through South Carolina, at times we really felt out of our comfort zone on some of the rural country roads and at times we were out of the ordinary at some of our store stops. In general people have been been very friendly, helpful and curious about our trip.  We are on a quest to make it to Florida to spend time with family so we have put in some long days.  Also there are not a lot of camping or  accommodation options along our route.  The first 3 milage days were in the fifties, since then high 60s, 70s and yesterday 81 miles!  The terrane  has been great, flat in North and South Carolina and mild rolling hills in Georgia.  After a month off from cycling in NJ we got soft and doughy, but now after a week of riding feeling stronger and fit.  We talk a lot about the whole trip and marvel at all the different places, Eco systems and foliage we have seen along the way.  The south is so different from the west and north east.  People marvel at how beautiful Alaska is, which it is, but there are so so many beautiful places through out our country.  We have really enjoyed riding in GA with its tall stands of pine, sandy soils and orange dirt.  The agricultural experience has also been awesome, with lots of cattle and hay farming in the west and central along with corn and soybeans, in the south we have ridden past cotton fields and Vadallia sweet onions, peanut fields with a zillion peanut shells along the side of the road and we think pecan trees.  We went off route yesterday towards the end of the day to find a motel to stay in, so todays route is our own, a shorter route to get further along our way and we will connect up with our mapped route at the end of the day.  It's gotten much cooler and there's showers to day, so a shorter route will be appreciated!

South Carolina

Three days of riding brought us to Andrews, South Carolina, a quiet little town southwest of Myrtle Beach.  I'm a little reluctant to draw broad conclusions from our limited experience...but it seems that the roads here do not have shoulders.  And there is a fair amount of truck traffic.  And our daily destinations are determined by the limited motels along our route.  But let's not be negative - we're having a great time!  It's sunny.  Most drivers give us as much room as they can.  And we keep meeting the nicest people.  Today we stopped at a gas station / grocery (rusty rural not shiny urban) to get cold drinks and eat some of the snacks we routinely pack.  A woman who was parked said that she didn't think she would see us so soon, she had just passed us...at least that's what I think she said, to my ear, her accent was quite strong.  Then her husband came out of the store and asked us about our travels.  We chatted a bit and he asked us if we worried about stuff; he offered that he would have a little bit of worry if he was traveling like we were.  We told him no, most of the people we meet are like him: good people who are interested in what we are doing.  They wished us safe travels, warned us to be careful, and told us that the store had the best hotdogs.  We passed on the hotdogs.  We find it interesting that people here keep commenting on how cold it is.  Before the sun comes up there was frost the first two mornings but we are in a warming trend and it has made it to the 70's the last two days!
Our legs are doing fine after our month off from riding...but our bums are out of shape...reminds me of the birthday card my mom sent, "smile until your cheeks hurt!"
Oh yea, we have seen several fields of cotton; they remind me of snow.  And today we saw an ostrich  on what otherwise appeared to be a horse farm.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Oh What a Beautiful Feeling

We're back on our bikes and Oh how good that feels!  We returned the rental car to the Wilmington, NC airport this morning and started today's ride from the airport.  The day was just wonderful, it started out frosty but sunny and by the time we were riding it had warmed up.  We had a tailwind in the morning but our direction changed by afternoon and thus a head wind for our afternoon ride.  We had lots of variety today with coastal riding, inland roads, great shoulders and less than ideal roads, new ecosystem with sandy soils and lots of pine trees and a ferry ride with dophins connecting coastal towns.  Chris called this a dolphin/endorphin ride.  It was a great day of riding and feels awesome to be back in the saddle.

Goin' to where the weather suits my clothes...

After a month in south jersey including dental work for nancy; a great, quiet time at the shore; a nice visit with our niece in Virginia; the big build up for a storm that was minor where we were; and relying on the generous hospitality of nancy' sister, we rented a car to get our show on the road about 500 miles south to Wilmington, North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.  We are currently in a modest motel and tomorrow we will turn in the car, load up the bikes, and hit the road on the adventure cycling association route to Florida.
Last night we made a return visit to Kori and Kris in Virginia - what a great way to watch the election results!
In a recent development, we have decided to go home for Christmas!  Our adventure has really changed...from the car-centered road trip to the relatively hard-core coast-to-coast bike trip to cultural immersion experience in New Jersey to fleeing the cold weather.  Our trip continues to ebb and flow with opportunities, What a grand time it continues to be!

And The Rest of The Story

It's the day after the storm and we skated through without loss of power or trees.  It seems we must have been in a protective pocket, because for us it felt like just a rainy, windy storm; the wind storms at home on the hillside have been way worse than this.  That saying, we were unusual as the shore communities and Philadelphia area got hammered with flooding, trees down, loss of power and lots of damage.  Our trip continues to have adventure and unexpected twists.

Frankenstorm

Chris and I are in New Jersey at my sisters house waiting for the hurricane to arrive.  The rains have picked up as the day has progressed, the ground is sogging and we are in wait and see mode.  Sandy was to arrive later tonight but she is moving faster and should land in a couple of hours.  We are currently safe, inland but in her path.  We have experienced 100 MPH winds at home, but not sure how high winds will be here.  At home we never had minute to minute updates, but our weather has never effected so many people as here on the East.  We will keep you posted, happy to be with family, my sister happy to have us with her!

South Jersey Sojourn

Alternate title: Erie Canal, C &O Canal, Root Canal!
Well the dental process didn't start out very smoothly but things seem to be tracking better now.  Nancy will get fitted for her crown (though she claims it was her sister who was the princess) tomorrow and it should be installed about 10 days later.  Meanwhile we have been enjoying a terrific Indian Summer here in south jersey.  We were at "the shore" for 5 days hanging out, biking, walking the beach...it was beautiful and almost deserted.  Over the weekend Nancy's cousins came down and we helped out by moving their stuff to a storage locker.  Currently we are at Nancy's sister's place and thought we would be good sports and so we accompanied Mags to her 6 am workout on Monday.  It was a great opportunity to prove how specific exercise and conditioning is, especially for mature adults.  Translation: I'm sore as hell.  (Nancy is less so, or at least that is her story...maybe it is just relative to dental pain.)  Whatever, we are going back tomorrow morning.
This hiatus to our biking is putting us behind the weather curve for making our way down the east coast.  Don't know how it will turn out but so far we are making the best of it.

The Unexpected Extended Stay

We spent 8 days riding from Boston to my sisters house in South Jersey, as Chris says, some miles are better than others.  There were lots of hills and thigh screeching moments, but incredible scenery along the way.  Riding through the Delaware Water Gap national recreation area was one of the moments.  One hill was so steep, I just stopped struggling, got off my bike and pushed my trusty stead with 40 lbs up the hill.  It was not the time to ask me if I was having a good time!  It was really cool a few days earlier to ride past the famous culinary art college in Hyde Park, NY and cross the Hudson on a pedestrian bridge and continue another 6 miles on a trail.  We rode our longest day a week ago Friday - 85 miles, it was a real sense of accomplishment with riding hills and still feeling good at the end of the day.  We detoured from our bicycle map in North Jersey to visit my sister in South Jersey.  I contacted some bicycle clubs and a kind cyclist emailed us a cue sheet on how we could get to her house from Lambertville, NJ on bicycle friendly roads.  It worked like a charm, we arrived wet, cold and happy to see her.  The beginning of the week was great we took care of haircuts, dental cleanings, visiting relatives including 2 aunts, one 91 and the other 82!  We planned to leave that Thursday, but decided to stay one more day to better prepare for the trip.  That night, the achy, roving, toothache that the dentist diagnosed as sensitive teeth, roared its firy head and the need for a root canal was started 2 days later.  Root canals involve several visits and are not very compatible with being on the move.  So we're making the best of it, we rode 63 miles yesterday and are spending several days at a cousins condo at the shore.  How lovely could it get, we rode on a beautiful sunny fall day, it will be in the 60s today and forecasted for 70 tomorrow and the beach is just a few blocks away.  Sometime things don't work out as planned, but if you can be open minded, they still work out!

Berkshire bliss, or not...

We are 3 days out of Boston and have seen parts of MA and CT I've never been to!!!  It was tough to depart from Ron & Diane's into the pouring rain, navigating through unfamiliar urban streets but things went relatively smoothly.  Maybe most people were inside watching the Pats game.  Whatever;  we made it to our "warm showers" host before 5.  It was just starting to rain, again, as we set up our tent.
Yesterday we rode west across northern CT and it was very hilly...but also very beautiful.  We met a bike tourist headed in the opposite direction and exchanged basic logistic info.  Interestingly, he was headed from Philadelphia to Maine so we asked him about how he left Philly.  (This exchange took place from opposite sides of the road.)  He came through Trenton and told us about a 30-mile bike trail.  So we are going to try to use this info to ride to Nancy's sister's in Mantua, in Southern NJ.  We ended the day at a hotel in Windsor Locks, CT, near Bradley Airport.
Today was supposed to be cloudy but those clouds opened up!  Beautiful old towns, stone buildings, tough hills, and some great folks.  We passed a woman in a town and soon she passed us in her car and stopped.  She asked us if we wanted a dry place to spend the night.  We thanked her but explained that we wanted to go 30 more miles before we called it a day.
Tomorrow we will make it to the Hudson River valley but may not cross it for another day.  The weather forecast is not so great but it's mostly about attitude.

Boston

I'm sitting here enjoying the chatter between my cousin and Chris as my cousin Diane prepares a frittata for our send off.  We have just spent 3 wonderful days visiting in Boston.  We didn't do anything spectacular or lots of site seeing, just hanging out and enjoying the company.  We did go to a college rugby game and watched Diane and Ron's son play, beating BU; we had a wonderful Italian dinner in downtown Belmont in an old fire station and on one rainy day I got caught up on my CEUs for my nursing licenses and Chris spent copious hours finding our route out of the city.  The ride to Boston was awesome riding through so much history and old houses, roads we would never had driven on, we even rode past Walden Pond.  Riding through Boston was quite hair raising with all the traffic, so we are leaving on a Sunday and hope the ride out is more mellow!  Onward south, next visiting stop, my sister Maggie.

South to the Future

We are two days out of Portland, on our way to Boston, and they were oh so different.  Monday was awesome... We navigated from Portland to our mapped route and the day just flowed:  rolling hills, beautiful views, the start of fall color, great roads, modest traffic.  We were well rested and and well nourished.  The route followed Rt 1 for awhile and at times was right along the beach or the "rocky intertidal".  It was great to be there without the crowds in beautiful weather.  We did about 70 miles and stayed in Kittery, Maine.  Today the vibe was different...  It was beautiful and there was some great riding but it was more work!  To start off, the bridge over the Piscataqua River (that's the border between Maine and New Hampshire) was out so we had to get to the van shuttle location.  It was a bit awkward but we met, and were helped by, some interesting folks.  Our legs were not as fresh today and we had headwinds ALL day.  And the hills were steeper and less rolling and there was a lot of crummy pavement and tedious navigation!  We ended the day by going off route to Nashua, NH, to find a place to stay.  No big problems but it is challenging to ride in unfamiliar cities while loaded up.  It was a nice relief to make it to our Motel 6 after about 60 miles!  Tomorrow we head into Boston to visit Nancy's cousin.  We have a mapped bike route that should take us within a few miles of their home.  There is a bit of rain forecast.  I guess that's why they call it adventure cycling.

We Made It

We rode coast to coast!  On Friday September 21, we rolled to the coast in Portland Maine.  Needless to say we were pretty happy we completed this segment of our journey.  I had mixed feelings, feeling proud & elated for our  accomplishment and on the other hand it was just another day of cycling.  That's how we did it, one day at a time of pedaling.  We had a great week leading up to the final feat. After we left our friends in New Hampshire we stayed the night in a great family owned motel in Ossipee, NH and got a van pickup to the notorious barbecue on the corner of 25 & 16 with the giant pig.  We could have made it to Portland the next day but decided to spend the next day at my cousin's "camp" cottage on Bickerford Pond (also thought of as a lake) in Maine just across the border from NH.  We only pedaled 17 miles, so we were able to take advantage of a great fall afternoon and kayak on the pond, it was awesome, so peaceful and tranquil.  The next day we headed to Portland, since we were not in a hurry stopped in a East Coast phenomenon "Dunken Donuts" ( they are every where) and met a retired principle and his wife who wished we could spend the night with them and talk more about our trip.  With all the awful things we read and hear about in this world, this reminds us of all the wonderful people out there that we don't hear about.  This weekend we have been hanging out and celebrating with our friends in Portland and even got a kayak paddle in yesterday.  Tomorrow we start the next segment of the trip - south to Florida!

New England, New Hampshire, New Hampton, old friends

We are currently cooling our heels, resting our butts, and generally having a good 'ol time while visiting our friends Barry & Gretchen in New Hampton, NH.  Chris and Barry were on the waterfront staff and lived together in a tent at Boy Scout camp in 1969 and all 4 of us have shared many laughs since then!!!
About 5 days ago we took a small cable ferry from Ticonderoga, NY, across Lake Champlain , to Vermont.  The farms were beautiful, the hills were steep, and some of the roads were in awful condition.  We cranked our way up a big hill and rode through Middlebury College.  It was suddenly quite urban and we had to stop for pedestrians in cross walks.  The next day we rode over "Middlebury Gap" a 1500 foot climb with some steep sections, but it wasn't so bad, and then we cruised, trending downhill for the rest of the day.  We camped at a funky "campground" along the White River that night.  There was no drinking water so Gunga Din (aka, Dora the Explorer) made a water run to a farm about a mile away.  We were the only campers but ther was another couple who were living in an RV for the summer.

Speaking of summer, it is slipping away and lately the mornings have been on one side or the other of 40 degrees.   So....we left our mapped route on Saturday and rode 63 miles to our friends' home.  Our current thinking is that we will head out tomorrow toward Portland, Maine, to visit more friends.  Most likely we will declare success (Portland is on the coast so we will have biked from the Pacific to the Atlantic), skip Bar Harbor, and start biking south.

Our journey continues to amaze and delight, and, as someone almost said, it's not just about the bike!

4000 and climbing

We hit 4000 miles yesterday, wow!!!!  We have also hit fall big time, in one day went from summer to frost and chilly mornings and we have hit the big big hills again.  The Adirondacks have been prepping us for the green and white mountains.  Tomorrow we finish NY at Fort Ticonderoga and take a ferry to Vermont.  Riding through upstate NY has been hilly, with lots of lakes and fall foliage, it brings back memories of childhood and young adulthood when time was spent around Lake George, NY.  Our lodging has been quite variable, warm showers, and fishing lodge as mentioned before, couple nights ago we put our tent up in an old barn with a huge kitchen and rec room on the floor below, great find of a campground.  Last night we stayed in an RV, it was a great opportunity to see if we would ever like to travel in one; I'm not really ready at this time.  Tonight's lodging is at Jellystone campground in North Hudson, their off  season cabin rate was just right.

Making our way across New York

We rode for a day along the Erie Canal...and found that really cool!  Mostly we rode on the towpath, where the horses used to pull the barges.  In some areas the canal was dug into the ground and in others the sides of the canal were embankments so that the water level was above the adjacent land, and sometimes the adjacent streets and homes.  It sorta reminded us of Holland, but we didn't have any chocolate or beer that day!  There were lots of drawbridges and we saw several sailboats with their masts stepped (stowed horizontally) motoring along.

That night we stayed with our second "warm showers" hosts, this time in Rochester.  Brian met us on the trail...riding a fat tire bike!!! And escorted us through the city on a labrinth of trails and streets to their  home.  Brian and Karen are super bikers and super gracious.  After enjoying their hospitality and spending the night, Karen escorted us, via a beautiful route, back to our Adven Cycling bike route.

Other New York adventures have included Nancy's front gears stopped working and visiting a bike shop where they were fixed, pronto; flat tire; camping at a private campground mostly inhabited by seasonal campers (snowbirds); another flat tire in a big windstorm so it was hard to find the puncture; staying at a fishing lodge...that had seen better days...to wait out a storm and discovered that Captain Jack's, across the street, had a Customer Appreciation buffet!!!  All you can eat...as long as you are an omnivore!!! (Nancy had a nice salad).

Great ride today, 63 miles, two hours of rain in the middle and we are camped on the shore of Lake Ontario at a state park near Port Ontario.  Coming up soon: the Adirondacks!!!

Another Road Side Attraction

What a week, we've been in Canada for the past week.  We crossroad over Lake Erie from Marine City MI on a small car ferry to Sombre Ontario.  Sombra is a sleepy tiny town with  1 restaurant, a very small variety store and a great seasonal RV park.  We were kind of the outsiders at the campground there with our little tent amongst the RVs with their porches, barbecue grills and lights, but as in many campgrounds the host found us fascinating or pitiful and  gave us special treatment.  We were provided with lawn chairs for the night and given an RV sight much closer to the bathrooms than a regular tent site.  At another campground the manager suggested we cmp by the pavilion with an awesome view of  Lake Erie, we could use the pavilion lights if we needed to read and camp under it if it started to rain, the regular sites were not nearly as grand!  One day we did have a shocker after biking about 60 miles we got to the campground to find it was closing that day and we were unable to camp there, to our good fortune we we only had to back track about 5 easy miles.  Today was our final day in Canada we ended with a ride through Niagra Falls, it was quite stunning coming from the south on the Canadian side and then Canada has beautiful gardens, preserves, butterflie conservatory and a number of trams and sight seeing boats, we were entertained for about 20 miles of riding, it was also very multicultural with all of the visitors.  We are ending our day camping behind the Widewater drive in restaurant in Lockport NY along the Erie Canal.  When "Marty" bought the place 5 years ago the prevvious owner offered free camping to cyclist, so Marty has contined the tradition.  To support our great host we had a giant order of fries when we got here, a fast food supper with some ice cream to top it off, not our usual healthy dinner, but we wanted to appreciate a great act of kindness.

Across the Thumb

Michigan, they say, looks like a mitten...that is, if you ignore the Upper Penninsula (UP) and you are looking at the palm of your right hand.  Anyways, this is day 10 of biking since we left Chicago and we have crossed the palm, from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, and now we are crossing the thumb which is really a Penninsula sticking into Lake Huron.
Our route continues to offer remarkable variety...corn and soybean and sugar beet fields, rail trails, small towns, and interesting mid-sized towns.  We saw a bear!!! On a rail trail a couple of days ago.  People know they are around but no one we have talked to has ever seen one.  Nancy. Figured they must be around because we have seen so many bear silhouettes as lawn ornaments!
Last night we camped at Jellystone Park in Frankenmuth.  The campground was very nice...we had a "rustic" site which meant we only had 20amp electric service.  The town was a cheesy (IMHO) Barvarian themed town famous for chicken dinners...honestly.  We really enjoyed it.
Today we rode 65 miles and are staying at the Sweet Dreams Motel ($45, including tax) in the town of Yale, population 2000 or so, priceless.
Tomorrow we expect to take a short ride on a small ferry and cross cover to Canada so we can ride along the north shore of Lake Erie; we should return to the states in about a week at Niagra Falls.
The Paul Simon of my youth sang: Cathy, I said as we boarded the Greyhound in Pittsburg, Michigan seems like a dream to me now; it took me 4 days to hitchhike from Saginaw; I've gone to look for America.
And I suppose we have.

We're Back on Route

We're back to our original route and no more plotting routes.  We are currently in Michigan, we crossed Lake Michigan on the ferry from Manitowoc WI to Ludington MI on Friday afternoon.  In general the 5 days we took to get from Chicago to Manitowoc went pretty well, a good bit was on trails, though we did have one memorable day.  It started poorly when it took us 45 minutes to find the trail to get started, it seemed if we could take a wrong turn that day we did.  We had a few tense moments when we cycled through a section on the outskirts of Milwaukee - my first clue was when I went into a convenience store and the cashiere was totally glassed in, shortly after that we encountered 3 young boys with big guns on the trail, we weren't sure whether the guns were real or not, but we rode as fast as we could, no need to dawdle!  We ended up cycling about 64 miles that day.  Tonight we are camped in a city park in the town of Claire, Mi,  we are enjoying the pitter patter of rain on our tent,  dinner was snacks in the tent, the rain started just before we were going to cook dinner, no pavillion or shelter to stay out of the rain.  Our days ride varied with hills and a great stretch of straight away, a total of 69 miles!

On the road again

Day 2 - 48 scenic miles.  Greater Chicago / northeast Illinois has a lot of nature preserves and bike trails but it was challenging for us to string them together...but we did!  Even so, it felt good to get back to Wisconsin (we have good bike maps) and the rolling farmland and many rail trails!  We are getting our bike legs back and it's great to be rolling again!

A Break and Back

We're back.  Since we last wrote we left Wisconsin and entered into IL, met a great bike mechanic/ shop manager who helped navigate a route to Naperville ( burb of  Chicago) fix my brakes and made an incredible dinner for us, we stayed in a quaint Inn in Oregon, IL, witnessed a drug deal on our ride to Naperville and took the train to and back from Denver for a family wedding.  We have been out of the saddle for a little over 2 weeks.  How easy it was to slip back into urban living, my cousin and his wife were our Chicago hosts who really contributed to that easy switch.  I went shopping for wedding duds and Chris borrowed items from a number of family members.  The wedding was great fun, lots of parties, visiting and memorable times.  We stayed an extra couple of days and visited old rugby friends in Grand Junction and Arvada CO and revisited Fort Collins.  Today was our first day back bicycle touring, we didn't leave until this afternoon, rode through a couple of down pours and made it to our destination by 6:30PM - how nice it will be when we get back to our route and don't have to find our routes, today though all worked out well, doing about 3/4 of our ride on rail trails.  Tomorrow we continue north re- entering WI with the goal to reach the mid east edge to cross Lake Michigan

Tales of three angels

For the most part, our adventures are about riding, camping, and the people we meet...here are a fee of our stories: We were riding through rural farmland in minnesota when we saw a tractor pulling a wagon with something really big, a large tree trunk, perhaps? It was coming from a side road out to the road we were on. It pulled out on the road in front of us and it became obvious just what it was: a wagon loaded with manure! (you've heard of 10 pounds of s**t in a 5 pound bag? This was like 10 cubic yards!) As the tractor and wagon bumped along, one wheel on the shoulder, one to the outside, the contents kept falling out. It was about 95 degrees and it smelt like you-know-what. We did not want to pass it and we really didnt want to slow down so I thought of my mother's guardian angel. You see, my mother's guardian angel used to find us parking spaces so i figured she could get this manure wagon to turn off SOON. She did, it turned, and we were on our way on a clean shoulder! Second: our maps indicate places to camp and, occasionlly, "biker only accomodations." At the end of a 70-mile day we rolled into the bicycle bunkhouse and were amazed and overwhelmed. Donn Olson retired from the army and came back to the farm where he grew up. After he realized he was on the Northern Tier bike route and that lots of hot, tired bikers were passing by, he decided to open up his farm to bikers. His facilities continue to evolve but what we found was an Air Conditioned barn with separate bed rooms, frig, microwave, free bread, butter, eggs, jam, and other foods at ridculously low prices. There was a solar shower and photos of all the bikers who stayed there. We saw pictures of several of the folks we had met. Donn is a character and a shining star of our ride. Third: we have left the mapped route and are headed toward Chicago, which means we have to navigate across Wisconson. A bike shop in Stillwater, MN, told us we should go to another bike shop in Hudson, WI, to get Wisconson info. So we went to Art Doyle's shop, told him what we were trying to do, and he was SOOO helpful. He explained WI's geography, then showed us the map set that catagorizes all roads as to their suitability for biking, gave us his viewpoint on routes (he is a go-fast road bike guy while we are loaded tourers), then he gave us the $20 maps as his contribution to our adventure. After we studied the maps and considered alternatives we decided to ride a ways down the Mississippi then do 100 miles of rail trails, 40 miles of road,40 miles of rail trails to Madison...the (maybe) center of American bicycling. FroM there we would figure out how to get to Chicago. Given our decision, Art mapped out the best way to ride out of town to the river...and i mean mapped. He used Map My Ride and printed out the route for us to take with us. Riding, camping, people; some are awesome, some provide a contrast so we can appreciate the rest.

Good Bye ND & MN; Hello Wisonsin

We loved ND, they are at the top of our list for friendliest. People honked, gave us high fives and truckers waved. When were sopped for grocercies someone always struck up a conversation qsking qbout ut trip. Besides friendlyness, the state was really pretty with hills, farms,cattle, valleys and numerous unexpected wetlands. We even saw pelicans! MN was also very beautiful with large acres of farm lands and small towns. One day we decided to disregard the detour signs and precedded forward thinking they would surely stop us if we were not supposed to be there. Not; no one stopped us, it was about 5 miles with big trucks hauling material, loose squirrely dirt and heat & sun penetetrating down; needless to say it was narrly but we made it through even ifwe had to push our bikes at times! Some of the highlights of MN were Pelican Rapids with the largest pelican statue in the world and a very cool pedestrian suspension bridge over a large lake in town; Bowlous & Jordie's Cafe w/incredible pie selection (pieces were several inches high) and air conditioned bathrooms for their city park camping; and then there was Don Olsen's adventure cycling bunk house! Don is retired Army and now lives on the family farm. He converted his old barn into a bunkhouse for cyclist - it too has air conditioning, 3 room with wooden bunks, kitchen area w/microwave indusreial size toaster oven, hotplate, toaster and coffee maker, plus all kinds of snacks, frozen foods at ridiculously low prices and free eggs, butter, milk and jam. He saw a need a number of years ago when some cyclist requested to camp on his farm. His house is right on the root. He also has outdoor solar shower, and outhouse. He gave all of us (2 women we had been trave.ing with also stayed there), a tour of his 100 acre farm in his van. It was quite a wonderful stay. He said he wantedto give back and really enjoyed all the cyclist. He takes everyones pictures and post on the wall, we saw several cyclists we had met earlier who were traveling east to west that had stayed there. Another wonder of our trip!

2000 miles

We've biked over 2000 miles and still having fun thought we would like to include some pictures of ourselves and other cyclists we have met along the way.

Bismarck to Fargo, North Dakota

In four hot days we biked from Bismarck to Fargo...about 250 miles, 3 nights camping, no showers! But we had a lot of fun; seems like we have developed our rythem. We rolled into Fargo yesterday afternoon and experienced a new lodging option: a "warm showers" host! The savy women we have been traveling with are members of the warm showers organization...and now we are, too. So, we offer to host bicycle travelers in our home (when we get back)and in exchange, we can stay at others' homes...if they are available. Last night was awesome. First, there was the big grocery store. It is difficult to overstate how exciting big, air conditioned grocery stores are. Next, our host rolls up on an extracycle and says you must be the folks who are staying at my house tonight. On request, he recommended a Mexican restaurant (one block away & excellent). Then we ride to his house and soak our feet in the pool while visiting with his wife. After showers, laundry, and discussion of route options, and more snacking, we all (the 4 of us, not the hosts) sleep on the floor in air conditioned comfort. This morning they made coffee and pancakes and we were on the road by 7...fat and happy. As for those route options...as some of you know we have a wedding to go to in Denver on August 11 (I think). Our plan is to get close to Chicago, prevail on Nancy's cousin, generous John, to pick us up, and then we are going to take the TRAIN from Chicago to Denver!!! How fun is that?!? We are now thinking we will ride from here to Minneapolis (we have the maps for that) and then strike out across Wisconson heading for Madison. Our host of last night lent us some old Wisconson bike maps, so hey, lets have an adventure! This morning we crossed the Red River and left North Dakota and are now in Minnesota...in the small town of Pelican Rapids, camping in the city park. This campground has showers! We really liked North Dakota...amoung other surprises, there are a lot of wetlands and, hense, a lot of birds! 'til next time, Keep on rolling!

The Heat & New Friends

Chris and i are amazed at how well we have adapted to the heat. We have gone from wet and cold to extreme heat. Initially it was a dry heat but with all the weather we have experienced on this trip, this is not the usual weather pattern. It usually isn't this hot for this long. It is not usually humid in ND from what we have been told. But it has been all of the above. We finished one day and it was close to 100. We try to start early around 6:30 to 7AM and finish by early to mid afternoon. We have been using 80 sunblock to keep the sunburn and sunrash to a miminum. Today we had a reprieve, it was cloudy, headwind and only in the 80s. We rather enjoy a side wind when it is hot because it keeps apus cool as we ride. We are spending the night in Gackle, ND, a town of about 300 people. Last night we were in Napolean, ND and got free ice cream at the grand opening of the credit union. We love camping in these small towns and meeting the people, they are so intestered in our trip and share small town living with us. Last night we camped in the city park, tonight we are in an RV park, the owner said no charge for bicyclist, they love having us. We have really enjoyed the people in MT and ND, they are so friendly. The truck drivers are even friendly, giving us a friendly honk or wave! Besides meeting so many locals we have also met many wonderful other cyclists. Most pedaling faster and farther each day, but a few our pace as well. We have been traveling with 2 women from GA for the past week and half who are on recumbents and also with a couple from Boulder, but they are now ahead, on a tigher schedule than ours. Our mileage range per day has increased from 30 - 60 to 40-70 miles per day. Camping/lodging options and headwinds/tailwinds are the determining factors on when we stop. The headwinds seem to be most frequent, another unusual element this summer, in past winds tended to be more from the west. As with every day, the weather, temperature and winds are what they are and create a new adventure and story each day.

Give me wheat, wides, and whine

Well...we have been busy cycling, camping, eating, sleeping, and getting up and doing it again! We have really been enjoying the plains and the people who live here. At first, we really enjoyed the tail winds (you've heard of westerlies, right?) but they don't always blow in the right direction!!! The morning light on the wheat fields can be so beautiful and the little towns can be so interesting... One afternoon we were hot and tired and had about 12 miles to go to our destination town. There was a pickup truck ahead on the shoulder of the road. As we got close, a guy got out and waved for us to stop. He explained that one of the bulls had escaped and that two of the ranch hands and a dog were tryong to get him into a pasture. He asked us to wait because the bull was ornery and he didn't want him to charge us!?! So we asked him about ranching and in a little while the bull came down the road and the guys and dog got him into the pasture. We continued on our hot way, richer for the experience. We went to a little local bar in a farming town (population 500) and Nancy asked if they had any white wine...sure, what kind do ya want? NF: Savinyon Blanc? Nope, don't have that. We have been camping in town parks which vary widely in how nice they are, shade, proximity to railroad tracks, and condition of bathrooms! Honestly, we have set up our tent within 100 feet of the railroad and had the train go by 5 times during the night!!! Tonight we are in New Salem, North Dakota (population: 946) and tomorrow we head to Bismarck. Hopefully we can catch up with some more stories.

Electric bikes and small town hospitality

Its like riding an electric bike, we have had a great tailwind for the past two days, going up hills at 14mph, its been great. We have been able to ride 60-70 miles, with half the effort we put in 3 days ago. Our good fortunate may turn on us today if the weather forecast is correct, that's OK, we will probably have a short day od biking and get some laundry done before we depart today. Two nights ago we camped in the small town of Chester, MT, population of about 900, mainly farming and service for the other smaller communities in the area. It had a hospital, nursing home, great museum about the area, community swimming pool and all grades for school. The grocery store was small but great selection of items. We had dinner at "Spuds" for a total of $15.00. You could tell people took pride in their town, lots of flower and vegetable gardens, and people out mowing their lawns. They also had a big city park with a new covered pavillion with about 6 or 7 picnic tables and outdoor restroom with running water. The amazing thing was they offered free camping in their park. There were signs telling you where to pitch your tent and what time the sprinklers came on in the morning. It was great and it felt very safe. This trip has provided opportunities to see slices of life that we would not have otherwise. Yesterday was the 4th of July and we stayed in a dorm room of MSU north in Havre, MT. It wasn't splashy but good showers, we went to the community picnic, heard live country & western music & alittle 70s geezer rock, and saw some fireworks from the front door of the dorm. Life on the road is interesting

From the Mountains, to the Praries....

...to the Oceans, white with...oh, hold on, not so fast. I dont really want this to be the chronicles of the misfortunes of nancy & chris but we had some surprises and they were not all good! First, nf's bulge...or, more accurately, her tire's bulge. The bike shop didn't have a suitable replacement tire so we ordered one from Bike Tires Direct in Portland, OR, next day air. Got the tire on tuesday afternoon, put it on, and headed out in the rain. Whitefish was great but we had spent 4 nights there and it was (past?) time to move on. We had a short day. Finally we were off to Glacier National Park! They restrict bike travel on "going to the sun highway" so we zoomed 32 miles by 11 am then snacked, visited, and cruised to our campground. Next morning we were on the road by 6 in order to make the top by 11. First our fingers were frozen so we stopped to put on gloves. Next, nancy sees a bear grazing next to the road. We have alternative stradegies as to how to proceed... Nancy and most of her bike are inside the roadside restroom (and i'm thinking, i'm the one carrying all the food...) when i flag down the first car we have seen for 10 minutes. I ask the lady passenger if they will escort us by driving between us and the bear. She puts down her phone/camera long enough to say yes so we bike along side. The bear goes into the woods as all good bears should. After the car drives away, my behaviorially observant wife says, he (the driver) didn't seem to be that into it. Be that as it may the rest of the climb went fine. It was hard, but not as hard as Washington Pass, the first one we did in the Cascades. However, during the descent, I had a blowout...my tire, that is!!! Some bikers reading this may have heard of people using their brakes too much, the rims heating up, and the tire exploding. Well, I'm here to tell you it can happen and it happened to me! I didn't die, though you probably figured that out. Actually, I was stopped in a scenic overlook when my front tire went BANG!!! (the reason my rim overheated is a bit complicated but if you buy me a beer I'll explain it to you). The tube had a 3 inch split and the tire sidewall seperated from the bead. I tried to fix it with duct tape and I did roll slowly down hill for a couple of miles but it was Battle of the Bulge redux. I hitched a ride to the next campground and tried to identify an address for another new tire to be sent. The details are a bit tedious but eventually, eventually FedEx delivered 2 tires (we thought we should have a spare!) to me care of a grocery store outside of the park. After that, things have been going well. We biked to Canada and went to Waterton Park. We have left the Rockies and are now on the plains, in Cut Bank, MT! We rode 73 miles today! We've met some interesting people and are having a great time. With our spare tire we are assured not to need it!

Battle of the Bulge

We left Sunday morning under beautiful sunny blue skies. After 9 miles of slight headwind, gentle rolling terrain and serene scenery our idealic ride took a change. Chris noted a clicking sound from my bike as we were coming down a hill. No big deal, we stopped, checked the obvious and then saw " the Bulge" on my rear tire, same wheel we had just had replaced. We were 9 miles out, we tried rearranging my load snd letting some air out of the tire, but the weight of riding made the bulge worse, so we started walking back. Several riders stopped, but really could do nothing other than offering verbal support. BUT to our good fortune, one rider came back with his truck after we had walked our bikes 3 1/2 miles and drove us the rest of the way back to Whitefish. We will be off to the bike shop momentarily to hopefully get a replacement tire.

Pit Stop: Whitefish, MT

What a week it has been and what wonders can be accomplished with a credit card! We had some work done on our bikes at ashop in Sandpoint so we thought we were in good shape heading out for Montana... We had some rainy spells and some great campsites and we headed north along the Bull River. We saw a black bear cross the road about 200 feet ahead of us. He just ambled along his way and probably didn't know we were there. Meanwhile I'm noticing that while climbing hills I drop down to first gear sooner (or more often) than expected. Then, while taking a snak break, we see another bear, brown in color, cross the road about 150 feet in front of us. Bears dont see very well but they have a great sense of smell. He was downwind of us and I was eating peanut butter & bread. He paused, sniffed the air, took a step and looked toward us then ambled on his way. We packed up and moved on. Im pretty sure he was a black bear. Nancy was pretty sure she was going to buy bear spray at the next town. That afternoon we made it to Libby, MT, and camped in the city park. NF got bear spray and I counted the teeth on my new cassette (the gears on the rear wheel). Long story, shortish, through miscommunication or malfeasence my 34-11 got replaced with a 32-11 (translation: my lowest gear was not so low any more). AND I had a disconserting clicking while climbing. We met other bikers...we saw awesome country...we sweated...we got wet. We biked up the east side of Lake Koocanusa and camped at an amazing USFS campground with only 2 RVs. It was so quiet...except for the birds and, for a while, the generator of the "camp host." Meanwhile, NFs brakes are getting worse. She had a cable replaced in Sandpoint but now her breaks are going thunk, thunk, or as she says, like catch and release. So eventually we make it to Whitefish, MT...I guess that was yesterday. We get a campsite at the state park and ride into town to visit the bike shop. Do they have a 34-11? Well, they have 4 models to choose from. This is a great bike shop! Whitefish is at the junction of the Northern Tier bike route ( thats us, coast to coast) and the continential divide bike route. They sell me the cassette, install it for free, and remedy the clicking. I figured Nancys breaking issue was a wheel out of true and a decent mechanic could remedy that in a few minutes. Not so. This was more like one mechanic saying to another, hey, have you ever seen this?!? The rim was bulged out and would have to be replaced. And we have 20-inch wheels which are not standard and this was a Friday afternoon. After going through some options with the wise and kind mechanic, Nancy called Bike Friday the folks in Eugene, OR, who manufactured our bikes. After some back and forth and some call backs she arranged for BF to send a new wheel to the bike shop by Fed Ex Express. The mechanic was skeptical, they never get Fed Ex on Saturday...but if it arrives they would call us and get us road ready. The state park was great but the train went by about 5 times during the night about 150 feet from our tent. Today we moved to a hotel, the wheel came in, they changed out the reusable parts, adjusted everything, and charged us $18!!!!! Nancy gave them a tip. This evening there was a thunderstorm. We really enjoyed Whitefish but tomorrow we head to Glacier National Park. Our plan is to have 2 short days then ride over Logan Pass / Going to the Sun highway....the biggest, baddest pass of our route. That is the continential divide and we will be over the rockies and on to the great plains....we'll see.

Across state line

I'm sitting in our tent with light showers, i'm toasty with my down bag on my legs and my down booties on my feet. We have crossed two state lines - WA & ID We did two 60 mile days and made it to Sandpoint last Friday. We stayed with wonderful friends- my good friend Maries brother and sister inlaw - Faye & Mark. F & M rock!!!!! They are the best to stay with, its like going to a fancy inn for the weekend. Faye is an incredible cook and we have gourmet meals each evening. It feels like visiting family. How lucky we are to have such good away friends. One of the interesting aspects besides faye's lawn artwork she creates and mark's craftsmqnship is the dogs. They have two dogs but several neighborhood dogs always there, it seems like doggie daycare, only the dogs self refer themselves. We had 2 good weather days of riding, yesterday was a mixture of sunshine and forboding dark clouds all day. It finally started rainy at dinner and continued through the night. We had a break when we were packing up, but the rains soon returned, i called for a very early quitting day, but the skies lightened up, we had a beautiul stretch of country road and we pedalled to our next campsite on the Bull River this afternoon. I love riding, being outdoors, smelling my our environment, seeing new sites, being in the tent snuggled in my sleeping bag, but i will be happier when summer comes and we have warm weather and sunny skies, the rain and cold are tiring! Snipets: The campground host commented that we were much older than most of the bicyclist that come through here. I guess we can take that as a compliment. Dogs: we had some scary enounters with dogs, i'm practicing the different techniques recommended. It was hard to feel confident when the pair of dogs came out on each side at the same time or the pitbull with full bark and teeth gleeming, luckily they all backed off, must of have been my commanding voice telling them to go home. Those scary incidents occured riding through an Indian Reservation. I think i will try and avoid them when we can.

From the sea...to Sherman

Sherman Pass, that is! Yesterday we went over the fourth and final big pass in Washington. We huffed and puffed up 3000 feet then zoomed down 4000 feet...quite a bit of rain but not too bad over all. The descent was fun, not scary steep, though my hands were getting numb so I had to stop before they stopped working. The best part of the ride down was watching Nancy ahead of me. In addition to her cool color scheme - lime high vis vest, purple wind jacket, and orange paniers (saddle bags) - she is a competent rider and seeing her in the context of the forested mountain road added scale and perspective to the scene. Our map says we have covered about 340 miles of the route since the coast but my bike computer which also tracks our canoodling around to campsites, stores, and the occasional missed turn has us at 380 miles. We are now in Colville, WA, taking a combo rest and weather day. Yesterday after coming down from the pass we crossed Roosevelt Lake which is the part of the Columbia River that is backed up by the Grand Coolee Dam. Yesterday evening there was a big lightening storm (well, big for us) and more was predicted for today so we are taking a day off to recover and we are expecting better conditions tomorrow.

It gets better!

Saturday we left the lovely haven of Methow Valley Inn to conquere our next pass - Loup Loup pass. Skies were gray, slight wind, but we were ready for the challenge. We made it up to the pass in two snd half hours, no rsin and occ shot of sun. A couple of "young" touring cyclist also summitted, but they zoomed past us on the way down. If we had all started at the same time they would have zoomed past us on the way up too. We aren't fast, but steady! We camped at the Stampeded Fairgrounds in Omak WA. The camping was great, parts of Omak may have seen better days in their past though. For the first time on our trip, we woke up to real sunny, warm weather today, what a treat! We had sn ambious day planned but as with all great plans we changed them, our legs and butts were not up for another long pass crossing as we noted while riding this morning. There was no camping noted on our map so we headed to the visitors info center for motel recommendations in Tonasket WA and to our surprise the visitors info center was developing bicycle camping "for free!" behind their building and invited us to stay there, they also shared there was another "bicycle camping" offer up the road as well. We will have to let thefolks know at Adventure Cycling of the updates. This is the best spot for tomorrows climb, we'll hit the climb as soon as we exit town. We met another cyclist and will meet up with him later this afternoon to share stories. This truely is an adventure you never know when you will have a stroke of luck, we've been doing well for the unexpected delights! Just a smidget on Tonasket- it is a combination of cowboys, old hippies, organics,& artists and according to the visitor info person a community that works together. The visitor info center is all volunteere, they host monthly art exhibits by local artisians. This month is woodworking, from what is on show there are a lot of talented community members. The visitor info person has really gone out of her way to make our stay as pleasant as possible. Koodos for Tonasket!

A Simple Twisp of Fate

This blog is not exactly chronological so let me recap a few days...Tuesday started rainy and cold so we took a weather day. Our objective was 5500 foot Washington Pass and if it was rainy where we were, it was snowing up in the pass. North Cascades National Park has long held a fashionation for me but Tuesday was a bit dreary. The trees were massive and mossy but we were wearing all our clothes and were still not exactly toasty! We did succeed in reducing the weight of our food supply, fended off cheeky chipmunks, and took a couple of nice walks in the almost deserted campground. No cell reception. Wednesday we were up early, excited and a bit anxious, and were on the road by 7. We guessed we had about 6000 feet of climbing to do in 33 miles then it would be all down hill to the first town. The first grade was a real grinder and after 45 minutes I was starting to think that maybe we were not in good enough shape for the loads we had. Things eased a bit but it was windy and we had to balance the heat we produced by working so hard, the layers were were wearing, and the heat loss from the wind. I think we saw one car in the first hour. After an hour we started seeing snow along the road. It was wild, raw country. Massive granite cliffs and spires, huge waterfalls, and giant avalanche chutes. In many places it was obvious that it had taken a lot of effort to open up the road in April. We made good progress, took a lot of short breaks, and made it to the top by about 1:30. We had a real sense of accomplishment! The descent was really steep so we took quite a few breaks there as well. We stopped in the first little town (Mazama) to get coffee to warm up then continued to a biker only campground. This nice guy wants to support bicycle touring so he lets bikers camp on his property. He has a new composting toilet and an outdoor shower and a picnic table. We cooked up and ate a big meal and got a good night of sleep. In the morning there was sun on the mountains and frost on the tent. By the time we had eaten and packed up it had warmed up and was just starting to rain. Jim said we could stay in the barn if we wanted but we figured as long as we were packed we should make some forward progress. It poured and we set an all-time distance record for loaded touring, for us: 18 miles! (that would be the shortest distance we have covered in a day). We ended up at a very nice inn in the town of Twisp...so nice we doubted that they would want to take in a couple of dripping, drowned-rat bikers! We were wrong; they were very welcoming. AND, a friend of the innkeeper rescued a couple of bikers off the pass that we had crossed the day before (they were stopped by snow and fog) so we got to meet a couple of experienced, but perhaps not so lucky or patient, bikers. We spent today (friday) exploring the Methow Valley and tomorrow we plan to go over Loup Loup pass. There are two more passes after that but we have the biggest one behind us and the weather is supposed to get better...we'll see!

Rain

Well we know why the Pacific Northwest is so green and vibrant- it gets a lot of rain and we have had first hand experience. Its rained everyday but today since we started. We had a giant pass to ride today (biggest of all 5 passes in this area) and we waited out yesterday for a better forecast - it was cloudy, overcast and definitely not too hot (lots of snow up top to keep us cool), but no rain. We've also learned that it is unseasonabily colder than usual - that does not make me happy, but we love riding and are making the best of it; my silk liner for my sleeping bag is getting nightly usage! As always seeing snd experiencing the environment is one of the many wonders of bicycle travel that we really enjoy. We have another opportunity to see the sights at a slow pace as we climb up loup loup pass tommorow but we only climb 2500 feet before we get to zoom downhill. Today we had about 25 miles of downhill zooming!

Get your (human) motors running...

...head out on the highway, Searching for adventure, In whatever comes your way... What a great day! Anacortes (named for an early settler, Anna Curtis) is a little sea-side town with a history of timber, fishing, but now the state ferry and oil refining are a bigger part of the economy. Reminds us of Seward. We wobbled out of the hotel parking lot, a bit overloaded but well-provisioned; we plan to eat our way to a reasonable load! Soon we were on a bike trail along a misty bay. Costumed riders headed toward a festival in town as we made our way toward the East. A sign warned of bicycle tire hazard from broken shells on the trail. From the looks of the shells and the crab parts I think gulls drop mollusks on the trail and eat the soft parts. After some navigating on back roads we turned onto the highway (Route 20 which we will follow or parallel for the next week or so. BTW, I grew up one block from Rt 20 in Massachusetts; we called it "Westfield Street") and the gentle mist turned to a downpour. We got a bit confused about how to navigate a BIG bridge but we able to consult with some local bikers (on carbon fiber road bikes). So where are you headed? one asked. "Maine". On those?!? We are riding our "Bike Fridays", which have 20-inch wheels and can fold up into a suitcase. They look odd but are good touring bikes. The rain continued on and off, the route left the highway to follow a gravel trail through a wildlife refuge. The Northwest is so green and the flowers, especially the rhododendrums, are so vibrant! We did about 30 miles today and it was pouring as we sloshed into Sedro-Wooley so we grabbed another hotel. Roughing it? Perhaps not. Having a blast? ABSOLUTELY!

The Start

Its day one of the bike adventure! After a week in Seattle getting ready, visiting with family we are at the start of our odyssey. My brother drove us to Antecortis WA today and dropped us off at a motel where we are spending the night. We thought it would be easier to spend a dry evening - it's quiet rainy at the moment! We decided to ride the start this afternoon and continue from out motel tomorrow. It feels good to be starting, but it was sad to say goodbye to family and a little unnerving when my brother drove away with the car. Rain is in the forecast hopefully misty versus downpours!!!

On The Road Again, off again, on again...

Okay, right now we are snug again in the Honda, at a state park just outside of Bend, OR. Rainy and cold today...some parts of town got a bit of snow! Good day to lay low, read, some would say, "shop" (some would say, "stop"), take the Deschutes brewery tour (with adendant tasting), and chech out nearby Sunriver. Central Oregon is beautiful, and though many have told us, man you should have been there in the '80's, we are still impressed. Especially with the geography and recreational opportunities; the weather and, perhaps, the culture suffer by comparison to Fort Collins and Bozeman. To recap a bit, we had a great time in Portland. Eric lined us out for an adventurous, self-guided bike tour to downtown (to REI)then up along the Columbia River to the airport to a bike tire dealer (where we got new tires as well as paniers for the up-coming tour)then back to their place. While visiting my sister, Kim, we took the bus with Vivian to school then another bus up the hill to Oregon Health Sciences (Kim's school) then the TRAM!!! down near the river then a streetcar and finally another bus back to Kim's place. We really like Portland, but you know, nice place to visit.... Tomorrow we will go to Sisters, OR, then back to Seattle. We have some prep work to do but we have the maps, we have the tires, so in about a week we will make our way to Anacortes, WA, and start peddling to the East Coast.

Fortunate Fun

Its my turn to write and I have been tardy! We have been having so much fun visiting for the past 2 weeks it has been hard to find the motivation to sit down write. Last week we spent in Bozeman MT. We drove through a snow storm to get there and left in a spring snow storm but in between the weather had been getting better and better, low 80's the day before we left. We thought we would spend 3 days but ended up staying 5 because of all the recreational opportunities. We went biking or hiking each day with either my brother or sister inlaw and even fitted in a Yoga class! We also celebrated my 60th upcoming birthday early, a couple of times as well! Needless to say we really enjoyed getting to experience Bozeman. Currently we are in Portland, enjoying the benefits and offering of a vibrant, happening city, staying with friends we know from Anchorage. We will stay in Portland till the end of the week with Chris's sister and her family. We feel so fortunate to have the time to do things with our families and friends.

On the Road Again

Sunny FC

We liked Fort Collins! It was sunny, hot and extremely bike friendly! We got a map of the city and a bicycle map the first day in town and did a major ride the following day riding all over town using our map for bike trails and bike lanes. It is a very bike friendly community something that really appeals to us. Many people have commented on on how crowded FC is, but we didn't seem to mind. Another highlight of the trip was touring the New Belgium brewery. It was quite the tour - 90 minutes and numerous generous beer tasting stops, we were glad we wear riding our bikes back to our campspot!!! New belgium brewery is very focused in using renewable energy sources and their ingenuity was explained during the tour. We also had the great opportunity to visit with our neice and nephew who are attending CSU, they were awesome snd just a real treat to visit with them. Hooray for family visits! FC is definitely in the running for second home options! We headed to Bozeman,MT for our next Adventure.........

New Mexico, new adventures

After Silver City we drove to Gila (as in monster) and visited a very interesting friend of a friend, a former nurse who grows and processes herbs and makes botanicals such as ointments, salves, and teas. She had quanset hut-type greenhouses, a straw bale drying shed, an irrigation canal, and lots and lots of plants. I was surprised to learn that the last frost could be as late as May 15 and the first frost in early October. She was at something like 7000f feet. We then beat feet (or is that beet feet?) to Alamagordo then on to Weed. Our Anchorage friends are classic snowbirds and have built a beautiful, relatively simple, elegant, small house in ranching country. We had a wonderful time learning about the area, meeting their friends, soaking in the high desert, and visiting. After they bought their property they had soil conservation and forestry people come by to offer advice; the clear message was to cut down 80% of the trees! By thinning out most of the junipers and pines, the ones that remain have a chance to thrive. And the grasses have a chance to grow. I guess that took about 3 years and their land is much more open than the adjacent unmanaged Forest Service land. Next step: bring on the cattle. Our friends let their neighbor graze cattle on the land and the cattle break up the soil, poop, and nibble the grass; all of which are good! We visited the cattle ranch and saw the one-day old calf... And we saw that cute little guy get kicked in the head when he tried to nurse from the wrong cow! While we were focused on that drama Nancy THOUGHT a bug landed on the back of her knee, so she swatted it. Turns out it was actually another calf that was checking out Nancy and the swat caused another bovine comotion! It's not all pastoral tranquility in the farmyard! After a couple of days we headed north, camped in Las Vegas, NM, then continued to Denver. We have visited with old rugby friends of nancy, walked through the quaint downtown of Golden, and took an awesome bike ride through the extensive bike trails of the greater Denver area. Tomorrowowe head to Fort Collins. Happy trails!

A Forgotten Thought

We've stopped for cats sitting in the road, carribou on the loose, slowed down for free range cattle, been on the lookout for deer, but stopping for pigs was a first. As we were on our way to Silver City a mamma and her 3 pigglets scurried across the road without caution. Thank goodness they safely make it across the road and not ended up in someon's frying pan!

High Dessert Potentials or Not

Our drive through east central AZ was an unexpected bonus, even the nonscenic routes were incredibly scenic, plus we have a new area to add to our potential 2nd residency - Show Low, lakeside & Pinetop AZ. We chose that route because i once looked at VA job opening. High dessert, pines, junipers, LOTs of lakes for kayaking and a very friendly bike shop and visitor center. Mountain and road biking options were numerous. We were headed toward Silver City NM, it was touted as a grt small city, artsy, mountain and rode biking potential and hot sunny weather. What more could a retiree ask for. Well on first blush, it was not!!! We arrived at dinner time, the scenery was scrubby, with some dessert bushes and tree, kind looked runned down and too much traffic. We navigated to an RV park close to the down town area and rented a cabin for 2 nights. Nothing to get excited about, but clean and met our needs. The next morning we drove toward out of town for an oil change and the underimpression did not improve, BUT after lunch we walked the 5 blocks to downtown and visited the bike shop, then the yarn shop and then moseed around the downtown visiting and talking to shop and gallery owners, as well as a few locals who recognized us as visitiors. The general theme, Silver City has a real sense of community, living in the downtown or close University seems to be the desirable location, active or people with stimulated minds are drawn here and it is very artsy with numerous galleries. Aestetically it still underwhelmes me, but there is something catchy here. Today off to Gilia, which is up the road to visit woman who makes her own botanicals and then we drive to Weed,AZ to visit a friend.

Basin and Range and beyond

...or, it's a long way from Winnemucca... Nevada was grand, but not as warm as we had hoped. We headed south along a flat basin and then east over a series of mountain ranges that were separated by the intervening basins. Route 50, the so-called loneliest highway, is an established, if demanding, bicycle route. There are long stretches between water. We are really enjoying driving along and thinking what it would be like if we were biking the same route. I think route 50 would be more fun if someone was carrying our camping gear! We re-supplied in Ely, NV, and stopped for the night in a state park. There was a lake with lots of ducks and some families fishing from shore. We took a hike before dinner. Beautiful campsite but when the sun went down it was cold. In the morning we packed up and moved on to Great Basin National Park and had breakfast in the sun when things warmed up. But the problem was...things never really warmed up enough! It could be said that Ididn't do my homework, but, as i like to say, if you know how it's going to turn out, it's not really an adventure! GBNP was almost empty. Its claims to fame are Lehman Cave and a 13,000 foot mountain, neither of which exude warmth! We did a cave tour and it was very interesting, almost fabulous, in a stalagtite and stalagmite kind of way. Later at our campsite we saw a couple of turkeys. We were at 7,500 feet so it was another cold night. Next stop, Capitol Reef National Park. We finally hit the jackpot! The place was amazing. There is a huge up-lifted, well, cliff. Think one half of the grand canyon. And it was warm. We biked the 20-mile scenic drive, hiked in the early morning, saw deer in the pastures with the hourses, and met some folks who had just met and spent a few days with our neighbors who were in Zion NP. Did i mention it was warm? No cell phone coverage but the place was fabulous. Funny thing, these parks seem to be populated with recently retired people!!! After a couple of days we drove down to Lake Powell (glen canyon). The scenery just knocked our socks off! Especially in the morning light. We camped at Bullfrog Basin last night, in fact we slept in the Honda, which was great. We could watch the (almost) new moon set out the back window. And it was warm. This morning we went for a bike ride then we packed up and took a ferry across the lake. Utah surprised and impressed us! We had been to Arches and Zion and the Grand Canyon on previous trips but there is so much to see...I guess we will have to come back! Whizzing through Arizona and on our way to NM!

Idiot Wind

Just a quick note about an episode a couple of days ago... We drove about an hour across rolling hills of high scrublands, dark skies, light rain, and random basalt outcropings. It was sureal and playing in my head was Bob Dylan...Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull, from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol... And then we visited the dam and it was grand! Tonight we are in a budget motel in Winnemucca, NV. Basin and range country.

High Dessert Cruising

We've made it to Nevada. Since our last post we have woken up to rain, driven through gray skies and stayed in a cozy cabin in the moutains in north eastern Oregon. It seemed a great comprise to camping in the snow, rain and cold. We drove out of Oregon today, over several mountain passes and the awesome high dessert region of Eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The scenery was stunning with rolling hills, geological outcroppings and mountains in the distance. It wasn't designated as a scenic byway, but it was in our eyes. I love having the opportnity to see so many small towns and communities. Tomorrow we head south and then east to spend a few days at the Great Basin National Park in Baker NV. It is very close to the Utah border. We're looking forward to staying put for a couple of days and doing some hiking and biking and waking up in our tent in warm, sunny weather!

The best of in-tent shuns

Well I'm sitting in the dark, in the tent, and NF is wrestling with her sleeping bag & pad...but she took a time out to help me navigate to the blog editor. Sound trivial? HA...it was not! Today (Sun 4/15)we crossed back into the US at some place that sounds like Orville...in Washington. It's in the Okanoggin Valley (thats not the real name but the map is in the car). There were wall to wall vineyards and orchards, all pretty naked still but an impressive expanse of agriculture! We tootled south for a while then set off to explore the Methow Valley. That was an interesting mix of outdoor rec tourists and, again, agriculture. Some friends are thinking of getting a place there but I would consider it a nice place to visit. We are not too far from the Grand Colee Dam, so we found a State Park and are camping here for the night. actually we are right next to the Chief Joseph dam. When i was but a wee lad i had a collection of Indian pictures from cereal boxes and chief joseph was one of them. Perhaps tomorrow i'll find out more about him. We had a super supper tonight, cooked on our little stove and now it's great to be in our little tent! Till nest time, C

Cassiar highway

The Cassiar Highway rocks! First time i have driven it - what an adventure it is with its twists & turns, stomach dropping hills, lack of shoulders & steep drops. You never knew what was around the next bend! The remoteness and awesome scenery made it such an interesting drive. Yesterday we took a detour from our route and drove to Stewart BC & Hyder AK. The first time down the road to Stewart was quite anxiety producing with its narrowness, curves, avalanche warnings every several miles, remments of big slides, fog and lots of snow on the sides. Stewart is a coastal town, misty and rainy, 36 miles from the main road. Reminded us both of Valdez with all their snow (make anchorages snowfall seem small) and Seward but smaller without the fishing. It is an old town with many buildings still standing from the 1800s. We stayed in this grt Inn with an incredible view of the estuary from our room and a sitting room with an even larger view with a gas fireplace to warm it up. Sipping champgne in the sitting room felt very decadent. We took a bike ride in the mist to stretch our legs and see the town, afterwards we took advantage of their dry sauna to vwarm up. All in all we felt like we were on a plush vacation - doesn't take a lot for us to feel that way!!!! Hyder is just 2 miles down the road from Stewart. Now Hyder on the other hand to be perfectly blunt was a dump. Stewart's roads were paved, but as soon as u cross the boarder, muddy with giant potholes. The houses looked like they were falling apart and pieced together. Not sure what Keeps hyder going, it felt like being on the other side of the tracks. Today we made it to Prince George; as the drive progressed i realized we were leaving the long stretches between communities and sparse cars on the roadway and are now back in the mainstream - cars passing and driving through communities every 30-40 miles. I will miss the peacefulness of having the road to ourselves, but every mile we are nearer to warmer temperatures and getting away from the snow!!! If u see any misspelling or puncuation errors plz feel free to correct in your head, we want to have fun writing and not worrying about the small things!

Day Three

Another amazing day on the road! Spring is coming to the Yukon Territory but the vestiges of winter are hanging on. At times we were driving east through a valley and on our left the mountains were bare while on our right the north-facing mountainsides were still buried in snow. We started the day in Haines Junction on a segment of the Alcan that we last drove in 1991. Most of the old steel truss riveted bridges have been replaced by pier supported concrete structures. The Alaska-Canadian highway (Alcan) was hastily constructed in 1943 & 1944 and they have been improving it ever since. Toward the end of the day we turned on to the Cassiar highway...sort of an alternate, more rustic, somewhat shorter route. We are comfortably slipping into road trip mode; motel tonight in Dease Lake, British Columbia. The tent wil wait for warmer weather!

The start

Our adventure started a bit later than planned, with one false start(we realized we didn't have the camera at the end of our road). We were on our way, midnite Easter. We missed Easter dinner but had it for breakfast at at our good friends Mercy & Elliott's house where we spent the night. Monday involved last minute errands and we were off by noon. We made it to Tok for dinner at Kathy and Dave's place (Chris' prior boss). Tuesday involved visiting with Tok buddies, destudding the tires, and on the road. We are overnighting in Haines Junction, Yukon with an awesome view of the mountains. It still feels like winter so we are not in our tent yet!!!!