June 29 Sandpoint, ID to Thompson Falls, MT 88.3 miles

What a gorgeous day! This was one of the prettiest rides I have ever done: beautiful forested hills and water almost the entire way. We started out after our breakfast at the high school where we camped and soon entered an area described as “Moose area- really!” I didn’t see one but Rosie did and she has the picture to prove it. Check her blog if you want to see it. Rosie must be pretty good at spotting game because later on while I was riding with her, we came accross a coyote trotting down the road ahead of us. He seemed curious as to what we were- maybe he’d never seen bikes before. Unfortunately, before we could get a picture, some cars came along and scared him away. We rode along the Pend Orielle lake, which is huge, for what seemed like miles. It is the remains of the glaciers that covered this area during the last ice age. Today was a very hot day but our team took great care of us with lots of water stops. It should be equally as hot tomorrow so I plan a very early start as we ride 101 miles to Missoula. We left Idaho and entered Montana today and now we are on Mountain standard time.

I had a wonderful surprise today. Marge and Mac Mcdonald drove 70 miles down here from their cabin at Flathead Lake just to take me to dinner! Is that great or what! it was so nice to see their familiar faces and to talk for a while. We saw 2 deer on the way back from dinner.

June 28: Spokane, WA-Sandpoint, ID 77.5 miles

Well, we finally reached a new state today– IDAHO! We got up, packed up, and hit the road while it was still cool but the day was a hot one and it was 86 degrees by the time I reached Sandpoint. And the temperature went up to 89 within 90 minutes after our arrival. One of our first sights was gas for less than $4 a gallon- had to take a picture to document it! Today’s ride was gorgeous, past many beautiful lakes, through lightly rolling and forested countryside. It was nice to see all the water, although I wished I could stop to swim for a while. The thought of riding on in soaking wet bike shorts was enough to stop me, however. Our lunch stop was in the town of Newport where they were having a parade. I just missed getting a shot of the bagpipers but there were also plenty of old cars parading as well as every emergency vehicle within 50 miles, all showing off their various sirens and tossing the kids candy. I got a shot of Roseanne and Tracy, and Rosie took one of me, too. That’s me trying to hitch a ride into Sandpoint. No takers though so I did the ride anyway. As we got closer to Sandpoint, I started noticing lots of Osprey nests on top of poles, as well as other birds. I’m going to have to ask Janet, our resident bird expert, what it was that I saw however. I also passed the sign welcoming us to Idaho. Its nice to know we have crossed Washington and entered a new state. And tomrrow we’ll be into Montana. Its very pretty here in Sandpoint and we are staying in a  pretty, wooded area next to the high school that Daniel says is called “Sherwood Forest”. Since its so hot, its really nice to have the shade. The next 2 days are forecast to have record high temps..sigh… so we are getting up early to make an early start and ride as far as we can while its still relatively cool outside.

Rest Day- Spokane, WA: 0 miles!

Yay, we had our first rest day today and it was fun to see everyone taking it easy and resting. 8 of us walked down to a restaurant for breakfast where we ordered the breakfast buffet. I don’t think they made much money from us! Then Janet and I took Joe to REI for his first visit there! We couldn’t  believe he has never been to REI before. On the way back, I checked a bike shop (Wheel Spokes, close to campus on Division) for a better seat bag for my bike but no luck. Quite a few other folks dropped some bucks there later on, with new saddles being the most popular item. After doing another load of laundry– its free here in the dorm and everyone has been taking advantage, I walked down to the riverfront to see the fair they had set up for Hoopsfest. This is a 3-on-3 high school basketball tournament that is running this weekend. I think someone said there are 18k basketball players here! It was great to have a day to rest- I even took a nap in the afternoon. By the way, some of us are getting some very interesting tan lines. Check out the tan on Samuel’s face from his helmet vents! Thanks for all the encouraging notes, everyone. We are off to Sandpoint in the morning!

Day 4: Odessa to Spokane 78 miles

And by the way, I didn’t count my trip to REI in Spokane in the 78 miles! Today started out very nice and cool, with the scenery much the same as yesterday. I rode with Janet, Samuel, and Diana for 30 miles or so. Janet must know every bird and animal in this area so traveling with her, I get to see things I would have missed otherwise. I noticed that a few of our more novice riders, like James, were riding very strong this morning! Way to go James! He has accomplished so much in preparing for this ride- lost over 50 lbs and quit smoking- whew! Later, we caught up with Pauline and Ash so I rode a bit with Pauline and got to know her a bit. At the 50 mile mark, I stopped for more cold water and learned that there is another group doing part of the same route we are doing. They are taking 60 days to go from Seattle to Maine and are staying in the same Gonzaga dorms as we are tonite. After the 50 mile break, I rode with Tracey. She just started riding again after stopping to have kids and claims that until January, she was only an occasional exerciser but I am having trouble believing her– she looks great on the bike and has great form. She chose this trip as her 50th birthday celebration and we’ll celebrate it with her later on. One of the first things we saw was the road blocked off while fire fighters hosed off from an RV that burned to the ground. We rode into Spokane and found the dorm at Gonzaga, then unloaded the truck. Its quite a job to unload a truck for 39 riders, I found. Made me wonder what it must be like for Cycle Oregon with 2000 riders! Then I took off for REI. I had origonally planned to go there for a hard-sided case for my laptop but Daniel told me that people are storing their laptops in the cab of the truck so as not to get them crushed in a suitcase. FUTURE RIDERS TAKE NOTE! Either find out if you can store your laptop in the truck (or safely somewhere else) or get a hard-shell case for it. It just doesn’t work out in a duffel. I still got to spend money at REI since I needed a new jersey since the team ones we ordered for this trip are too small for me. And I am going to buy Diana’s Pearl Izumi ultra sensor shorts from her since she doesn’t like the way they fit so now I’ll be all set! I’ll either sell the team shorts/jersey to someone else or ship them home with my cold weather gear when the time comes. It is so great to have a rest day tomorrow and have the chance to get a bit more organized. Also, there is FREE LAUNDRY here– all we need to do is get our own soap. This is very exciting to us travelling cyclists.

Well, everyone, thanks so much for your encouraging notes. They mean alot. I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity. This is truely the trip of a lifetime.

Day 3: Vantage to Odessa 84.5 miles

Before I tell you about our ride yesterday, I have to tell you about dinner the night before. First of all, its VERY VERY VERY windy in Vantage and the place where we had dinner and breakfast the next day is called appropriately enough, “Blustery’s”. The gentleman that owns the place has cooked for Cycle Oregon so he knows how to cook for cyclists. He made us Shrimp Alfredo, salad, and some lemon bars for dinner. The next day we had eggs, sausage, bacon, and ham with all the fixin’s waiting for us. YUM. Then, we crossed a bridge over the Colombia River enmasse because the road is narrow there. We got to take up one lane on I-90 to do it. Then we climbed up a long hill to the Wild Horse statue. I got a shot of Daniel Sheret our wonderful trip leader as he encouraged us up the hill. This was a mentally tough day for me. The scenery for the most part was pretty boring and it was hot, hot, hot. I was worried about getting dehydrated so I was extra careful to stop at all the water stations and keep drinking. As I got into the last 20 miles, I started to ride harder and started passing those folks who had blown by me and the water stations earlier. Finally at about 10 miles to go when I was pretty hot and miserable, I met up with Steve and Joe, who was trying to figure out why his bike was making a noise. Sure didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his bike and it certainly can go pretty fast! Steve is a rower in college so we started yakking about rowing and before I knew it, the last 10 miles was past and we were at camp. But first, we went out for lunch. I had a GREAT cheeseburger, rings, and a salad and would you believe it, the cost was only $5! Some women from the town cooked us a great dinner and this moring cooked an even more excellent breakfast. We stayed at the high school in Odessa and it was the first night for us where the wind or freeway noise didn’t keep us awake. I got a great night’s sleep.

Day 2: Easton to Vantage 72 miles

We started off the day with someone imitating a rooster to get the slugs out of bed. I was already up because I am used to getting up at 4am so when it starts getting light, I wake up. Plus I was pretty excited about our second day on the ride. Our days start out with the crew and some of the riders making breakfast. Good coffee which I apppreciate and then oatmeal, boiled eggs, bagels, and cream cheese. We’ve already made our sandwiches the night before and I owe Diana a thank you as she made me mine since she had kitchen duty. Then Daniel hands out the cue sheets for the day and gives us a brief about what to expect. After that, its up to us to get ourselves to the next campsite. Today’s route was MUCH easier to follow and we had a few Dan Henrys (marks on the road) which made it nice. Still, Diana and I were very careful to follow the directions so as not to get off route like we did yesterday. Today we followed a river canyon for quite a while that was just beautiful. After a break in Ellensburg, we headed over a hill toward Vantage. I passed the Wild Horse Wind Facility and tried to get a good photo. Looking back, there was a great view of Ranier, at least, I think it was Ranier. There was some discussion it was Adams. At any rate, it was nice to look at. After cresting the hill, we got our reward: a screaming 10 mile downhill into Vantage wehre we camp tonite in an RV Campground. Everyone traveling with technology is excited. We can catch up on our blogs and charge everything. Whew!

Day 1: Seattle to Easton, 95 miles

On the road, finally! I can’t believe it. I”m actually writing this from our Day 2 camp but wanted to let you know how day 1 went. The best part was my wonderful, supportive family who came to Seattle to see me off. Thanks Mom, Dad, Joni (for taking a day off work and for driving my car back to Portland), Lynne, and Gary (who also took a day off work). We got to the start a bit early and ate our breakfast in the parking lot waiting for the truck to show up and take the gear.  Slowly, people started showing up. I got excited to see Diana, with whom I have trained for this event. And it was great to finally meet in person all the people with whom I have only spoken via internet for so long. Once everyone had arrived, we had a ceremonial presentation of a giant check representing the funds that we’ve collected. Then Daniel handed out the cue sheets for the day and we were off! It was pretty emotional for me kissing my family goodbye so I did that quickly and hit the road with Diana and her brother Mike who is a racer. He and her other brother Pat rode about 20 miles with us and knew the direction we were going. So that made things very easy for Diana and I to start but then once they left, we immediately lost the course and ended up 10 miles from where we wanted to be! This was Diana, Clifford, and I riding together. We called Daniel who directed us to return to Marymoor Park which was where we got off-course but we nixed that as it would have added 20 miles to our day, making it over a century. Instead, we rode I-90 until we could rejoin the course. Sharon helped us out by pointing out where we could get back on track. Whew! The nice thing about being off course was that the route was beautiful, along the lake. This was a great day but long. Riding I-90 quite a ways. At one point, they were washing the road and had the shoulder taken and the road closed to 1-lane. This forced us to detour around the washing equipment but when we got back on the shoulder, it was a disgusting mud pit and now my previously clean bike is disgusting. Oh well. We camped at Lake Easton State Park in a group area. Some of last year’s big ride participants provided dinner– first beer and sodas, chips and veggies with dip. Dinner was chicken or beef sausages, pasta salad with basil (yum!) and green salad. Plus desert which I was too full to eat! This campsite was just about on top of I-90 so while its lovely, its also noisy and very hard to sleep.

The Pioneer Century– Sat 6/7 102.5 miles

Diana Taylor-Williams (on the left in the photo) and I met up last Saturday for a great century– this was the Pioneer Century and it was actually 102.5 miles–yee HAW! Nothing like a few bonus miles after you’ve already done 100. Still, its training we need and since our longest day will be 112 when we go from Sheridan to Gillette, WY, it should help the cause. This ride featured great food at the rest stops and lunch was super: veggie or chicken fajitas AND live music? Plus the Nuun folks were there giving free refills but since I was familiar with their product, I got a free water bottle with my refill. This was the first ride after my bike’s tune-up and it rode great- certainly shifts much better now.