Day 10, Missoula to Avon 98 miles. Pie City

Best: Pie from the Avon Cafe for dinner.  You can eat as much as you want

Worst: Karolina had to be sagged after the first rest stop because her knee is really hurting.

Most Unexpected: A butterfly ran into the rider ahead of me, smashed into my chest and then flew past the rider behind who said it was still alive.  Montana butterflys are tough.

We left Missoula late at 7:30 because the cafeteria didn't open until 7:00.  Karolina had trouble with her knee for the last couple of days and decided to try todays ride, but ended up getting in the van at the first checkpoint at 20 miles.  We typically ride about 20 miles to first checkpoint to get water and some snacke, mile 40 for lunch, mile 60 for snacks and water, and potentially at mile 80 like today. WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO INFORM YOU THAT IT JUST STARTED POURING OUTSIDE.  

The ride was once again beautiful and full of special events.  The first picture shows just a bicycle with some trees.  Guess what the biker is doing.

I rode mostly with Kevin and Jenn who have been nice enough to stay with me.  They are a strong riding couple who really push me.  I really think they just want to kill me by exploding my heart.  

Our lunch stop was at my favorite cow.  The cow is still the same after two years and hasn't moved. 

We climbed in elevation today getting ready for going over the continental divide tomorrow.  There were numerous rollers as well to tax the legs. At one point a lovely driver with passengers thought it would be fun to throws firecrackers at us.  Unfortunately, about a mile ahead, all traffic was stopped for construction so we had the opportunity to let the car passengers know that it wasn't cool to throw things. 

This really was a site seeing day and the pictures below prove it.  We saw a kayak running course on a river and if you look at one of the pictures of the river you will see a finish sign. We stopped at the Avon cafe for milk shakes (chocolate malt for me, and then rode the final 2 miles to our sleeping spot for the night at a religious retreat.  I hope I don't get hit by lightning tonight.  Dinner tonight was by the Avon cafe and was salmon with as much pie as you could eat, cherry, blueberry, banana creme, lemon meringue, apple, chocolate cream and carrot cake.  There was a pie eating contest between Kenny and Anita, and Anita destroyed Kenny.  It was eating a piece of pie for time, and I think Anita must have a built in Hoover. I told the ladies from the Avon cafe that I would put their picture on my blog and here it is.

Mosquitos are looking for fresh meat at this camping spot, so I am inside in a room.  Cellular reception is lousy so this post may not make it on the day it was written.  I can only do so much.  

Day 9, Missoula rest day, 0.03489 miles

Best:  Ice cream sundae at the Big Dipper

Worst: Riding the bike without bike shorts

Most unexpected:  Finding a brewery and having a brewski.

We woke up early and headed out for breakfast at the diner formerly know as Food for Thought.  The new diner, whose name I won't mention because they will be out of business before anyone reading this blog vists, didn't open until 8:00 so we went to Buttercups where I had an everything bagel with lox spread.  Back to the dorm for cleaning the bike.

The white board is up giving the details for tomorrows ride.  This happens every night before the next days ride and gives us weather conditions, and schedule.

While waiting to get going to REI, I just had to hike up the the Big Dipper for an ice cream sundae including Huckleberry ice cream and maple walnut, then across the street to the bike store to buy a new t-shirt, all before 11:00.  Ice cream ages fast during the day so I had to get mine fresh.

We set off to REI so I could buy the riders more drink mix and I got carded. The Missoula store required a call to my store in Mountain View to confirm employment, and while I am obviously not working there, my employment runs to June 28th.  After passing scrutiny, we went back to the dorm.

I then rode into town to Adventure cycling where I got my picture taken and put on the wall of riders crossing the country.  I don't feel special anymore when you see all of the pictures, and most of them are riding with all of their stuff on their bicycle. I was wearing the Marich chocolate hat, but it doesn't really show.  I suspect they will now stop sending chocolate as a result.

I crusied the streets of downtown MIssoula on foot and went to Broadway bagel for another bagel with artichoke spread.  It was delicious, but of course it was also my second bagel of the day.  So lets recap my eating today,  Bagel for breakfast, Ice cream sundae for first lunch, bagel and spread for second lunch, and I am awaiting a slice of pizza to call it a day.  Heathly eating at its best. 

I found a distillery downtown but didn't partake, and a brewery on this side of the river where I did partake with Charles.

In between the alcohol draws, I did revisit the Boone and Crockett club famous as being started by Teddy Roosevelt and the start of the preservation of parks.  Of course the reason they wanted the preservation was so they could kill the animals and nobody else could.  The shot below is the first thing you see when you enter the club.

Here is another dead thing after you get past the bare,bear butt.

I am tired on my rest day.  I think I screwed up.  Here are a few more pictures.

Day 8, Thompson Falls to Missoula, 103 miles First century ride of thetrip

Best: Best nights sleep of the trip last night

Worst: Sprinklers came on last night wiping out the outside campers

Most Unexpected: Seeing plane fuselages on a train.

Last night I had a choice of where to sleep, in the gymnasium or outside in my tent on the grass.  I chose the gymnasium, and then moved to a dark hallway when I felt the gym was a little stuffy.  Brilliant move as it turned out.  The lights in the gym never went out all night, and even worse, the sprinklers went off and soaked the outside sleepers.  One sprinkler came up in Lynn and Charlton's vestibule of  their tent, and another tents vent was exactly in line with a sprinklers throw.  This made one of the riders (unnamed for privacy concerns) day even worse.  He had gone down to use the bathroom in the dungeon of the school previously, did his business, and then discovered there was no toilet paper.  Enough said.

For breakfast we had to again bike back to town adding 1.5 miles to the total shown above, and then we got going an hour earlier than yesterday due to the time zone change. 

Great city motto on the sign below.  Good thing we weren't from the east.

We chased the sun as it slowly rose into the azure sky as the dawn slowly matured.  (This last sentence was required to raise the IQ of the reader above the 85 level I usually write.)  It was not as cold as the previous morning and the temperature stayed reasonable for most of the ride.  It did get in the 80's by the end however.  Once again a lot of beautiful scenery.  The shoulders were narrow in places and of course to make it even better, chatter bars line the edge of the road.  These are the depresseions in the pavement that make your teeth rattle in a car, and make the teeth fall out if you are on a bicycle. Logger trucks give absolutely no quarter on the road and will get right on the shoulder stripe if they think you are a possible target.  

We drove through paradise (the town of) today but unfortunately we didn't get to stay.  Shortly therafter we saw a train carrying Boeing 737 fuselages to Redmond to grow wings at that location.  How do I know this you might ask?  I was riding with Jen who just happens to work for Boeing.  The planes were painted an ugly green and I would have thought they were going to the dump, but apparantly they are scheduled to carry you in the future.  Good luck with that. 

We ran into some construction and had to platoon through it with Lynn protecting our rear in her van.  She really didn't need to protect my rear because nobody is going to want it after riding 103 miles.

Most of the ride was fairly flat with some minor fluctuations.  We had a bit of headwind, but nothing I couldn't handle (tucking behind a bigger rider). Towards the end of the ride we had a 4.5 mile climb followed by a descent to the outskirts of Missoula.  Checked into the dorm, and a lady who works here recognized me from two years ago when I previously did this ride.  I can't remember what I did that made her remember me which really has me worried. 

Dinner was at the cafeteria and the main course was .....................CHICKEN.  Fortunately they had other choices such as hamburgers, pizza, salad, etc, and I loaded up on the Berry Cobbler with a super heavy dose of whipping cream.  Terry and I are sharing a room in the dorm.  Terry is a male in case you were wondering. More pictures below. Check out the double stuffed oreo cow.

Day 7, Sandpoint to Thompson Falls Montana, 87 miles of tiredness

Best: Incredible views around the Pend Oreille Lake

Worst:  Having to ride back into town to eat dinner after already killing my posterior for the day.

Most Unexpected:  Getting welcomed to Montana within a mile of the border.

The usual morning send off with coldness in the air.  This would chnage by the end of the ride.  The first part of the ride had incredible landscape with the second part only being great.  Nothing unusual happened as we rode in shifting groups, and kept stopping to try to get the perfect shot.  We crossed into Montana and were greeted by a driver who honked his horn in greeting.  Then after he passed us he yelled a warning to us concerning a leftover from an ice hockey game.  What he said was get the puck off the road, then proceeded to indicate we were number one with his finger.  I felt well greeted.  

We saw a moose in the river that looked like a log except it moved.  We lost an hour of time crossing into Montana which means we go to bed at 7:30 at night and wake up at 3:30 PST.  

The first picture below is for the REI group.  Notice the bike that is being ridden across the country wilth all of the usual road bikes.  Somehow it seems to move amazingly well.

Day 6, Spokane to Sandpoint Idaho. Feckin Awesome 76 miles

Best: Pie at lunch (more below on this)

Worst:  Stopping at Albeni falls dam and finding the falls are no more.

Most Unexpected:  The oldest and youngest riders rode together for most of the ride. I was one of them.  Guess which one.

Waking up and putting on the lycra is the hardest part of this trip.  I did just that and headed to breakfast at the Gonzaga food cafeteria and then headed out of Spokane.  We actually rode as a group, all 12 of us, as we left the City.  It gave me chills to see us all together.  Eventually outside of the City we hit a hill that Terry wanted to ride up to get pie and see a view that he had done yesterday, and 6 riders left the group.  3 riders turned around once they realized they were going to add 7 miles to the ride.  Here is where my pie strategy came into play.

Last night we had pie from the place at the top of the hill.  I knew that all of it had not been consumed and therefore the remainder small piece would be put out for lunch.  I figured if I could get to the lunch spot early, the pie would be waiting for me instead of having to ride 3.5 miles up the hill and 3.5 miles back.  With the three fastest riders going up the hill, I figures I could get to lunch at the front of the pack and Becka and I rode together into lunch (one is the oldest and one is the youngest). Sure enough the pie was waiting for me.  

I rode with Cathy and Paul Rogers today as well, and here is a picture below of Cathy on her electric orange bike.  Electric in both the color as well as the motor.

I asked Cathy how she would change her tire if she got a flat, which immediately jinxed her.  Shortly thereafter she flatted with a nail requiring major surgery to take the rear wheel off and replacing the tube. 

Right after lunch we entered Idaho and stopped for our obligatory picture.

Two years ago at the lunch stop we saw a rodeo parade but this year it is next week due to the extra week in June before the 4th of July.  On the positive side it was not raining and it was beautiful weather for the entre ride.

We rode in a group of 5, Kevin, Jenn, Becka, Lisa, and me.  If you notice the big riders were not a part of the group because they were still cathing up from adding the 7 miles.  Kenny, Terry, and Charles went up the hill and in addition to the extra mileage, Kenny got a flat to slow them down.  We rode at a great pace for taking in the beauty, and my neck is really sore from swiveling back and forth gawking at the scenery. 

We got into Sandpoint and are staying at the Sandpoint west athletic club and all of the services are open to us.  I took my first ever hydromassage on a hydromassage bed (not sure where else you would do it). You definately would not want to do the hydromassage on your front. 

We all went in to Sandpoint downtown, some walking, some shuttling and some riding.  I rode in with two others and we went to dinner at Spuds.  If you can guess what they specialize in, you win nothing.  I had the potato stuffed with salsa verde, sour cream, and chicken. Yes chicken.  I went ahead and had a berry cobbler for dessert.  We rode out to the lake and found the Statue of Liberty still looking good.  I tried climbing up to her head, but it was too tight a fit for me.  I am back at the grass area outside the club waiting for the sun to set if it ever does.  We are at the summer solstice as north as we will be for the trip.  I am going back up for a final hydromassage before bed and I hope I wake up to go to my tent.  Enjoy the pictures, the first one is of bugs mating in the forest, just a little different than you would expect after reading that sentence