Both of us had a really hard time falling asleep last night, probably because we haven't been exercising like normal. We had blueberry pancakes again for lunch today and were a little sad to see that it was raining again this morning. A little while later, I walked to the library to upload some pictures while Joe worked on Bruce's garden for a while. Later this afternoon, we walked to an all you can eat restaurant that we saw walking to the movies yesterday. We had some very delicious pizza, chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, pasta, sliders, and more courtesy of Grammy. It was sooo good! We left with very full bellies and were full enough that we didn't need to have anything for dinner. Thanks Grammy! While walking back to the house, we stopped at the store to get another half gallon of ice cream. Joe talked to Harry (from Culture of Speed) today about the wheel and he said that he is having a wheel hand built for him that will be strong enough to "ride around the world." The wheel will be done by Friday, so we might be in Missoula a couple days longer than expected. Although I don't know how we will "survive" because Joe is going crazy from not having anything to do and having to sit around all day. We've gone on a lot of walks, but there is only so many places to walk. A while after we got back to the house, Brent was able to get my tablet connected to the wi-fi, since I was unable to get it to work. So, Joe and I watched a movie on Netflix while enjoying some ice cream. We're still amazed at how late it is staying light out. At 9:30 it was still really bright. We went to bed a little after 10.
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Happy Memorial Day! When I woke up this morning, Joe was in the kitchen making some very tasty blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Since it was not raining and actually looked a little sunny today we were relieved that we wouldn't be trapped inside all day. Around 10, we left the house and started walking towards downtown to catch a couple of the many memorial ceremony they were having today. Just as we were crossing the bridge to get to downtown, we caught the end of the fist service that started at 10. From there, we walked to the courthouse to watch the next one. One of my favorite parts of these services is listening to the bagpipes, they are so beautiful. The ceremony was complete with speakers, color and honor guard and a fly over (helicopter). After the service, we walked over to Safeway (grocery store) to get a donut. We each got a cinnamon roll donut and enjoyed a free sample of baby back ribs outside. Shortly after, we returned to the house and relaxed for a bit. Joe did some work on the garden for Bruce and then I made some grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. We both split what was left of the ice cream we bought the other night. Something we have been wanting to do is go out to the movies, so we finally decided this would be the perfect time to do so. The commercials for The Dictator looked pretty funny, so that is what we opted to see. The movie didn't start until 7, but we had a 3 mile or more walk to get there, so we left around 4:45 just to be sure. It was such a beautiful afternoon. The sun was shining and we only got rained on for a few minutes. Another Safeway was right across the street from the movie theater, so we went over there to get a little something to eat. We decided to get a lb of baby back ribs at the deli counter for a little snack. After our snack, we headed for the theater. Since we almost never go out to the movies, we decided to go all in and get the free refill popcorn and soda too. It was well worth it, we ate/drank our weight in popcorn and soda. We both enjoyed the movie since it was pretty funny. We thought that we would be walking home in the dark, but the sun was still up when we got out at quarter to 9. As we walked back to the house, we watched it set and were pretty surprised that it wasn't down until 9:15. It still was pretty light yet by the time we got back. A fun day today, so glad that it didn't rain all day!
Today marks the start of the 12th week since leaving home. I am so amazed at how fast the time is going. Since we're already to Missoula, our next big destination on the list is the big one.. ALASKA! I can hardly believe it. The tough part of the journey is not too far away. As much as I am loving the trip, I am kind of sad because it's going by way too fast, but I guess that's what happens when EVERYDAY is an adventure! We woke up pretty early today since Colleen, Amy and Rachael were getting ready to leave. Another day of yucky weather, rain rain all day long. I had some cereal and milk for breakfast and then an hour or so later had some ice cream too! We said our goodbyes to Colleen and Rachael (Amy was going to be at the house for a while longer because she was going to rent a car again because she said her knee still hurt). The three of them rode off to get some breakfast, but not a minute later they were back because Amy had a flat on her back wheel. The good news is they had a nice dry, warm place to fix it! After saying goodbye a second time, we just lazed around inside because it was too cold and rainy to really do anything fun outside. I tinkered with the website a little bit just for the heck of it and made a list of all the things we wanted to do this weekend. Once Amy got back with the rental car, she got everything packed and ready to go. She was going to have the car until Jackson (WY), which was the end of the trip. The plan was for her and Rachael (her knee was bothering her too) to switch on and off with driving/riding. Whatever they end up doing, we hope the rest of their trip goes well. We had pb and j sandwiches for lunch along with more ice cream. Around 2:30 we walked to the store in the rain to get some groceries for dinner. When we got back to the house, I made some brownies and we had some spaghetti, salad and baguette bread for dinner. Boy am I glad that there is a fireplace in the sun room for us to enjoy on a rainy cold day. I looked up to see if there were any Memorial Day events here in Missoula for us to go to tomorrow and I found out that Missoula boasts more memorial day than any other city in the nation. There are 10 services tomorrow (although there is no Mem. Day Fair like back home in Wilson)! I guess the timing worked out perfect that we are stuck here in Missoula during Memorial Day weekend! Today felt like the longest day of the trip since we pretty much just sat around all day. Time flies when we are on the road, but I have a feeling this week may feel really long (but our bodies could probably use the rest anyway). Although today was a little boring, it looks like there is enough going on in Missoula tomorrow to keep us busy.
Although Joe woke up early today, I slept in really late. By he time I was eating breakfast it was quarter to 11. Despite the fact, I felt very well rested. After having some cereal and milk, Joe and i went on a walk to the Post Office again to see if the tires he had ordered from Harry had come in yet. It was another gloomy/rainy day today. Unfortunately, the tires weren't at the Post Office when we got there, but at least we went on a nice walk for something to do. We stopped at the grocery store to get a couple things. As we were walking up to the grocery store, we saw Amy and Rachael leaving it. After I had checked out I realized Joey had vanished. While I was waiting outside I saw him standing in line through the window with a little paper bag. He came out with a donut for each of us, what a great surprise! When we got back to the house, we had some leftovers from the concert last night and then relaxed for a while. Joe helped Ben, Bruce's son, play a computer game for a little bit. We decided to go on another walk for something to do and went to the free art museum that we had seen while walking yesterday. It was fun walking through the gallery and seeing the variety of work that was displayed. When we got back to the house, we spent the rest of the day relaxing. Brent fixed up the computer so it had speakers and sound so Joe was able to watch a few episodes of The Daily Show. We had a very relaxing evening. After having some more leftovers from the concert, we went for a walk to get some ice cream. It was already 9:30 by the time we left so we weren't sure if the grocery store would be open, but we found out it was open until 11 when we got there, so we were able to get our snack. The temperature outside made it feel almost like it was winter, so it was a good thing we had a lot of layers on. When we got back to the house, we both had a huge bowl of ice cream and then went to bed.
We slept in a little today since we were up so late last night. Joe walked to the grocery store to pick up some cereal and milk for breakfast while I called home to wish Grammy a Happy Birthday! After breakfast, Joe rode to the local bike shops to figure out what he was going to do with his falling apart wheel. When he got back he said that we were stuck in Missoula for a week. His wheel is going to be replaced under warranty, but it won't be delivered for 2-3 weeks. So we are going to have that wheel sent home (so we have a backup wheel that could be mailed to us if we needed) and order a new, stronger wheel from Harry that will be here, hopefully by the end of next week. Getting a stronger wheel will make it so we won't have to spend a bunch of extra money on getting a Bob trailer too. Once the wheel situation was all figured out, we helped Bruce do a little cleaning to get ready for tonight's concert and then went on a walk around downtown Missoula with Amy. There was a nice little expresso bar that we stopped at along our walk. Amy got a donut and Joey and I each got a large glass of hot chocolate with whipped cream. It was so tasty! We stopped off at the Adventure Cycling Headquarters again to talk to Greg (one of the Co-Founders). It was already getting pretty late and Amy hadn't heard from her friends yet, so she got a picture taken by herself for the wall of fame since she was pretty sure they wouldn't make it to town before they closed for the weekend. After walking around for a bit longer, we went our separate ways and Joe and I walked to the post office to get our packages that were mailed there. It was a pretty long walk, but we made it there before they closed. Grammy's package along with the break pads that Harry sent us were there waiting for us. When we got back to our host's house, we enjoyed some of Grammy's jam cookies and I worked on getting everything all straightened out with my new bank cards since HSBC is switching to First Niagara while we are gone. Soon enough, people started to show up for tonight's Jazz Concert. Not long after that, Amy's friends (Colleen and Rachael) arrived after a horrible day of riding. It was really cold, had started sleeting sideways and the wind was horrible. I sympathized with them because we know exactly how those days go. Another amazing meal was served for the guests. There were just as many people today, and almost all of them were new faces. Dan and Ben put on another incredible concert. It amazes me to see how fast and accurate their fingers can move and what beautiful music they could play. After the concert, the 5 of us cyclists, Brent, a couple of music enthusiasts, and Dan and Ben all sat around in the foyer of all places. At one point Amy and Dan started Tango dancing while Brent played the piano. It was a lot of fun to watch. We joked around that all we needed was a campfire since we were all sitting in a little circle. Not too long after that, Brent came back with a candle, or "campfire." It was pretty funny. Joe rode 1.65 miles today as he rode around town to the bike shop, but other than that we didn't do any riding today.
I was very happy to have a bed last night, but even happier that the kitty decided to cuddle for most of the night. We had some super yummy cereal with milk and cut up strawberries on top for breakfast. After playing with McLovin for a little while, we got ready to go. It looked pretty stormy over the mountains to the west of us as we were riding, but luckily we didn't get poured on, just a few sprinkles. It was pretty chilly this morning, but soon enough, the sun came out and we had to peel some layers off. For the first 30 miles or so of our ride we followed a bike path that the bike shop, and our Warm Shower's Hosts had told us about. We were so glad that there was a bike path that paralleled the busy double lane road, and that it covered so much distance. After riding along for about 30 miles we were in a little town called Florence, where we decided to stop for lunch. Since we were so hungry we planned on having mac and cheese, but then when we found a picnic table right next to an IGA grocery store, we decided to get something different. The weather was perfect for hot dogs. So we boiled up some hot dogs and got a bag of potato chips to go with it. Not at all a healthy meal, but at that point we felt like we could use the calories (and boy was it yummy). After lunch, we only had a few more miles left before the bike path ended. When we reached the town of Lolo, we were forced to get on that busy road for about 10 miles. Soon enough though, we were riding into Missoula! We were pretty excited because this was the big turning point in our trip that we planned on. Since before we left Buffalo, we knew that we had to be to Missoula by June 20th at the very latest in order to make it to AK on time (we read a book about a guy who rode his bike from Missoula to AK about 30 years ago and it took them around 60 days back when there were hundreds of miles of gravel road and they didn't have as good of equipment). However, since we left 3 weeks earlier than we planned on, we knew we would have plenty of time. Our first destination in town was the Adventure Cycling Headquarters, especially since we knew that it would be closing at 5. We made it there just in time with about 15 minutes to spare. Just like we were told they would do, they took our picture to add to their "wall of fame" and we got free ice cream! We signed their cyclist's log and were enlightened as we looked through the book at all of the people who had stopped through on their tours. While looking at the "wall of fame" we saw pictures of Philip and Evan that we met a few days ago, along with a guy who had also stayed with Cassie and Tim, he's been touring for 14 years! In the headquarters there was the National Geographic Article about the people who founded Adventure Cycling, one of which was one of our Warm Shower's Hosts on our NY-FL trip a couple years ago! I was excited and said "Look here is the picture of Lys!" The receptionist was interested to know how we knew Lys and said that one of the other founders would probably like to talk to us. Since we figured we would be taking at least one day off here so we could get the bikes in tip-top shape before the hard part of the trip begins, we said we would stop back tomorrow when he was there. As we were sitting outside of the headquarters eating our ice cream, we met a nice couple who had stopped by the headquarters too. The man was getting ready to ride across country on the Northern Tier Route and was planning on leaving from the west cost in a day or so. His wife was a kindergarten teacher and was a little nervous about him going on this tour. We had some great conversation about his upcoming adventure and tried to offer some tips from our experience that might be of use to him. Since it looked like it was about to downpour any minute, we figured we better call our Warm Shower's Host, Brent, for the evening and figure out how to get there. Luckily we made it to his house before it started to rain. When we got there, there was another touring cyclist, Amy, who was going to be staying there too!! She was riding from Boise, ID to Jackson, WY with a couple of her friends. Her friends weren't supposed to be in until the next evening because she ended up renting a car for a little bit so she could have an extra rest day because she somehow hurt her knee. Another surprise we found out when we got there was that the owner of the house, Bruce, enjoys hosting Jazz Shows and that they were getting ready for one that evening! What a wonderful treat! We got cleaned up and settled just in time for people to start arriving for the concert. Bruce made an amazing spread of food for dinner for everyone that came to the show. There were probably around 40 people there, if not more. The show was absolutely incredible! The musicians that were playing were Dan Tepfer (piano, sax) and Ben Wendel (sax, melotica, bassoon). These guys were so talented, and a good portion of what they played was without music. We chit-chatted with a lot of great people before the show and during intermission (during which there were some tasty desserts!). After the majority of the crowd had left, the musicians and a couple other music students from Missoula played/ sang some more songs and did some improv. It was pretty amazing to see a bunch of musically inclined people putting their talents together in a spur of the moment type situation. The good news is that we get to see these guys play again tomorrow night in another concert. Its pretty amazing that we ended up getting to see two jazz concerts while we were here, that was definately not something we expected to get to experience. If Joe's spoke hadn't broken and we hadn't gotten that ride a few days ago, we would have missed out. But that's why I always say everything always happens for a reason. By the time Joe and I went to bed it was after midinight. What an amazing day! We rode 51.74 today.
What a cold night it was last night! I slept with my turtle neck, sweatshirt, 2 cycling coats, and the REI jacket Robert gave me so that I wouldn't freeze. While we were making breakfast, it started to snow a little bit. We had a little extra oatmeal for breakfast because we knew the wind would probably slow us down quite a bit and that we had another pass to go over today, so we might not get to eat lunch until later. Once we were all packed up, we hit the road. Although we knew we were within a half a mile from a ghost town, we decided not to go because we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Sure enough, once we got out of the park, it was a repeat of yesterday afternoon. The wind was unbelievable. We were averaging 4-5mph. It was torture again. As we kept riding we were worried that we may not even make it to the next town, which was around 28 miles away. After about 9 miles, we stopped for a brownie break. Not too long after that, I noticed that Joe's back wheel was really out of true. Upon further inspection we found that a spoke had broken. If he continued to ride on it, it would only make it worse and more spokes would begin to break. So, we started walking, trying to figure out what to do. We finally decided that maybe we should just flag down a truck to get to the next town and then go from there. So that's what we did. We waved at the next truck that went by and to our surprise, they stopped. God had sent us angels because the people in the truck happened to be doing a supported tour across the US. They had a very full truck bed and had their bikes on the rack. They had just ridden over the pass we went over last night and at the entrance to the state park decided it was too cold and windy to ride today, so they were riding in the truck. None the less, they managed to squeeze us, our bikes and all of our gear in the truck. We were saved! It turns out that they were going the exact same route as us until Hamilton, MT. Although we planned to only get to the next town and then try to figure out what to do, these guys were great and said that they would get us to a bike shop. So, we ended up riding for about 100 miles in a truck. It was like going through a time warp! Along the way, we stopped at a convenience store and one of the guys bought Joe and I each a hot chocolate! When we were about 20 miles from Hamilton, where we knew there was a bike shop, we passed another place that looked like a bike shop. When we went in, we found out they make custom built recumbent bikes. It was a pretty neat shop! They even had a cute little puppy named Annabel. Since they didn't have anything that would help us, we jumped back in the truck and headed for Hamilton. Once we got to the bike shop there, Joe took his bike in to have them look at it. Turns out his back wheel is pretty much on the verge of falling apart. The spokes are poking through the nipples so the wheel isn't going to last much longer. It is kind of sad because the wheel only has about 8,000 miles on it, so it should have lasted longer than that. The spacers in Joe's crank have also broken, which was causing the crank to move back and forth. Apparently when we got the ball bearings replaced back in CO, it was over-tightened causing the spacers to be pushed out. While the bike shop was working on Joe's bike, we said our goodbyes to Alex, Dan, and Ron. While we were waiting, we went to the library for a little while. Somehow, Grammy accidentally deleted the website's main picture and it reverted back to the default picture; which was a cross on a hill at sunset. Joey said with that picture up there it looked like we died or something which was kinda funny. So I spent some time fixing up the website while we waited. Since his back wheel is in such bad shape we are going to have to buy a new one in Missoula, and may buy a Bob trailer too, but we haven't quite decided yet. Once we got everything fixed enough so that we would make it to Missoula tomorrow, we called up our Warm Shower's host, Tim, to get more specific directions to their house. We got to take nice hot showers and there was even a really pretty kitty named McLovin' to play with! She was so cuddly! When Tim's wife Cassie got home, we had some amazing chicken stir fry for dinner and got to meet their adorable chocolate lab, Sophie. We had fun chit-chatting and hearing about other people that have stayed with them. One guy that stayed with them last week has been touring for 15 years! He lives on 10 bucks a day, I don't know how he does it. By the time we were finished with dinner it was pretty late, so we all went to bed (yes, we got to sleep in a bed!!). Today was a very interesting day in the least bit and pretty frustrating since there have been so many problems with the bikes, but we were blessed that the truck that happened to be going by had cyclists in it and that we had a nice warm house to stay in tonight. We only rode 13.14 miles today (but it took us 2hrs and 12 minutes because of the wind), but traveled about 110 in the truck. Now that we had a ride for so long, we are a couple days further ahead of schedule.
Robert woke us up nice and early with a couple of hot chocolate's in hand. He made Spanish breakfast burritos for breakfast-they were really tasty!! Last night Robert gave me a really nice REI wind/water breaker that will definitely come in handy when the weather gets bad. As we were getting ready to leave Robert also gave me a brand new pair of finger less cycling gloves that were too small for him. I had never ridden with gloves before, but they seemed really comfortable. After we were all packed up, Robert rode with us to show us the bike camp that was in town. We had never seen something like this before. There was a shower, bathroom, picnic tables, and even a stand to put your bike on if you needed to fix any thing. It was so neat looking through the log of people that had either stayed there or were just passing through. We saw that the British guy we met, Ian, had been there along with Matt and Nick on the same day. Too bad there weren't more places like this. Once we left town the wind was kind of with us for a little bit, however that didn't last long. There was a storm approaching from the west and as it got closer the wind shifted. As we were riding we could see the storm getting closer and closer until we were getting poured on. Luckily we only got rained on for about 5 miles or so. The ride to get to Dillon was pretty quick except for the last 4 miles, where we were at a crawl again from the wind. When we made it to town, we saw a Pizza Hut, and were definitely in the mood for a buffet! So, we used some of the money that Amy donated and filled our bellies. It was wonderful! Thanks Amy!! After our wonderful lunch, we sought out to find the bike shop in town because Joe's crank was wiggly. Unfortunately the bike shop was only open a few hours a day, 4 days a week. Since we still had a lot of daylight left, we decided to try to make it to the next town. However, once we started riding out of town the wind was unbearable again. When we saw the sign that said Jackson, 42 miles, we knew we weren't going to make it there tonight. We knew we had a couple big climbs ahead of us, so we figured we would at least try to get one out of the way. As the wind was whipping at 25 mph with gusts stronger I'm sure, we weren't making very much headway. There were a couple of occasions where we thought maybe we should just turn around and go back to Dillon and call it a day. But, we decided to keep pushing on because the wind was probably going to be just as bad tomorrow. After riding uphill for about 9 miles at a very slow speed of 3-4mph, we almost said it quits and turned around. We had only made it about 13 miles out of town. To our surprise, as we were standing on the side of the road deciding what to do, an old vw van pulled up and the guy asked if we could use a couple of cold Pepsi's. He had his road bike on the back, so he understood what it was like to be riding up that hill with the awful wind. So, he hopped out of his van and opened the mini-fridge inside and gave us each a can of Pepsi, and to make it even better it was the "flashback Pepsi" made with real sugar! It was amazing that he came along and cheered us up right at a time we were feeling defeated and ready to not ride any further. After we enjoyed our Pepsi, we decided that since we were only about 5 miles from the summit of the pass, we would just keep going. We knew there was a state park about 10 miles past the summit, so that was our new goal. After another hour and a half or so, we finally made it to the top. It sure was a struggle. I had to use my very last gears to make it up the steep climb with that nasty wind. The ride down was not as rewarding as it should have been. My top speed got up to 23 mph on the way down, when it should have been closer to 40. After fighting the wind for the next 6 miles to get to the entrance to the state park, we lucked out and got to ride with the wind at our back for the last 4 miles. Luckily we made it there before dark. There was another storm rolling closer, so once we got to the park, we found a campsite in the campground and set up our tent as quickly as possible. We decided to not bother cooking anything for dinner since we had such a great lunch. We just snacked on the cookies we had and the left over brownies from Robert's house. The amazing thing was that there was no cell reception at this campground, but for some reason, the state park had wireless internet. This worked out pretty good because then I could work on trying to figure out what was wrong with the website since Grammy hasn't been able to upload any blogs for a few days. We ended up putting our bear canister and the rest of our food right inside the bathroom so we didn't have to worry about raccoons getting into it. Another challenging day today, and I'm sure tomorrow will be just the same. We rode 58.74 miles today.
Another interesting night. It was about 4 am when Joey woke me up because the sprinklers had gone off on the other side of the yard from where we were camped. Luckily, we weren't getting wet, but we knew that wouldn't last long. Joey was certain we would be getting soaked really soon and suggested that maybe we should just pack up and start riding. I definitely did not like this idea, especially since I knew there was a possibility for me to get almost 4 hours more of sleep. So we got out of the tent to assess the situation. The sprinklers had already gone off in the section of the yard closer to the road around the corner from where we were. We decided that we would drag our tent and bikes over to that side since we were pretty positive those sprinklers wouldn't go off again tonight. I was really glad we moved because we got an extra 4 hours of sleep, didn't have to ride in the dark and not long after moving the sprinklers that were where our tent used to be went off. In the morning, we heard kids walking to school, we made our oatmeal and were on the road around 9. It was a little strange to us, but once school was in session, we noticed that there were gates across the road in front of the school at both ends. The first few miles of the ride today were into a head wind. Not long after that, we started to climb a pretty big hill that seemed to go on forever. It probably took us a little over an hour to reach the top. On the way down, we were going pretty quick. We entered a town called Virginia City and the speed limit changed to 35. I was speeding; only by 2 mph though! Then the speed dropped another 10mph and I passed a car that had passed me on the way down the hill. I was so excited that I got to pass a car even if I was breaking the law by going 10 over for about 3/4 of a mile. There were so many really neat, historic buildings on main street. We decided to get off our bikes and walk around a little bit. A lot of the buildings looked like they had been turned into little museums that had the door open so visitors could see how the buildings and old artifacts look inside. We knew we weren't very far from Nevada City, which was a ghost town, so we continued on down the hill so we could eat our lunch there. The ghost town was really neat! We were so hungry that we made a can of baked beans and had our mac and cheese too. While we were eating, the guy who runs the area came over to talk to us. He even showed us what the inside of one of the little cabins that you could rent looked like. After lunch, we were walking around looking at all of the buildings. There was a field trip there and they were getting an in-depth look at the rest of the town. The lady who runs the museum was nice enough to let us in so we could see everything since the doors were open for the kids, even though the museum wasn't technically open yet. It was so much fun walking around the rest of the town. We saw the old jail, fire house, barber shop, school, bar, saddle shop, and much more. It was so great that we got to go through it! Right after leaving Nevada City, we met 2 more guys touring! They were each doing separate tours, but had met each other about 3 days ago and have been riding together ever since. The first guy, Phillipe, was from Sweden. He was riding from Calgary to Arizona (maybe further, but I don't remember exactly). It sounded to us like he was following the Continental Divide Adventure Cycling Route. The other guy, Evan, is an ex-Navy Seal who is riding from Oregon to Virginia (he lives in Virginia City). Again, we were pretty excited to see people touring. We all stood there on either sides of the road for a while talking, but luckily there wasn't much traffic. The rest of our ride we had a mixture of head winds and tail winds. We rode into a little town called Sheridon, where they had an IGA grocery store, just like back home. Since we were planning to buy a package of cookies, we bought them there. As we were riding into town, we had been watching the storm clouds slowly move closer. We decided to wait for a little bit for the rain to stop before getting back on the road. Joe and I sat on the little swing outside the IGA and snacked on our cookies. It didn't take long for it to clear up, however, after we got about 4 miles outside of town, it started to rain again. The next town, Twin Bridges, was only about 9 miles away, so we didn't have too far to go. When we made it into town, we stopped at the library for a little bit since it didn't close for another hour. While there, it started to rain really hard and there was thunder and lightning. We had made it to town just in time! The cool thing about this town was there was a free bike camp that had a shower and everything, just for touring cyclists! We had never heard of or saw such a place before. Since we were still on an Adventure Cycling Route, I'm sure they get a lot of people touring through this area. As we were in the library, a guy, Robert, who was riding his bike around town came in to get out of the rain. He asked us about our travels and then offered to make us a cup of Expresso at his house if we were interested. Once the rain stopped, we rode down the street to his house. He made us each a great cup of hot chocolate and I enjoyed playing with his kitties: Paco and Tigrite. Since the weather was still yucky outside, he offered for us to stay in his spare room. The idea of a bed and not having to set up our tent is always wonderful, so we gladly accepted the offer! After our hot cocoa, Robert even took us out for dinner at a little restaurant in Sheridan. Joey and I both had amazing double cheeseburgers! When we got back to Robert's house, we made some brownies and then went to bed. Another amazing day on the road, an another day that just had so many surprises-- the best part of touring because you never know what your day is going to bring. We rode 43.77 miles today.
We woke up nice and early so we could go enjoy the continental breakfast at the hotel. It was great. I had 2 bagels with cream cheese, cereal and milk, biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, yogurt, an apple, toast with jelly, 2 donuts, hot chocolate, orange juice, and a mini-muffin. After a great breakfast, we went back to the room to pack up and then before leaving, I went back to breakfast for seconds and to get a few things to go. We were on the road by about 10:20 and were surprised to find that the wind was with us for a while. Our goal was to make it to Ennis which was a little over 70 miles away. Today was the first day in a while that was kind of back to normalcy. It was just the two of us again, and we didn't have any plans on stopping anywhere. As we were riding we rode by a beautiful lake that was so flat it looked like glass. Compared to our ride into Yellowstone, the ride was pretty flat. We had a few hills here and there, but nothing too big. We rode through a national forest that had a lake that was supposedly formed by an earthquake! We stopped for a snack after about 30 miles at a little fly fishing store just outside of the national forest. As we were sitting on the bench outside the store enjoying a pack of yogurt I took to go from the hotel, a very cute doggie came to visit. He walked up to us and dropped his ball because he wanted to play. It was so cute; we'd throw the ball and he would retrieve it and bring it right back to be thrown again. I went inside and found out that the doggies name was Eddy. After we had our yogurt, we each had a donut (also from breakfast at the hotel). We played with the puppy for quite a while before hitting the road again. Not too long after we started to ride again, the wind shifted so that it was actually to our favor. It was so nice to be able to go fast for a change! After about another 20 miles, we decided to stop in a little town called Cameron to eat the oranges we had from the hotel, since we didn't officially have lunch today, just snacks to keep us tided over from our huge breakfast. When we pulled into the only store/bar/cafe in town, we saw a loaded bicycle outside! When we went inside to fill up on water, we met Ian, a British guy who is riding from Seattle, WA to Plymouth, MA from May-July. We chit chatted for a little bit and then Joe and I went outside to sit on the bench and eat our oranges. Joey and I were pretty excited to see another person touring, however since we happened to be on part of an Adventure Cycling Route, our chances of seeing someone were definitely higher. After our stop, we only had about 12 miles until the town we planned to stop in, and it didn't take us very long at all to get there. When we arrived in Ennis, we made our way through town to find a grocery store. On the way we passed a really nice park which we figured would be the perfect spot to camp. The main street area was really nice and very western looking. After riding through town we found a grocery store and decided to get some steak to add to our rice, we also got a half gallon of ice cream (it is our 3/4 anniversary today, so it was a prefect excuse for ice cream!) While we were leaving the store we met a kid who was moving from VT to AK, which we thought was pretty cool. We found some nice tables in a small park next to the chamber of commerce where we decided to cook dinner. Unfortunately, when dinner was almost finished cooking, the sprinklers came on and we got wet. Luckily though, we were able to move the table back far enough to keep from getting we from the first round of sprinklers. While we were enjoying our ice cream however, another set of sprinklers decided to go off, and these ones were right next to us. Needless to say, we got a little wet. So, we packed everything up really quick and headed for the park we saw on the way into town. When we got there, we saw a sign that we didn't see before: No camping or overnight parking, $100 fine. We were pretty bummed, especially since there were nice bathrooms, picnic tables, and a shelter. After eating the rest of our ice cream, we set out to find a new spot to call home for the night. We found a church that was near the school that we decided would work. There were sprinklers in the ground, but we were crossing our fingers that they wouldn't be going off tonight. We went to bed pretty early because we were both still tired for some reason. Our miles totaled 77.08 today.
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