We woke up to the sound of rain again, but were happy that we were under the overhang and that everything would be dry. While we were packing up, a guy in a truck (possibly the priest) drove up and asked if we spent the night there. He had no problem whatsoever with it and after asking where we were riding from, knew somehow that we were going to Alaska. I guess no one would want to ride their bike out here for any other reason than that. Once we were packed, we headed to Subway as quick as we could because we had to pee so bad. Just before we got there I hit a huge hole that I didn't see beforehand and my right rear pannier completely fell off which hadn't happened before. That slowed us down a little on our mission to get to the washroom but nothing was broken so it wasn't a problem. Since it was raining, we headed over to the picnic table that had a pavilion so we would be nice and dry. It was nice knowing that we had a short day of riding ahead of us. The ride out of town was uphill for quite a while, but luckily it wasn't too steep. As we were climbing, Joey noticed that there was a huge crack in the bottom of his right cycling shoe. This is the same thing that happened to his old shoes after about 20,000 miles. So hopefully they will last to Alaska or to Washington where we can have his extra pair at home mailed to us. When we reached the top of Hungry Hill, we were at an elevation of 2,769 feet, which isn't that high, but it sure was a pretty view. We took a cookie break at the rest area and got back on the road just as it started to rain again. The rest of the ride to our destination was almost entirely downhill. It rained off and on all day, but nothing too bad. When we found the trailer park that our host ran (which was pretty easy because there was a sign out front that said "cyclists welcome" and a bike hanging off the sign too!) we couldn't be happier. John, our host, was there to greet us when we pulled in. He showed us the cyclist cabin which had a full size bed and a set of bunk beds. On the side there was a stand to put your bike on if you needed to do any work. Once we were all settled we each had a nice hot shower and enjoyed relaxing for a while since we were there pretty early in the day. Not too long after we had been there, I heard voices outside, and it was another cyclist! His name was Dave and he was riding from Oregon to Prince Rupert where he is going to take a ferry up to Alaska. We were pretty excited to have someone else touring there too. A while later, John gave us a ride into town to the bike shop and the grocery store. The bike shop was wonderful and got us the right size spoke that we needed to fix the wheel. They also gave us the plastic pedal pieces that convert our SPD pedals for regular shoes, which might come in handy if Joe's cycling shoes get to the point where they are unusable. We stopped at the grocery store and we got some stuff to make sandwiches and more cookies. On our way back, we saw a couple riding with loaded bikes as well as a trailer. We pulled over to see if they had a place to stay for the night. So, about 15 minutes later, our group of 3 cyclists at the trailer park grew to 5 and a half. Their names were Greg, Lea and their little one year old Ronja. They are from Germany and are riding from Anchorage heading south as far as their bikes and Ronja will let them (hoping to go all the way to Argentina I think). We let them get settled, headed to our own cabin and made some sandwiches. Joe also successfully trued his wheel using just his break pads since we didn't have a truing stand and was pretty excited that he did. Later on we had a fantastic evening. Everyone went to the cabin where Lea, Greg and Ronja were staying (because it was quite a bit bigger and had furnishings. It was so much fun sharing stories and hearing about their trips. We asked a lot of questions about how it was traveling with a baby too. They ride about 2 hours in the morning and about an hour and a half in the afternoon and then spend a good amount of the day letting Ronja play. I was surprised to hear that she does pretty well sitting in the trailer, and looked quite cozy in there when they arrived earlier. Whenever she gets fussy, they have a backpack seat and a little helmet for her. They said she really likes that too. A little while later, John and wife Cheryl came back to visit with us. They even brought treats- homemade strawberry rhubarb cake (that was still warm right out of the oven!), vanilla ice cream, beer, and apple cider. It was such a wonderful treat! Before we knew it, it was 10pm (its so hard to know when it gets that late because it is still so light out). Time flies when you are having fun! Today turned out to be an absolutely wonderful day, even though we rode in the rain again. We had a nice relaxing day of only 30.08 miles.
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