We went to be late again last night, so I was sleepy this morning and didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. While I was packing the sleeping bags up (and getting a couple extra zzzs) Joey walked over to the store to pick up some cereal and milk for everyone for breakfast. It is so nice to know that after 3 or 4 bowls of cereal I will be full and ready to start the day. We got the rest of our laundry that was in the dryer this morning and got everything packed up. When we were ready to leave, Richard had already gone to work, so we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I left him a note and stuck it in the door, so hopefully he got that. We took one last look at the amazing dome of bicycle wheels and then headed out. I am still really disappointed that we didn't get to meet Philippe. He seems like such a cool person and is just so talented. Not only did he have the bicycle dome, but he had made a lot of little "inventions" I guess you would call them that were inside his house. My favorite one was a big ramp-ball contraption that was made of spokes! When you turned on the switch it swayed back and forth and the balls would roll on a continuous track of ramps. I don't know how he went about making it, but it was so fun to watch! We all stopped at the Great Canadian Superstore to re-stock on some necessities before heading back out to nothingness. Michael and Michael had bough 2 packs of cookies, so instead of our usual routine of buying cookies, we got a huge 3lb bag of gummie bears! We also restocked on the usual mac and cheese, oatmeal, etc. I also got a small bottle of mouthwash and some more floss since I was getting low. Lately I have just been feeling like even with brushing and flossing I haven't been able to get a real good clean feeling in my mouth, but I think the mouthwash will help change that. Once we had everything we needed, we all waited in line to check out for what seemed like forever, but probably around 10 minutes at least. By the time we got on the road heading out of town it was already after 12. It was pretty chilly and was raining off and on all morning. The wind was also relatively strong and was of course in our face making it even harder than it had to be to ride. The "two mile hill" out of town wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In fact it was actually kind of nice because they had a wonderful bike path right next to the road so that we didn't have to climb it while dealing with the traffic too. A short while after we got out of the main city area, Michael got a flat on his trailer wheel, so we stopped to fix that real quick. The rest of the first 20 miles was relatively hilly. When we got to the junction of the Alascan Highway and the Klondike Highway, we had nice new pavement to ride on for about 5 miles. After that, it went back to a mixture of the regular road to the rough sealcoat surface. We met another cyclist from Japan, Yuta, who was riding from Anchorage to Vancouver. While we were talking to him we were glad to hear that the terrain was pretty flat and "easy." Sure enough, he was right, it flattened out quite a bit. As the road flattened out a bit, the wind seemed to start to die down a bit too (probably because it started to rain). As we were riding, a truck passed us and there was a guy hanging out of the window yelling and waving at us; it was the guy who was hitchhiking everywhere and stopped to talk to us while we were eating our dinner at Philippe's house a couple nights ago. It was cool that we got to see him again, even if it was just as he was passing by. When we had about 10 miles left before we got to the next rest area where we planned to camp, Joey road ahead to find a place in the area there to set up. I rode with the Michaels for a while, but eventually decided to just keep riding since they seemed to want to go at their own casual speed. I didn't make it all the way to the rest area like I planned. Instead as I was riding, I found a HUGE patch of wild strawberries! So, that's what I did for the next 20 minutes or so while I waited for the boys to catch up. When they got there, Papa Mike joined me for a little bit and Michael went ahead to find Joe. The rest area was perfect. Again, bathrooms and a bear proof garbage bin for our food. By the time I got there, Joey had already set up the tent and was working with Michael on making a fire. As if our evening wasn't going great already I found out that we were camping in a huge strawberry patch! There were little tiny strawberries as far as you could see. Another thing that made the day even better was that when Joe got to the rest area there were a couple motorcyclists from Alaska there. They talked to Joey about our travels and even gave us 4 Mountain Meals (the freeze dried meals that you just add boiling water to) since they were almost back home! And the best part was that one of them was beef stroganoff and noodles, my favorite! So, we each got to enjoy a nice meal of that, and there were no dishes, which made it even better. Those meals are a lot tastier than I would have imagined them to be, but they are still so expensive for the amount of food that you get. Whatever the case, our bellies were very happy. The bugs weren't that bad, but there were still enough of them there to make their presence known. While we were getting ready to roast some marshmallows, a car pulled into the rest area and we heard someone say "Hey, do you want a beer!?!" It was Marty, Mark, Michael and Christopher (the family that gave us beer and rootbeer a few days ago!), they were on their way back home to Haines Junction. We were so excited to see them again. Marty even shared a big box of blueberries with us and Mark wrote down directions so that we could find their house when we make it to their town (which will either be tomorrow night or earlier in the day the next day.) We have been so blessed to meet such wonderful people throughout our journey; that truly is the best part of the trip for me. To my surprise, we have met so many more people and touring cyclists along the Alaskan Highway than I would have ever expected. I just assumed we would be riding along this road for hundreds of miles without really meeting anyone. It is so weird how we build an image in our minds about what it is going to be like, but then when we are actually experiencing it, it is totally different. After we chatted with the Ritchie's for a while, we headed back to our cozy warm fire. Just as we sat down to start roasting a couple marshmallows, it started to rain. But since roasted marshmallows are so good and we were still a little hungry, we all sat out there in the rain roasting and enjoying our marshmallows. Luckily the rain stopped after a little while (long enough that we were able to brush our teeth and get the food all put away), but it started back up after we all got in our tents. Despite the rain, we had a wonderful day; hopefully it will be sunny and warm tomorrow. We rode 42.64 miles today and camped at the Takhini Burn Rest Area.
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