We woke up around 8 to find out that it was still raining. We packed up our things a little bit and then went downstairs to find a nice fire going in the fireplace. Rita made us each a raspberry smoothie with some of the raspberries she had frozen from her garden. It was so yummy! Later on, chuck made us some homemade pancakes with blueberries on top and Rita made some oatmeal to go along with it. Breakfast was amazing! It was still raining by the time that we left the house, but we know we are probably going to hit a lot of rain for the next couple months, so we figured we might as well get used to it. After saying our goodbyes we headed out of town. The road wasn't in the greatest condition and had virtually no shoulder, but for the most part the traffic was respectful. After riding for a while the rain stopped and it was just cold. For me the first portion of today's ride seemed to drag on and it felt like we weren't getting very far, but I guess I didn't realize that we had gone uphill for so much of it. After leaving Missoula we decided to start picking up license plates to hang in the garage when we get home. So far we've found a motorcycle Montana plate, two other different Montana plates, and a British Columbia plate (3 of which were on the same road within the first 35-40 miles of riding today). I had thought about picking them up since the beginning so we could start a collection of plates from states we had ridden to and I kind of wish I had because I had seen MI, IL, SD, NE and I'm sure others that I have forgotten about. Rita gave us the rest of the corn bread to take with us this morning, so when we stopped for a little break we snacked on that. We weren't really hungry enough to have a full blown lunch because the pancakes were so filling and kept us full almost to the time we reached our destination today! A while later as we were riding, we saw anther touring cyclist coming towards us. When he got closer, we figured out that it was Shular , who we met on our very first day in Missoula before he started his tour across the Northern US route. It was so neat to get to see him again, especially now that he is on his trip! Guess it worked out ok that we were stuck in Missoula for so long. An hour or so later, we met another couple touring, and you'll never guess where they were coming from... ANCHORAGE! Their names were Laurie and Ethel and they are from England. They flew into Anchorage and are riding to Washington, DC. We were so excited that they had ridden on the route that we were about to ride. Surprisingly, they said that the bugs weren't bad up in the Yukon when they were there, but we aren't keeping our hopes up too high because I'm sure that could change. About 15 miles before getting to Eureka (our destination for the evening), we stopped at a gas station to fill up on water. They were having a bake sale to benefit families in need, so we each got a cupcake with some of the road money that I had found throughout the trip thus far. I haven't counted it yet, but we took out a dollars worth and there is still plenty left. During the next 15 miles, we met 3 cyclists who are currently riding in the Race the Great Divide (a self supported race from Bamff, CA to the border of Mexico along the continental divide). The race just started on the 8th and they said that over 100 people had started and that 30 had already dropped out. This is not just any race, it is extremely difficult. The first couple guys we met said they spent a lot of time pushing their bikes through the snow up in the mountains since the start. The other guy that we met a little later on was more laid back and wasn't as much in it for the race part of it. The funny thing is that after hearing where we were from, he told us that his mom was raised in Arcade, NY! Can you believe that, what a small world (for those of you who don't know, my Mom lived there for at least 20 years). He gave us his contact information because he lives in Olympia Washington in case we need a place to stay on the return trip. Once we got into Eureka, we checked to see if there were any Warm Shower's Hosts available and then went to the grocery store to get something for dinner (we figured we might as well have something besides mac and cheese because we are going to be eating a lot of that here shortly). We picked up some spaghettio's and a bag of salad because we had a leftover packet of dressing. We headed down the road to find a place to camp and ended up coming to a Luthern Church that looked like the perfect spot. There was an overhang by the back door to put our bikes/tent under , no sprinklers, a stone wall to block the wind a little, a garbage can, and even a picnic table, what more could we want. While cleaning up from dinner, we asked a lady we saw if she was affiliated with the church and she happened to be the pastor's daughter. When we asked if she thought it would be ok if we set up our tent there she said her dad wasn't home, but gave us a couple numbers to call to check. When we called, they were fine with us setting up our tent, so we had found a home for the night. We each spent some time talking to family because we are only 9 miles from the CA border and soon won't be able to call them. Like most of the day, tonight was really cold. We set up our tent and then huddled in our sleeping bags to stay warm. Luckily there was no snow though; we had spoken to some people and found out that Eureka had gotten 16 inches last week! When we went to bed it was already after 10 and was still not dark yet. It's going to be fun when it is light almost all the time! We rode 55.85 miles today.
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