Some new pictures!

It's funny - I usually have a lot to do on my "rest days" and St. Paul has been that way too. Re-stocking supplies that are harder to find in small towns, mailing stuff home that I don't need anymore (wool hat & gloves, long underwear & wool socks, for example - pretty sure I'm done with these!), cleaning & tinkering with the bike... but finally I've got some more pictures to put up. These go from Miller, SD to St. Paul - not a lot of dramatic landscape, but still plenty of interesting things along the road... including the last of the yellow arrows.

For the past few weeks I've been a day or two behind the Cycle America group I started out with, and found many of their yellow arrows on the roads. On Monday our paths diverged and I saw the last yellow arrow of this trip, I think - unless we cross paths around Niagra Falls, which would be really fun. Well, more than fun, honestly: I feel a pretty deep connection to the folks in the group, and it's been comforting to maintain that through sightings of the arrows. But it's also exciting to strike out on my own path - well, such as it is: now I'll be using Adventure Cycling Association route maps. (Until I get to Bufffalo, NY, where I'll jump onto the Erie Canal bike trail.)

Anyhow, here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/SouthDakotaToStPaul#

Here in St. Paul: Halfway haven

Last night I made it to St. Paul, Minnesota, which makes 2,362 miles (!!). This is the symbolic and I think actual mid-way point for my journey. Yow! I can't really internalize the scope of this thing, still - but it feels like a big deal to have made it here.

Pam & James & Pat & Todd's and now my friend Jon, who lives here, drove out to Hutchinson and then rode his bike in with me yesterday, and now I'm staying with him a couple of days to rest up, do laundry, get re-supplied and then head out for the Wisconsin & Michigan legs of the trip.


Crossing into Minnesota was exciting but kind of grueling: cross-winds and head-winds that day, and a very narrow shoulder with rumble strips, gravel, and lot of traffic. I was very stressed by the combination, plus the heat & humidity. There were a number of great moments on the road, though (armed gnomes!), and I really loved the city campgrounds in Montevideo and Hutchinson. They even had showers!

The real blast was riding from Hutchinson into St. Paul - nearly 80 miles, all of it on car-free bike trails. Along the way the trail changed from tractor tread-marks through a corn field, to fine gravel, a paved trail, and then an urban bike path with lovely signs. The twin cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul have an incredible, complex set of pedestrian/bike paths - it's really amazing. Even though it was so hot there was a heat advisory (meaning: avoid strenuous activities, d'oh), it felt relatively easy & relaxing, just from not having to worry about traffic blasting by me. (Or into me.)





















And then - lucky me, yet again - only after we'd safely gotten here, taken showers and headed out to dinner, another tremendous thunderstorm hit. We sat in a restaurant by the window, watching the lightning and sheets of rain blowing across the street...













I'll be heading for Wisconsin on Saturday, on track (I think) to meet up with my sister Peg in central Michigan on August 12th...

South Dakota, redeemed

OK, whining's over (for now, anyhow). Had a great, fun day of riding only partially against a wind that wasn't very bad - and got into Watertown early enough to not only get new glasses, yay! but also have time to explore the older, downtowny part of town - which is the fun stuff I don't always have a chance to do.

I managed to find the best dinner I've had since Missoula, Montana (four weeks ago, wow) and then discovered that the chair in my motel room is actually a recliner...! I've been reclining for a while now and feel like a new woman. (It goes well with researching city campgrounds in western Minnesota, and eating a whole package of Milano cookies, too.)

With all my whining this morning I forgot to post one of the high points of Friday's ride: seeing the largest pheasant IN THE WORLD, right there in Huron, SD. (Next door to a miniature golf course - with pie! and ice cream - thanks to Chuck from the Cycle America group who emailed me that tip, so I could keep an eye out for it.)

Today I saw more stark evidence of the damaging snow-melt, generally wet spring, and crazy week of storms...

and ended the ride with a big bowl of pasta, vegetables, olive oil and garlic... a great way to get ready to move on to Minnesota.

A little whining on the prairie

Ok, a lot of whining. This post is dedicated to Tawnya Dudash, who asked me whether I was going to write about everything or just the happy stuff.

Warning: some of this will be graphic and disgusting, so if you don't want to know - don't keep reading!

I'm actually writing this at 7am from a general store/cafe in De Smet, SD, the morning after a really crappy day of riding; coffee and a decent night's sleep are improving my outlook, which is good. The only other people here are local folks sitting together at a big table, telling stories about big storms, where they were during last night's storm and Wednesday night's storm, and tornadoes from their childhood, and it's all pretty funny. The day *after* a crappy day is often fun - you get to tell anecdotes! I'm just gonna complain.

Ever since I left the Black Hills - jeez, last Friday, so it's been over a week now - I feel like riding has been full of challenges that got really irritating yesterday. Unhappy bike parts (tires, crank and then the derailleur), really hot weather, and worst of all: the Plagues of South Dakota. I will itemize:

1. Locusts! West of the Missouri River these beasts are all over the roads - in layers. Flying up from the grass and the pavement, smacking me in the arms & legs & even face, and crunching under my tires... I first encountered them heading to the Badlands from Rapid City, and at the beginning I tried not to run over them. By the second day I was aiming for them. It was gross. I now understand how they could ruin a whole crop.

2. Biting flies! These seem to hang out with the grasshoppers, though I expect I'll encounter them again in Minnesota, Wisconsin and/or Michigan - oh boy.

3. FROGS. These are the worst, most disgusting road kill ever. East of the Missouri everything is wet - it was a snowy winter & rainy spring & summer, so there's a lot of standing water along the roads (the famous sloughs, pronounced "sloo") - and thus lots of frogs. I don't know if they think the road is one giant, hot rock or what, but they're all over the shoulder. Squashed, splayed out, in various stages of rot. Little ones mostly but occasionally a larger specimen. This is SO GROSS I can hardly stand it. I scream every time I run over one, which is often. (Already dead - I've only seen a couple of live ones and managed to avoid them.)

4. Bad shoulders. Not just my own shoulders, which yes are achy after a long day of riding, but the shoulders of the roads. Since Pierre, there have been many miles where there's about 12 inches of shoulder and then gravel - or no shoulder at all, with gravel. With just two lanes for traffic, which includes semi's and RVs, 12 inches to ride on is not very relaxing... not to mention there are SQUISHED FROGS all over the shoulder. And wind.

5. Wind. Now, I know that sometimes I'm excited to get a tailwind - well, always excited when I get one, which isn't that often. But yesterday I had to fight an increasing headwind the whole day. All 78 miles of it. Through the day I had to shift my gears lower & lower as the wind increased, until the last 15 or 20 miles I was basically in "granny gear" - what you'd use to climb a hill - even though it was totally flat! Just against the wind. I have never understood how air can be so hard to move through, but it was really a battle.

6. Butt. All the heat & humidity & bunching up of shorts with sweat & effort is contributing to a very sad butt, mine that is. I feel deep compassion & empathy for all those babies with diaper rash - that's basically what I've got. (And yes, I'm slathering various butt-protection products all over it...)

7. Worrying about thunderstorms. Now, I love a good storm - sincerely, I do. I've been through three this week, and called my friend Cyndi during each one, just because it was so fun & exciting. (I call her for earthquakes, too - she said there was one in SF yesterday - woo hoo!) The good, incredibly lucky thing is that I've been indoors for each one - on Monday at the golf club in Philip, on Wednesday in my dumb hotel in Pierre (where my bike was getting fixed) and last night, in a motel in De Smet. I had totally planned to camp here, but at the last minute a friendly local person pointed out it was supposed to storm & called around & found the last motel room in town for me. So I took it. Yay for me - this storm was crazy - lightning & thunder, wind lashing the rain in sheets across the road out front, for over half an hour. I was sooooo glad not to be cowering in my tent. The complaint about this is the past few days, with storms predicted during the afternoon, I've had to ride with a worried look over my shoulder, wondering if I was about to be hit out in the middle of nowhere. There's generally 20 miles between buildings out here on the prairie, so it's a real worry, wondering where to take shelter if I need to. I've been really lucky - so this compaint is mostly about the tension of worrying about it...

8. Worrying about time/deadlines. Yesterday my deadline was self-imposed, mostly: I really, really wanted to get to De Smet by 5pm so I could go to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. She wrote all those "Little House on the Prairie" books that the tv show was based on, and you can laugh at me if you want but those books really shaped my childhood imagination. When I learned just before my trip that this stuff was in De Smet (the little town on the prairie, where they ended up settling) I got so excited about seeing it.... but then the aforementioned wind (and impediment of frogs) made me go so much slower than I'd expected... I just barely made it here by 5:20pm. Turned out they had later hours for the summer, and I got to go on their last tour (of two houses & two schools related to the books). So that part worked out - but worrying about it all afternoon really sucked. And today I have to get to Watertown (60 miles from here) in time to get new glasses, at least ordered but it would be best to actually get them. So... I should get riding. If it's not against the wind I'll get there early, but if it's like yesterday that will suck.

OK. That's my list of complaints. Because I've now had coffee, breakfast, and a cinnamon bun for dessert, I can mention a couple of less cranky things.

A. The Laura Ingalls Wilder stuff was really interesting! To see the actual buildings was cool, but overall what's made the biggest impression on me is the smallness of towns & individual buildings (including a house dug into a hillside on the prairie, which was common) -- in the face of the immensity of the prairie itself and the ferocity of the storms - and winter. Yikes. Can't quite imagine living like that...

B. People in South Dakota are really friendly and nice and helpful. Well, they were friendly in Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, too - but since I've been complaining so much about South Dakota I wanted to mention this. PLUS: the towns all seem to have "City Park" areas (they have signs pointing them out) where you are allowed to camp. That is so civil...

C. Even when I admitted to myself yesterday that I was hating the ride, I also realized that I didn't want to give up and go home - I just wanted the wind to stop and the frogs to go away, and maybe to be in the next town. (Or in Minnesota, where I'll get to tomorrow.)

D. Yesterday I hit the 2,000 mile mark! Woo hoo! Around Wednesday I'll get to St Paul, which I consider the half-way point. But 2,000 miles was exciting. This was also before the wind got too crazy so I was happily ringing my bell & all.

Now I need to get riding again. Hopefully will feel less whiny tonight in Watertown!!

From here to Minnesota

Just realized that from here to Minnesota I'm mostly going to be staying in less-developed campgrounds (rather than the RV parks more common in the tourist areas I've been traveling through). This means I'm less likely to have internet access - so if I don't post anything for a while, don't worry. Or, you can worry if you want to, but I'm pretty sure I'll be ok.

Looking back at Wyoming

I spent a day in Pierre, SD getting my bike fixed (again - but for real this time!), researching places to stay from here to St. Paul, finding out I might be able to get new glasses this weekend in Watertown, SD (or have them mailed to St. Paul for me)... and managing to be indoors for yet another doozy of a thunderstorm. More are predicted for tomorrow and especially Friday, so I'm also trying to map out places to take shelter if I need to.

And a bonus for patient readers of this-here blog: I finally sorted out photos from Wyoming! These are pictures from the Teton Pass from Idaho into Wyoming, then riding from Jackson to Ten Sleep, and from Buffalo to the border of South Dakota. (I already posted photos of the day I went from Ten Sleep to Buffalo, so those aren't in this batch.) Apologies to those who prefer a sense of chronology, but besides being busy lately (!) I also tend to like tilting the time-space continuum a little on its side.

Lost in Wyoming photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/Wyoming#

Oh, those museum pictures are from the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis - check it out at http://www.wyodino.org/.

Never a Dull Moment

I admit I thought I might be a little bored riding in central & eastern South Dakota, after leaving behind all those mountains I love so much... but between dangerous critters, endless road construction (and shoulders in terrible riding condition), and Severe Thunderstorms, I haven't had much time to be bored.

At least it's comforting to know someone is taking on those plague-ridden prairie dogs...

I've put a bunch of pictures on picasa from the Badlands, and riding from there to Philip and then Pierre (the South Dakota state capitol, and home of fabulous ice cream that folks from the Cycle America group told me about!).

Today I saw a bunch of historic markers that are really different from the ones I've seen before - many of them marking the Lewis & Clark trail, and old wagon-train trails... Given how glad I am every day to get to a camp w/a shower, and sometimes even a motel, I can hardly imagine crossing this intense landscape in a wagon.

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/BadlandsToPierre#

The storm Monday night really was Severe - the emergency broadcast signal on the tv said so. I was sooooo lucky to be camping at this place next to the Lake Wagonner Golf Club right outside of Philip. When I saw it looked like "rain" coming (it seemed kind of benign at first) I went over to the clubhouse to have a beer and wait it out before I made my dinner. All the golfers came in too, and it suddenly became clear this was no ordinary rain-storm... The tv started blaring the emergency signal and when it hit, tbe lightening was going every which way. When the rain hit we couldn't even see my tent anymore, just a hundred yards or so away... but it survived, and most of my stuff was even dry inside - yay tent!

I was kind of nervous going to sleep out there, wondering if another storm would hit and how it would feel to be in the tent during that wind & rain. I did wake up around midnight to lightning and thunder, but the storm blew to the south and it didn't even rain on me. I tend to love big weather and storms, but I have deepened respect and awe for their sheer power...

I'm going to stay a day here in Pierre, to deal with ordering new glasses (grrr) and get more maintenance on my bike - the rear derailleur is being funky and the gears are slippy. I'm a little frustrated to have to stop riding again after just a few days on the road, but it's way more frustrating to have slippy gears when climbing the endlessly rolling hills of the prairie. Who's the one who said the prairie is flat?!

Hitting the Badlands

Crossing the Black Hills I kept seeing little sign-posts with the names of creeks: Poison Creek, Badwater Creek, Dry Creek... and now I'm in the Badlands. When I'm not going "Wow! This is so cool!" I think about how intensely harsh this landscape is... and how intense the winters must be. Though it's so crazy hot these days that requires a lot of imagination.

There are signs of danger:

But also of delicate beauty (I won't tell you what else I was doing when I took this picture):

I rode 75 miles today in 7.5 hours, including stopping for snacks & lunch, take pictures, lose my glasses (a senior moment I now have to deal with) and have a Squirt in a bar with a sign that said "Bikers Must Stop" (I had to comply even though I knew they meant motorcyclists).

At that bar they had several tv's on with no one watching - but one was showing a soccer game between Celtic FC (from Glasgow) and the Seattle Sounders. Celtic is Camilo's favorite team in the whole world, so it was really exciting to me to catch it, so randomly... (Pretty much everything I know about soccer is because of him.)

The wind sprang up (against me) around mile 50, and it's been blowing like crazy ever since - so I hope it dies down overnight because I have a ways to go tomorrow...

Rapid City, SD + more photos

I came out of the Black Hills and into Rapid City on Friday, after lots of joy riding along the Needles Highway without my gear - and then a tense day riding *with* all my gear on a rear tire that was on the verge of blowing out - I did kind of melt it on that asphalt... But I made it, and spent most of today (Saturday) getting new tires & adjustments to the bike's bottom bracket (the crank), and walking endlessly through horrifying sprawl to find the camping stuff store to get fuel for my backpacking stove. All done with that stuff - and I found a curry place for dinner, yay.




And happily, despite the vast malls of this city, the joy of the Purple Pie Place (and its pig) linger with me, still.

I find that after a couple of easier days of riding and then this day of endless errands, I am really antsy to get back on my bike! I think this is a good sign that I am actually enjoying this trip, and not approaching it as something I Have to Do. This guy at an RV campground (the one with a pistol on his belt) asked me what I was trying to prove. "Nothing!" I said, "It's just for the fun of it." But I wondered if I had some hidden (from myself) agenda. I don't think so - it really is fun. To ride, if not shop.

Not to mention the following excellent road signs - with a lovely two-fer punch for those who know how much I associate miniature golf with my birthday & who also know a little yiddish, and a sprinkling of enriched (but mysterious) patriotism...

And here's a link to more photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/CusterAndRapidCity#

Ready for the next half-century*

I thought I would be thinking a lot during this trip, contemplative things: about my life, my work, what might come next. You know, stuff you think about as you get old, like 50. Except I haven't really been thinking about this stuff - mostly I think about where & when I'm going to eat next.

But there are these arrows on the road I keep following - pointing ahead, to things I have ideas about but don't really know until I get there.

Riding alone I do find myself thinking about people I care about - not in a lonely way, much more it's about appreciating the love and affection I feel and receive from so many amazing people. I hope I let you all know that. It's probably something I need to do better.

The first day I set off alone from Jackson, riding through Grand Teton National Park, I found myself just about in tears - of joy and amazement. That I get to be here, doing this - that I have the time, the physical capacity, the money & support to do this (especially from Luis & Camilo, who let me go for this long) - I feel kind of overwhelmed with this great fortune & privilege. Not to mention all the endorphins, and the fabulous biker tan I'm acquiring...

*and yes, the title is also a bike joke (100 miles = a century)

Tailwind at last!

Whoo-hoo, I got a tailwind! This was a really short mileage day, too, only 40 miles from Newcastle, WY to Custer, SD. It was really hilly but quite lovely, and getting blown up a hill is a really great thing.

I've taken pictures crossing every state line - into Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and now South Dakota. I continue to be amazed at the combination of my own geographic ignorance and the realities of the shifting landscape... I'd imagined eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota to be sort of barren, scrubby high-country deserty stuff (like southeastern Idaho)... but all of Wyoming seemed so green. I know they got a lot of late rain this spring but it's totally lovely. And then crossing into SD, it was pine woods! I love that smell. And the fact that things can change so much in the course of one day's bike ride.

I'm so taken with the area around Custer that I decided to stay an extra day here. I needed to get a blood test (my regular thing re: the coumadin/clotting time I have to monitor) and it turned out there's a regional hospital here. People (actually person: Duane, who rocks) at Kaiser in SF was amazingly responsive about faxing in an order and the whole thing - from first phone call to getting out of there - only took about an hour. This was probably the most responsible thing I've done on this whole trip, other than deciding not to camp by myself in grizzly bear territory...

Tomorrow I'm celebrating my actual birthday (which I started observing at least a week ago) by going on a day-ride without all my gear, along the Needles Highway and to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. Followed by PIE, of course, at the Purple Pie Place just up the road from the RV park where I'm camping. (I tested the pie today, just to make sure it would suffice, and I was satisfied.)

So far turning 50 is great!

Pave the Planet

A truck working to pave part of eastern Wyoming had that (pave the planet) written on a placard across the front. I was too slow getting my camera out so you'll have to take my word for it. I have to say, all over Wyoming they are working on just that. Today I rode over 8 miles of brand-new, literally steaming asphalt. I was freaking out that my tires would melt, not to mention the fact I was the only one on most of a 5-mile stretch, since the flagger let me go on ahead of the cars and for some reason it took ages until he let them all through.

The other title for today could have been: Coal to Newcastle. All day long I was following (or being followed by) trains carry tons of coal, out of Gillette and headed for Newcastle. The first one I saw I of course had to scream out "No way! Coal to Newcastle!" and I pretty much kept it up most of the day (when I wasn't cursing the danged wind, which was not at my back).

There were also many, many train cars parked in sidings along the road; after it occured to me to check my odometer I realized one train alone was over 2 miles long!! A guy in a restaurant told me Gillette supplies 20% of the nation's coal used to produce electricity. Yow.

It was a hot, dry day - I rode nearly 80 miles and drank two whole giant bottles of gatorade along the way, plus probably half a gallon of water. And a lot of breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, and snacks, of course. And a buffalo burger for dinner!

Yesterday I rode from Buffalo to Gillette - on Interstate 90! The only way to get there. I was nervous at first but folks from the group (who are now a day ahead of me) assured me it was a great ride. And it was - huge, smooth shoulders, and hardly any traffic, amazingly. So, RV Parks and I-90 are my surprise discoveries so far... (pave the planet, indeed).

Tomorrow I hit Custer, SD, and then it's on to happy birthday trips to Flintstones Bedrock City, Mt Rushmore, and some dingy motel in Rapid City, SD...

Links to Lots of Pictures!!

OK campers, I've managed to put a bunch of photos up on picassa. These are from the first two weeks of riding (I'll catch up eventually), and I haven't had time to add captions or anything - but I hope you enjoy them.

Week 1: Everett, WA to Missoula, MT (including Stevens Pass and Flesher Pass): http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/BikeTourEverettWAToMissoulaMT#

Week 2: Bits of Idaho and lots of Montana (on the way to Wyoming): http://picasaweb.google.com/106458209676650999720/BikingMissoulaMTAlmostToWyoming#

(PS: I realized just now these are slightly jumbled - but probably I'm the only one who can tell. I sorted them by state, but we went through pieces of Idaho two different times. If you can find the problem on the time/space continuum you get a special prize!)

Glad to be in Buffalo, WY

Wow, what a day. I know I say that almost every day, but here are some pictures to prove it! (The first few are from the beginning of the day - looking back to where I'd come from.)

Today I rode from Ten Sleep to Buffalo, Wyoming - only 65 miles, but about 45 of them were climbing. From the town of Ten Sleep ("town" meaning a two-block set of stores & restaurants along the highway) I rode up and out of Ten Sleep Canyon, over the Powder River Pass (elevation 9,666!!), and then rolling hills until the final descent into Buffalo.

There was only one restaurant on the way, at Mile 18 - where I was happy to stop climbing long enough to have second breakfast (blueberry pancakes!) and refill my water bottles - which I'd already drained. The morning was really hot, and I had to stop every mile or so to wipe the sweat out of my eyes (and take pictures).

By mile 25 I was high enough up in the mountains that it cooled off - to the point where there was snow along the road! A while after that the rain hit - cold, hard rain, with thunder rumbling behind me. Fortunately I'd seen it coming and had all my rain gear on, plus waterproof covers on the panniers. (Glad to use the shoe covers I debated holding on to - mostly to keep my feet warm.)

It wasn't the longest ride, but definitely the hardest per mile of the whole trip so far. I know that's partly because I'm hauling so much stuff, but it would've been hard anyhow. I kept thinking of my friends from the group, who didn't have to carry their stuff but also did another 30 miles before they even hit that climb. (I took three days to do what they did in two - and glad I planned it that way.)

I only saw one other bicyclist on the road today, going in the opposite direction. We waved and yelled something like "Crazy ride!" but didn't stop - it's all about momentum... I did see a lot of people on motorcycles. Have been seeing this all over Montana & Wyoming. I have to say it looks really fun - I could totally imagine touring that way. Maybe when I turn 60...!

I also saw a big moose and a baby one galloping through a meadow, and a couple of deer crossing the highway. Plus heard a Big Thing crashing through the woods - but I didn't stick around to see what it was.

Tomorrow is my Rest Day in Buffalo, yay. I'm going to watch the World Cup final (probably at the Mexican restaurant where I had dinner - they're planning to show it), do a lot of laundry, and hopefully catch up on posting photos to this blog...! I'm staying in a motel tonight (just too tired to deal with setting up my tent tonight - I'll move to a campground tomorrow).

I've always liked talking to strangers, and one of the things I'm enjoying on this journey is how easy it is to strike up conversations with people. (Mostly they see the bike and start asking me questions about what I'm doing.) I'm having my one beer of the night (ok, I'll have two) at the Occidental Bar on Main St., and a woman just gave me her card and said I should call if I need a place to stay when I come through New York! It's kind of humbling but also I think that most people would just as soon be really friendly and open to strangers, but we're told not to. Being on vacation probably makes people less guarded, too...

OK, I need to drink my beer and get out of here - it's Saturday night, and I'm already ready for bed...!

Wild Times in Wyoming

I liked that title but really nothing too wild is happening. Tonight (Friday) I'm in a little place called Ten Sleep (it took ten days for people to get here from someplace, is why it's called that). Camping in a great RV park, trying to get to bed so I can get up before the dawn and tackle the big-ass mountain I need to climb to get to the next destination: Buffalo. That's where I get my rest day, yay, and watch the World Cup final in a saloon on Main St.

It's been soooo hot - and the past couple of days there really isn't any shade at all alongside the road. There isn't really anything along the road but gravel, and - I kid you not - the skeletons of animals. Small ones, so far. There aren't even many towns between my destinations. It's been a challenge to carry enough water but I'm managing.

Last night I stayed at this place outside of Thermopolis, the home of the World's Largest Mineral Spring! (the sign says so). The RV park had its own mineral baths, so I went in - it was neat, but to be honest I wasn't that much in the mood for hot water, given my day in the hot sun. It was also the home of vicious mosquitos, many of whom dined on me. Happy to report that the Ten Broek RV park seems to be mosquito-free (maybe because of the stuff they were spraying earlier this evening).

The coolest thing in Thermopolis, actually, was the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. I expected it to be really hokey (which is why I went a whole mile off-route to visit - I need some postcards) - but actually it was lovely. Really great displays of fossils and dioramas. I took a ton of photos which probably will be impossible to see, but I was happy I went. (Wyoming has tons of fossils and dino digs, is why that's here.) It affirmed my decision to leave the group and ride on my own - so I could have time to do stuff like that. Check it out: www.wyodino.org/museum/

Now I need to get to bed! But for those of you who have been clamoring for More Pictures, I spent a lot of time downloading & organizing some which I hope to post this weekend. It all depends on a reliable internet connection, which I hope/expect to find in Buffalo.

(And yes, I am excited that I get to go through Buffalo WY *and* NY.)

Catching Up - in Riverton, WY

Wow! What a day! I realize I say that every evening, but sometimes it's more about exhaustion. Today was really fantastic - and I'm finally catching up to the chronology of things. (Thanks to free wi-fi at the Wind River RV Park, where I'm camping.)

Today I rode my personal record distance with a loaded bike - 84 miles, many of them following the Wind River through the rolling foothills and then valley leading from Dubois to Riverton. It was really gorgeous and exciting, not to mention I had a tail-wind for much of the ride - whoo hoo! (Unlike my Cycle America group friends, one of whom I talked to on the phone - they did that whole ride with the wind against them, the day that I rode into Dubois.)

It was also warmer, yay - summer's back. It was just a great day to be on a bike.

The other fun part was seeing the yellow arrows on the road painted by the Cycle America router - they go out a day ahead of the riders and paint small yellow directional arrows, to show the turns. They also mark what they call "comfort arrows" - which are simply there in random places along the highway, which in fact are kind of comforting. I ring my bicycle bell every time I see one (also every time I go over a bridge, and lots of times just for fun - or to talk to cows and horses, and occasionally note an especially-interesting specimen of road kill).

Then out of nowhere the yellow arrows said turn right, at a place I was planning to go straight. So I checked my map carefully and realized they were routing onto a country road off the highway, that lead into town from a slightly different direction. I decided to go with the arrows - and what a treat! Wow! It was called "Riverview Road" and followed the Wind River again into the south side of Riverton - it meandered through farms and then a few neighborhoods, with hardly any traffic. (One hay truck, one pickup truck, and a guy driving a tractor on the road.) It was fun to ride but also a kind of social thrill, knowing my friends had been there just yesterday...

With the RV Park's unexpectedly great internet connection, I've also been able to get phone numbers and call ahead to confirm campgrounds through Sunday. I've made a quick adjustment to this "lifestyle," realizing that the RV parks also offer tent sites with hardly any people in them (I'm the only one in a tent here), and have showers & laundry rooms. They also tend to be close to the main drag, stores & restaurants - so RV parks are my new best friends.

Now it's off to maybe even read a magazine article before I go to sleep! Wow! I haven't read anything but maps & route sheets for over 2 weeks!

Decisions, Luck, and Dubois, WY

Wow, what a nutty day Tuesday was. Most of them are, but yesterday I found a series of unexpected conditions and opportunities, which turned out great but were really challenging.

First off: good thing I decided Monday *not* to ride over Togwatee Pass and camp at the top...! I knew there was construction happening on that road, but it was in much worse shape than I'd realized, and really difficult to ride (gravel, to go along with a really long, steep climb). Not to mention it was unseasonably cold (there was still snow up there!), no bear boxes, lots of bears, and the road to the campground was dirt and steeply uphill. I would have been miserable trying to get there, and being there - not to mention scared all night.

The construction crew wouldn't let bicyclists ride through some of the sections they were working on (note: impossibly big trucks, driving on crazy steep hills - working to widen the road at the pass) - we had to wait for the pilot car/pickup truck to ferry us through those two sections. "Had to" - to be honest, I was glad of it - the whole roadway was gravel, and really narrow, with lots of truck & RV traffic.

The guy driving the truck I was in told me the other day he saw a grizzly bear chase a group of elk and take down a baby one - going right around the truck as it did so. So now I'm really glad I played it safe and stayed down below the pass.

The next unexpected condition was the whole 25-or-so mile ride into Dubois was against a fierce wind - much to my dismay. I rode as hard as I could, racing to get to town in time to watch some of the Uruguay v. Netherlands game. I managed to get to the Whiskey Creek Saloon and catch the last 20 minutes of the game, which was a treat. There were four other people, all older-than-me women smoking & gossiping and completely ignoring the TV, which was funny.

As I sat there recovering from my hectic and strenuous day (nursing a mid-afternoon Snake River IPA, which was great) I decided to call it a Motel Day - after three nights of camping in the cold (frost on the tent!) I was ready for a warm bed, real pillow, and fluffy towels.

I ended up staying at the Branding Iron Inn, across the street from the Jackalope exhibit at the Country Store. Ate a big hamburger at the Cowboy Cafe, too - this trip has turned me ravenously carnivorous. Though also craving vegetables. Today I ate half a head of cauliflower, half a cucumber, half a carrot and a whole bell pepper - for my afternoon snack, before I went to dinner!

Grand Teton National Park

It really was like riding through a postcard...

Riding Solo!

That's an exciting title - and an exhilarating feeling, especially since I managed to conjure up a day of perfect transition from riding with the group to being on my own, with a little of each. It was hard and a little weird to see my group riding off to breakfast Monday morning, as I slept in a little (on purpose) and then loaded all my gear on my bike. Which, given the insane amount of stuff I'm hauling, took a while. I had breakfast with a few of the crew staffing the group, then took off on a slightly different route - taking a nice short-cut they couldn't get a group permit for, through the western entrance to Grand Teton National Park. Which meant that later in the morning I managed to catch up to a few people from the group, and even got to have lunch with people at the Picnic stop! (Picnic always being a highlight.)

One of the things I was challenged by (ok - worried about) as I set off on this Big Day was the fundamental question of where I would sleep this night. My original idea was to camp at the top of the Togwatee Pass, which is also along the Continental Divide (which I think I've crossed three times in the past week). But this is Grizzly territory. As in, big mean bear. I couldn't get confirmation anywhere that the campgrounds up there have bear boxes to protect your food... and the rangers in Teton Park told me about a camp before you get to the pass that does have boxes. So I decided to stay there. Note to those of you who are worried about me: see how thoughtful and careful I'm being?

This also meant I had to ride "only" 50 miles - a lot less than I've gotten used to, and a good opportunity to get used to how the bike handles carry so much stuff. (It was mostly flat, too, which helped.)

And a great thing about the campground (a little rustic place managed by the forest service) became evident as the afternoon wore on: in the evening there were eight of us camping there, seven of us on bikes! Turns out it's on the Adventure Cycling Trans-America route.

So this was another part of the transition - being on my own, but with friendly company. I hung out and had tea & dessert with four other riders, two from Holland, and two from Texas. I'd expected this to happen at some point along the trip, but not the first night - so that was a great gift.

My goal for Tuesday is to make it up and over Togwatee Pass and then down to Dubois in time to watch the Uruguay v. Netherlands game - let's see how that goes.

(Still) Alive in Wyoming

My sister Peg wrote up some of the adventures we weathered in Montana - weather itself being one of the wilder elements. Besides the crazy thunderstorms and hail (and nasty wind that tends to come with) I actually really loved Montana. Big sky, indeed, big mountains with snow on top, long rolling roads following rivers rushing down from the hills... I found myself saying aloud that I would love to live in Missoula and get to ride those roads all the time.

Friday we crossed into Idaho, and then Saturday into Wyoming, over the insanely steep Jackson Pass (10-11% grades). It was grueling, and I had to stop a couple of times to let my pounding heart settle. Just as I thought I'd have to stop again, I heard whooping and hollering from around a bend in the road - and clanging bells! People had carried bells all the way for this reason, to cheer the rest of us as we got to the top. It was really fun (and gave me the oomph to get myself up that last little bit).

Then came a glorious 5-mile descent - whoo hoo! My Sunday rides in the Marin Headlands have paid off, I think - this wasn't quite as scary as Conzelman Road (that goes from the Golden Gate Bridge out to the Pt. Bonita lighthouse) but it was a lot longer! I could smell my brakes starting to melt...

And Sunday we had a rest day in Jackson! Well, a rest from biking. A bunch of us took the bus from our campground into town, which is a major tourist spot. And it was the 4th of July, so there was a parade, a million people, and lots of hub-bub. I managed to avoid all that and filled my day with getting camping supplies, doing laundry and - I'm sort of embarrassed to admit - buying a little notepad-style computer - which I'm writing this on. It has been next to impossible for me to access the internet without having a computer; I think this will be only a little easier, and I might regret it still. The idea is to be able to post photos & more frequent updates, but I'm not sure if that's going to work out (I still have to ride 60-70 miles a day, and figure out how to feed myself too.

Sunday evening I crashed the group's dinner (with permission) - I'm not officially part of the Cycle America tour anymore, but I'm still camping with them. After dinner I became the evening entertainment for a bunch of folks, who came by to watch me sort through all my stuff and pack up my panniers (bags that attach to racks over my front & rear wheels). I had to box up a bunch of things to get mailed back to SF because they just wouldn't fit. Mostly people were making fun of how much stuff I have and wondering aloud how I could possibly carry it all, but a few folks were more helpful (e.g. brought me beer). All in all in was a great send-off.

Dispatch #2

Our intrepid cyclist phoned in a update this morning from West Yellowstone, MT. Unfortunately, the Dispatch Center wasn’t (wo)manned at the time. While I’m sad I missed the chance to talk with her (and answer the phone with “Ann Arbor Dispatch Center” just to hear her laugh), I am glad that I have the message on tape so I can fact check the report before publishing it.

Ruth’s message started with a chuckle and a hearty “Just calling to say ‘I’m alive!’” She was hanging out with some fellow riders watching the World Cup during and after breakfast. She added that they were going to have to “ride like crazy” to catch up with everyone else in Ashton, ID at the end of the day. She went on to describe her week in Montana.

The trip this week has been "VERY EXCITING (yes, her voice was in caps!) with really crazy weather – crazy thunderstorms in the morning and afternoon” with rain, lightening, “HUGE HAIL” and high winds. "Lots of people needed to be rescued” during one hailstorm; they arrived at the camp with red scratches all over them.

On Tuesday, Ruth and another rider were 'rescued' as well. The winds were blowing hard enough to force the two cyclists into the middle of the road, then lightening started so they dumped the bikes and stood in a ditch so as not to tempt fate by pretending to be lightening rods. A very nice woman pulled over and yelled “C’mon, I’ll give ya a ride!” before loading up their bikes for an easy last five miles to the day’s trip (into Townsend, MT).

The trip so far this week has been super exciting and a lot of work. Friday’s route is “fairly easy – supposedly” and takes them on mostly downhill, but very windy, route into Ashton, ID. Saturday is a “huge climb” up over the pass into Jackson, WY. Sunday brings a rest day and gearing up to set off on her own through Wyoming.

Internet access remains difficult and cell reception very spotty. She hopes to find a computer in Jackson so she can update us all herself.

Submitted by her sister, Peg, who's been following along using maps and lots of imagination.