By the numbers

Miles ridden between Everett, WA and Missoula MT: 604

Elevation gained during that time (i.e. feet climbed even with overall elevation lost by the downhills): 29,070 feet !!!!!! (The two passes were most dramatic, but the simple rolling hills all across Washington and Montana added the most actual footage.)

People in our group this week: 75

Those riding all the way to Boston: 45

(I'm leaving this group in Jackson - those folks are continuing on to Boston, and I'm taking a different route to Maine.)

Time up in the morning: before 5:30am

Time I'm on the bike, riding out: by 7:00am

Dinner: 6pm

Typical breakfast: Oatmeal, toast, bacon (sometimes), potatoes, yogurt, fruit salad, juice. Yes, all of these!!

How it works: In most places we've camped on the lawn of a school, and gotten to use their locker rooms to shower. (We stayed in a dorm at Gonzaga University in Spokane, and this dorm at the U of M.) In most places, people from the local Elks clubs have cooked our dinner and breakfast; at the Coulee Dam we ate in restaurants. I've never understood what Elks Clubs are before, but they're essentially community service groups - they run senior & youth programs. Feeding us is a fundraiser for them -- but a huge, wonderful service to us. Big plates of home-made, hearty food... it really gets me through the last hard miles, knowing dinner will be there when I arrive. (And it looks really funny, seeing a school surrounded by tents and bicycles, and our laundry drying on the fence...)

The tour organizer has been building relationships with people in these communities over the years and it really feels personal - it's nice. The cooks come out and talk to us about their communities and so it doesn't just feel like we're just... well... tourists, coming through and buying their services; they are pretty excited about our nutty adventures. Turns out that a lot of people in this group do tours with "Cycle America" (the organization) a bunch of years in a row - so they have connections to not just each other but folks in the towns.

Mid-way through each ride, the staff sets up Picnic - an amazing lunch with a main dish (hot soup in the rainy Cascades, tabouli wraps w/hummus on a hot day in Montana) plus vegies, fruit, chips, cookies... it's really way better than I eat at home. And is helping fuel all the riding, yow.

OK. Enough stats, and my turn on the computer is up...