I seem to have lost my zipper

Note: There is an addition to the cast of characters: Donna White is another wise one.

We last left off on our day off about a week ago in Sandpoint, Id. The only pedaling we did that day was the mile or so to the local library and we did so sans panniers, which was wonderful. It was nice to spend a day relaxing and walking around the idyllic town. We found Sandpoint quite charming save for the confederate flag blowing behind a big pickup truck, which are more common than you'd think in northern Idaho, and a bumper sticker that read "Wilderness: Land of no use."

With a little extra pep in our legs the next day we were back to pedaling. We were treated to a beautiful ride along Lake Pend Orielle and at some 30 miles later we unceremoniously arrived in Montana. We were disappointed that there was no welcome sign when we crossed the border. For the day we road 70-ish miles and spent the night at Bull Lake, Montana.

The next day we must have felt our legs were a little too fresh from our day off because we decided to ride 80 rather hilly miles for a two day total of 150 miles. Toward the end we were starting to tire and we started to look for a good place to take a break and catch our breath. After biking up a tough mile long hill Kelly thought he found the perfect spot in the form of the Libby Dam Information Center. The only problem was that it was located at the very bottom of the hill we had just climbed via a different road. At this point we were all a little perturbed with Kelly and acting for all of us Gus started hitting Kelly with the maps. Seeking to redeem himself Kelly pulled out the afternoon snack he had purchased earlier. However, Kelly just dug himself deeper as it was a major flop. With these two actions the "Good idea, Bad idea" list was started with Little Debbie Pecan Pinwheels and biking down to Libby Dam topping off the bad idea list. As such, we spent the rest of the day's ride chiding Kelly which made the rest of the ride to the Rocky Gorge Campground tolerable. Our camp site that night was beautiful with a perfect view of Lake Koocanusa.

The next morning Larry and Donna (Liz's Dad and Mom) came to spend the weekend biking with us. Up to this point, Gus had been the dishes man on the trip. But Donna also likes to do the dishes, which we warned Gus the night before she arrived. Gus practiced his responses to Donna-- "this is MY kitchen, I do the dishes here. You have your own kitchen..." True to form, the next morning Donna started washing dishes. Gus jumped up to take them from her, but after refusing, Donna and Gus started fighting over the sponge and dirty dish. In the end, Donna won. Kelly and Caleb are right to warn "do not mess with The Donna".

Before coming out, Donna did not like biking; in fact, she had a bike for 10 years and hardly used it. Luckily, we were able to talk her into bringing it out. We quickly discovered she was a demon on the uphills, beating us all. However, her speed down the hill was about the same as it was up them. After a few days of practice, she has become the "down-hill demon" and has found a new love of biking. That night we stayed at Dicky Lake and had a fabulous dinner prepared by Larry and Donna.

The next day we were welcomed by drizzle that lasted all day long. We had a beautiful ride anyway. Lunched in Whitefish, then rode on to Larry's cousins' house. We were warmly welcomed by Greg and Joy Carson. We ate wonderful food, caught up on family stories, took warm showers, washed clothes, and slept in beds!.

Mark joined us, after riding the train through the night! It was great to see the guy and to have him finally join us. We rode up to West Glacier after a tasty breakfast with Greg and Joy. The pass was closed, so we picked out a campsite, dropped our bags, and rode as far up the pass as we could. The views were amazing. A ten mile-strech of the "Going-to-the-Sun" Highway was closed to traffic, but open to bikes and hikers. We took advantage of riding on the wrong side of the road. After a tasty dinner with Larry and Donna, we had to say goodbye to them until they join us again in New York.

On Monday, May 29, we rode from West Glacier on Highway 2, which snakes along the southern edge of the park. On the way up we ran into Dan, a guy we met in Sandpoint and has led Adventure Cycling tours in the past. Missing the adventure that touring brings he decided to bike with us and camp with us for the night. It was cool to have the added, unexpected company. We then proceeded to climb up and over the Contintental Divide and Marias Pass and spent the night at a hostel in East Glacier.

The next morning we rode to Shelby, Montana. This was a tough ride for us because it was Gus's last day. The whole day everyone was a little down knowing this fact and it seemed that everyone was pedaling a little slower with the hope that it would last a little longer. That night we tried to concentrate on the fun that we had with Gus over the past two weeks. Here is our favorite Gus story: The night the Margie and Anna joined us in Usk, WA, toward the end of our meal there was a brief silence as everyone was preoccupied with savoring every last bite of pizza and sip of beer. Out of the blue Gus looked up and with the most forlorn and utterly distressed look loudly proclaimed "I seem to have lost my zipper." It was hilarious.

Finally, we have arrived at the present. We met Gus and Margie at The Griddle for a wonderful breakfast, took some pictures, said our goodbyes and sadly went our separate ways. The great food lasted us well into the afternoon (thanks Gus and Margie!) and some 40 miles to Chester, Mt, where we had a sandwhich and terrorized the local library.

Until next time, pedaling along,

Caleb, Kelly, Liz, and Mark

That'll git 'cha on Cee eN eN...

For those of you who would like to check out our route, here is the address: http://www.adventurecycling.com/routes/northerntier.cfm

Also, we would like to extend an invitation to ANYONE who will be in the area along our route and would like to visit or pedal with us for a day or two or five. We would absolutely love the company.

Anyway...

So we were outside the grocery store in Colville, WA -- in what we consider normal biking clothes but most everyone would consider outrageous, and a guy asks us whats up with the bags on our bikes (not the first time asked). We tell him our usual story and then get the response, " Holy cow. That'll git 'cha on Cee eeN eeN." No joke.

Yup, CNN indeed.

The real good one is when we asked an old guy out mowing his eastern Washington lawn "is this the road to Maine?"

We have bumped into some super nice people and of course some VERY colorful people. For instance, while eating lunch at the Beaver Creek "Resort" Angus and Caleb saw a kid fishing on the dock who had just caught a small perch and didn't know how to remove the hook. Gus nonchalantly unhooked the fish and tossed the fish back in the water, to which his younger sister replied in disbelief, "Did he just unhook it? Uncle Billy usually kills 'em!" So awesome.

Now for the details of our travels --

In Tonasket, WA, on the hotter than hot day, Gus grabbed a photo of the two young love birds after she said to him, " Honey, you know that one day, if we saved up, we could get a double-wide..."

After a scorching day in Tonasket, we headed over Wacounda Pass and met the meanest woman on earth. We now have the phrase, "Don't pull a Wacounda!" We lunched in a small town called Republic, which was to be our stop for the day, but we then met a lady who told us about a bike hostel up the road about twenty miles. We all proclaimed, "whats another twenty!" and then headed up to Curlew, a town of 200 people. What a beautiful ride --

The hostel turned out to be the backyard of a couple who really liked to bike a lot. They had hosted transcontinental riders for the past eight years and had anywhere from ten to fourty visitors per summer. The next morning we had to put the test to our "waterproof panniers" as the clouds opened up and dropped two inches of rain. No more heat, but gushing water instead. It was spectactular -- the low lying clouds in the forest, with the sun periodically peaking through. Quite the day for a bike ride. That day we finished off the final mountain pass -- Deer Creek Pass -- our fifth one in six days. All said we had completed our final pass 420 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. We finished our day's riding in Colville, WA. The only camping site within 30 miles was at the Colville County Fairgrounds. So, we pitched our tents right next to the calf roping holding pen and arena. Although the night lacked beautiful surroundings, we more than made up for it in cuisine and drink. We promptly prepared some italian sausage spaghetti and mojitos. After a long day of riding this was exactly what the doctor ordered. The following pictures are from our ride out of Colville the next morning.

The following day was our longest by far -- 73 miles in total. We took the long way to Usk, following the Pend Oreille River (pronounced Pond O' Ray) for some thirty miles of scenery. We landed in a DNR campground right on the river and met Margie and Anna (Kelly's mom and sis, Gus's wife and daughter) for pizza, which they toted up from Spokane, beer, salad, and angel food cake. The food was amazing and it was great to see some familiar faces. Kelly excliamed, "it tastes so good when it hits you lips!" as we all took in the scenery along the river. The sunset was amazing and the animals seemed to think the same -- we saw a coyote, turkeys, deer, a beaver, a grey heron, at least a baker's dozen of mosquitos (on each leg) and heard wolves howling in the distance.

The next day we pedaled into Sandpoint, Idaho. What a beaut. Sandpoint is a town of 10,000 ish people, nestled in the mountains on Lake Pend Oreille. We found a splendid RV site near the city beach and a nice little slice of heaven right inbetween a rather permanent resident of the RV park and a chainlink fence bordered by the busiest section of freight train tracks in the West. Gus was pretty sure he heard a few more than 5,000 box cars last night. Yup. ever hour on the hour, never failing. line. The bonus of it all is that for $25 we have complete access to the Best Western hottub, sauna, pool, showers, and complimentary coffee stand. Also, we are only a few blocks away from Mick Duff's Brewery. Yeah for Duff beer... Fresh Duff Beer... The guy gave us a funny look when we asked if we could fill a growler or two, using our nalgenes. Yeah, we are that classy.

Eight days later and nearly 500 miles behind our rippling calf muscles, we decided to kick it in Sandpoint for the day. We did some (and by some we mean everything we own) laundry. Turns out four people + triple digit temps + two pairs of clothing = ultra fresh. That is after three loads of laundry and extra strength detergent...

We are continually amazed as to how much food we consume while biking. Yesterday, as the three men of the expedition sat down in the grocery store and ate an entire box of granola. Kelly then asked, "you guys still hungry?" Although skeptical at first, five minutes later, as we walked out the grocery store and strolled to our bikes, we tossed an empty box of Cinnamon Life into the garbage...

until next time,

Pedaling along (not today but for sure tomorrow) ---

Caleb, Elizabeth, Kelly, and Gus

It Has Begun!

So here's the story -- a three month bike trip across America.
here's the cast -- four Oles and a couple of old men.

Elizabeth White
Kelly Fulton
Caleb Buecksler
Mark Kingsbury (to appear somewhere in Montana)
Angus Fulton (wise man (for the first three weeks (to pay for an occasional drink)))
Larry White (wise man (to appear sporadically))

Sunday, May 14th, Anacortes WA

The first three and the bottom two of the cast kicked things off by dipping their rear wheel in the Pacific Ocean. It was a bit of a stressful morning -- getting piles of gear squeezed into fourteen (gradeschool backpack size) panniers, all while a croud of loved ones cheered us on (then waited) all while anxiously sipping on their seattle-style mochas. It was a glorious day and the first repair popped up only three blocks out from the parking lot. shoot.
Lunch was great (crab sandwiches(thanks, dad, larry, wise one)) and then we pushed on for the most beautiful campground in the world, only sixty miles from the coast. Rockport State Park is the name and biblical proportioned trees were the game. Check it out sometime.
The White family met us all at the campground. They all cheered as we rolled into the park. Larry promptly got into the back seat of the car, rolled down the window and had his daughter, in the front seat also roll down her window. Each grabbed a wheel off to the camp site they drove. What a stellar finish for the wise man. The crab sandwich-eating Larry threw in the towel for now but plans on reappearing sometime, somewhere in New York for another tour.

Moving west, on the second and third day we headed into the Northen Cascade National Park on Highway 20. As early arrivals to the freshly opened park, we had two amazing nights in some of the most breathtaking mountains ever. It was pretty sweet to have the whole campground to our selves -- two nights in a row. First at the Colonial Campground on the Ross Lake and then the Early Winter's Campground, just west of Mazama, WA. Inbetween these sweet campgrounds were two monstrous passes -- Rainy Pass and Washington Pass, both over 5,000 feet. On top of the passes, five feet of snow lined the road. Good thing it was a warm day-- perfect for a snowball fight. Record setting warmth created a melting winter wonderland with a pleathora of waterfalls. While we kicked it in the snow on top, waters of flood proportions rushed down from the mountains. All morning long we sweat bullets in the mountain air going up hill with the glorious snow melt streams as our AC stops. On the way down the other side, however, we had to use ear muffs, jackets, and gloves to keep us from freezing. A real change from one extreme to the other.



Loup Loup Pass was a real wing-dinger. Only 92 degrees of fresh sunshine and NO wind helped us up the 4,800' pass as we rolled over freshly laid asphalt. Sweet. And just when we thought the day was done and we had landed at the perfect campground; the lack of water offered a ten mile bonus ride for the day. Not Cool. The extra salt on dinner's french fries tasted extra good that night as the four of us sat in our salt-stained jersey's at the local cafe. That day, all in all, we went through 12 gallons of water between the four of us.

Which brings us to the present. Outside, in Tonasket, WA, it is 98 degrees and dry. Inside, in the Tonasket Public Library, it is a refreshing 76 degrees, where we will call it a day, 20 miles shy of the planned stop. We have a lovely, shady, spot just outside an icecream shop, (Angus does love his chocolate malts) to camp for the evening. $2 per person and calming trickle of the local irrigation ditch to make it too nice to pass up.

Over and out --