"Homeless"

Just a final word here. Although life is a journey and not a destination, blogs should have a final chapter to end the story--at least that volume.

I am at with my brothers in Crawfordsville Oregon and will have time over the next few days to catch up on some entries to my journal that I missed during the last week and a half of this trip.

On Sunday we made it to Astoria and what a treat to hear the lapping of the Pacific waters against the pilings beneath the dock! I actually thought a bit of Lewis and Clark and the relief or joy they must have felt as the Columbia finally, finally broadened out to the Pacific. My brothers needed to get back home Sunday evening (a 3-4 hour car trip from Astoria) so we didn't have nearly enough time to poke around and check out the environs and museums.

So people ask me would you do the trip again. The answer is no, at least not on my own. I am so happy that I did do this--it really fulfills a dream I've had for a long time. I could seeing doing this trip, maybe on a different route, with a group of like minded people and with a sag wagon. It would be a comfort to know that you had support if you needed, and like going to movies, these adventures are so much richer shared with others.

The geography of these united states is truly awe inspiring. But really made the trip was the people I met along the way. If I had met a lot of negativity or nastiness along the way there's no way I could have persevered, or wanted to. The people I met showed interest, generosity, kindness. They encouraged and inspired. We gave to each other. Events all along the way seemed to always to work out for the best. Even temporary adversities, (flats in the middle of nowhere) turned into opportunities we would otherwise have missed (meeting people who came to our aid and provided provisions and/or a place to stay). You just never know.

And meeting Justin was a real break. Having someone to ride with over the Bitterroot Mountains and especially across the desert of eastern Oregon and Washington in intense heat made all the difference. His good spirits, youthful enthusiasm and go with the flow attitude was a healthful tonic. He only lost it once, after a torturous day riding form Umatilla OR. to Biggs from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. he got to the campground, threw down his bike and screamed "I hate this *&^*(&*& bike! Needless to say, being Justin, he quickly recoverd. I hope Justin has had good riding with his dad from Portland to Astoria and wish him the best as he continues onward toward Vancouver BC.

By the way, we agreed that the right name for Justin's bike was "Homeless". He carried all of his cargo in two cheapo panniers on the rear wheel. His bike is an older Bianchi Volpe (just like one I used to own) covered with biking stickers. He'd stopped at a Walmart along the way and bought a $5 blue foam sleeping pad. This was bungied to his rear carrier. Stuffed in it's folds were the poles to his tent extending well beyond the back of his bike, and draped over all of this were two free "discontinued" tires a bike store had given him in Missoula. Quite a sight. Justin had this attitude that "any old place I hang my hat is home sweet home to me", an attitude many of us have had for at least some portion of our youth. It was refreshing to be in the world in this way for a time. Maybe that's part of the joy of camping and traveling. Now I look forward to the familiarity and comfort of Montpelier and central Vermont but will not soon forget the freedom and the challenges of the open road on a bike!

Astoria!

Sorry to be so out of touch. THis has been and continues to be a wonderful trip! As DG said "no phone, no pets, no cigarettes!" Actually, about that phone, arriving in Walla Walla and reaching a Cellular One shop, they knew already who I was, that my phone was missing, and had not been stolen but rather picked up by an elderly gent out walking who thought the phone had been lost and brought it to the Pomeroy police--unfortunately after Justin and I had left town! Again, people along the way have been just wonderful--kind, generous, interested in the trip, talkative--wonderful.

Biking with Justin was great. He and I were quite compatible riders. I left him yesterday just outside of Portland (we rode together from Missoula Montana) where he is meeting his father on Monday. Yesterday I hooked up with my brothers, David and Peter, and the 3 of us are now just 35 miles outside of Astoria Oregon and the end of my trip! We rode together yesterday and will again today.

Have felt great, except for a "dead" thumb on my left hand. Nerve damage? Temporary I hope! One more minor climb today as we approach the coast. Will spend next week visiting family out here and climb South Sister in the Cascades next weekend. Then home to Montpelier. I can't wait!

Corinne, have mucho pictures for a show at school in the fall! Now why do I direct that comment to you?!:)

My love to all. The sun has poked through the morning fog here and it's time to hop on that bike!

update re Lowell from Betsy

Hi everyone...Lowell asked me to add a "blog log" (is that a word?) He is about 50 (+ or -) miles west of Walla Walla, Washington. He has hooked up with Justin (24 and awsome on the uphills and fearless on the down). They have been together since Idaho and are very compatible riders. Lowell says the biggest of the mountains are behind them and he is..so far..feeling great. They have been camping mostly and much of the time in city parks, very unequiped for email. Lowell's cell phone was "taken" from a public bathroom where he had left it to charge therefore he is totally out of touch..hmmmm. He and Justin have found that people are very generous and they have met with some very nice accommondations and very great hosts along the way. He is happy and well, and I imagine very fit, and sends his love to all. He continues to log his adventures and will update us all when he can get to a computer. Ahhh..a true adventure..life without technology. Betsy

Missoula and Adventure Cycling Office

I can't really believe it but I am in the office of Adventure Cycling in Missoula Montana! Had my best day of cycling today through absolutely spectacular scenery along the Blackfeet River. Lots of traffic but a terrific wide shoulder with rumble bar.
So I walk into Adventure Cycling and there's this guy named Billy Montigny from Burlington who has just arrived from another route (he's crossed the US 9 times by bike) and he knows Mary Welz and John Waldo of Montpelier! Wow, what a coincidence. We had lots to talk about. Charlie, if you're reading this, he thinks he knows you either from UVM (he's a bio/chem professor or some such) or from the Ski Rack-- he bought his Cannondale at the Ski Rack.

Met some nice young people here and may be biking with a young fellow tomorrow and possibly the next day. He's just graduated from college with a degree in biology from Tufts and lives in the US and in the Philippines. You just never know!

Hope all is well with all. David G. thanks for your advice. I actually picked up an orange piece of fabric from the side of the road today (one man's treasure is another's trash) and will try to fashion something to make me and the bike more visible. Love to all. Lowell

The Rockies, RVs, Trucks and Wind

I write today from the Library in Lincoln, about 80 miles east of Missoula. I found the library quite by accident. Stopped to camp for the night at a campground on the edge of town. The campground is sort of abandoned looking with no clear info on how you pay the $10 fee. So I spied an official looking building adjacent to the campground and stopped by to see if it was the office. Turns out to be the library so here I am. Maybe the camping will be free!

An eventful day today, both encouraging and discouraging. The bad part is nearly being run off the road numerous times by semis and RVs. Out here the speed limit is 70 on the two lane road I'm traveling. That means people go 80. Quite an unnerving experience when that heavy metal rushes by you within inches (or so it seems!) at those speeds. Found myself needing to ditch out off the highway numerous times today. Four times oncoming vehicles were passing traveling against me (once it was a semi passing a camper) and that's a little hairy. I can handle all the other variables (wind, hills, long western miles) but the vehicles here freak me out. They freak me out!

The good part. I crossed over the continental divide today through Rogers Pass to the western slopes of the Rockies! It was not so difficult, very long, but not so steep as, say, Appalachian Gap. The scenery in the Rockies is, of course spectacular. Last night I had a great night in the little town of Augusta at the Bunkhouse Inn: cost $26 and by far the coolest place I've stayed. This is an inn of some 20 rooms that was moved from town that went belly up (now a ghost town except for the brick bank building), up the road about 3 miles. The innkeeper told me that they moved it down to Augusta all in one piece with a single horse pulling this huge, huge building. How did they do it? They had some sort of reduction gear mechanism so that the horse circled and circled the house and each time he did, the house moved forward a few feet. Now I know the Egyptians used logs to slowly move the stone blocks used to construct the pyramids. This, though seems even more ingenious. I guess all the ingenuity isn't with us Yankees. The innkeeper, by the way, used to ride the wild horses and bulls in the rodeo. He's traveled all over the US and Canada performing, even doing rodeos in Madison Square Gardens and Boston! His dad was the chief rodeo announcer from about 1946-1980 and is inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. There were many, many emblems and awards from their careers displayed in the dining room, and, for more graphic evidence, the innkeeper showed me his scars from tumbles he'd taken. His reflection: "If you're going to ride the rodeo, it's part of the deal. You don't know when or where you'll get hurt, but you know you will." Fortunately he survived this phase of his life and now can enjoy the less dangerous role of innkeeper.

By the way, my drive across eastern Montana confirmed that I'd made the right decision not to pedal there. 100 degree temperatures, a very dry environment, huge distances between towns, endless rolling hills, monotony--boy am I lucky! I did stop at Fort Benton, the terminus for steamship travel up the Missouri and that was a beautiful and historic little town. Incredible setting. (For you geography buffs, Lewiston has the same distinction of being the furthest inland for steamship travel in the old days up the Columbia) I have pictures but, although I stopped and transferred pictures to a CD, I am now at a library where the CD drives have been disabled. Ugh!

On to Missoula tomorrow and then I have to give more consideration to my route. The vehicles really do have me rattled! My love to all. Thank you for your comments. I enjoy them greatly. Lowell

Minot (say Why not)

Minot Public Library, 4:35 on the edge of Rocky Mountain Time. Charge for use of the computer, $2.00. Everything else, priceless!

Sometimes the wind is your friend, and today it was mine! I made the 73 miles into Minot quite easily with a good tailwind most of the way. Stopped at a small cafe along the way for breakfast, and as seems to be the way here, half the town was in the same cafe enjoying a leisurely breakfast and a lot of banter about seeds, "pieces of ground", harvests, the weather. I in my bright yellow shirt and shorts was quite an interruption to the normal flow of things I'm sure. Got to meet the former superintendent of schools, now retired. In this small town about 15 years ago they had 350 students in their K-12 school. Now they're down in the 90's. North Dakota is experiencing rural flight--to its cities and beyond. A major (felt) school problem is sports! So few kids, so many miles to travel for games, and the price of gas have all created perfect storm conditions to decimate their beloved sports. By the way, baseball is big, big, big here. Even the smallest town has a well kept ball field and I have seen them used a lot.

Did you know the western mile is longer than the eastern mile? Well it is! Today, again, I spied grain elevators on the horizon, a sure sign the next town is coming up. They look like they're 1, maybe 2 miles away. In fact they're 6 or 7. And when you feel like you're close enough to reach out and touch them, they're still a mile away!

Am staying at a motel right across from the North Dakota State Fair which wraps up this weekend. I'll check it out tonight. Cally and Chris---Keith Urban (hope I got the name right) was at the fair last weekend! I've rented a car that I'll pick up out at the airport tomorrow and will be on my way with 4 wheels to Great Falls Montana and then on the Lewis and Clark bike route.

Love to all. I'll see if I can get pictures transferred to CD this weekend as I go 4 wheeling (meaning not on the bike!) On to Montana!!!

Grain Elevator Capitol of the North Dakota

Location: Harvey Public Library. Temperature about 92. Wind direction: out of the Northwest 10-20 mph. Direction of travel: Northwest on Highway 52 (unfortunately). Sometimes you win with the wind, sometimes you lose. Today I lost big time!

Will again stay at a city campground. Haven't been there yet but the librarian tells me it has facilities, hookups (like I need them), and showers (like yes, I do need one of those!). These city parks are a great thing. I guess the history is that in many North Dakota towns the railroad came first and then the towns sprung up along the rail lines. City parks were part of the original layout of the towns, I guess to facilitate travel. All services are free or you leave a donation. As far as I can tell there don't seem to be problems with abuse of the system. You just can't stay more than a week--then your welcome wears out!

So I'm poking around in a cemetery this morning, taking a break for food, drink, and shade (cemeteries always have trees, a rare and valued resource along the highways) when I look up and realize I'm staring at a herd of buffalo! There must have been 30 or so, from babies to behemoths! Fortunately there was a fence between us. After a few pictures (buffalo love to pose and show off their manly beards) I went back to checking gravestones. As I examined dates, this thing, this creature, this jerry-rigged cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo darts out from behind the stone, does a few quick jumps and right angle turns and other diversionary tactics (as though he needed them with me!) and scooted out to the "wild side" with the buffalo. My first encounter with the much feared western jackrabbit!

Had a great experience visiting the little town of Manfred on my way into Harvey. You can't see Manfred from the highway, it's hidden behind the rise where the rail tracks run, but Manfred is a nearly deserted town that a local group is trying to preserve. It was eerie, but in a good way. A wonderful lady whose grandparents settled the town showed me around and explained some of Manfred's history. Within the square block that makes up the center of this nearly extant town are 4 elderly houses in various states of disrepair, a falling in hotel, a brick bank built in 1906 I believe, and the old dry goods store, and an abandoned grain elevator (there's an operational one just up the road). I have pictures. In this part of North Dakota most towns were founded about a hundred or so years ago. Many of them have seen the life times of only 2-3 generations and are now being abandoned as younger folks move to where the jobs are and farming becomes more mechanized and large scale. The pictures my hostess showed me spoke of a vibrant time of large family gatherings, hard work, and optimism for the future. I wish the "founders" every success in preserving this bit of history. Corinne, a special challenge to you. Can you find anything on the internet about Manfred North Dakota. Good luck!

My best to all. I hope tomorrow the winds will be kinder as I head toward Minot. If they are, I may be in Minot tomorrow evening. If not, it will take two days. From there I'll plan my travels to western Montana to resume biking there.