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 Prologue – Where did this idea come from?

In the summer of 1988, Dave and I rode the Oregon Coast on bicycles.  We were not experienced bicycle tourists by any stretch of the imagination.  We used road bikes equipped with handlebar bags and large seat bags, doing what they call credit card touring – rather than carrying your own camping gear, you carry a credit card and stay in motels.  On the third day of riding, we pulled off to one of the many scenic overviews and ran into a westbound Bikecentennial (now Adventure Cycling) tour group.  They were a couple days from the end of a Virginia to Oregon cross-country trip.  They had just crossed the coast range and were looking at the Pacific Ocean for the first time after 3 months of only dreaming of what it might look like.  They carried their own gear and camped most nights.  Compared to us, they seemed like real pros. 

At the time neither of us was brave enough to say it out loud but we were both thinking what a great adventure that would be – we’d both been bitten by the touring bug.  We knew a bicycle trip across America was in the cards somewhere down the road.

Four years later, as I was finishing law school, it seemed like the perfect time to try such a trip ourselves.  I would have to take the bar exam in the first few months after completing school and would not be able to do much training in advance but once I started working, it was hard to see how we could both get a big block of time for such a trip. 

Once we seriously started considering the trip, we thought quite a bit about which bikes we should use.  We had ridden a tandem once in 1989 and absolutely hated it.  It was hard to shift, I hated being on the back and the uphills were a killer.  Still, as the spring of 1992 came around, we toyed with making a tandem the bike of choice.  People say that you get used to tandems – we’d never really given it a chance.  With my studies, single bikes would have created a big fitness difference and I didn’t relish the thought of struggling while Dave waited for me.  We decided to take the plunge and ordered a new tandem.

We picked up our beautiful Lippy tandem in May, and it seemed to fit us to a ‘T’ from the first ride.  As anyone who has ridden a tandem will know, subtle differences in riding style become much more significant when they occur on the same bike. However, we seemed to settle into the bike quite well and learned how to communicate to avoid most of the pitfalls of riding tandem.

Initially, the trip was not intended to be our honeymoon.  In fact, we had a secret plan to get married in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, about two weeks into the trip.  We had the judge all lined up and, provided we kept to the anticipated schedule, a rest day booked for the ceremony.  Unfortunately, 6 weeks before the trip, Dave was hit by a car riding his bike home from work.  Because we weren’t married, the hospital wasn’t very cooperative with me about his condition.  The thought of something happening before we got to Jackson Hole and not being able to help each other was quite unsettling.  So, two weeks before we left, we got married by a judge in Portland, with our good friend Jean McNamara acting as bridesmaid, best man and flowergirl.  Now the trip became an official honeymoon.

I finished the bar exam on Thursday, last day of July.  Somehow, Dave got everything ready while I was studying and with only one day to catch my breath, on Saturday, August 2^nd, we rode away from the Oregon coast.  Below is the day-by-day log of our journey.

Day 1 (Oregon) – August 2, 1992 Beachside State Park to Eugene (95 miles, 2800 ft, $49)

We started our grand adventure this morning from Beachside State Park, near Yachats.  My mother kindly transported us down to the coast from Portland and was there to wave us off.  We first put on our fancy helmet covers for a “wedding” picture (our friends Robin and Steve had made a tuxedo helmet cover for Dave and a veil helmet cover for me) and did a lap around the park.  Then, it was time to set off – out of the park heading north to Walport and then turning inland towards Corvallis and the East Coast!

We’ve never ridden the tandem this loaded, so the first few miles were a bit unnerving.  The bike seemed to handle well, just a little wobbly at first.  Dave did a good job steering, though he might need bigger arm muscles – they will certainly be bigger by the time we reach Virginia!  Nothing like jumping straight from two months of intensive study for the bar exam to 2 months of pedaling a bike to test out the old fitness.  Luckily, Dave was able to ride more and is pretty fit.  Somewhere round the 10-mile mark Dave announced that we only had 3990 miles to go.  I warned him that counting down every 10 miles out loud was not going to win him friends from the back of the bike.

We rode through Siuslaw National Forest to the small town of Alsea, where we stopped at the Farmers Kitchen for lunch.  The place was quaint, food was good, but the waitress did not seem to be having a good day.  A couple at a nearby table asked us how far we were going and suggested an alternative route towards Eugene over Alsea Falls.  We thought, what the heck.  They said that there was 2 miles of gravel and it was not in the hilly section we knew was coming up.  It was our first lesson in learning to take a car driver’s recommendations with a grain of salt.  The gravel turned out to be on the uphill part and we almost crashed once.  I’m not sure how we kept going on a few spots – it was quite a challenge for our first day.

The rest of the day was uneventful until we reached Monroe, where we ran in to Mariner Orum – a 75-year-old fellow who had already ridden 80 miles that day.  Dave asked about the route to Eugene and campgrounds.  He pointed out the best route and offered to guide us as he was heading back that way himself.  Along the way, he offered us his backyard to set up our tent for that first night.  We were pretty tired by then but had to work hard to keep up with Mariner’s pace of about 18 miles an hour all the way to Eugene – Mariner is fast!

Mariner offered the use of his house for showers, which felt great after a long first day.  Then we headed off to North’s Chuck Wagon for all-you-can-eat dinner with Mariner and his wife Carolyn.  They are both real characters.  Mariner rode cross country in 1980 and Europe in 81, 83 & 84 – it was great to hear his stories and feel like we were joining the club of long-distance cyclists.  We are sleeping in their backyard without the tent – bugs and all!  Off to brush our teeth and hit the sack.  It’s 9:00 PM and we are both tired.  It was an exciting first day!

August 3, 1992 Eugene to Belknap Hot springs (62 miles, 1500 ft, $25)

After a pretty calm night out in the Orums’ backyard we were up at 7AM.  It was a little hard getting everything packed again – first re-pack and all.  Mariner & Carolyn insisted that we eat some granola, so that was breakfast.  They were a very nice couple with a lot of stories – it was really a great first night out.  We got a nice photo of them and then detailed directions through Eugene.  We soon crossed the Willamette River and found ourselves in Springfield, another busy town, without local road knowledge.  A couple maintenance guys told us of a route that allowed us to use bikepaths all the way through Springfield.  From there it was up Highway 126 along the McKenzie River.  It was a pretty ride, with tailwinds up the hill.  It did get very hot though.  We stopped at Leaburg Dam County Park for lunch – peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  There was a fish hatchery with some very big fish to entertain us while we ate our lunch.  Inviting as the water looked, we stayed out for now.

We were going to stop for the day in McKenzie Bridge but decided to keep going on to Belknap Hot Springs on the recommendation of a park ranger.  It’s beyond the interchange to McKenzie Pass but only by a couple of miles.  We’ll have to backtrack tomorrow back to the Pass.  Tonight we are heading to the hot springs to work out today’s pain and get ready for tomorrow’s big climb over the famous McKenzie Pass.

The campground is very nice and very quiet – we really feel out in the woods.  The hot springs pool is a short walk from our campsite.  We spent enough time in it to get nice and relaxed (and wrinkled!).

August 4, 1992 Belknap Hot Springs to Redmond (62 miles, 4400 ft, $42)

We got up early today, at 6AM.  We set the alarm to make sure we had an early start on the hill.  Last night, Dave woke up and went outside the tent to attack a cricket.  He kicked dirt on it, threw rocks at it and even peed on it.  To no avail, it started making noise as soon as Dave got back in bed.  I guess you could say that we have not quite yet adjusted to life on the road!  6AM was pretty early this morning.

We made it on the road by 7:30 – not too bad a start, we’re getting better at packing already.  We rode the two miles back to the cutoff and headed up McKenzie Pass.  The climb wasn’t that that bad really, but it is a long one.  It was nice at the bottom and gradually got steeper but was never too bad.  It’s quite interesting to ride up through the changing forest – very green and lush with trees and underbrush at the bottom of the pass, which eventually turns to trees with less and less underbrush and then the trees eventually get quite sparse and you begin to really see the volcanic rocks and boulders that cover the top of the pass.  Towards the top we saw a deer and lots of chipmunks and birds also. 

The traffic was very light, which was good because the road was very narrow.  The morning was cool, which also helped on the climb.  All total it was about 22 miles of climbing.  At the summit there are lava fields and an observatory built out of volcanic rock.  From there you can see all the nearby mountains – Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Washington.  We had great views with sunshine and blue skies.  We got the obligatory summit photo and headed down the other side.  It was 12 miles of downhill into Sisters, the next town.  Given our heavy load we had to stop once to let the brakes cool down.

We stopped for lunch in Sisters, where a milkshake highlighted the meal.  We were so hungry we ate our dessert (chocolate chip cookies) before the meal arrived.  Not sure if we’ll gain or lose weight on the trip but it’s fun being able to eat anything you want.  From Sisters to Redmond it was only 20 more miles so we decided to push on.  It should have been easy but they had just chip sealed the road and there was lots of thick gravel.  It was scary riding but Dave did a good job keeping us upright!  I have to learn to keep my mouth shut and just pedal, I think.

In Redmond we are staying at the Desert Terrace RV Park.  We have a tent site next to Highway 97, the big north-south truck route, which means lots of traffic.  Our next-door neighbors have been crabbing at each other since we arrived.  It might be an interesting night!  We’ll try getting out early again to beat the heat.  Heading for Mitchell tomorrow, about 70 miles.

 

August 5, 1992 Redmond to Mitchell (73 miles, 2500 ft, $21)

The traffic never calmed down last night but the neighbors did so we slept ok.  We left camp about 7:30 and headed to town.  We saw a McDonalds and thought “what the heck”.  Actually the pancakes were good and only $1 for three of them.  Dave had two servings!  Little did we know then but this would become a staple for us through out the trip.  We bought muffins too, but saved them for later.  We had tied some bananas on back rack but unfortunately they were gone by the time we got to McDonalds – they must have bounced off somewhere.  Another learning experience about packing things on tightly!

The first 25 miles went quickly.  We stopped in Prineville for a pit stop and ate our muffins. We stopped again a little later at Ochoco State Park.  From there it was gradual uphill.  Pretty country – we are clearly out in the desert now.  We passed the famous Smith Rock – known as a rock climbing mecca – and saw lots of plateaus.  We stopped for lunch alongside a gravel pit – it seemed to be the only place we could find some shade.  From there it was a big climb up Ochoco Pass where we thought we would find water (there was a maintenance station).  No such luck.  A friendly BLM worker gave us some of his water to get us to the rest stop at the bottom of the hill.  We’ll need to be better about having extra water, as it gets hot quickly.  The ride down the other side was a bit scary, with multiple log trucks.  We even had one pull out to pass a second when the driver clearly knew it was not safe for us.  We were going down hill pretty fast and Dave had to brake hard and steer off the road.  Both truck drivers were laughing… !#@#@#!!

As we rode into Mitchell we stopped at the Blueberry Café for a chocolate milkshake.  We ran into four westbound Bikecentennial riders but unfortunately they were not overly friendly.  We were still pretty excited to be on our trip, but they were clearly ready for theirs to be over.  After that interaction we both hoped that when we hit our last state we would still be having fun and speaking to each other.  We stayed in the city park where on arriving we found the other seven Bikecentennial riders.  They were friendlier but you could see a lot of friction in the group.  Also in the park were two guys riding from Missoula to Chico CA.  They were much friendlier so we chatted with them instead.  I think that there were more cyclists in town that night than residents.  We did laundry, wrote postcards home and hit the sack.  We are hoping to make 80 miles and Prairie City tomorrow.

August 6, 1992 Mitchell to Prairie City (83 miles, 3030 ft, $36)

We got off to an early start today, on the road by 7AM.  We are getting better at packing up in the mornings.  There was a 6-mile climb straight out of Mitchell.  It was pretty steep, seemed harder than McKenzie Pass even.  But as it was still early at least it was nice and cool.  We stopped at the top and put on our jackets for the downhill.  It was a very pretty ride along the John Day River to Dayville.  We went through a place called Picture Gorge near John Day Fossil Beds, lots of red rocks and earthy colors.

Dave broke my water bottle cage this morning.  We carried a bottle in the front bag, plus two more extras in the back.  It was 40 miles to Dayville and we didn’t want to repeat yesterday’s running out of water.  Lots of wildlife out today, saw four fawns (with does) and a coyote.

We stopped in Dayville for a snack (with plenty of water this time!).  From there it was 23 miles to Mt Vernon.  More pretty country with lots of alfalfa farms, all the way following the John Day River down the canyon.  We stopped for lunch at the Mt Vernon store on a shady bench out front.  Lots of icy stares – it seems that cyclists might not be that welcome in “redneck” country.  From lunch it was 8 miles to the town of John Day where we stopped to buy a new water bottle cage at the only bike shop in Eastern Oregon (or so it seems!).

From John Day it was 13 miles to Prairie City where we found a nice campground on the edge of town.  What town there is anyway, not much here really.  At $2 for a site, plus showers it’s a hard price to beat.  The campground is a little crowded but after a long day sleeping should not be difficult.  We are planning on another early start in the AM, as we are aiming for Brogan with the hope of a rest day, if the campground is ok.  Pretty long first week but we seem to be holding up OK, even without much training for me.

August 7, 1992 Prairie City to Brogan (79 miles, 4300 ft, $25)

After a weird night, we were on the road by 7AM.  Some people staying in the park were up really late talking very loud in the picnic area near our tent.  They showed up around 10PM, keeping us up well past midnight. I finally got up at 12:30 and asked them to be a little quieter, which seemed to help.  They were pretty snooty about it but did quiet down at least.  They disappeared back into the night round 1:45AM!  Of course Dave hardly remembers the anything, I think he slept through it – story of my life.  Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep.

Today’s route took us over 4 summits.  They were all pretty hard.  These “little unknown summits” seem worse than named summits like McKenzie Pass.  It was pretty cool and even cloudy in the morning, which helped.  There were more animals out today also – we saw a badger and more deer.  We stopped at the town of Unity for muffins and Gatorade.  We had to buy bottled water because the water at the store was bad.  From Unity it was 20 miles to Ironside, our planned lunch stop.  Ironside turned out to be nothing more than a couple houses and an abandoned store.  We had more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in shade of the store awning.

After lunch we had another climb heading to Brogan.  It was not bad though as we had a huge tailwind, just about pushed us up the hill.  Sure glad we weren’t going the other way!  We arrived in Brogan about 3PM, though somewhere in the desert, we passed the time zone line and are now an hour later.  We stopped at the Brogan store for lemonade as the park is just down the road.  The park is nice, with laundry and showers.  Unfortunately, it looks like we might not be able to take the rest day here though, as the store has virtually no food.  Food makes the rest day, so that won’t work! The storeowners are trying to sell out and thus aren’t really stocking the shelves.  The result is that we’ll have to pack up and head 24 miles down the road to Vale tomorrow, not a full rest day but much shorter and certainly better than the longer days we have had to travel between Eastern Oregon towns.

August 8, 1992 Brogan to Vale (25 miles, 0 ft, $48)

Last night a great horned owl visited the campsite.  He landed on a TV antenna and proceeded to check out the entire park by swiveling his head nearly 360 degrees (yes they really do that!).  One of the cabins in the park also had 7 puppies, some mixed breed, so we had lots of entertainment.

This morning, we slept in, with no alarm clock.  We were still on the road by 8:30.  Yesterday’s tailwind was still blowing and we averaged 20.3 MPH for an hour, pretty fast for a loaded tandem!  On the last bit we hit more chip seal and had to slow down but Dave did a good job steering through it.  We did not climb a single foot today.  Not bad, 25 miles of mostly just flat – a nice break.

Once in Vale, we hit the stores and seriously debated on heading to Ontario, the next town.  A local told us that the county fair was getting started in Ontario and we would have trouble finding a place to stay so that decided it for us.  We pedaled over to the Prospector RV park and found a shady spot.  The park was completely empty but the owner said that it would be full by nightfall.  He wanted to charge us $14 for a full hook-up site but gave us a $4 discount when he realized that we had nothing electrical to plug in, no use of the sewer hook up and no TV to connect to their cable.  Guess we are a little rougher than most of their clients.

We set up camp and showered, then walked back into town for lunch at the Starlite Café.  We had pancakes even though we weren’t riding anymore that day.  Dave had 3 and I had 2.  Not sure who would normally eat at these little dinners, but they sure make big pancakes for whoever does.  We managed to force down a piece of apple pie with ice cream for dessert though!

After lunch we stopped at a local barber for Dave to get a haircut.  There was a funny little old man running the joint.  When Dave asked him if he was the barber, he replied:  “No, but I’ll get started ’til he gets back…” The next half hour was a steady stream of one-liners, honed by years of cutting hair at that very spot.  $5.50 for a haircut and lots of laughs, quite the bargain.

Looking much better, we headed back to the RV park and took naps, making it an official rest day.  For dinner we made burritos, plus some fresh corn on the cob that the park owners gave us.  We did laundry then walked back to town for a DQ Blizzard!  The campground filled as promised.  Us in our little tent, everyone else in giant motorhomes.  We felt like paupers but knew we were doing the trip the way we wanted.  Tomorrow we head for Emmett, Idaho, our first state border crossing.

August 9, 1992 Vale to Boise (86 miles, 1440 ft, $36)

We left the campground in Vale fairly early, before we heard any people in the motorhomes start to stir.  We were in Ontario by 9:30.  We went past lots of onion and potato fields – we’re clearly heading for Idaho now.  Just outside of town we crossed the border.  Stopped for the photo, though the bridge was narrow and the traffic was picking up.  From there it was only 45 miles to Emmett, our intended destination. We ate lunch in Emmett – roles, muffins and Gatorade, sitting on the curb of a mini-mart.  (Mini-mart curbs were another constant companion on the trip, normally cold drinks and something edible, plus lots of locals asking about the trip and giving advice).  Back in Brogan, OR, we had left the Bikecentennial route, so we were winging it a bit now.  At Emmett, since it was still early and only 30 miles more, we decided to shoot for Boise.  One of those famous locals told us about an old road to Boise to avoid traffic.  Freezeout Road turned out to be windy, pretty steep but had no traffic.  There was a great view at the top of the Emmett valley, plus lots graffiti and broken bottles, indicating that this was probably not such a quite road on weekend nights.

At the top of the climb, we joined back up with the main highway.  The main road was constructed in a way that every 5 meters, there was an expansion joint.  This became very annoying and eventually lead to our first flat tire of the trip.  The flat was actually caused by the bumps and our “Mr. Tuffy” strips working together to pinch the tube.  A quick change and we rode through Eagle and onto Boise.

Once in town, we looked in the yellowpages for a campground, locating one on the western side of town.  Lots of traffic and city riding later we found the park, only to be told that they did not take tents.  The owner gave us the name of another park back on the other side of town where we came from.  Halfway there, a local cyclist stopped us and told us of another park back on the west side of town, so it was a third trip across town to a spot we already passed twice.  They had tent sites next to the office and big night light but the miles and riding through traffic had us to the point of not caring.  They had nice showers and bathrooms, plus the people were really nice, so it worked out.  After setting up camp, we walked to Burger King for dinner where Dave had 2 BK Broilers and I had 1, plus we shared a large salad.  Lots of energy burned today.

Tomorrow we are headed for Lowman, about 73 miles, back into the mountains and out of the city.  The route traces an important stage of the famous Idaho woman’s bike race.  There is a fair amount of climbing and city traffic in the AM so we’ll start early again.

August 10, 1992 Boise to Lowman (82 miles, 5480 ft, $23)

It must have been a hard day yesterday as we both slept through the alarm today.  We still managed to be on the road by 7AM.  We took Hill Road out of Boise, which eventually became a 20-mile bike path along the Boise River – our fears of city traffic failed to materialize.  It was pretty hot already and neither of us felt much like riding today.  We soldiered on up Lucky Peak, to Idaho City for lunch where we found the Gold Pan Café and a big order of biscuits and gravy, with extra biscuits and a cinnamon roll to boot.  As we prepared to leave, Karston, a German cyclist riding from San Francisco to Yellowstone, pedaled up.  We would meet him on the road again later in the day.  We made a last minute stop at the visitor center to replenish supplies of suntan lotion.  It was really hot as we headed for the big climb of the day.

The climb was fairly gradual for the first 8 miles, then it got steep.  There where lots of switchbacks, it seemed as though it were never going to end.  We should have filled the extra water bottle at the visitor center (as I had suggested) but we didn’t (as Dave said we didn’t need to carry any extra weight!) and before the summit, we ran out of water.  That will be the last time I listen to Dave about water!  After a quick cookie stop at the summit it was on to a hot, windy 8-mile descent into Lowman.  In town (if you call one store and a café a town) we stopped at South Fork Ranch hoping to splurge on a cabin.   It turned out that the cabins and the campsites were both flooded by spring rains and still not useable – now what? 

We met up with Karston in the café, ordered milkshakes, and pondered our next move.  After a few minutes a mountain biker rolled up and started asking us questions.  Turns out that his wife teaches at the local one room schoolhouse and he lived just up the road.  Before you know it, we were all heading back to Vic and Paula’s house for dinner (enchiladas!) and sleep in a real bed.  Given that shopping for them is a once a month all day trek back to Boise, Vic’s precious beer that he gave us was real gift.  They truly were bicycle saviors today. 

Tomorrow we head for Stanley, with one large climb in the middle (another stage on the Woman’s bike race).  We’ll be taking extra water for sure!

August 11, 1992 Lowman to Stanley (59 miles, 3660 ft, $86)

After a good night’s sleep in a real bed, we were up a 7AM.  Paula made us great pancakes for breakfast.  When loading the bike, we discovered that the back tire had gone flat.  That, plus the group photos and hugs from our new friends slowed our start.  We were on the road around 8:40. 

We started climbing right away but the first 12 miles were gentle, along the Payette River.  It was a very scenic  ride.  From there it was 20 miles of climbing to the summit.  Pretty hard without many flat sections.  It got hot but we had enough water today!  Before we knew it, it was noon and we figured that we were still less than halfway up.  We had to stop a number of times to rest and needed a power bar break to get us to the top.  As expected we had only a short downhill on the other side – we are in the mountains now.

We stopped for a proper lunch at a campground halfway across the valley to Stanley.  The standard peanut butter and jelly on rolls.  We had to hand pump water from a well to fill our bottles; it was very cold and tasted great!  From there it was 15 rolling miles to Stanley.  The views in the valley of the Sawtooth Mountains were spectacular.

We had thought of going to Stanley Creek resort for the night but that was 24 more miles and it was already 4PM.  We ended up renting a great little solo log cabin in Stanley.  The owner had built a massive home, then built lots of little cabins to rent.  We got a tour of the home and it was amazing, huge log ceilings with picture windows facing the Sawtooths.  This is our first night in a hotel.  Earlier in the trip, we made an “official rule” that if our feet are wet, we get a motel.  With dry feet at the end of the day, tonight is a slight rule violation but the little cabins looked too fun to pass on.

We walked to town for laundry and dinner, plus supplies at the grocery store.  We devastated the all you can eat salad bar at the local dinner, they probably did not expect that from a couple of skinny cyclists.  It was nice to get some veggies. 

 

August 12, 1992 Stanley to Bellevue (78 miles, 2520 ft, $57)

Two nights in a row in a bed and another good night’s sleep – we could get used to this.  By 6AM we were wheeling the bike to the Sawtooth Café in town for breakfast.  We both had a big stack of sourdough pancakes, great way to start the day.

Before leaving we had to put on our tights.  It was cold enough that you could see your breath.  The 24 miles to Stanley Creek were slightly uphill, just enough to keep us warm.  We stopped at the resort, filled up bottles, had some cookies and prepared for the climb up Galena Summit.  This is the mountain that Jennie Longo annually kills her opponents on in the Woman’s race; we hoped to just get over the top!

The climb was long but too bad.  A cyclist who was part of a Backroads tour passed us – but the sag wagon was carrying his gear!  Still we managed to keep up with him and when he stopped to rest, we continued on, beating him to the top (who says tandems can’t climb?).  We stopped for a photo at the summit, 8700 feet, our highest point so far on the trip.  It was actually still pretty cool, which made the climb easier.  The views of the Sawtooth Mountains almost made you forget you were climbing.  The downhill was even more fun.  We had to stop twice to let the brakes cool off.  It was downhill all the way to Ketchum, though there was a headwind that cancelled things out so it wasn’t all coasting.  We stopped for a PB&J lunch at a rest stop half way to town.

In Ketchum we stopped at a store for cereal and suntan lotion.  Ketchum is the jetset capitol of Idaho.  We passed many multi-million dollar homes and were passed by lots of fancy cars.  At the store we could not help but feel like lower class citizens among lots of obviously very wealthy people.  It was nice to head down the road 15 miles to Bellevue, the town where all the folks who work in Ketchum live.  The ride there was a bit hard, headwind and lots of traffic but we made good time.  The RV park is a little dusty but had great showers.  For dinner we made noodles, ate a whole loaf of french bread and a whole cantaloupe.  Tomorrow we head for Arco, the “Atomic City”.

August 13, 1992 Bellevue to Arco (68 miles, 1460 ft, $49)

We slept through the alarm again this morning but still managed an early start.  Not nearly as cool this morning, since we came out of the mountains yesterday and are back in the desert again.  We ate breakfast at camp and were on the road by 7:10.  Nice tailwinds in the morning, though the road surface was very bumpy.  It was relatively flat to Cary where we stopped for lemonade.  We ran into 2 cyclists doing a round the world trip. They started in Ohio and were heading towards SF, then Fiji and beyond.  Much like on our first tour on the Oregon coast back in ’88 when we saw the cross-country people, we felt like wimps with our little 4000-mile, two-month trip.

From Cary it was a gradual uphill to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  Lots of lava, pretty recent in geological terms.  We stopped there for lunch at the visitor’s center.

From there it was only 18 miles to Arco.  We had headwinds but still made good time.  We found an RV park in the middle of town, not too nice but it will do.  We took showers, made camp and headed to the store for groceries.  We stopped on the way back for burgers at Pickel’s Place, which hit the spot. 

When we returned to camp, there was another biker there.  He was heading from NY to Spokane.  He was pulling a trailer full of computers and camera gear.  He was intending to film his trip and interview town’s people along the way.  He admitted that he had not used the camera much.  Guess the small town folk were friendly right up until he pulled the camera out, then they got shy.

We bought a new alarm clock today.  Either we are riding hard and need our sleep or the old one is not loud enough but with 87 miles and no short options tomorrow, an early start to beat the heat is important.

August 14, 1992 Arco to Rexburg (97 miles, 980 ft, $105)

We both slept great last night and did not have to worry about the alarm.  The new one even has a night light so it’s easy to check in the middle of the night.  The snooze feature got a test this morning but we still had a good start.  We ate and packed the bike in the dark and were on the road by 6:45.  It was warm already.

Today’s ride was either very boring or very inspiring.  It was nearly flat the entire way with nothing but scrub as far as you could see.  We rode through Idaho National Energy Laboratory, way out in the middle of nowhere.  All we ever really saw was sagebrush.

We did manage to find a small store in Howe, though the local folk were not too friendly.  Couldn’t really understand why not, can’t imagine they get bothered by a lot of people stopping in to chat!  By noon we had ridden 63.2 miles, a record so far for this trip, even with a slight headwind.  Later we stopped at another store for a snack in a place call Mud Lake.  That was it, a big open flat area, and a store, nothing else – appeared to be appropriately named. 

We thought we might stop further up the road for lunch but there was no shade for the next 20 miles to Rexburg.  We ate a powerbar while riding because at least if we kept moving, we had a breeze keeping us somewhat cooler.  Once in Rexburg we used to the yellowpages to find a campground.  We rode 4 miles out our way to find a dirt parking lot with no shade and a sign that said camping – don’t think so!  Back the 4 miles to town and the Best Western, $65 for a king size bed, very nice.  There are no other campgrounds so this will have to do.  The room was on the second floor and hauling the tandem up the stairs was hard work but the shower felt great and it was better than sitting in a dirt field.  I’m not sure we needed the extra 8 miles riding, almost made it a century today.

For dinner we hit the all you can eat Pizza Hut.  Seems we can eat forever at those places.  After dinner we had a quick dip in the hot tub.  Felt nice after a long day.

August 15, 1992 Rexburg to Jackson Hole (81 miles, 4100 ft, $50)

We had breakfast at Pioneer Pies – biscuits and gravy, and were on the road by 7:45.  We went through lots of rolling hills in the morning – the views were wheat fields with the Teton Mountains in the distance.  Seems we have left the desert for a while again.  Both of us were a bit tired from the last few days but we made it to Tetonia by around 10:00 where we stopped for juice and cookies.  From there it was only 14 miles to Victor, our planned stop for the night.  Vic’s (from Lowman) sister lives there and they said that we could stop there.  Arriving at Victor it was still only 11:15 and we decided that since Jackson Hole was so close, we’d push on.  Little did we know that those few miles were straight up the side of a steep mountain (more on that later!).

As we left Victor, Dave said that he saw a “funny” horse running across the road.  I honestly thought he was losing it until a little bit further, we saw a moose standing in a clump of bushes right by the side of the road.  It didn’t seem at all fussed by us and just stood there as we rode past.  It seemed huge – not sure if we could out-pedal one of those animals or not!

Soon after the moose, we crossed our second state line and rode into our third state, Wyoming.  Around the same time, we also rode our 1000^th mile of the trip, 1/4 down, 3000 miles to Virginia.  But we couldn’t get too excited, as Teton Pass loomed ahead.

The first 9 miles of the pass were not too bad.  We were actually starting to feel pretty good about the climb.  Then we hit the 10% grade, three miles of it.  It was very difficult.  We had to stop three times just to rest.  Getting started was very difficult, as it was so steep that we almost fell over.  Even the cars sounded like they were not going to make it and you could sure smell the brakes burning from the cars coming down.  Eventually we made it to the top, only to find that there was no summit or pass sign for the official photo!  Definitely one of the hardest climbs we ever done.

The decent was just as steep.  We stopped 5 times to cool the brakes for fear of a blow out.  It was an easy 12 miles to Jackson Hole where we got a campsite right in town at the Wagon Wheel Campground.  Looks like a great spot and tomorrow is a rest day so all the better. 

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and watched the nightly tourist show, a town center gunfight.  Back at the tent we watched a beaver pair feed on the reeds of the creek bank, the un-tourist show.

August 16, 1992 Jackson Hole, rest day (0 miles, 0 ft, $116)

This morning we had no alarm and slept until we felt like it, though we still managed to be up at 7AM.  After a shower, we headed for town and breakfast at a yuppie coffee shop.  We tend to not drink coffee when we ride as it can dehydrate you.  That’s one of the best things about a rest day – all the coffee you can drink!

After breakfast, we found a bike shop (Teton Cyclery) where they said that Dave could use the repair stand to clean the bike.  We returned to camp where Dave rode solo on the empty tandem back to the shop.  I read the paper, my book, did laundry and had some more coffee.  Dave returned in a few hours with a shinny, oiled bike.  Our rear tire had also delaminated and was looking pretty bad – must have happened yesterday coming off the pass.  Glad the tire made it without blowing.  We’ve replaced it with our spare and bought a new spare.  We’ll have to be more careful on those downhills, no need for a blowout.

We headed back to town for lunch at the Bunnery.  Good sandwiches, and a nice change from PB&J sitting on the side of the road.  Next up was a trip to the grocery store to stock on staples, spent $47 and I’m not sure where we are going to pack all this food!  We managed to put a good dent in the snack pile in the afternoon sitting in the sunshine at camp though.  Dave struck up a conversation with the neighbors.  Interesting couple, a cowboy and his girlfriend from Salt Lake City, Utah.  County music singers, playing at one of the local bars.  They played a few tapes for us, not bad.

Afternoon thundershowers sent us to the tent, which was perfect, as a nap was still needed to make this an official rest day.  The rain let up in time for us to hit the local café in town for dinner.  Even managed to trade my book at their book exchange so now I’m set for the next few weeks of the trip.  Unfortunately I don’t get to read much.  Every night I take the book to bed with me but my eyes are shut before I can get through even a couple pages.  Back on the road tomorrow after a really nice rest day in Jackson Hole.

 

August 17, 1992 Jackson Hole to Dubois (97 miles, 3950 ft, $40)

It rained very hard last night.  Good test for the tent, it didn’t leak, but we had lots of condensation inside by morning.  We packed up, ate fresh cantaloupe and muffins we bought at the Bunnery yesterday.  We rolled out of town round 8AM.  We put our raingear on before leaving as we could see some dark clouds in the direction we were going.  Sure enough, about 5 miles out of town we got hit.  Not too bad and considering the perfect weather we’ve had for two weeks it’s hard to complain.

We decided to take the longer option today and loop through Teton National Park for an extra 8 miles.  At the entrance, the ranger wanted to charge us $4 but we convinced them we should be able to go for free since we weren’t even stopping.  The ranger agreed, probably not because Dave was a good negotiator but because they couldn’t figure out whether to charge us for one bike or two people.

Outside the park, we joined back up with the Bikecentennial route.  BC has some special bicyclist only camping grounds along the route, one was only a few miles up the road.  We were going to stay there but along the way we ran into another cyclist that was on a sagged tour called Ride Across Wyoming.  They were riding from Jackson to Dubois.  It was a small group and they would be camping where we could join them.  It meant a longer day but we were fresh from not riding yesterday so we decided to push for Dubois.

We stopped at a ranger station for lunch, PB&J sandwiches.  It worth noting that the first day after a rest day, the sandwiches are always better.  The main reason is the bread is not yet smashed from being in your bag for multiple days!

After lunch we started to climb Togowotee Pass.  It was a very long climb, somewhere around 17 miles of climbing.  It got pretty steep at spots but leap-frogging the RAW riders made for a good distraction.  And the scenery was very nice.  The elevation at the top was 9668, our highest point of the trip so far.  It was also our first time crossing the Continental Divide.  I don’t think the pass elevation sign are correct.  It seems that some states might exaggerate pass signs to “outdo” their neighbors.  Our bike computer was almost 100% accurate whenever we were at a town, be it sea level or in the mountains.  Yet at the top of ever pass, we were always a couple 100 feet lower than the signs list elevation.  Dave called it “neighbor-state pass envy”.  Either way, they are all hard to ride up with a loaded tandem!

It was 30 miles of downhill to Dubois.  Only trouble was that we had a strong headwind.  Near town we got really blasted a few times, including some sand to make sure we got our money’s worth.  We made it to camp just short of a century again and pretty darn tired.  We set our tent near the RAW group so we got to swap bicycle stories before dinner.  A little later a group of 2 German and 2 Belgian riders rolled into camp.  Again, the number of cyclist sleeping in the park probably dwarfed the size of town.  We should sleep well tonight as today was long day.

August 18, 1992 Dubois to Lander (77 miles, 1600 ft, $53)

We got up at 6AM but didn’t get on the road until 8.  It was pretty cold and we were moving slow.  We ate breakfast at camp, which was a good thing as the RAW riders were in town and the one café looked to be overwhelmed.  We had a nice tailwind and some downhill to start the day (must be all the wind from yesterday getting back down the canyon!).  We rode through a very pretty area called the Painted Hills in the morning.  Stopped for a break at the Crowheart store, staying just ahead of the RAW riders all morning. 

For the next 100 miles or so we’d be riding on the Wind River Indian reservation.  Couldn’t really tell much difference from the previous country.  We did see a couple herd of antelope on the way to lunch at Fort Washakie.  From lunch it was only 16 miles to Lander and our stop for the night.  We’d heard that the city park was not that nice for camping so we found the RV park we saw advertised on the way into town.  It was kind of dumpy as well, so I talked Dave into a motel.  $24 bucks for the night – what a bargain and under budget too!

We showered and did laundry.  Then we headed to Safeway for dinner fixings.  We had cantaloupe, carrots, rolls, bananas, chips & salsa, plums, cheese, lunchmeat and chocolate for dessert.  Tomorrow we have another long day to get us to Muddy Gap, only one big hill then it looks like a long downhill.

August 19, 1992 Lander to Muddy Gap (82 miles, 3040 ft, $21)

For breakfast we had cinnamon bread and more fruit in the motel room.  We were on the road by 7AM.  We had some good rolling hills to start out and it warmed up very quickly.  We saw a rattlesnake on the road this morning.  When it started to coil we figured that it was not dead.  We got away before it could get us.  The road was pretty flat then until we started the climb to Barrier Divide.  It was not too long but +6% the entire way up kept us going hard.  From there it was rolling hills to the town of Sweetwater Station for a pop and ice cream (it was early still but very hot so the ice cream seemed fair!).

Next stop was Jeffrey City.  On the way there we had to ride through some road construction.  Make that road destruction.  They don’t just patch roads out here, they nuke them.  While all the big trucks were up on the road, we got to ride on a temporary road made of soft sand down off the side of the embankment.  This went on for about 9 miles.  I’m not sure how Dave kept us from crashing a couple times, as the steering was very iffy.  A couple times we had to simply carry the bike, as it was even too hard to push.  At some places the temporary road was one way with flaggers and follow cars.  There was only room for traffic one way, as there were large mounds of dirt on both sides.  At one section the flagger on our side must not have told the flagger on the other side about us at the end of the line, as he started bringing cars back towards us before we reached the end.  We had to lift the tandem over a huge pile of dirt to get out of the way, ending up on the new road.  When the supervisor drove up in his air-conditioned truck and told us we were not allowed up there, I pretty much lost it.  I’m sure he could not hear Dave or I yelling over the heavy trucks but we let him have it.  He listened for a while then told us to be careful and just drove away.

We eventually got through the construction and made it to Jeffrey City for lunch.  Jeffrey City was a big uranium mining area but the mines have shut down.  Lots of boarded up buildings and houses.  We had sandwiches at the last remaining open store.  Outside of town we passed the original Pony Express and Oregon Trails.  You could actually still see the wagon wheel ruts from years gone by.

From lunch it was 24 miles to Muddy Gap.  We made it there by mid afternoon.  Boy, what a place it turned out to be!  It was really nothing more than a junction in the road.  There was a new store and an old store, manned by husband and wife owners.  That was the entire population.  They let us camp by the old store, next to the bathrooms in the dirt – though bathrooms is a bit of a stretch, as they were just pit toilets.  Lucky the wind was blowing away from us.  After the day fighting road construction, we really needed showers so Dave negotiated and the owners opened up one of the old hunter’s trailers out back.  I think it was a good idea.  Hunters had not used the trailer in 10 months and it was full of animal droppings.  We had to scrub the shower before using it (I made Dave do that!) and a pair of pliers was required to turn on the water.  It was not a shower that either of us lingered in.

We ate dinner at the store and generally hung out there until they closed.  Our “dirt site” was not conducive to relaxation.  Plus, I was hanging out to avoid using the “bathrooms” allocated to our site.  Finally, they booted us and we wandered back to the tent.  Soon after dark, our 4 friends from Germany and Belgium rode up.  They didn’t bother to request a shower, instead choosing to hose each other off at the garden faucet.  I think they made a better choice!  Not the best accommodations that Dave has ever found for us, but at least it makes a good story!

August 20, 1992 Muddy Gap to Saratoga (88 miles, 2320 ft, $55)

We got up really early, at first alarm – I think I just wanted to get out of Muddy Gap!  It was not a very restful night.  The wind blew really hard and making the rainfly on tent flap a lot.  I got up to fix it while Dave slept through the whole thing.  We ate the rest of the cinnamon bread for breakfast.  We woke the Germans up and all 4 of them actually got up.  I think it was some kind of record for them as they are definitely afternoon riders.  I think they wanted out of Muddy Gap also.

Starting out we had strong headwinds.  Neither of us were all that excited to be on the bike.  Eventually, though the wind died down and we settled into a rhythm.  We saw lots of rabbits and antelope in the morning.  Later, we ran into a biker going from Virginia to Missoula.  We stopped in the middle of nowhere to exchange notes.  He said that the infamous dogs of Kentucky were not that bad.  He was the second rider to warn us of a big hill in Virginia call ” Vesuvius”. 

We rode to Rawlins and had a morning snack at store.  Rawlins has a huge Sinclair oil refinery.  The natural gas burn off was going full steam as we rode past.  Next we rode 13 miles on Interstate 80 (there aren’t many choices in Wyoming).   We exited at Walcolt but really, the freeway was not that bad.  From there it was only 20 miles to Saratoga and the end of the day.

In Saratoga, we stopped for an ice cream and lemonade, and to check out places to stay.  We found a tent spot at the Saratoga Inn and RV park.  The site was not all that nice – for some reason, they would not let us camp on the grass, but instead pointed us to a dirt “tent site”.  We walked to town, did laundry and had dinner at The Lodge Restaurant, great lasagna and desert.  Tomorrow we cross into Colorado, shorter day planned.

August 21, 1992 Saratoga to Walden (68 miles, 3100 ft, $58)

We started out this morning in a rain shower but then it cleared up for the rest of the day.  There were lots of little hills today, going up or down all day long.  We stopped in Riverside for our AM snack.  From there it was a good climb up into a large valley – feels like we are really in the Rockies now.

We crossed the Colorado state border at about 45 miles and stopped for the photo.  The roads changed from smooth and wide to narrow and bumpy right at the state line.  Seems that all four states that we’ve been in have different standards for roads and they all stop, or start, maintenance right at the border.  Soon after the border, we met a cyclist heading to San Francisco.  Lots of people ride the western US, skipping the Great Plains and east.  Hope we enjoy that part of the ride and aren’t missing something obvious.  I think it’s more a matter of time for most people.

We stopped at the a little later for another mini mart lunch break.  It was only 13 miles to Walden, our planned stop and we considered going further.  Those thoughts were quickly shelved as a strong afternoon headwind came up.  The wind and some more rolling hills made us pretty tired even with a little shorter day.  We found a hotel for $30, did laundry and sent post cards.  Late in the afternoon, the Germans and Belgians rode past, planning on another 30 miles before dark.  They sure seem to like a late start.  Must not realize that the wind isn’t as bad in the AM.

We had dinner in the room and made some additions to one of my bike shirts.  Actually, subtractions as I cut the sleeves off to make it cooler riding in the heat.  There was a big thunderstorm in the early evening, so we were glad to be in a hotel; wondered about out European friends and if they made it to the next town before the rain and dark.

August 22, 1992 Walden to Kremmling (61 miles, 1980 ft, $51)

We were up and on the road by 6:45.  We have the packing thing down now, hotel or not.  It looked really stormy as we started and unfortunately, we had the headwinds from the start.  So much for that theory of quiet morning air!  Turned out that it blew all day, headwinds the whole way.  At times, particularly in some of the saddles of the mountains, it was very strong.  We rode over Muddy pass at 8700 feet and another crossing of the Continental Divide.  On the other side of the pass, we actually had to pedal to go downhill, so it was some wind!

As we got closer to Kremmling traffic picked up and the road narrowed.  We stopped for lunch and a mental break, PB&J beside the road.  The last 13 miles to town were hard, the wind gusted from both sides and several times blew us into traffic.  Any thoughts of going beyond Kremmling were dashed by the wind and traffic.  With a rest day tomorrow, it looks like an interesting enough town and a good place to take a break.  Splurged and got a motel even, a whole $29 per night!  Severe thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow, good day to take off.

We had a great pizza at the local bakery, drank some coffee and watched the rain come in.  Stopped at the store for rest day snacks and hit the sack.

August 23, 1992 Kremmling rest day (0 miles, 0 ft, $73)

No alarm and we slept until 7:30.  We are getting better at being able to sleep in a different place every night.  We had breakfast in a little coffee shop across the road – biscuits & gravy and coffee.  Read the Sunday paper (what there was of one in Kremmling).  About 11AM, the big storm came through.  It didn’t last long but it was nice not being on the road.  We walked the entire town, which didn’t take long. 

For lunch we went to the Wagon Wheel Café.  (No relationship to other Wagon Wheels from earlier in the trip – it seems just about every western town has a Wagon Wheel business of some sort).  Dave had the “Goatroper” special, steak, salad, toast and fries!  I had a cheeseburger.  After lunch it was back to the hotel to read, hang out and take the obligatory rest day nap.  Dinner was cereal, popcorn and bananas in the room.

Tomorrow we are aiming for Hoosier Pass.  It’s 60 miles from here to the top.  It could still be raining as the storm is lingering.  Hopefully there won’t be snow on top of the pass.

August 24, 1992 Kremmling to Silverthrone (38 miles (13 by car), 1320 ft, $127)

Boy what a day!  We got up early and left the hotel by 6AM.  We walked over to the café for breakfast – thick blueberry pancakes.  It was raining when we started out and it only got worse from there.  At the start, the rain was just a sprinkle, the kind of rain you think is going to end soon so you go out and ride anyway.  As we rode, it started to rain harder.  The drops got bigger and since we were climbing, the air temperature started to get colder.  The little downhill sections became rides through the deep freeze.  Instead of getting lighter as the morning came, it actually seemed to be getting darker and the rain was beginning to turn to snow.  We were hoping that the cars could see us.  It wasn’t long before we stopped and put on our long fingered gloves, our fingers were frozen.  We were now wearing every piece of riding clothing we had with us.

Within 25 miles we’d pretty much given up on the pass and were just trying to figure out a way to make it to next town, 16 miles to Silverthrone.  We really couldn’t go back as it was mostly downhill and we would freeze doing that.  We were probably already approaching hypothermia.  With nothing more than the occasional ranch house, there really was no place to stop for shelter.

Just as we were running out of options, we spotted a pickup pulling out the drive of a nearby ranch house.  Dave jumped off the bike and waved the driver down.  In the cab we found a couple genuine cowboys headed in the big city (Denver) to “trade some of their guns”.  They were more than happy to give us a lift.  The tailgate of the truck was broken so we had to lift the tandem over the back – not sure how we did it but we got everything loaded and climbed in the front.  I’m not sure how happy they were to have a couple of soaked rats squeezed between them but they were polite.  They even shared the homemade chocolate chip cookies one of their wives made for the trip. 

It was 16 miles to town.  We were there in what seemed like an instant.  By 10AM we were checking in the Super 8 motel and our cowboy friends were headed to Denver with puddles of water from our gear in their front seat.  We never got their name or details to send them a thank you note but we were sure grateful to have met them.

It rained hard most of the day.  We stripped off all of our wet cloths, turned the room heater on high and took turns in the hot shower until our skin pickled.  We went to Wendy’s for lunch, then hit a bike shop for a few supplies and warmer gloves for Dave.  By the time we got back, it was probably 90 degrees in the room and our cloths were starting to dry.  We crawled under the covers and took a nap, getting warm for the first time since morning. 

By late afternoon, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared.  Not more than a 100 feet up the foothills from where we were, the ground was covered in snow.  We heard that the pass had 6 inches.  Tomorrow, the morning shift clerk at the hotel will give us a first hand report of the road.  She lives on the other side and comes over the pass at 5AM.  Once we get to the top of this pass, it’s all down hill to the Great Plains.  Hope we can make it and are not stuck here for the winter, our own little Donner Party!

August 25, 1992 Silverthrone to Current Creek House (78 miles, 3950 ft, $22)

We didn’t leave Silverthrone until 9:15.  We wanted to give it a chance to warm up before we tried the pass.  It was only 38 degrees on the McDonalds thermometer as we walked over for breakfast.  Our clerk friend told us that there was snow on the pass but the road was clearing fast, and that it should be clear by the time we got up there.  There were no clouds and the sun was starting to warm things.  Boy what a difference from yesterday morning!

We rode up Dillon Dam Hill, up to the snow line of yesterday afternoon.  All the snow was gone by the time we got there.  We picked up a nice bike path that took us all the way around Dillon Reservoir in to Breckenridge.  From Breckenridge, it was 10 miles to the top of the pass, all of it very much up hill.  There was snow on the sides of the road and the peaks were all covered as we climbed but the road was clear.  It was a hard climb but very scenic.  Our highest point on the trip and our last crossing of the Continental Divide, Hoosier Pass, 11541 feet.

At the top of the pass, it was already starting to cloud up.  We did not linger much past the quick photo shoot.  We put on long gloves and jackets for the ride down.  It was quite cold – I can’t imagine what it would have been like yesterday!

After 15 miles of coasting off the pass, we came to the town of Fairplay.  It was starting to look stormy but it was too early to stop for lunch and certainly too early to call it a day.  We had a quick snack and headed for toward Hartsel, 18 miles of mostly down hill.  Hartsel turned out to be nothing more than a dot on a map, no food and no place to stay.  By now, it was starting to look pretty stormy and we were not sure how long it would stay dry.  According to our map and guidebook, there was a hostel 23 miles further.  They did not have a phone and we were not sure if they were open.  Riding back to Fairplay was not an option as it was back up the hill.  We had little choice but trying to outrun the storm and hope the hostel was open.

So we had another quick snack and hopped back on the bike.  The storm was closing fast, we had our work cut out for us.  About 15 miles beyond Hartsel, we ran out of luck.  The storm caught us as we crossed a high mountain meadow.  And boy did it catch us, hail, rain, lighting, thunder and gusty wind.  All the while we rode through this meadow, with us being the tallest and only metal object for miles!  The next 8 miles we peddled as fast as we possibly could.  At one point the hail coated the road so thick it was like riding through fresh snow.  A couple times lightening struck so close there was no delay on the thunder.  We hung on and some how made it to the hostel.  As we arrived, it stopped raining and the sun came out!  We were frozen and thrilled to find the hostel open.

The hostel is nice.  Very rustic and in the middle of nowhere.  A couple of hippie holdovers and their kids run it.  We get to sleep in the bunkhouse, should have it to ourselves.  Dave negotiated a hot shower of sorts.  For $2 extra, they heat a kettle of water on the stove, pour it into a 5 gallon bucket of cold water hanging in a rough cut timber framed purpose-built outhouse-like shower building.  To shower, you turn a spicket on the bucket and let a little water out.  All the while the breeze blows through the cracks in the building’s walls.  I think it was the coffee that Warren, the hostel owner, gave us that finally took away our chill.  The shower was more for atmosphere!

For dinner we had ramen.  Then we watched the movie “Franky and Johnny” with the owners kids.  Interesting place Current Creek, “Back to The 60s” might be a better name, but it was fun.  Tomorrow we head for Pueblo.  It’s supposed to be downhill the whole way!

August 26, 1992 Current Creek House to Pueblo (69 miles, 1640 ft, $81)

We rose at 6:45 to sunny blue skies.  That was surprising given the rain of the past two days.  But then again, it was sunny yesterday morning also and we still ended up with wet feet.  We slept pretty good with the crickets on the bunk house floor.  For breakfast we had cereal and chatted with Lynne and Warren.  They were nice people.  We hit the road around 9:30. 

Not only did we have a nice downhill but we also had tailwinds to boot.  For the first 35 miles, our average speed was over 20 MPH.  We skipped off the Bikecentennial route and took the direct route to Pueblo, shorter on the map at least.  The last 20 miles, we were out of the mountains and the wind switched.  We had a strong headwind the rest of the way.  Those afternoon thunderstorms were clearly building again.  About a mile from town, another hailstorm got us.  Luckily, there as a near by gas station with a large awning so we ducked under it to wait out the worst of the storm.

We stopped at a Motel 6 just off the freeway in strip mall, no real camping in the big city.  Dave found a bike shop and bought a new rear tire.  I stayed back and did laundry.  For dinner we found another one of those all you can eat places and are now stuffed. 

My feet have been sore riding lately so tonight I soaked them in the tub and got Dave to rub them.  I’ll probably need to keep eating the Advil but they feel better tonight.  Tomorrow we have penciled a 90-mile day but were learning not to trust the forecasts.  We do know we are out of the mountains now and heading into the plains.  It looks like a nearly flat ride.

 

August 27, 1992 Pueblo to Eads (113 miles, 830 ft, $31)

We slept pretty well.  We got up early and went to McDonalds for breakfast – pancakes again – and were on the road by 7AM.   We made great time today – by noon we’d ridden 80.3 miles.  The terrain has certainly changed.  It’s nearly flat with no hills, lots of prairie dogs and a very distant horizon.  Just the kind of ride that is custom made for the tandem.  After 3+ weeks of the western mountains, we were starting to feel fit and with the flat road, we were flying.  Couple that with towns with very tall grain elevators spaced 20 miles apart (from the railroad days) and it was easy to see how we ended up riding further than we planned.  You could almost see the next town from the town you were in.

We stopped for the day at 2:30, just because it seemed the right thing to do.  The next town was sure tempting though.  We bought an ice cream bar and figured out the scoop on camping.  We set the tent up in the city park and headed for the local pool for a shower.  Dave had to use the woman’s shower because the men’s hot water did not work.  The only downside of our campsite is no bathroom.  Guess I’ll have to find a tree in the dark.  Of course, Dave is not worried.

We had some fun riding today.  At one point Dave started shrugging his shoulders, first the right one, then the left one.  I thought at first he was losing it again.  By the third shrug, I saw the “Shoulder Work” sign and figured it out.  Later we saw a big sign painted on the side of a run down, boarded up trailer.  It read, “Think Positively…”.  Guess we’re still having fun and avoiding the bug those Bikecentennial folks seemed to have caught by the time they arrived in Oregon.

August 28, 1992 Eads to Scott City KS (103 miles, 340 ft, $55)

We got up while it was still dark this morning.  We slept well, other than the trains that went by at regular intervals.  We had pancakes on the way out of town and were on the road by 7:10.  Today we had straight, fast roads again.  We hit the Kansas border at 40 miles and stopped for a photo.

The people in Eastern Colorado and Kansas are very friendly.  Not a car passes going the other way without waving and those that pass going our way give us lots of room.  Dave is getting a sore neck from bobbing his head at all the cars!

We moved into Central Time zone today, so we lost an hour somewhere.  We arrived at Scott City at 4PM.  We are staying at local heath club/youth hostel, sleeping on the gymnasium floor.  They even have a Jacuzzi that we can use – very nice!.  Tomorrow we are looking at doing 115 miles to take us to Larned.  Depends on the wind but if we make it, that will be 3 centuries in a row!

August 29, 1992 Scott City KS to Larned  (118 miles, 430 ft, $79)

We actually slept quite well in the gym last night.  The trains outside only woke us once.  We were up, packed and heading out by 7AM.  It was still dark out though, with the time change and autumn coming.  We had pancakes at the Homestead Café and hit the road.  It was a little chilly starting out but not too bad.  Our tailwind friend of the past few days was back so Larned looked like a possibility.

There are certain things cyclists are superstitious about – and for us tailwinds are one those things.  When we have a tailwind, we do not talk about it or refer to it by name.  You have to sort of skirt around it or it might turn on you.  For the past three days we did a lot of “did you notice anything…”, “no, not me, I didn’t notice a thing…”  Not sure it helps keep the wind going the right way but it’s worth a shot – plus it keeps you entertained.

We met a couple from Illinois heading to SF.  We stopped to exchange notes and give them a break from the wind.  The roads in Kansas all appear to be laid out on a grid.  Meaning, you are going straight, N, S, W or E.  When the wind is behind you this is great, when it’s not, it can be a long day.  Somewhere round the 80-mile mark we had to turn south.  About the same time the wind drifted to the north.  We had another 20 miles of nice winds.  But all good things must come to an end.  The last 15 miles we turned back east and the wind stayed north.  It was a bit of a struggle those last 15 miles with a cross/headwind, rough at the end of three 100+ mile days in a row.

We made it into Larned and checked out the campground.  It didn’t look all that great, plus we were going to have a rest day tomorrow, we decided to stay closer to town at the Best Western, $38 a night, not too bad.  Right next to the hotel, there was a Pizza Hut.  An all-you-eat buffet at the end of three long days.  I think the employees were shocked at how much we ate.  We should sleep well tonight!

August 30, 1992 Larned Rest Day (0 miles, 0 ft, $85)

We slept in until 7:30 with no alarm this morning.  We watched a movie in the room while we had coffee and snacks.  We had brunch across the street at a joint called Dondo.  After lunch we did laundry and walked around town.  There are lots of brick or stone homes with wide porches and swings – it looks like there are not many trees to make houses out of in Kansas. 

In the afternoon we went to the Central State Scout Museum, an interesting place with lots of scouting memorabilia and a genuine Eagle Scout manning the information booth.  For dinner we hit the all you can eat Chinese “Rice Bowl” buffet.  Seemed strange eating Chinese food in Kansas but it was good.

Tomorrow we head for Hutchinson where we hope to stay at a church that’s on the Bikecentennial list of places to stay.  We’re going to try to go back to the Dondo for breakfast in the morning and hope for an early start.  Today the wind was blowing out of the east.  Hope it turns or dies down before morning.

August 31, 1992 Larned to Hutchinson (75 miles, 90 ft, $46)

After a long night listening to Dave snore, we got up early and headed over for breakfast at the Dondo.  Had great pancakes and were on the road by 7:15.  Pretty uneventful day.  Saw lots of oil wells and a few more trees on this side of Kansas.  We had to make a detour because a bridge had gotten washed out but we found another way across the river after Dave flagged down a local and asked for help.

We had to ask at the bike shop about the church.  They were very friendly, just gave us a key and directions.  Looked like we’d have the hostel next to the church to ourselves – it doubles as the church office also.  We took showers using their towels and cooked up homemade burritos in the kitchen.  All this for free, we’ll be sure to leave a donation in the morning.

We did a little scouting round town, more big brick houses with nice front porches.  Life seems a little slower here in the Midwest.  We watched a little TV at the hostel and hit the sack.

September 1, 1992 Hutchinson to Eldorado (83 miles, 740 ft, $61)

The day started with a flat front tire.  That’s the second one we’ve had before riding a mile.  Guess it’s better that way as Dave gets to wash his hands and we just start later.  We had pancakes this morning at Jim’s Landmark Café, a short stack each.  The owner, Jim, chatted with us for quite some time and in the end gave us the cakes for free.  We are really enjoying the mornings in the small cafes.  There is always a crowd of the regulars and it doesn’t take much for a conversation to get started.  Of course, there is always someone who asks Dave if he can tell when I’m not pedaling (yes he can, the chain links the two sets of cranks together).  We always end up learning something about the route or local history that we would not have learned otherwise.  For sure a trip highlight that we’ll continue as we head east.

We made just one stop today in Newton.  We had a strong crosswind out of the south the entire day.  There were some very dark clouds in the sky when we arrived in Eldorado, so we found a hotel room.  Very tacky and not worth the $32 dollars.  The clouds blew over when we were walking to dinner – we should have camped.  We did laundry and spotted some other bikes in front of a restaurant so we headed there for dinner.  The other riders were headed west so we got some good tips.  Also heard again about the killer hill “Vesuvius” in Virginia.  Tomorrow we are thinking a longer day, shooting for Chanute.

September 2, 1992 Eldorado to Chanute (96 miles, 1440 ft, $27)

We got an early start with more pancakes in the local café and were on the road by 7:15.  We had a little tailwind starting out; but of course neither of us mentioned it!  Today’s ride took us through the eastern part of Kansas, much more rolling terrain and different looking crops.  We saw lots of armadillos (smashed!) and quite a few turtles (moving slowly, but alive). 

We rolled into Chanute about 3PM and stopped at the Chamber of Commerce, to check on camping and find out if the woman listed on our Bikecentennial maps as a local contact, “Yodeling Katy”, was still around.  She was and through a quick phone call, we found that we were welcome and there were hot showers waiting. 

Nothing can really prepare you for Katy.  She lives in a mobile home on the edge of town.  The outside was non-descript, the inside was pure Katy.  She is a collector.  Not stamps or coins or something manageable, a collector of everything.  Every square inch of the inside of the mobile home was covered or stacked with stuff.  It was not messy or disorganized and if you ask Katy about a topic, she invariably had some object that was connected to it that she could quickly retrieve from the middle of pile X on the coffee room table (or somewhere else in the room).  And stories she could tell – you did not have to ask many questions with Katy around.  All she needed was a glimmer of an idea and thousands of stories, complete with the appropriate icon, came flowing out.  We spent the afternoon showering and trading off who would listen to Katy next.

At one point Dave escaped to take a phone call.  Turns out that Chamber of Commerce had called the local radio station and they wanted to interview us.  Dave spent about 5-10 minutes talking to a reporter for an interview that they played at 5PM and again the next day on the morning show.  Katy made us a tape.

More on Katy.  Somewhere during the day when we stopped for lunch, one of Dave’s street shoes fell out of the bag.  We must not have noticed as by the time we got to Katy’s, he only had one shoe.  Not a problem with that though, Katy had numerous extra shoes that she had collected through the years.  Yes, that’s right, shoes.  Who knows where she got them, but she had a pile of left and right, non-matching shoes she pulled from a box in a pile.  Dave found a right shoe that he could use with his own left shoe long enough to walk to Wal-Mart.  Katy thought he looked good.  I walked a few yards behind the two of them on the trip to the store where Dave bought new shoes.  Katy gladly accepted Dave’s odd shoe into her collection, sliding the lot back into the box.

Katy made a wonderful beef pie for dinner.  Not sure how she cooked it as the stove was covered with stacks of collectibles.  We had a 5-minute exercise making room for three of us at her kitchen table.  She normally eats alone and only one space was not filled with more stacks.  For dessert we insisted that Katy let us buy her a sundae at the local Hardies drive in.  Of course, Katy brought home the sundae containers, stating that she only needed to collect 5 more and she would have enough to feed the Girl Scout Troop she works with.

Katy does not let people sleep in her house so we set up the tent in her yard.  I’m fairly certain you couldn’t sleep in her home if you wanted to.  There are only little paths through the rooms and there would be no place to put your sleeping bag.  She’s cooking us breakfast in the morning.  Plus, she’s promised to play us a tune on the ukulele, and of course yodel.  I can hardly wait!

September 3, 1992 Chanute to Golden City MO (94 miles, 1110 ft, $46)

We woke to a sunny morning but the tent was dripping wet from dew – it sure is humid here in the Midwest.  We listened to the radio again to hear Dave’s interview.  Katy made us homemade cinnamon roles and left over porcupine meatballs (Dave thought that they had real porcupine in them –  you never know with Katy!).  Katy got out the ukulele and played us some tunes.  Pretty good really and the yodeling was not bad.  She had written a few of the numbers herself.  Of course we got another round of fresh stories as a bonus.

We went to start riding and discovered another morning flat tire.  Dave changed it while I chatted (er, listened to!) Katy.  When we finally got going, Katy insisted on escorting us to the edge of town on her bike.  She rode next us on an old three speed, complete with basket and horn, no doubt found somewhere discarded by the original owner.  When we reached the edge of town Katy gave us a toot and we were off, not really sure if she was real or we had dreamt one of the more interesting nights of our trip. 

We had to make another detour for a bridge out, then rode through Gerard and Pittsburgh.  We saw lots of turtles and a few snakes on the road.  We stopped for lunch in Pittsburgh and from there it was only 5 miles to the Missouri state line.  We stopped for the border photo.  Soon after crossing the state line, Dave starting making comments to the affect, “Nancy, we’re not in Kansas anymore” (from the Wizard of Oz movie).  He’d been saving that one up for almost a month!  Life on the road affects your mind, or maybe that’s just Dave.

We stopped for the day in Golden City, where we camped in the city park.  After another load of laundry, we went into town to Cookies Café.  That is another place that many people who make the trip talk about.  They had great journals dating back almost 30 years.

After dinner, we stopped at a phone booth so that I could call the Oregon Bar.  Today is the day that they post results of the bar exam.  I PASSED!  I called my mom to tell her.

Back at the park, a high school baseball game had started.  We sat in the stands with the locals and watched.  They pretty quickly figured out that we weren’t local so we ended up with lots of friends to talk to during the game.  Dave asked one of them if you pronounce the state name MissourI or MissourA.  An old-timer with no teeth answered that we could say it however we wanted.  Fifteen minutes later the rest of crowd was still debating.  I don’t think we ever got an answer.

September 4, 1992 Golden City to Marshfield (85 miles, 3480 ft, $34)

We had pancakes at Cookies and got the skinny on the local roads.  We also learned that the strange “short” corn crop we’d been seeing a lot of was actually milo, a common feed used for livestock.  We were pedaling by 8AM.

We stopped in Everton for a snack.  When we got ready to leave, we discovered another flat tire.  Glad they are not happening on a fast down hill or in the middle of a rain shower.  In Ash Grove, we tried to get some more cash, but there were no ATMs and the bank would not cash advance on our credit card – felt like we were in the south now.  Stopped for another snack anyway, walnut pie in Huffman’s Café. We rode onto a lunch stop in Walnut Grove where we still could not find an ATM but were able to convince the bank manager to give us an advance on our credit card. 

Today’s route was very hilly.  Very steep downhills, followed by very steep uphills – we’re in the Ozark Mountains now.  A real roller coaster ride.  It didn’t take long to figure out that if we rode as fast as we could on the downhill, we could coast part of the uphill.  Still we did a lot of big ring to granny shifts.  Dave only slipped up on a couple of them.

In Everton, we called ahead to Marshfield to ask about camping in the park.  They said it was ok.  On the way into town we stopped a Wal-Mart and bought supplies for dinner and headed for the park.  When we arrived, we found the bathrooms locked and no one around.  Of course the people we’d called in city hall had gone for the day.  We rode a little way up the street to see if we had the right park.  We couldn’t find any other parks so stopped to ask a guy mowing his yard for directions.  He said that we had the right park and that he would call the city manager at home to see if he could help us out.  Before long the manager was unlocking the bathrooms and we were setting up camp.  Of course, now the word was out and a number of locals strolled by to chat with us.  It was well after dark before we ate dinner.

 

September 5, 1992 Marshfield to Houston (67 miles, 2900 ft, $54)

We got up early, had cereal for breakfast, and were on the road by 7AM.  The sky was clear but it was very humid.  We had more rolling hills throughout the day.  We saw a lot more turtles on the road today, even stopped a couple times to help several of them get across the road.  We were stopped once on a ridge but before we could help a slow moving turtle, a big truck came by and crunch, poor turtle. 

We stopped for a snack in Hartville then didn’t stop for lunch until we got here.  After a bite and some ice cream, we went to check out the city park.  It was not very nice and the showers were a mile away.  Since it was Labor Day weekend, we opted to get a hotel room – it was only $25 can’t beat that.  Had a quiet afternoon and made sandwiches in the room for dinner.  We’re both tired tonight – I think the Ozarks are getting to us a bit.  They are much harder than the Rockies because the constant rolling nature of them.  You don’t get a chance to settle into a climbing rhythm – it’s just up and down.

September 6, 1992 Houston to Ellington (71 miles, 3700 ft, $61)

We were up early for pancakes and on the road by 7AM to try to beat some of the holiday traffic.  The hills to Summersville were not too bad but from there on they got extreme.  Lots of very steep downhills with an immediate uphill on the other side.  Some were over 10% but pretty short.  We rode through Ozark National Scenic Riverways and stopped at the Devils Bend Visitor Center for lunch.  Lots of tourists around, looks like a big canoe and rafting area.  It is pretty terrain.

We rode into Ellington around 2PM, stopped at the store and asked about the park.  No showers, no bathrooms, lots of cars revving it up and the drivers milling round drinking away the holiday weekend.  We opted to get a hotel room.  The hotel was new and very nice, only $35 to boot.

We took showers and I crashed on the bed.  Woke up to the sound of a cloud burst outside.  It had been pretty clear in the morning but it was dumping now.  It rained very hard for 2 hours, glad we were not in the tent!  We set the tent up in the room, as it was still wet from two nights ago.

For dinner, we hit the restaurant next door then took a stroll around town.  Not much to this town, though the party in the park seemed to have survived the storm and was gaining momentum.  Tomorrow we’re off to Farmington and a rest day.  We need it as the Ozarks are starting to tire us out.

September 7, 1992 Ellington to Farmington (63 miles, 2890 ft, $95)

We got up early and had breakfast at the restaurant next door.  We were riding by 7:15.  It was foggy this morning so we both wore our bright jackets and put on the rear flashing light.  It was Monday of the holiday weekend so traffic was light starting out.  Lots more climbing and roller coaster riding today.  We stopped for a quick snack in Centerville.  Interesting people running the joint, very friendly, full of local stories they shared with us. 

Traffic picked up as the day went on.  We stopped in Pilot Knob for another snack.  From there it was only 20 miles to Farmington.  Five miles after our lunch stop we stopped to use a bathroom.  We ran into a woman there from Portland who had lived in the same apartment building that I had, small world.

In Farmington we stopped at the police station to check on camping in the park.  They told us it was allowed but that the pool had closed for the season and there were no showers.  We ended up at a Day’s Inn a little ways from town up near the freeway, it was the only choice.  Showers, laundry and dinner at the hotel restaurant, follow by celebrating passing the bar with a beer in the hotel lounge.  We then took a dip in the hot tub and called it a night.

September 8, 1992 Farmington rest day (11 miles, 210 ft, $81)

Slept in – Yeah!  We got up, walked across the street and had biscuits and gravy, plus lots of coffee.  Back in the hotel, Dave changed the rear tire then we rode to town to find a place to clean the chains.  We couldn’t find a bike shop so Dave asked a mechanic at the local Ford Dealership.  They let him use the shop solvent tank and gave him run of the shop.  Gotta love these small towns.

We then rode / walked round town looking at antique and craft shops.  We spent a fair amount of time looking for Missouri post cards but there were none to be found – I guess this is not a real tourist town.  We had lunch at Pizza Hut and headed back to the hotel for our afternoon nap.  Tomorrow we head for Illinois and get to cross the mighty Mississippi River.

September 9, 1992 Farmington to Murphysboro  (91 miles, 3150 ft, $71)

We ate breakfast at McDonalds and stopped at the post office to mail some post cards that we found back at the hotel.  We were on the road by 7:30.  Once we got out of town, traffic was light.  Really pretty county, rolling hills with lots of big farms.  Lots of pig farms.

We cross the Mississippi River on a fairly narrow bridge but traffic was light.  The river was not as impressive as I thought it would be, pretty narrow here and very muddy.  We stopped for a snack on the far side in the town of Chester, Illinois.  It was very hot and steamy.  We had lunch in Campbell Hill, and from there it was only 18 miles to Murphysboro.  We had planned to camp but heard that there were severe thunderstorm warnings for the afternoon.  We decided a hotel was better than a tornado.

We stopped at the Chamber of Commerce where Dave got the skinny on hotels.  There were 2 – one was full, so we tried the other.  They had a room and we were safe from the storms.  We showered and headed to the all-you-can eat at KFC.  Yet another restaurant owner disappointed after thinking they’d get a good deal on the two skinny cyclists.  Not sure how good they are for you but those KFC biscuits are a great treat after a long day in the saddle.

Tomorrow we’ve mapped out another long day.  We shooting for Cave-in-Rock State Park, it doesn’t seem like there is much choice other than a town at only 45 miles.

 

September 10, 1992 Murphysboro to Cave-in-Rock  (95 miles, 4010 ft, $17)

We got up early and headed for McDonalds, or so we thought.  The restaurant wasn’t where we thought it was.  Even though it was not yet light, we decided to pedal onto Carbondale and see what we could find there.  Carbondale being a college town, they had a McDonalds.

From Carbondale we rode through Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw one deer right on the road but not much else.  We stopped for snacks in Groveville, Eddyville and Elizabeth Town.  Not much in these towns other than a corner store.

We are getting close to Kentucky and the infamous dogs.  Today we saw plenty and some of them were tough.  I drained an entire bottle directly on the nose of one of them and it kept chasing us, although its bark started to sound more like a drowning than a bark.  We had a second particularly nasty dog that another full water bottle did not discourage.  We were going up a little hill so it was able to stay right with us.  Just as we crested the hill and were about to pull away, I dropped the map and we had to stop.  The dog did not really know what to do now it had caught us.  We were much bigger than he was and pretty mad at this point.  When Dave started to chase the dog, the game became a lot less fun and the mutt ran away faster from us than it did catching us.  I can’t imagine what a local might have thought if they driven by with me holding the tandem while Dave chased a dog.  Kentucky might be fun!

We made it to Cave-in-Rock at 3:30.  Dave talked to a couple locals but in both cases could not understand a word they said.  We bought supplies for dinner at the small store and headed for the campground.  The campground was empty, including the ranger booth.  We picked a secluded spot and set up camp.  Before dinner we walked to the far end of camp and snuck showers from one of the hand water pumps.  There was no one around so we stripped and each washed quickly while the other held a towel.  It was very cold water but it felt good to get cleaned up.

We walked to “the Cave”.  It was pretty neat – you could walk right in.  Just outside the cave was the Ohio River and on the other side was Kentucky.  Our two day stay in Illinois would end tomorrow AM with a ferry crossing.  We still haven’t been able find anyone or method for paying for the campsite.  We’ll see what we can do in the morning.

September 11, 1992 Cave-in-Rock to Sebree Kentucky (59 miles, 2180 ft, $34)

Since the ferry didn’t run early, we slept a little later this morning.  Had cereal at camp and rode to the dock.  The ferry pulled in just as we got there and it was a quick ride over the Ohio River.  The ferrymaster charged us $1 – he wasn’t sure if he should charge us for one bike or two people.  Guess they don’t see many tandems.  When we got off the ferry on the other side, we ran into our first Kentucky dog – there was a small puppy wagging its tail, thrilled to see us.  He followed us for a couple miles, no owner in sight.  We’re not sure what happened to him.  More important, after the dogs of Illinois, we hope that’s as bad as the dogs of Kentucky get.

We saw several horse drawn wagons, as there is a large Amish community in the area.  We rode through nice rolling hills to Marion.  We planned on shooting for Utica tonight but took a long break waiting for the Chamber of Commerce in Marion to open (Dave wanted to get one of the standard issue free tourist maps, which they did not have).  We decided to call it a day in Sebree.

Sebree is a nice town with a great park to camp in.  We had sponge bath showers in the bathrooms as the pool was closed for the season.  For dinner we had the “blue plate special” at the local dinner.  It really was just that.  The place was so small that they really didn’t have a menu.  You just got to eat what they were making that day.  The special was pretty good – the best part was the black-eyed peas.  We got ice cream at the corner store for dessert. 

We saw lots of tobacco today.  It’s the time of year that they cut it and hang it out to dry.  We talked to some folks at the store and got the story on tobacco.  Turns out that nearly everyone that has any land grows a bit of tobacco.  Many of them don’t smoke, but instead sell it to the big growers who in turn sell it to the big tobacco companies.  This is how everyone pays for his or her Christmas gifts as the money comes in just before Christmas.

After dinner we watched a local softball league game at the park.  One of the players had a University of Oregon shirt on so we asked him if had been to Oregon.  He said no, he just like the colors, had pretty much never left the county.

 

September 12, 1992 Sebree to Rough River Dam State Park (78 miles, 2900 ft, $33)

We woke up early to fog.  We managed to pack quickly and head back to the diner for pancakes.  We saw a lot more tobacco today – some hanging outside, some in tobacco sheds.  We saw a couple work crews cutting it by hand also.  We stopped for a snack in Utica, then again in Wheatsville.  The “JCs” were handing out candy for a donation, they gave us some, we gave them a $1 and they filled our pockets for the rest of the day.  I think we might be starting to look a little worse for the wear of the road, guess it looked like we needed a hand.

In Rough River we looked at the campground and decide that it would do so we stopped at the store and bought dinner supplies.  We set up camp, did laundry and took showers.  While making dinner, a couple cyclists came in and before you knew it, the majority of the Central Kentucky Wheelmen had moved into the site next door.  After dinner we shared smores and cycling stories with them round the campfire.  They gave us all sorts of tips about the upcoming roads, including a couple short cuts.  They gave us a route that was quieter than our planned route and 20 miles shorter.  They were nice but admitted that there were not many fellow cyclists in Kentucky.  Hard to see why, the roads are pretty quiet and the rolling blue grass hills are quite scenic.

September 13, 1992 Rough River Dam State Park to Bardstown (72 miles, 2790 ft, $33)

We were up early, had cereal in camp while our neighbors slept in, and then hit the road.  The route was great, not much traffic.  You can’t beat that local knowledge.  About 30 miles into the day we ran across a couple tandems going the other way.  They stopped and chatted.  They were part of the group we stayed with last night and counting the two tandems in camp, they told use that made up all four of the state’s known tandem population!

We stopped for a snack in Elizabethtown, then rode the remaining 25 miles to Bardstown.  We are staying at “My Old Kentucky Home State Park”.  Nice park.  We set up camp, took showers and headed over to “The Home” that inspired Stephen Foster songs.  We didn’t take the tour but instead walked to town to look at all the old buildings, a very historic town with lots of big old buildings.  Then we walked back to camp and had dinner.  It’s now 8PM EDT, somewhere during the day we crossed our third timeline and are now in the eastern zone.  We are headed for Berea tomorrow where we are hoping to take a rest day.  Based on our cycling friends’ advice, we are going to improvise the route a bit.  We’ll try to hit McDonalds for breakfast.

September 14, 1992 Bardstown to Berea (90 miles, 4150 ft, $94)

We slept a little later as the time shift made the sunrise later.  Had breakfast at McDonalds.  Dave discovered a few states ago that the second helping of pancakes is often free.  It’s not written anywhere but if you ask, they all seem to know about it.  Some Macs only do it on Sunday.  We both had second helpings for free today.  It’s the small things that sometimes make your day!

Our route turned out ok but Monday morning traffic made it a little busy.  We got back on the Bikecentennial route in Springfield.  From there it was much nicer with lots of green rolling hills and endless horse farms.  We stopped for a snack at a roadside shop where a local said he thought we should be riding in the Tour de France when we told him we had started in Oregon.  We were surprised that he had heard of the TDF out in the middle of Kentucky.

We arrived in Berea about 4PM and decided to check into the famous Boone Tavern Hotel for a treat. The local college runs the hotel and 1^st year students are required to work at the hotel.  One of the porters, er, students helped us get the tandem to the third floor.  It was quite funny – the building is fairly old and the elevator is quite small, and we had to stand the tandem vertical in the elevator.  The student was trying hard to be professional but he couldn’t help but laugh.

The hotel is right in the middle of town with lots of little shops and places to explore on our rest day.  We had pizza for dinner then stopped for a coffee at a place that looks good for breakfast.  I’m really looking forward to the rest day tomorrow.

 

September 15, 1992 Berea rest day (0 miles, 0 ft, $155)

We slept in and then went down to the coffee shop for scones and a latte (first latte since Oregon, the Starbucks revolution was not even close to crossing the Mississippi, let alone making it to the middle of Kentucky).  We bought some postcards, wrote on them and drank more coffee hanging in the shop most of the morning.  Made it back to the hotel in time for lunch.

We decided to splurge and have lunch at the hotel.  We were a bit underdressed but they didn’t seem to mind.  Lunch was great, grilled chicken and hush puppies.  My first ever hush puppies.  We had wonderful peanut soup also.  Our waiter was on his second day.  He’s a first year student from a children’s home studying Architecture.  He was very nervous but did a great job.

After lunch we took a tour of the college.  Turns out that most of town is owned by the college and most of the students can hardly wait for first year hotel duty to end.  They still have to work but get to pick the craft or tourist function.  We hit some more of the shops and tried to mail a package home but just missed the post office (we’ll get it in the next town).  We had dinner at Fast Eddy’s Deli and then had another coffee and chocolate cookie at the coffee shop.  We came back to the hotel and played skittles, sort of a cross between tops and bowling.  This is a great little town, and it was a really fun rest day.

Tomorrow we head for Boonville.  I got a piece of wood from the dulcimer shop in anticipation of those Kentucky dogs that we’re sure to see in the Appalachians.  We’re headed that way, into hilly dog country again.  Hope it’s not as bad as the Ozarks for hills or as bad as Illinois for dogs.  We’re going to try pancakes in the hotel for breakfast.

September 16, 1992 Berea to Buckhorn Lake (76 miles, 3520 ft, $32)

We had pecan pancakes at the hotel in the morning and boy were they delicious.  We were on the road by 8AM, a little late but it has not been quite as hot lately.  It seemed like there were lots of hills today, though none of them were too long or steep.  Back in Berea, we had called ahead to see if the Pippa Passes hostel was open.  The owner told us about a short cut 15 miles out of town that meant riding across a valley, rather than up to one side and then back down the other – it was supposed to save some 20 miles.  She didn’t know the name of the road but told us to ask a local.

We rode about 15 miles and started watching for the cut off but couldn’t find the road so we stopped a local coming out of a driveway to ask for directions.  Dave asked three times but neither of us could understand a word the guy said.  He was speaking English but his accent was so strong and he didn’t know the roads by anything other than who lived in the house on the road.  State maps tended to stick to the numbering system.  We eventually gave up, pretended that we understood and thanked him.

A little further down the road, we spotted a couple more guys in a pickup and decided to try again.  Same thing happened.  After a couple tries with the driver, Dave tried the passenger.  No luck.  Eventually, Dave turned to me and said, “Nance, you get that?”  It was all we could do to not burst out laughing.  I didn’t have a clue what they had said.  We felt like we were in another country.  After a few thank you’s, we pedaled down the road, no smarter about the route but certainly more aware of the communications challenges we might face in the Appalachians.  We managed to find the cutoff not too far up the road.

We saw lots of dogs today – we never had to use the stick but we did use lots of water.  The dogs seemed to slow down or stop here much better than they did in Illinois.  We rode past lots of farms today but clearly it is getting poorer.  Lots of driveways that lead through a creek, no bridge or anything to get to the other side.  Some had suspended walkways from the road to the house – the high water route, I guess.

We met a westbound cyclist today.  A German coming from New York.  He seemed pretty happy, doesn’t look like the Appalachians had gotten to him.

It was only 60 or so miles at Boonville so we rode further up the road to Buckhorn Lakes Campground.  Our campsite is very nice, hot showers and laundry.  We ate noodles for dinner then walked around the campground.  We bought ice cream in the camp store.  Tomorrow we have a short day to Pippa Passes Hostel though it looks hilly on the map.

 

September 17, 1992 Buckhorn Lake to Pippa Passes (54 miles, 3270 ft, $33)

We slept in a little then had breakfast at camp.  We had lots of climbing starting out – it took an hour to get through the first 7 miles, but then it got better.  We stopped at Chavies for a snack and to inspect the coal trucks parked across the road.  We’d heard a lot about the coal trucks – bigger than western dump truck, generally using roads that were smaller.  Nearly every cycling book we’d read had one near-miss story that involved a coal truck.  Up close they are very big, but we didn’t have any problems with them on the road.  A couple times when we heard them coming and the road was narrow, Dave steered into the gravel shoulder.  If you planned ahead they were not bad.

The mess that the coal trucks leave behind was much worse.  We had two flat tires on the Boon Parkway, both caused by running over coal chunks that we could not miss.  The shoulder was very messy.  Dave’s hands go so dirty from the coal dust covered tires.  With only 7 miles to go we pulled onto a quiet side road that was much better until we hit a small rock and bang, another flat tire.

The hills to Pippa Passes were not too bad.  We got a room at the AYH hostel.  The only thing in town is Alice Lloyd College.  It is very similar to Berea, targeted towards the financially disadvantaged kids from the mountains.  They provide lots of financial aid and have never turned down a student for lack of money.  The college was established in 1923 and has lots of old buildings. 

We ate dinner in the school cafeteria.  There are no restaurants.  For $3 you get one main course and-all-you-can eat salads, even ice cream sundaes for desert.  We had a great time sitting at a table with a couple teachers and some students.  Since there is nowhere else to eat, everyone eats in the cafeteria.  We found out that the name Pippa Passes has nothing to do with mountain passes.  The town got it’s name from a little poor girl who walked past 364 days a year on her way to work (she got Christmas day off).  Regardless, she was always very cheerful and waved to everyone, thus “Pippa Passes”.  Not sure how much of the story was true or had simply ‘developed’ over the years but it was still fun.

Off to bed now, breakfast in the cafeteria for $2 in the morning.  We should cross the state line tomorrow, into our last state.  Still having fun and avoiding the Bikecentennial syndrome!

September 18, 1992 Pippa Passes to Breaks VA (59 miles, 3890 ft, $58)

We ate breakfast at the cafeteria.  Pancakes were not too great but they had bagels and lots of fruit.  We talked to some more people and got a flyer on the school.  We were on the road around 8AM.  We had more tough hills to start the day.  It started to sprinkle mid-morning, never really quit all day. 

Lots of very rough-looking homes today.  Many had random extensions and it was hard to tell where the shack started and house ended.  It seemed like lots of them also had people sitting on the front porch.  They would never wave, just stared out at us.  Even saw lots of kids on porches, though we rode through when school was in session.  Many of the creek beds and ravines were full of trash too – all pretty sad.  Certainly if we felt poor when riding through Sun Valley back in Idaho, we felt very rich today, knowing our bike was probably worth more than many of these families earned in a year.  We saw lots of dogs today also.  But they too, like their owners, didn’t seem all that full of energy.  One yell or a quick squirt and they were heading back to the porch.  Certainly, they were not as vicious as the well-fed hounds back in Illinois.

We stopped for an extended snack to get out of the rain but all that seemed to do was make it rain harder.  We had some chocolate chip cookies and coffee to warm us up.  Eventually, we had nothing else to do so we headed out to ride in the rain up a few more hills.

We rode to Elkhorn City and since we were already wet, we decided to shoot for Breaks Interstate Park.  Rumor was that they had nice cabins.  We crossed the Virginia state line 4 miles after Elkhorn and it was now raining very hard.  Dave took a quick, wet photo and we got going quickly.  A couple miles latter just before the turned off to the park, we came across a small roadside hotel.  By now it was dumping.  We decided to skip the park and got a room. 

We ordered to-go pizza from the local dinner.  They didn’t deliver but the hotel manager offered Dave a ride to pick it up.  It was not great pizza but it was warm and we were dry.  More rain predicted for tomorrow, we’ll see how far down the road we make it.

September 19, 1992 Breaks to Elk Garden (46 miles, 3850 ft, $30)

It wasn’t raining when we got up so we decided to make a run for it with a planned breakfast down the road.  We noticed potato bugs in our room as we packed things up.  Not a great hotel room but good enough considering how wet we were yesterday when we got here.  For the first bit, the road was a lot of up and down.  At the top of one hill I noticed Dave sort of twitching more than usual.  This normally means that he has to go the bathroom and a stop is imminent.  I asked him if he needed to stop but he replied no.  He still seemed to be fidgeting and he pedaled with some urgency up the hill.  At the top I found why.  He quickly pulled us off the road and whipped his helmet off.  One of our potato bug friends had been crawling on his head.  He did not want to stop on the uphill and knew that if he told me about the bug we’d have to stop and fumigate.  I had a feeling that was what was going on but I didn’t say anything.  Needless to say we did a complete cleaning at the top!

Next stop was at Haysi for breakfast.  It had started to rain so we procrastinated a bit.  Dave had a second order of biscuits and I had a hot chocolate.  Eventually, we gave up and rode in the rain.  More climbing with a couple stops to put on and take off rain gear as the rain stopped and started.  We stopped to eat again in Honaker, breadsticks and chocolate chip cookies.  From there it was 6 miles to Rosedale and the rain was really coming down.  The traffic had also picked up and it seemed everyone was driving too fast. 

We spotted a hotel and pulled over to discuss our options.  The owners informed us that there were no rooms until Marion, which given the conditions looked too far.  They told us that the church hostel was not very nice either.  We decided to go 7 miles the wrong way to Lebanon and get a hotel.  The hostel was on the way and we could at least check it out.

Our hotel friends were right about the old hostel, the log cabin behind the church was the old hostel and it was almost falling down.  The rest of the hostel, however, they got all wrong.  For starters, the local church wives were having a bake sale that day.  There’s nothing better than a bake sale and hot coffee to take the edge off a rainy day.  It got even better as the church was also having its monthly Saturday night spaghetti feed that night.  Lots of great food and before long we’d forgotten the rain.  They didn’t have showers but a sponge bath did the trick.  Finally, they offered to let us sleep inside the church sanctuary as it had the best carpet.  We helped clean up after the feed, Dave washed dishes.  We broke the “wet feet = hotel room” rule but it was still a great end to a soggy day.

Tomorrow we head over Hayters Gap.  It’s supposed be the last big climb in this part of the Appalachians.

September 19, 1992 Elk Garden to Wytheville (71 miles, 4510 ft, $58)

Even though it was raining in the morning, we got up on time.  We did not want to be sleeping in the sanctuary when the parishioners started to show up for Sunday service!  We had to climb Hayters Gap almost straight away and it turned out it was not too bad.  It was foggy in the valley but we actually got above the clouds as we climbed.  Very pretty terrain.  We stopped at Meadowview for a morning snack.  A guy driving a souped-up car asked us where we were going.  When we told him the ocean, he sort of dropped his jaw and told us it was a long way.  He was completely speechless when we told him that we had started at the other ocean, on the Oregon Coast!

We took Route 11 all the way from Meadowview to Wytheville.  Traffic was pretty light.  Lots of rolling hills but nothing too steep, though we had a pretty strong headwind the entire way.  Seems like we are back into the farmland and out of the mountains once again.  We’re in the Shenandoah Valley, the great valley between the older and newer Appalachian Mountains.  Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have fewer hills.

We got a hotel room, as there was no camping.  The hotel had laundry, which was nice as the last few days of rain and grime meant we needed a good wash.  We had a greasy but tasty dinner at Long John Silvers fish house.

Tomorrow we’re not sure where we are riding.  The only town with camping appears to be 50 miles off, which might be too short if the hills and weather cooperate.  We are supposed to have a rest day the next day, so we’ll look for something nicer.

September 20, 1992 Wytheville to Blacksburg (56 miles, 2850 ft, $122)

We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast today.  The owner of the restaurant told us of a service road out of town that would have minimal traffic, better than the route our map showed.  You never know about hills or winds when the local, non-cyclists recommend route but normally they are spot on for road traffic.  This proved to be another example of that, it was a nice quite road, and not too hilly either!

We stopped for a snack in Bradford.  There was a bike shop there and we asked about camping.  They were not much help, guess you never camp in your own hometown.  From there we rode to Blacksburg, a small city a little off the route.  It’s a college town, the home of Virginia Tech so it looked like a fun place for a rest day.  We stopped at the Chamber of Commerce for a B&B flyer or hot tip on a fun place.  It’s all a little more expensive than we’d like for our budget but it looks like a fun place.  We found a B&B called Per Diem.  It’s right on the edge of campus and looks nice.  Separate residence for the owners so it should be quiet.  The people who own it are very nice.  Already we’ve really hit it off with them, to the point of the first night they offered us free use of their beach house in the Outer Banks NC at the end of our trip.  We’ll have to potentially re-think the trip up to DC and seriously consider the offer.

The husband, Vic, is an art professor at the University.  The B&B is full of his work.  We asked about a poster and he said that he would sign one and mail it back to Portland for us.  Big country breakfast planned for the AM, out by the pool.

September 21, 1992 Blacksburg rest day (0 miles, 0 ft, $112)

We slept in until 7:30 then got up and swam in the pool – the water was nice and warm.  We had a great breakfast, read the paper and kept the B&B coffee machine going.  The B&B has a boxer named Ziggy, a great dog that was really fun to play with.  He barked a little but only to get your attention.  Dave worked on the bike in the driveway.  We took the chains off and headed to a bike shop to get them cleaned.  Then we wandered around town a bit and had lunch and another coffee.  Overnight the bike computer battery died so we had to replace them.  Nice to have that happen on the rest day.

We had a coffee at little shop on campus, thinking it actually might be the first espresso based coffee since leaving Oregon.  When the waitress asked me if I wanted whipped cream on my latte, I readjusted my standard a bit.  When she finished taking our order, turned to the automated hot chocolate/coffee machine and punched a button, I abandoned all hope of a proper latte.  No Starbucks revolution here yet, even on the college campus.

We returned to the B&B after lunch and hung out.  Jo Pat informed us that the local TV station was going to swing by and film us for the evening news.  We lazed around the afternoon waiting for our 15 minutes of fame.  They finally arrived at 6:30.  We put on our bike cloths and rode a few laps round the news van.  The camera guy kept fumbling things up and after 3 or 4 tries decided that the camera was broken.  They gave up and left – we got cut before even making it onto film!

For dinner, we hit the local Chinese joint that Vic recommended.  Jo Pat is going to make us breakfast earlier than she normally would, 7AM.  Looking at the map, it appears that we might only have 6 days of riding left.  Guess it depends on the weather as it’s been raining more lately.  This has been our best rest day so far, mostly because of the great people we met.

September 22, 1992 Blacksburg to Natural Bridge KOA park  (73 miles, 2980 ft, $32)

We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, with fruit and zucchini bread too.  It was sad saying goodbye to Jo Pat and Vic.  Jo Pat gave us both big hugs and even said it felt like it was her own kids leaving.  They gave us the key to their beach house and for sure we’re going to use it.  Got out of town around 8:15.

The morning ride was through a very scenic valley, lots of farms and old houses.  It was a school day so we had an hour or so where we leap-frogged with the school buses.  We stopped for snacks in Daleville and then again in Buchanan.  We stocked up on dinner supplies at Buchanan, not knowing what the campground might have. 

We stopped at Natural Bridge but found that it was private.  It had a tall fence and to actually see it you had to walk a ways in – couple that with no bike friendly/safe parking and we decided to skip it.  Not quite what we expected when we heard that George Washington was the first owner.  Guess the first president was a businessman also.

We are staying at the KOA campground 4 miles down the road.  Nice campground, clean showers and laundry.  It has all the normal KOA “don’t touch this” signage, but that’s to be expected.  It seems that somewhere in the KOA franchise kit the owners get a handy dandy sign making machine.  Everything is signed.  Don’t do this, don’t stand here, this is a tree, this is a building and so on.  Some of the owners make lots of “don’t” signs, some just make lots of signs.  This one was a “don’t” signer.  We followed instructions and avoided KOA jail.

Tomorrow is a big day.  We tackle the infamous “Vesuvius” climb that we’ve heard so much about.  The climb takes you up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway so I hope the reward will be worth it.  We hope to call on the “Cookie Lady”, another of those route icons, though we heard she was thinking about retiring.  It’s already dark at 7:30, autumn is coming.

September 23, 1992 Natural Bridge KOA park to Afton, Cookie Lady (62 miles, 5230 ft, $31)

Boy was it cold this morning.  Clear sky and frost everywhere.  We left camp later than planned but thought it a good idea to let the roads thaw out.  We wore long finger gloves and tights.  We stopped in Lexington for a hot cup of decaf and a few minutes under the blow dryer in the bathroom.  Dave was not shy about using the women’s rest room when he found that the men’s dryer did not work.  We actually slid on some ice on a corner coming into town.  Dave pretended we didn’t so I would not be nervous but he was pretty quick to stop at the first mini-mart we saw.  We hung out in the rest room for quite a while.  It wasn’t much warmer starting up plus we’d changed direction and had a biting headwind.

We eventually covered the 30 miles that took us to the base of the big climb, Vesuvius.  It was 4 miles from the valley floor to the Parkway on the top.  We settled into our lowest gear and kept expecting it to get really hard.  It never did.  Before we knew it, we were at the top.  It was actually pretty anti-climatic, certainly nothing compared to Teton Pass or many of the no-name roads in the Ozarks.  We really couldn’t figure out why the cyclists coming from the East would have thought much of it.  Sure they hit it early in their trips before they had months of road conditioning, but then it was also downhill for them.  Strange.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was very nice.  It has a fairly low maximum speed that is strictly enforced and virtually no traffic.  We rode 30 or so miles of beautiful rolling mountain top road with leaves changing to autumn colors.  It was still a little cold and we never got out of our tights but the scenery made out it worthwhile.

We stopped for lunch in Fork Mountain and again for a snack at a Forest Service information center.  They had a heater at the information center, which was very difficult to leave.  I read every book in the shop until finally buying an Appalachian cookbook more out of guilt for hanging out so long than any desire to cook!

We debated staying at a hotel at the junction where we left the parkway.  It was all downhill to the Cookie Lady’s house but we were not sure that she would be open.  We decided to push on and were glad we did.  She is open and wow, what a place.  Over the past 25 years thousands of people have stopped.  Many left something or sent her a gift.  She has set up the house next to hers as a hostel and it has become a bicycle tourist shrine.  We filled hours reading the walls and looking at pictures.  The Cookie Lady herself was a real sweet lady.  To think this place got started back in the 70’s just because she offered water to a passing rider.

Hope it will be warmer tomorrow.  The forecast sounds like rain.  It seems that the remnants of Hurricane Andrew (the one the hit Florida really hard) is making its way up to Virginia.  It’s not a hurricane anymore but it has big bands of very heavy rain still.

September 24, 1992 Afton, Cookie Lady to Charlottesville (20 miles, 310 ft, $71)

Not cold this morning, just raining sideways and blowing real hard.  We hit the snooze button a couple times but it never really let up. We got up, ate breakfast and packed very slowly.  The Cookie Lady looked in on us and said that we were welcome to stay another day as the forecast looked very wet.  We chatted with her until 10AM, with an eye out the window looking for the break in the rain.  It never came.

I’m not sure why but we decided to give it a go, at least we could do the downhill part to Charlottesville.  Boy did we get wet.  It rained the entire way, with a real downpour coming as we hit town.  We had to stop at the information center on the edge of town, not for directions but because Dave could not actually see it was raining so hard.  We had to ride through some puddles so deep that our feet were under water as we pedaled.  Good thing they didn’t have big potholes under the surface.

Eventually, we made our way to a budget motel in the middle of town and checked in at noon (the clerk took pity on use and let us check in early).  Yes, we met the wet feet rule today, make that puckered feet today!  We turned the room heat up all the way, strung a cloths line across the room and hung up our wet cloths.  It’s a good thing we have everything in zip lock bags, as even our thick panniers were wet on the inside.

We walked across the street to the Italian Villa, which served breakfast all day.  We had pancakes and warm coffee, then went back to the room to take a nap in our newly created sauna.

We watched the news and it sounded like the coast really got battered.  We called Jo Pat to see if her beach house was OK and if we could still use it.  Guess the storm was not as bad there so it was ok.  It was nice to talk to her.

Tomorrow we head for Richmond, about 69 miles.  That’s the plan anyway, but who knows with the rain though.  We’ve left the Bikecentennial route again and will take the old road, highway 250 all the way to Richmond.

September 25, 1992 Charlottesville to Richmond (65 miles, 2120 ft, $77)

Got up and had pancakes across the street.  We stopped on the way out of town at the University of Virginia to get a photo of “Monticello”.  We stopped for a snack at a mini-mart.  They were having a grand opening party with free giveaways, and I won a Virginia lottery T-shirt.  Later we snuck into a polo match to use their porta-potties.  It seems that none of the stores in these parts let you use the facilities.

We rode Highway 250 all the way to Richmond.  It nice rolling terrain without too much traffic early, picking up as we got closer to Richmond.  The town was pretty much strip malls, Wal-Marts and cheap motels.  We chose a Super 8 on the near side of town; we’ll tackle riding through the city earlier in the day tomorrow.   Dave asked for a no smoking room when he checked us in.  The room turned out to be really smelly so I sent Dave back to check.  The clerk told him that no smoking meant that they didn’t equip that room with an ashtray!  She offered to have someone come spray it but we declined, perfume and smoke would have been worse.  Oh well, it’s only one night.

For dinner we wandered across the street to Morrison’s Cafeteria.  When I stepped to the counter, the guy behind asked me what I would like to have as my main.  He said, “What would you like Ma’am…. Sir…. Ma’am…. Sir…..  <silence>…?”  I got my hair cut very short before the trip.  I’m not as brave as Dave is when it comes to letting anyone cut his hair.  When you travel on a bike earrings and make-up become more trouble than they are worth also.  All that coupled with a good tan and the poor clerk did not know what I was.  Dave was on the floor laughing.   Food was ok, for sure all the “big southern eaters” stopped here.  Not too many skinny people that we could see.

Tomorrow we’re off to Smithfield, across the Jamestown Ferry. 

September 26, 1992 Richmond to Smithfield (81 miles, 890 ft, $107)

We had pecan waffles at the Waffle House for breakfast.  We rode right through the middle of Richmond.  It would have been a nightmare yesterday afternoon but on Sunday morning, we had the streets to ourselves.  Downtown seemed pretty worse for wear.  We stopped at Varina a little out of town to snack and use the bathrooms.  Several locals chatted with us, generally very friendly.  From there it pretty flat until the ferry, we made great time, arriving at 11:00 at the ferry.

The ferry cost $.15 per bike and again, they charged us for only one bike even though there were two of us riding.  It was about a 20-minute ride, complete with a period sailing ship cruising the river to entertain us. 

We stopped for lunch in Surry and then rode the last 20 miles to Smithfield.  The roads were nice and quite today, good for cycling.  A local cyclist whom Dave found on the Internet suggested the route.  Tonight we are staying at a very nice hotel, over our budget but it’s the last night.  We walked the town, lots of nice historic buildings, then had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  We splurged and had room service bring us dessert.  I don’t think that we could have gotten that in Muddy Gap!

Tomorrow is our last day.  It’s about 70 miles to Virginia Beach.  Hopefully the roads will be quite.  We are after tourist season so it should be just the locals.

September 27, 1992 Smithfield to Virginia Beach (63 miles, 510 ft, $111)

On our last day of riding across the continent, the hotel served us a “continental” breakfast.  Dave thought that was pretty clever. 

There was lots of fog starting out in the morning.  We stopped in Suffolk for a snack.  From there to the end of the day we had a lot of traffic.  We had a flat tire in the morning also, our 10th flat tire of the trip.  Actually, that’s not bad for a tandem and 4000 miles.  Only trouble with this flat was the drainage ditch beside the road where we changed it, thousands of mosquitoes descended on us as Dave made a quick change.

We only got lost once today which is pretty good for city riding.  When were stopped trying to our next move, a policeman pulled up behind us with his lights flashing.  We weren’t doing anything wrong, he was just a tri-athlete and he wanted to help / chat with us.  He gave us a better route.

We finally reach the beach at 2:30.  It was very deserted and pretty foggy.  Still, we were thrilled to be there!  We took our shoes off and walked in the waves, snapped lots of photos and wrote our names in the sand.  It felt strange to be done.  The next road to the east was somewhere across the ocean.  We hung out for a long time, just enjoying the moment.

Eventually, it started to rain so we headed off to find a hotel.  It was pretty easy as everything seems to empty out here once summer is over.  We called our parents from the room, showered and headed to a fancy restaurant for dinner.  We celebrated with a beer!

September 28, 1992 Car to Atlantic Beach NC

 

We spent the morning getting a rental car and arranging details for a week in NC.  After seeing lots of monuments of some historic event or another from the side of the road for the past two months, we decided to skip DC this trip.  A week a Jo Pat and Vic’s beach house was just what we needed. 

We drove most of the way there (250 miles) in a little over 4 hours.  Both of us could not get over how fast we chewed up miles in the car.  We would have taken three days to cover the same ground on the bikes.  We’d see signs for something 30 miles away and we would be past it before our bike speed minds were ready.  And of course, we had a strong tailwind all day long!

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