PedalWest

Greetings from Florida! That’s right, Florida. We have come a long way since our last email and NO it was not all on bicycles. Sorry, but we are going to force you to read the entire email to see how we ended up down here in the sunshine state. If we are correct our last update was from Lincoln City, Oregon where we took a day off to go to church, do our laundry, visit the local kite festival and most importantly to visit with Julie, who is an acquaintance of Jay’s from a previous bike tour. Julie was nice enough to drive all the way from Portland, OR. Thanks again Julie for the great visit. From Lincoln City we continued South along the coast to Newport. Most of the day was foggy and cool and we didn’t see too much. We did take a tour of a restored lighthouse which was very interesting.

The Oregon Coast has at least a dozen lighthouses and if you are a lighthouse buff you really need to tour the Oregon Coast. The weather continued to deteriorate throughout the afternoon and the forecast was for rain, rain and more rain. This time the weatherman was right. We stopped at South Beach State Park and rented a YURT for the cool and wet night ahead. The Yurt came complete with electricity, couch, double bed, table and chairs and even a heater. We also made space to bring our bikes inside out of the weather. It was the BEST $27.00 we spent on the entire trip. Most of the Oregon State Parks have Yurts and they are rented almost 100% of the time so we felt lucky to get one without reservations. If you are unfamiliar with Yurts, they are large round tents with wood frames and have their origin in the nomadic regions of Mongolia. We hear Yurt.com is a good sight to learn more, although we have not checked it out. The next day it was still raining and very cool. Normally we would have tried to wait it out, but unlike most of our schedule-free trip, this time we did have reservations for a B&B 100 miles away in 2 days so we were forced to move on, much to our dismay. The day was cold, rainy, foggy and pretty much miserable all around. To top it off we had a headwind and a lot of the route had a smaller shoulder than we would have preferred or were used to on the Oregon Coast. We did see some seals and sea lions laying the rocks at a nice overlook called Strawberry Hill. Unfortunately they were too far away to see them well.

We also ran into another couple touring on Recumbents, one with a trailer like ours. This couple was not your typical bike tourers though. They were more like vagrants or drifters who just happened to have decent bicycles. They were not prepared for the weather and we wondered how they managed. The man wore blue jeans and a leather jacket and the lady had on cotton pants, a sweatshirt and a light windbreaker. Neither of them had riding shoes and their sleeping bags where tied to their bikes with no rain covers. To top things off they stopped every 5-10 miles for a “Smoke Break”. We found it hard to believe they could ride at all with that gear and smoking all the time. We asked them how long they planned to tour and they said, “We have the rest of our lives!” Who knows how far they will make it? We wish them luck, especially as winter closes in on them.

That night we made it to Florence where we splurged on a hotel to warm up and dry out. Florence is the start of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which stretches miles and miles and miles. Some of the dunes are over 300 feet high and many areas are open to ATV’s and dune buggies. Jay’s hopes of riding 4 wheelers on the dunes were washed out by 2 days of rain and cold weather. The next day we woke up to even more rain and cold weather. It was it hard to get going that morning knowing what we had to leave our warm, cozy hotel room to get soaked again in freezing rain. Within minutes of our departure we indeed were soaked by driving rain and were getting very cold as well. Luckily, within an hour the rain had let up to a light mist and by noon, the sun was starting to break through. After lunch the sun made a full appearance and we spent the afternoon soaking up the rays and drying out as we pedaled on to Charleston, OR. During our afternoon ride we met another cyclist that had also ridden the northern tier of the U.S. except from West to East. Like us though he had a little warm up ride and an additional ride at the end. He was from San Diego, so he rode from there to Seattle before starting his crossing and when he made it to Maine, he took a train back to Seattle and was now riding south, back to San Diego when we met him. That’s the most interesting route we have heard so far. We tried to get another Yurt that night, but they were all booked so it was back to the tent after 2 nights indoors.

The next day, September 27th, was Jay’s Birthday! Happy B-day Jay! How old? 23! That’s what he tells everybody, and gets away with it most of the time, unless he takes off his helmet and they see that gray hair creeping in. Anyway, he feels 23 and they say, “you are only as old as you feel!” The celebration for the birthday boy was a stay at a waterfront Bed and Breakfast overlooking a historic lighthouse in Bandon, OR. Thanks to Tom and Emily for sharing in the cost as a present. Neither of us had ever been in a real fancy B&B and it was so nice. The house was beautiful with views of the ocean, the river and the lighthouse right across from it. Our room was gorgeous with a fireplace and a Jacuzzi tub to relax our aching muscles. It came with champagne, compliments of Shirley our host, who knew it was Jay’s big day. It was also 1 day shy of 5 months on the road. The breakfast was amazing with homemade everything including, broccoli and asparagus quiche, French toast, and scrumptious fresh muffins & fruit.

After that breakfast and great stay it was very hard to get back on our bikes and the thoughts of getting back in our tent and cooking in 1 small pot over our temperamental little stove were less than desirable. We only managed to ride 21 miles that day despite being well rested, well fed and having beautiful weather. From Port Oxford we rode on to Gold Beach surpassing the 5,000-mile mark on our odometers. Of course we celebrated. It was a beautiful ride with more perfect weather and good roads right on the Pacific Ocean. That afternoon we camped right next to the beach where we spent time walking and flying “Zippy”, Jay’s new stunt kite he received for his birthday. This kite is remarkably fast and agile, thus the name Zippy. The brochure of instructions compares it to a bumblebee on amphetamines! In the same booklet it mentions that it would be helpful to have been a fighter pilot in a previous life to fly this crazy thing. That was not far from the truth either. The first 5-6 attempts to fly Zippy were disastrous with fierce crashes that almost hit Erinn just seconds after she helped launch that mind-of-it’s-own contraption! But, with a little patience and perseverance, Jay managed to keep it in the air for awhile and even do a couple simple turns without tangling the strings and bringing it to a smashing crash in the sand. Jay now looks forward to more windy days to perfect his flying skills.

Our next stop was at Harris Beach State Park just north of Brookings, Oregon, which is the last town before crossing into California. The beach here was spectacular with tons of huge rocks and sea stacks to climb on and watch as the waves pound against them as they come ashore. We walked on the beach all afternoon and even took all our cooking gear down there and had dinner while watching a spectacular sunset over the Pacific. Just after the great sunset, we were treated to an amazing Full Moon rise! It looked so close that you could reach out and grab it. It was a great way to end a great day. During our stay at Harris Beach we met two more couples who were bike touring. One couple was from Denmark and they were on a 1-year trip around Canada and the U.S. The other, younger couple was from Switzerland and they too were on a one year trip but in consisted of 3 months hiking the Canadian Rockies, 2 months riding the west coast, 3 months hiking in Costa Rica and 4 months riding in New Zealand. What a great and diverse year they had ahead of them.

Backing up a bit. For the past couple days we had been talking about ending our ride. Mostly since our stay in the B&B. The daily rigors of setting up camp, cooking over a one pot stove, sleeping on the ground, and packing up camp each wet, cold morning was now beginning to wear on us. Other factors that came into the conversations were money and the desire to get back to the real world to see friends and family and have our own place again.

So, the next day we rode a huge 4.5 miles into and around Brookings, Oregon until we settled at the U-haul dealer where the pedaling part of Pedal West 2001 came to an END! We finished with 5,041 miles, 19 states & Canada and over 150 days and nights on the road. We think Forrest Gump summed it up best when, at the end of his running, he just stopped and said “And that was enough of that!” Then what? Well, there really isn’t any place to fly out from in that area and we still wanted to experience some of California as well as see some friends, so off to San Francisco/Oakland we went.

The Redwoods of Northern California were amazing, and we were content to be in a vehicle after seeing the conditions of the roads. Little to no shoulders and many long steep hills on highway 101 and even worse on U.S. 1 which is better known as the Pacific Coast Highway. We planned to spend more time exploring the coast and the beaches but found it to be completely fogged over for 2 days. We drove through the wine country of Sonoma Valley and made our way to our friend’s house in the Oakland/Berkeley area, which is just across the bay from San Francisco. Our hosts, Geoff and Kirsten were also cross-country cyclists whom we had met in a campground in Petosky Michigan way back in June. They too were riding recumbents and pulling trailers as they pedaled from Montana to Massachusetts. They mentioned that if we made it as far as California we had to visit, so we did. They were great hosts and we have to thank them for their hospitality and generosity. During our short visit they helped us pack up our bikes and gear and get them shipped back to CT. They also treated us to a real bed and some awesome homecooked meals prepared by Geoff who is quite a chef. He also built most of their furniture and even did some custom work for others. His wordworking was high quality and beautiful. Kirsten is in school again getting her Doctorate in Community Health. The normal program requires 12 credit hours per semester, but Kirsten was on the fast track and was taking 19 credit hours! WOW, She was very busy with school and studying as you can imagine. It made riding across the country look easy. Thanks again and good luck!

During our stay we took the train over, or should we say UNDER to San Francisco. The train goes under the bay between S.F. and Oakland. We did all the touristy things: Alcatraz Island Tour, Fisherman’s Wharf, Sea Lions @ Pier 39, Lombard Street (crookedest street in the country), China Town, Trolley Ride and Golden Gate Park. The only thing we missed was seeing some other friends who were out of town the weekend we were there.

Then came the big day! Flying out of the West Coast! We had to get up at 3:45AM to catch a train to S.F. to catch a bus to the Airport by 6:00AM. What a trip! Good thing we did it though, the lines at the airport were huge and it did take the entire 2 hours to get checked in and through the security checks. All 3 airports we were in were still bustling with people and all had heavy security including uniformed National Guardsmen carrying machine guns. Hard to believe it was the U.S. we were seeing, seemed more like a hostile foreign county. From the looks of things, we guess we have to get used to it. Anyway, the flights were very uneventful and everybody seemed in good spirits. We admit, we were a bit nervous, but it all worked out fine.

That brings us to Florida! We are visiting Jay’s parents in the Tampa area for about 10 days to rest and relax from the big journey. The big joke is: when someone asked us “Now that you have ridden 5,000 miles, what are you going to do next? Our answer is “We’re going to Disney World!” which we do intend to do during our stay in Florida. Erinn worked at Disney for a semester during college so it will be neat to visit it again after a few years. So, that’s about it for Pedal West 2001, the bulk of the adventure is over. Now we have to just let it all sink in and take time to build a scrape book to help us remember all the great places and people we encountered along the way.

Thanks to everyone for the support. We hope you have enjoyed hearing about our little trip as much as have enjoyed sharing it with you. Thanks also to all the strangers, who we now call friends that helped make it all possible. There are too many to mention, but you know who you are. We hope we can repay the favors someday! Until next time (whenever that may be?)

Tailwinds, Jay Dykstra & Erinn Jarvis Dykstra

Hello from the Oregon Coast! We have pedaled over 4,700 miles and are now in our 19th state of this great country and it only gets better! I guess now we have to change the name of our trip to Pedal South 2001. Our stay in Seattle was great! Thanks again to Steve and Linda! We did all the tourist things: Duck Tour, The Underground Tour, Pike Place Fish Market, Salmon Locks, and of course Erinn enjoyed alot of great coffee! There really is a coffee shop on EVERY corner and many corners have 2,3 or 4! We also took care of some bike maintenance including all new tires and a new chain for Erinn’s bike. Thanks to Steve for the mechanic service! Our hosts have a tandem recumbent so one morning Jay took a 55-mile jaunt around the area as the Stoker! It was great fun and you think you get looks on a regular recumbent, you ought to see the stares of amazement as a 9 foot long, underseat steering, tandem monster goes rolling by!

Our ride out of town required us to actually ride downtown to the ferry docks. It was not too bad since they have many bike lanes and paths around the city. We caught the 1:00 p.m. ferry across the Puget Sound and were offered a great view of the Seattle skyline as we headed to the west. Unfortunately it was overcast and we couldn’t see Mt. Ranier over the sound as we had hoped. Our 60 minute ferry ride dropped us in Bremerton, Washington where we continued west and south for a short 35 mile day to a nice state park on a salt water canal with lots of birds, seafood businesses and people digging clams along the banks. Day 2 was a tough ride with limited shoulders and log trucks of course. The only highlights were watching the salmon fisherman in the rivers and a stop at a salmon hatchery. Very interesting.

The next day we passed through the town of Raymond who offered a 5-mile corridor decorated with great wildlife art crafted out of huge plates of steel! They had life size versions of Moose, Elk, Deer, Geese, Quail, Owls, Eagles, Osprey, Ducks, Bear, and many, many more. This day also offered us our 1st glimpses of the Pacific Ocean! Of course we celebrated by shouting and ringing our bells as it came into view! The motorist must have thought we were nuts! During the next days ride we came across other cyclists headed south. They were part of a tour group known as TK&A out of Seattle. One gentleman from Whales, England that Jay rode with for a while was 69 years YOUNG and had just rode around the world last year with the same tour group. He was in amazing shape and we can only hope to be in a fraction of his condition when we are his age! Later that day we had to cross into Oregon over the Columbia River which is over 2 miles wide at this point. Needless to say the bridge was a bit intimidating with 2 spans, a long level middle and a very SMALL SHOULDER. Of course there were log trucks to make us feel at home since all of the Northwest’s roads are busy with log trucks. We were told that the lumber companies own more acres than any and all government agencies in Washington and Oregon.

Oregon welcomed us with great views and great state parks that cater to Bikers with special campsites and very affordable prices. To conclude our day we finally made our trip OFFICIAL by dipping our front wheels in the mighty Pacific Ocean. It was a great feeling to complete our goal of riding our bicycles across the country unsupported! WE DID IT! Now vacation begins! We have no more major goals or time schedules to meet. We are on the beautiful Oregon Coast and we plan to thoroughly enjoy it! There is so much to do and see that we will certainly not be bored. Cannon Beach offered great views of the ocean with its Sea Stacks just off shore and an awesome bakery. Tillamook was the stop for visiting a cheese factory with superb cheeses and even better ice cream. NO! 9:30AM is not too early for either! Pacific City was a great stop to view Cape Kwanda where huge sand dunes meet rugged shoreline. The beach was bustling with people walking, surfing, canoeing, launching dories, climbing the dunes, driving on the sand, and even an outrigger canoe competition! The local park across the street from the beach was just full of Bunnies! Why? We don’t know. They were all colors and sizes and looked like pets even though they would not let you pet them. It was quite a sight.

The one thing we could do without is all the hills. The West Coast sure is not like the East Coast! It is very hilly and almost mountainous in some areas. We had a 2-mile climb to end our day yesterday. Hey, we thought this was vacation? The good parts of the hills are the views and the descents, which we can never get enough of. Now it is a day off in Lincoln City to do laundry, take in the local Kite Festival and meet with some friends. Thanks to Julie (who Jay knows from another bike tour) for driving all the way from Portland to see us. Until next time…

WE MADE IT! We are in Seattle safe and sound and are trying to celebrate our cross-country accomplishment but it is hard with all the terrible things happening in the country right now. It was a bittersweet day on Tuesday, September 11th to be arriving to the West Coast at the same time finding out about the terrorist attacks on America. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families affected and can only hope that no one on our email list was directly impacted.

Here is what has happened since our last update from Republic Washington. We left Republic late after a lazy morning doing errands, writing emails, and basically resting from our 23-mile mountain climb the day before. We ended up doing another mountain pass with a 14 mile climb that day and ended our day in Tonasket where the only camping was in the side yard of the local Ice Cream Parlor, what luck? We couldn’t think of a more appropriate place for us to camp! As you already know, ice cream is a main staple of ours on this trip!

It was a small town mainly based around farming and ranching. The most activity in town when we were there was hosting all the fire crews from the area. We had heard that just 2 weeks earlier there were 42 fires burning in that general area and the town was totally consumed with smoke. As far as fires go, we have been very, very lucky. We have seen signs of fires and all kinds of fire crews and fire camps, but no fires have impacted our ride or our route. We did have one riding day with some smoke back in Montana, but it was minimal. After leaving Tonasket we continued on highway 20 through the North Cascade Mountains and completed another 15 mile + climb over Loup Loup Pass. The good thing about this climb was it rewarded us with our best down hill so far in the trip. It was an 8 mile continuous decent with good roads and hardly any traffic.

We ended that day just outside the western town of Winthrop. The next morning we rode through Winthrop on our way to our last 2 Mountain passes. The town looked like it was straight out of the wild west, with wood sidewalks and hitching rails. If it would have had dirt streets it would have been a perfect set for any movie western! The funny part, that we learned later, was that Winthrop wasn’t really an old western town at all. It was just a normal small town without much history like some of the other real west towns we have been through. The story goes that this town was starting to die and they needed a “catch” to draw new people and boost the tourism so a very wealthy lady who was from that town donated millions of dollars and they basically turned this very normal place into this old time western town.

After Winthrop we headed toward our last 2 mountain passes of the Cascades! We climbed another 18 miles through some of the greatest scenery we have seen, but it was the toughest ride yet. Luckily we had great weather the entire day and the entire week for that matter. After celebrating at the top we put on some warm clothes and descended 4 miles and then had to climb our last Mountain Pass which was called Rainy Pass, since it rains there almost all the time, but not that day! It was very interesting that the Eastern Slopes of the Cascades are very arid and dry with extreme drought and fire danger and as soon as you crest the last pass to the western slopes the mountain just comes alive with greenery and the temperature drops and the humidity goes up dramatically.

Within a few miles we were riding through what appeared to be a thick, lush rainforest. After Rainy Pass, our profile map of our route showed we were going from 5,500 feet down to sea level within the next 50 miles! That’s the kind of ride we like. During that decent, we had to put on all of our warm clothes so we wouldn’t freeze on this huge down hill. We ended that day around 7:30 PM and it was definitely our hardest day of the entire trip. Mainly because of the 2 passes but also due to the fact that there were NO services for 70 miles so we had to do many more miles than we have normally under those circumstances. Upon arrival to the campground we were exhausted and barely got our camp set up before it was dark. The campground looked like a rainforest with these HUGE trees, moss and ferns everywhere! Also, everything seemed damp due to the humidity, which we weren’t used to since the last 6 weeks in central South Dakota we had been in a very dry, almost arid region. One bad thing was that this campground did not have showers, which is common for most Forest Service Campgrounds. So it was hard to be tired and sweaty and NOT be able revive ourselves with a shower.

That day before we started our climb a car with 2 mountain bikes pulled over after passing us. The driver got out of the car and it was obvious he wanted to talk to us about our trip. Turns out that the couple were also big time cyclists and have done several long distance tours. They told us they lived in Seattle and they would love to host us. They gave us their number and address and said to call when we made it to Seattle. So, as we write this email we are siting in their house looking out the window at the Seattle skyline and Mt. Ranier. More GREAT people! Thanks to Steve and Linda for being such great and generous hosts and for sharing all your great travel stories!

Anyway, back to our travels. When we were leaving the campground the next day after our biggest day we bumped into another touring cyclist. As we talked to him we learned he was from New York State and was riding from Maine to Seattle too. His name is Sean and we ended up riding with him for 2 full days. It was so nice to have some company and share stories from our trips. He, like most, had more great stories of how people had treated him and taken him in to their homes. I think he enjoyed some company as well since he had ridden most of the ride alone. That days ride was just great, we had a new friend to ride with, it was a beautiful day (again), the scenery was spectacular, and best of all it was almost all DOWN HILL for the entire 50 miles! We also stopped along the way to eat wild blackberries which where thriving right along side the roadway. We ate as many as we could and even filled a container for breakfast the next day!

That night we camped at a beautiful and brand new Washington State Park that also looked like a rainforest. They had great walk-in campsites that were perfect for bikes too and there were no other campers in that area. We ended up sleeping in a 3 sided hut they called an Adirondack. It was a new experience to sleep basically outside. There were no bugs and it only dropped to 45 degrees since we were now at a much lower elevation. It is strange though how exposed we felt not being in our tent. It is amazing that we could feel more secure inside a nylon shelter, like that flimsy nylon and bug netting is like a brick house with a home security system! It was a good experience to sleep outside even though none of us slept very well that night, we were glad to be back in our cozy little tent the next night where we slept like logs!

The big day was finally here, we were riding into Anacortes, Washington which is right on the Puget Sound and is the basic end (or beginning) of the northern tier route we were following. As we rode with Sean over the bridge into Anacortes we were so excited and then we got a glimpse of the Puget Sound and we knew that we had made it! We yelled, screamed and rang our bells in celebration! It would only be a few miles now until we separated with our new friend as we would turn south towards Seattle and he would board a ferry and head onto the San Juan Islands. Just before our turn off we found a small tavern and decided to stop in for a drink and TOAST our accomplishments! It was nice to share it with a fellow cyclist. Sean also had a cell phone and he called his parents to tell them the good news and then generously let us both use his phone to call our parents to do the same. Thanks to Sean for his generosity, good spirit and fun stories. We enjoyed our few days together and wish you the best of luck and hope maybe we will see you again between here and San Francisco! You did it! Congratulations!

Shortly after separating with Sean, we found our campsite for the night at another nice State Park called Deception Pass. We enjoyed a great Hiker/Biker site for $6.00 and got to talk to a few other cyclists who were staying there. The next morning, while in the bathhouse Erinn had heard some news about the attack on New York, but didn’t get any details. It wasn’t until later that day while grocery shopping that we got the full affect of what had happened. There was a TV in the store and when we saw the 1st pictures of the destruction we were overwhelmed, as we are sure most of you were. It made for a very long and sad day as we had to still pedal 40 miles to reach that evenings destination. We spent the rest of the day pedaling in a daze! This certainly took the wind out of our sails as just the day before we were celebrating! We ended up riding the entire length of Whidby Island, which is 50 miles long and is one of the longest islands in North America. It is very rural and hilly and did offer us views of Mt. Baker, Mt. Ranier and the Olympic Range. When we finally arrived to the ferry station to cross back over to the mainland just north of Seattle, we asked around about camping in the area, but no one had any suggestions for us except going back 16 miles, which was out of the question. As all touring cyclist know, you never go back for anything! You must always be moving forward!

Anyway, on the other side, once we crossed on the ferry we stopped at the nearest phone booth to look up campgrounds when Erinn was approached by a couple who asked if she needed some information. She explained our situation and asked about camping when they said they didn’t know of a tent campground close by but how about if they “put us up for the night?” They said they lived nearby and had plenty of room and would love for us to be their guests! WOW, here we go again, just what we needed after a long depressing day. Nice people to help us out and to once again restore our faith that their are still great people all over this country. We made it to their house even though we had to push our bikes up some of the streets since they were so steep. We thought we were in San Francisco judging by the steep winding roads! Mike and Karen took us in their home, let us use their guest bedroom and bath and even took us out for pizza. What a treat! We also enjoyed playing with their cat Earnie, who was a beautiful, 10 month old Himalayan. He was very playful and fluffy. Erinn especially enjoyed the time with the kitty since she misses her Ollie back in Connecticut. Thank you Mike and Karen for your generosity and good will in our time of need! The next day we were off to the Vision Bicycle factory where Jay’s recumbent was made. We were given an informative and interesting tour to see how each bike is custom made from scratch just starting with long medal tubes. Thanks Wendy for the tour. It turns out Wendy knew the folks we met back in the Cascades who invited us to visit, so we called them from her office and made arrangements to get to their home. She gave us directions and we were off through busy traffic to meet more generous hosts.

We are now at Steve and Linda’s house about 7 miles north of downtown. They are great hosts and huge bicycle and travel enthusiasts. They have traveled all over the world and even worked for 2 winters at a research station in Antarctica! And we thought we had good stories? They have cycle toured in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania and other places and also have been taken in by nice people, so they wanted to return the hospitality that they have received during their many adventures. Thank you Steve and Linda for your generosity, it is much appreciated! Now we are off to explore the big city and take a few days off before heading south down to the Oregon Coast and actually dipping our front wheel in the Pacific Ocean. Then, with our cross-country ride official we can relax and enjoy our vacation! We may even go for a little bike ride! Say, to San Francisco or San Diego! Thanks for all your support and prayers, they have obviously helped in our success!
Until next time…Tailwinds,

Jay and Erinn

Hello from the Cascade Mountains in Washington State! Hard to believe, but we are now only 350 miles from Seattle! If all goes well we should be there in 7 days! Here’s the scoop since our last update. After our little jaunt to Canada and Glacier National Park in the rent-a-car we ended up taking an additional 3 days off in Kalispell, MT to rest and let Erinn recover from a mild cold/flu that she caught up in the Great White North. We spent most of those days just relaxing around the campground. We did take the time to thoroughly clean our bikes, which was desperately needed, and we even took in a couple of movies to pass the hot afternoons.

Our first day back on the road we took it pretty easy and ended at a nice state park right on a lake pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was on a beautiful, emerald colored lake were we took a dip to cool off and sat on the dock taking in the mountain scenery That night as we were reading in our tent before going to sleep we heard this loud, eerie HOWLING! Yes, you guessed it - Wolves! We did not see them, although they sounded close. Too close! When Jay peeked out of the tent to check the campsite he noticed it was a bright full moon! YIKES! Too many werewolf movies! We were a bit nervous for a while but eventually drifted off to sleep without incident. During our next riding day we came across a couple of our favorite signs: Construction Ahead and then Pavement Ends. When we got to the gravel road, we hadn’t even ridden 100 yards when Erinn flagged down a passing pick up truck and got us a ride! Thanks to Frank and Linda of Columbia Falls, MT for the lift through a miserable 8 miles of gravel construction. More good people! The rest of that day was a great ride through the Kootenai River Valley.

Moving on we made our way to Bonners Ferry, Idaho where we enjoyed a small town parade and fair over Labor Day weekend. We emphasize SMALL. The parade lasted only a few minutes and the highlights were junk cars and llamas. No bands or Shriners in little cars. We did get some candy thrown our way since there were hardly any kids at the parade. We think most of the town was IN the parade. The fair was a lot of the same. A few exhibits of vegetables, quilts and photographs. Of course there were barns full of animals such as pigs, chickens, rabbits, horses, cows, sheep and even more llamas. There was very little “fair food” and no rides? We told you it was small! As we left Bonners Ferry we were faced with our worst headwind of the trip and only made it 8 more miles before we had to find a place to camp. The bad thing about this campground was it was right next to the railroad tracks and the trains ran every hour all night long! If passing by in close proximity wasn’t enough, they each had to BLOW their horn at each of the 3 crossing in that area! Needless to say it was another sleepless night.

Our next stop was Sand Point, Idaho. We rushed and road hard all that morning to get there in time for church. After we road into town and got directions it was after 11:00am and we thought we were too late, until we saw a bank sign telling us it was only 10:00am? We had crossed over into the Pacific Time Zone the previous afternoon and hadn’t even realized it! Another stroke of good fortune! After church we had lunch and headed to the city beach that was absolutely gorgeous. There was a peninsula into the lake that they had made into a city park. It had a beach area with lifeguards, lush green grass, playgrounds, tennis courts, picnic areas and basketball courts. It was one of the nicest parks we have seen yet. The setting of the lake was great too. Crystal clear water and it sat right at the base of the mountains. The lake is named Pend Oreille and is over 50 miles long and has spots over 1,100 feet deep. In fact, during WWII it was used for a Submarine Training Base and housed over 30,000 troops! Who would have thought the U.S. had a Submarine Base in the panhandle of Idaho? I guess that was the point huh?

Anyway, while we were at this great park, Erinn decided to take a nap since we had gotten so little sleep the night before. Jay wandered off to talk to a couple young guys who were juggling out in the grassy area. Turns out these young guys were great jugglers! They could juggle about anything and were practicing for a World Record attempt in juggling. One of them had even taught a class in juggling and was in the process of writing a book. These guys knew so much about juggling and made it look so easy. They taught Jay a lot and even let him juggle their 2 foot long Daggers! It was great and Jay didn’t even cut his hands or feet off! When we decided it was time to hit the road the jugglers gave Jay 5 juggling balls as a gift so he could continue practicing the new tricks he had learned. Jay has hopes of being able to master 4 and then 5 balls by the time we are finished with the ride. Thanks go out to the “Mad Jugglers” for the fun afternoon and the balls!

That night in the campground Jay was already trying out his new toys and drawing a small crowd of kids who also wanted to try to juggle. He spent an hour or so entertaining the kids instead of practicing his new tricks. From now on he will need to HIDE while he practices or he will draw a crowd. It is amazing how people are attracted to something as simple as juggling. The next morning we had our NEXT animal encounter! Bombing squirrels! We were awakened early by sounds of things landing on the ground near our tent. At first Jay thought it may be some kids tossing things our way, but it turned out to be pinecones being dropped from 30-40 feet above by an industrious squirrel. These were no ordinary pinecones either. They were still green and full of SAP and weighed as much as a baseball. When they hit the ground or our picnic table they exploded everywhere throwing pinecone shrapnel and sap in all directions covering our table and some of our things. Once we were up and out of our tent we actually had to keep our eye on the sky so we wouldn’t get hit by one of these bombs. We swear that squirrel was aiming for us as we nearly got hit a dozen times as we packed up our gear and ate breakfast. We’re not sure if there are any animals left to harass us on this trip unless of course the sea lions on the Oregon Coast get any big ideas.

The next night we camped at a great spot right on the banks of a big river. It was Labor Day evening and the place was now empty after a busy 3-day weekend. It was so nice to have some peace and quiet and such a great spot along the water. We even got to watch Osprey catch fish right in front of our campsite. What precise fisherman they are! We were both impressed with their skills as they plunged into the water from 25-30 feet up and come out with a fish in their talons.

The next morning we treated ourselves to a huge breakfast of Huckleberry Pancakes in celebration of surpassing 4,000 miles, which would come later that morning! After spending the next night in Kettle Falls, Washington we psyched ourselves up for that days ride. Sherman Pass loomed in front of us. This would turn out to be our longest mountain climb yet. We pedaled uphill for 23 miles and climbed over 5,000 feet. It was not as steep as some of our climbs back in New England, but is was still a huge challenge. What took us 5 hours to climb only took us 30 minutes to descend on the other side. We were treated to a bone chilling cold rain on the way down and Erinn got a flat tire! The only good thing about this flat was it gave us a chance to stop and warm up a bit. After the flat we continued down the rest of our 12 mile decent to the quaint town of Republic where we treated ourselves to a nice hotel room as a reward for a long tough day in the mountains and to get some much needed sleep without trains roaring past our campsite. It also afforded us the time to catch up on some things including email.

From here we have to cross 4 more mountain passes in the next 6 days so we have our work cut out for us, but the Cascades are very beautiful and it helps take our minds off all the climbing. Wish us luck and when you next here from us we will have made it all the way to Seattle and the West Coast! Although it won’t be official until we dip our front wheels in the Pacific Ocean when we get to Astoria, Oregon a few days past Seattle.
Until next time…Tailwinds,
Jay and Erinn

Greetings from Banff Canada, Eh! Boy have we been busy, before leaving Missoula, Montana, we stopped at the Adventure Cycling Headquarters. For those of you who don’t know what that is we will explain. The Adventure Cycling Association (www.adv-cycling.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the touring cyclist. They started many years ago as Bikecentenial. They are advocates for better road conditions for bikes including shoulders, signage, bike paths, bike lanes and rail trails. They sell touring related gear and detailed cycling maps of 3 cross-country trips. They have a southern route, Trans-American (middle) route, and a Northern Tier route, which we are following somewhat. They also have East Coast and West Coast routes as well as the Great Continental Divide Mountain Bike route from Canada to Mexico. Anyway, about our visit. They are located right downtown near all the action of Missoula, which by the way is a very outdoorsy kind of place. Their building is an old church and is decorated inside with all kinds of cycling pictures and old time touring bikes. They offer free drinks and ice cream to passing cyclists, as well as free internet access. They took a Polaroid snapshot of us and added it to the wall of fame with about 200 or so other cyclists who also crossed all or part of the country via Missoula this summer. It was great to look at all the other photos and even find some familiar faces of folks we have met along the route over the past few months. There were all kinds of people with all kinds of bikes and from all over the world. They also had their staff photographer take official black and white photos in their outdoor studio, which they will add to their photo records and may even end up in their magazine sometime. The photographer mentioned that they don’t see too many recumbents, especially pulling trailers, so there may be a chance we end up immortalized in print someday. Who knows? Regardless, it was a great experience and we will be able to get those professional photos for ourselves after our trip is finished. They will be a great addition to the hundreds and hundreds of photos we have taken.

Leaving Missoula we road along the beautiful Blackfoot River for 17 miles or so. This was the river and area where they filmed “A River Runs Through It” What a nice ride that was. After that we turned North again along highway 83 which was very scenic, but NOT good for bikes. It was heavily traveled by cars and log trucks. There was NO Shoulder for almost 80 miles! Oh, did we mention that even though it was a narrow road and winding through the valleys that the speed limit was 70mph! Montana is notorious for high speed limits. Most roads, except in towns the speed limit is 60 or 70 mph, even winding roads, mountain roads and roads with driveways, businesses and stoplights. It is the most absurd thing we have seen. We may drop the Montana Highway Department our thoughts if we get a chance. It is obviously very dangerous and deadly, judging by how many White Crosses line the highways where a fatality has occurred. We do love the Montana mountain scenery, but will be glad to be moving on to another state in a few days. We stopped one night in Big Fork, which is a small village, but very quaint and touristy. The shuttle bus driver gave us a free tour of the area including the 27 hole Jack Nicklaus design Eagle’s Bend Country Club. Boy was it fancy and is home to many stars including, Dirk Benedict, Mary Tyler Moore, Connie Chung and Maurie Povich just to name a few. There was even one whole section of houses along the course that had huge garage doors for parking their ultra big and fancy bus motorhomes! You know the type…matching SUV’s towed behind! They tell us that only 25% of the people live there year round in the million dollar houses. Does that paint a picture of what type of town this is? Aspen and Vail have nothing on this area. From Big Fork, we pedaled a measly 17 miles to Kalispell and made a big decision. We would rent a car for a few days and drive to Canada to see their national parks and return via the “Going to the Sun Highway” through Glacier National Park. So, we rented a sporty blue Dodge Neon and hit the road to the Great White North. The rental car business was not a national chain so they had better rates and more flexibility. They even kept our bikes in the shop while we were gone on our little Canadian excursion, which ended up lasting 5 days!

We left Kalispell at noon and drove 330 miles to Lake Lousie via highway 93 through western British Columbia and the little known Kootenay National Park. It was a great drive and got better every mile we went north. Upon arrival to Lake Louise we decided to get a campsite since it was getting late and we had had a long day. As we approached the gate house of the campground we saw a big sign reading “No tents or softsided trailers allowed” When we asked the young gate keeper why not, he explained that a mother grizzly bear and her cubs had taken up shop in and around the campground and it was too dangerous to tent camp in the area. Boy was that reassuring! Why didn’t we rent a van or camper? The reality of bear threats was now very clear to us! They told us there was another campground 30-40 miles north with “No current bear problems” and we should try there. So we proceeded on all the while thinking ” Do we really want to sleep in a tent anywhere in the Canadian Rockies?'’ We found the Waterfowl Lakes Campground just before dark and set up our camp. The good thing was we now had a car to store items in and to get into if there was a problem. That was a little better than being on bikes. Well, we survived the night and were delighted at the scenery when we strolled down to the lakeshore the next morning. It was stunningly beautiful. A light turquoise color created by glacier runoff and it sat right at the base of an awesome granite mountain that was well over 10,000 feet high. This was the beginning of the BEST scenery we have ever scene for the next 130 miles. We were now in Banff National Park and headed north to Jasper National Park along the acclaimed Icefields Parkway!

The scale of the Canadian Rockies was immense and the beauty was just as magnificent. There is no way we can put into words how breathtaking the views were for over 100 miles! Jagged mountains of all shapes, sizes and colors. Some blanketed in snow with glaciers in the valleys, some with tremendous waterfalls flowing hundreds of feet, all with beautiful evergreens surrounding their base. There were wild flowers along all the roadsides and all of the mountain meadows. The sights and smells of this place were superb. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields Visitors Center and immediately signed up for a 1.5 hour tour in a snowcoach that actually drove onto the glacier and let you get out to experience it. And what an experience it was! The snowcoach was Massive! Picture a highbred of a monster truck and a Greyhound bus! This thing was 6-wheel drive with tires 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. You could almost walk right underneath it without ducking it was so high off the ground. We drove onto the glacier as the driver explained its history and the particulars of all glaciers. Mainly how dangerous they are with snow bridges and crevasses! He said people had died there every year as they foolishly explored the glacier on their own without a trained guide. The description of falling in a crevasse as big as a bus and getting wedged at the bottom in ice and water was not a pretty picture. Anyway, our tour was still exciting and safe. We were allowed to get off the snowcoach and walk on the glacier. Even though it was mid August, it was COLD and snowing when we took our little tour. The guide said it can and usually does snow there 365 days a year. Hard to believe the day before it was in the upper 80’s and we were sweating along pedaling our bikes. Now we had almost all of our warm clothes on and we were still cold. Driving and walking on a real glacier is something we will not soon forget. What a great experience. From there we continued North through Jasper National Park and into the town of Jasper where we set up camp and proceeded to explore the town. Jasper is a great tourist town nestled in the mountains. It is complete with a scenic gondola ride to the top of the mountain overlooking town and all the giftshops and restaurants you could ever want or need. That night back in camp a Parks Canada naturalist had a great presentation on the Grizzly Bears. She was a superb and entertaining speaker.

At one point in the show she asked if anyone knew how to juggle? Jay raised his hand and was chosen to come on the stage to help with the show. She handed 3 beanbags to Jay and asked him to juggle making the point that the parks department had to juggle a lot of issues regarding bears. She proceeded to exchange the beanbags for other objects. Jay ended up juggling a stuffed bear, a plastic car and a doll to make the point that those where the 3 main factors that caused trouble for the parks department. Jay was applauded and given 2 free passes to the mineral hot springs there in the park. The next day we retraced our path back down the Icefields Parkway towards the village of Banff. The drive South was just as great as going north and offered totally different views the entire way. Once again we found the closest campsite to town and checked in. This time we were greeted with the following “The campground is currently under a WOLF Warning” We were allowed to camp but with special instructions of what to do and not to do in the event we saw a wolf. They said a mother wolf and her young had been seen in the campground everyday for the past week. Oh boy, here we go again, are we crazy or what?

Luckily for us we did not see the wolves that night. We did explore Banff a bit and found it to be much like all other tourist destinations we have described in the past. Even though it was great to see. Banff, like Jasper also had a Gondola ride to the top of nearby Sulphur Mountain. Erinn was not feeling 100% so she rested while Jay took the ride to the top. It was a spectacular view from the 7,200-foot height and offered 360-degree views into the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Jay explored the touristy area at the top for a while then headed off into the less traveled peaks on a 2-mile hike and scramble along the ridgeline of the mountains. It was very exhilarating to do some high altitude hiking and climbing.

From Banff we continued south back towards the U.S. and Glacier National Park. We enjoyed the 52 mile “Going To The Sun Highway” through the heart of Glacier and crossed the Continental Divide for the 7th time at Logan Pass. The steep winding narrow roads where a challenge to drive and I think we were both glad we were in a car and NOT on our bikes as we made our way along sheer cliffs for several miles of the route. The beauty of Glacier was as good as everyone had told us and we can’t wait to come back again when we can enjoy hiking some of the 700 miles of trails within the park boundaries. As you may have noticed we have not mentioned any wildlife yet. Well, there were so many sightings that it would have been cumbersome to write about each one each day so we decided to give it it’s own dedicated section. If you want to see wildlife than you need to go to the Canadian Rockies and National Parks. Our experiences were awesome. We saw all of the following in a few short days and all were up close and personal. Some maybe too close and we were glad to be in a car for most of them!
• Black Bear with 2 cubs - 2 different spots
• Bull Elk rubbing the velvet off his horns
• 4 Bull Elk eating bushes and grass along the road
• 6 Female Elk and Babies in our campground
• Coyote crossing the road outside our campground
• Male, Female and baby Mountain goats - 2 different occasions
• White tail deer and 2 fawns in a river bed
• Bighorn sheep licking salt out of the soil along the road
• Young Moose feeding along roadside
• Clarks Nutcrackers
• Huge Black & White Magpies
• Gold Mantled Ground Squirrels
• Turkeys
• Numerous Hawks and Osprey.

With the photos we took we think we could easily make our own ‘Jay and Erinn’s 2002 Wildlife Calendar’. Watch the stores near you for a copy! We can’t get enough of the wildlife out here and hope we see lot’s more on our way to Seattle as we pass through the North Cascade Mountains. Until next time…Tailwinds
Jay and Erinn

Hello again, We are now in Missoula, Montana, but first things first. If you have sent us an email in the past two weeks and we haven’t responded we apologize. We have had some technical difficulties and may have deleted several emails. Hopefully we have the problem straightened out now. Also, we would like to remind you that the email system we use is small and fragile and does not handle large files or any attachments. Thank you in advance for not sending us any junk mail, attachments or chain letters. All other emails are welcome and appreciated.

OK, back to our journey. Since leaving West Yellowstone we have meandered west and north through more beautiful country, including mountain passes, high mountain plateaus and lush river valleys thriving with cattle ranches and hay fields. We passed through the Big Hole Valley, better known in these parts as the “Valley of 10,000 haystacks” They use these giant contraptions to make haystacks literally as big as barns and they are everywhere. We have never seen so much hay in our lives. The winters are so long and hard here that they need huge stockpiles of hay to feed their cattle herds throughout the winter.

We conquered the Continental Divide for the 5th time now and will cross it at least 2 more times before we make it to the west coast. The last crossing was at Chief Joseph Pass where we crossed into Idaho for less than 1 mile before turning back into Montana again. This was not our toughest climb, but it was the most rewarding of all. We were graced with a long descent that we cruised down at over 30 mph for more than 7 miles! Yahooooo! Then it flattened out a bit but was still down hill for another 8+ miles. That’s the kind of riding we like, little to no pedaling for over 15 miles.

The same day as our best downhill, we also had our worst camping experience. After covering 78 miles (one of our longest days) we rolled into Darby, MT to find the only campground in town to be less than satisfactory. It was behind a cheesy motel and had no designated sites or picnic tables, but did have several sketchy looking families living there in their campers. You see, Darby is a small hill town who’s main industry in logging and it showed. There were at least 5 saloons in the small 3-block town. Did we mention that it was also Friday night and the saloons were already filling up with rowdy lumberjacks. We decided that this was not a good spot for us and decided to head to the next nearest campground, which was 5 miles outside of town. Reluctantly, we climbed back on our bikes and pedaled into the early evening to the Lick Creek campground where we found much of the same as in town. Besides no one in the office, there was a sign that explained their rates, including a line that read $4.00 for a shower. Once again we looked at each other and decided this was not a good spot for us. We studied the map again and found another campground an additional 3 miles out so we proceeded on, now making this our longest day to date and the sun was starting to go down, so we kept our fingers crossed that the “Bitteroot Family Campground” would be a suitable stop. Upon first glance, this appeared to be a nice enough campground. We set up next to some other travelers, took our showers and went directly to bed since it was now after 9pm and we had had our longest hardest day yet.

All was quiet until 2:15 am when we heard a loud pickup truck pull into the site right next to us. We had seen a tent set up there, but didn’t give it much thought. The truck was loud, it was blaring a Brooks and Dunn CD and it had its headlights on. No doubt that these folks had just come from the bars which closed at 2:00am. So, not knowing what sort of people we were dealing with we thought it best to just stay in our tent and hope they wouldn’t bother us. Well, the story only gets worse. The truck continued to run with lights and radio on for 30 minutes. Erinn peeked out of the tent to see if she could determine what they were doing over there, but she couldn’t. After 45 minutes of agony we decided to get out of our tent and find a payphone to call the police, which we did. Now, back in the tent and about 15 minutes later, the police finally arrived to deal with our neighbors. It took the police at least 5 minutes to wake the guys in the truck, who apparently were SO DRUNK that they passed out in their vehicle before they even shut it off. How they ever drove in that condition is a very scary thought! The police told them of the complaints and said they had to quiet down and go to bed. Then the police left and now we had 2 very drunk guys wandering around the campsite next to us (about 10 yard away) all the time yelling at each other and fighting about whose fault it was that the police had showed up. All we could think is that they would notice our tent next to theirs and put 2 and 2 together about who called the police.

Luckily for us they stayed away from our site. But they did continue to make noise for another half-hour before settling down around 3:45am. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, around 4:45 or 5:00am one of them proceeded to get sick! (we will spare you the gory details) and the other was yelling at him and the whole thing started again. Needless to say we got very little sleep but did get plenty of anxiety and nerves to last us a while. Luckily for us the two were fast asleep by the time we got up the next morning. We packed up as fast as we could even though Jay had a flat tire and had to change it before we hit the road. Along our route into Missoula that day, Jay had another 2 flats, which were very frustrating to deal with given the fact that it was hot, on a busy road and we had only a few hours of sleep. Not to mention we were exhausted from riding our longest day the day before. So, we decided that when and if we made it into Missoula we would treat ourselves to a day off and a couple nights in a motel to regain our senses. This treat was possible thanks to a friend of a friend named Jefferson back in Connecticut. You see, Jefferson had heard of our trip and before we left he contributed some money to our ride with the stipulation that we save it and use it when we really needed it to refresh ourselves to continue the journey. Well, it was exactly what we needed and a HUGE THANKS goes out to Jefferson for the contribution that got us some rest and revived us after our “Night from Hell.”

Enough of the bad stuff, let’s get to the good parts of last week’s ride. One day we met 8 other cyclists headed the other direction. 2 young guys from Denmark, 1 guy from Las Vegas, 1 guy from Oregon and a family of 4 from California. Here is the neat part that you will find amazing. We were sitting at a general store exchanging stories with Richard from Oregon when we saw another touring cyclist approaching from the west. As the cyclist got closer he continued to get smaller and smaller and when he finally road up to us it turns out it was a little kid! Jay looked at him at asked “How old are you?” The young boy answered “10″ We were all floored at this. We asked who he was with and he said his grandparents and his 12-year-old brother who were still coming behind him. It turns out that they were riding from the Oregon Coast to Denver, Colorado. The story got better when we found out that the grandparents had ridden the same route with their daughters when they were 10 and 13. The boys on this trip were one of their daughter’s kids. OK, now to top this great story off. The boys were riding the same bikes that their mother and aunt road 25 years earlier! They even had the same panniers and handlebar bags. We think that is the best family cycling story we have ever heard. We hope you agree.

Another day, we met up with 2 young guys going the same way as us. These are the only other cyclists we have met going west. We shared a campsite with them for two nights. We didn’t have the pleasure of riding with them, mainly because they were way, way too fast for us. These 21-year-old guys rode almost double our speed. For example, one day we left at 8 am and on the way out of town we met one of the guys headed back into town. He said he broke a spoke and was headed to the bike shop to get it fixed. We road the 50 miles and were sitting having a cold drink at our destination when Dave came riding in. We asked him how long it took to get the spoke fixed and he said he didn’t leave until almost noon. Remember I said we left at 8am! Boy, did that make us feel SLOW! Very slow!

Another night we had dinner at our campsite with Greg from England. He was on a one year backpacking journey. He visited New Zealand for 6 months before coming to the U.S. where he was going to spend 3 months backpacking all the great parks - Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion. He had great stories to tell of his travels and we enjoyed sharing a night of conversation with our new English friend. So now from Missoula we continue north for another 250 miles until we get to Glacier National Park, one of our highlighted destinations of the trip. Once we arrive we have to decide the best way to explore the area. We have not heard any good news about cycling the roads there. They are steep, narrow and even more congested than Yellowstone. We here there are even time restrictions for bicycles, so we may opt to take a bus tour or rent a car for a day or two to see the area more safely. Stay posted for those adventures in a week or so. Hope you are all doing well.
Until next time… Tailwinds,
Jay and Erinn

Greetings from Yellowstone National Park! A lot has happened since our last email. Since leaving the Black Hills of South Dakota we have seen so much, done so much and even enacted a new trip rule. We call it the 50/100 rule and here is how it works: If it is more than 50 miles between services (i.e. stores, water, shade, etc.) and it is over 100 degrees, than we put out our thumbs and hitch a ride. This rule was started mainly for our safety, but also for our sanity and overall enjoyment of our trip.

Our first hurdle came when we reached Edgemont SD. We had pedaled 40 tough miles into a headwind when we arrived at a truckstop, the one and only stop in the area. We inquired about the 2 dots on the map following Edgemont and were told they really didn’t exist, NO services for 70 miles!

We had lunch and hung around the station for a while inquiring about a ride, but most of the traffic was going the other direction on their way to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Just when we were getting worried, we saw a motorhome pull in that was headed in our direction. Jay approached the family and asked if it was possible to catch a ride through the 70-mile stretch with no services. To our surprise, the family was very receptive and said it wouldn’t be a problem. We loaded our bikes and gear and before we knew it we were traveling in style with the Hooper family who were on their way home to Colorado Springs, CO. A big thanks goes out to Wardell, Gwen, D.J. and Eboni, we couldn’t have made that day without you.

Our free ride ended when we got to I-25 and we headed west and they headed south towards Colorado. We had an easy 11-mile ride to finish our long day in Douglas, Wyoming. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner and found FREE camping at the Douglas City Park right on the banks of the Platte River. It was a great site with lush green grass and good showers.

I forgot to mention one detail of that last 11-mile ride. Right after we got onto I-25 we hit a major construction area, but it was good luck for us because one whole side of the Interstate was closed to traffic, but had already been paved. We thought we had it made with the entire westbound interstate to ourselves and brand new pavement too.

Not too far into our “private ride” a State Trooper pulled us over and explained to us that we couldn’t ride on the new road yet since it was still under construction. We couldn’t ride on the other side either because it was 2-way traffic and they were using the entire shoulder. The State Trooper pointed out that there was a frontage road on the other side of the Interstate and that was our best bet. He said it was accessible about 2 miles back the other direction. We explained we would prefer NOT to backtrack and he said “OK, then wheel your bikes through the median, over the road and through some long grass and I will help you lift your bikes over the barbed-wire fence separating the roads.” We did just that and he lifted our bikes and gear over the fence with ease. Good thing he was a big burly fellow, because our bikes aren’t exactly light when they are fully loaded. He even pushed the fence down to the ground for Erinn to get through and we even got pictures to prove it. How often do get that kind of service from the Highway Patrol?

After leaving Douglas the next day we pedaled another 25 miles on I-25 to the exit for Glenrock where we managed to just make in time for Church since it was Sunday. We walked in late and stood out like sore thumbs in our biking clothes. Besides this was a very small church in a small community and everybody knew everybody. After church we were invited to stay for refreshments and conversation with the folks. They were all so nice and we had a grand time in Glenrock for a couple hours.

The rest of that day consisted of riding the old highway through the Platte River Valley to Casper, Wyoming where we ate fast food and shopped at Wal-Mart! You must remember, these are big treats for us after 2 weeks of being in Nowheresville, South Dakota! After our little splurge, we headed to the nearest campground to try to find out information about our upcoming days.

Well, our thoughts were right, eastern Wyoming is even more desolate than South Dakota if that is possible. The only thing that showed up on the map for the next day was a place called “Hell’s Half Acre!” Does that paint a good picture for you on what type of terrain we were headed for? We tried to find some campers going our way to tag along with but had no luck, so just before turning in for the night we went to plan B which was to pay one of the campground workers, Lloyd, to drive us 70 miles to Shoshoni where the next services were. (Remember the 50/100 rule applies here) We agreed to meet at 5am at our campsite and get an early start. Well, 5am came and went and NO sign of Lloyd. (Did we mention he was a teenager!?) So, with no other options we got on our bikes and headed into the barren landscape. Luckily we had an early start and we had a tailwind again.

We made it as far as Powder River (Population 50) before we stopped for a cold drink and a snack. The sign outside the little cafe next to the store read as follows ” Stop in for some Snake Meat and a Cold Beer.” We opted for a coke and a Snickers Bar instead.

While sitting there a big motorhome stopped in for gas. It was pulling a trailer with a new Harley Davidson motorcycle on it. We looked at each other and Jay stated “There’s our ride!” Jay went out to talk to the couple and within a few minutes they said “No problem, if you can get your bikes and gear on the trailer without scratching the Harley you are welcome to catch a ride with us all the way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.”
It was no problem getting our gear on the trailer and before we knew it we were once again riding in comfort in a new 36-foot luxury motorhome. Turns out Sam and Kathy were returning from a trip to Nebraska where they picked up their new Harley that they bought on Ebay! They lived in Oregon and were taking a little detour through the Tetons and Yellowstone on their way home. They were the nicest folks and we enjoyed their company for over 200 miles of barren landscape in central Wyoming. Thanks go out to Sam and Kathy for the ride.

Yahoo! Now the fun begins, we are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where there is tons of stuff to see and do. We found a campsite right in town and decided to take a day off to explore the area. We ended up spending our day off on a white water raft trip down the Snake River! It was great. We ran about 8 miles of the river with class 2 and class 3 rapids. The brochure said “You will get wet!” and they didn’t lie. It was very exciting and we even saw 3 Bald Eagles perched above the river.

Later that day we treated ourselves to a movie to escape some of the afternoon heat. The good thing about being at this higher elevation though was that the temperature drops like a rock when the sun goes down. I think it dropped to almost 45 degrees that night. We were so happy for some cooler temps so we could get some much needed sleep. It was so hard to sleep the past 2 weeks since it was so hot and humid at night.

From Jackson Hole we pedaled north into Grand Teton National Park. This is another place we highly recommend. The Teton Range is impressive to say the least and we were blessed the next two days of riding with flat roads, cooler temperatures and the mountains to our side projecting upwards over 13,000 feet.

We camped the first night at Jenny Lake. At this point I must mention that some of the National Parks have what they call “Hiker/Biker campsites” for very reasonable rates and mostly away from the rest of the campers. Jenny Lake offered us our best Hiker/Biker site. It was only a stones throw from the beautiful lake which sat at the base of Grand Teton. The scenery was spectacular. We wasted away the afternoon relaxing on the beach gazing at the mountain and occasionally taking a dip in the cool, clear water. That evening we took a tour boat to the far side of the lake, which was the base of the mountain, to do some hiking.

We walked up to Hidden Falls and then started our hike back to camp all the way around the lake. We saw 3 new animals we had never seen before. Pika’s, yellow-bellied marmots and a Pine Marten. At one point during the hike we were overlooking a small pond and stopped to take a break and enjoy the scenery. Within a few minutes we heard a strange bugleing sound which turned out to be 2 Elk making their way from the woods towards the small pond. It was a treat for both of us to see and hear such majestic animals.

When we got back to camp there was a family of Mule Deer basically in our campsite. Mom and 2 fawns who were obviously very used to humans. They stayed around for a while and then meandered into the woods. That evening we took all our cooking supplies and headed to the beach for a sunset picnic at the base of the mountains. We did this for 2 reasons really. The more obvious was because of the awesome scenery and the other was due to the threat of BEARS! They tell you not to cook within 100 feet of your tent. You also have to store all food and items with scents such as toothpaste, deodorant, sunscreen, etc. in a bear-proof box provided by the park. There are warnings everywhere about the bears and to tell you the truth it is a bit scary sleeping in a tent in this part of the country.

The next day we managed to pedal a whole 20 miles before we found another great spot to stop. Also during the day we took advantage of all the scenic overlooks and lodges along the way. We even saw a cow moose and her baby. That evening we took a horseback trailride into the woods and again saw a moose. This time it was a huge bull moose feeding in a creek just a few hundred feet away from us. Our trail ride was fun and included a terrific meal cooked out of doors in the shadows of the Tetons.

The big day had now arrived, as we pedaled into the famed Yellowstone National Park. And, although it was beautiful, we were not impressed with the lack of shoulders on the roads and the amount of traffic, especially motorhomes driven by people who are obviously NOT qualified to so. Our first night spent in Yellowstone was at Grant Village where there were signs everywhere about a Mountain Lion sighting in the campground just a few days earlier. Rumor has it Mountain Lions are worse than bears when it comes to unprovoked attacks. We did manage to avoid danger though.

Our camping experience in Yellowstone was also less than desirable. The advertised Hiker/Biker sights were located right beside the group sites full of excited/noisy Boy Scouts and youth groups. Also the site we were given was horrible in itself. Probably in the top 5 worst sites of the entire trip. So, here we were at the country’s premier national park and having a tough time trying to enjoy ourselves. Oh, did we mention that it costs $3.00 to take a shower in Yellowstone? That’s a crime in itself!

Well, the next day was better as we gained a little shoulder and got to see lots of hot springs and geysers including the most famous of all, Old Faithful. We also pedaled over the Continental Divide 2 times, making that the 4th crossing in the past 5 days. Upon arrival to our planned stop we were informed that there was no store and not even any showers for $3.00, so we opted to ride an additional 15 miles to West Yellowstone where we could get some civilized services.

The campground we found in town had the cleanest showers of the entire trip. We did get to see a lot of wildlife during our short stay in the park. We saw elk, moose and bison. The most impressive display was a group of about 12 elk standing in the middle of a river.

Here is a Yellowstone tidbit that we did not know: Yellowstone is actually located in 3 states; Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Although we only saw a fraction of Yellowstone, we have decided that it was enough on a bicycle.

From here we will head North toward Missoula, Montana and then on to Glacier National Park where we hope to have better luck with the Park Service, but aren’t holding our breath for much improvement. Today while touring the town of West Yellowstone we were informed that it might snow tonight! Up to 2-3 inches at the higher elevations! Yikes! It was just a 100 degrees a week ago and now snow? What next? We said we wanted cooler temps, but this is ridiculous.

Trip stats:
16 states and Canada
3,200 miles ridden
Hottest day: 105 degrees - South Dakota
Coldest day: 29 degrees - Maine
Lowest point: Sea level in Maine
Highest Point: Togwotee Pass 9,658 feet- Wyoming
Longest day: 82 miles
Shortest day: 17 miles

Until next time…Tailwinds.

Jay and Erinn

Hello from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Who knew it was so beautiful here? And if you did know why didn’t you tell us? The only reason we even pedaled this way was to see Mt. Rushmore and it turns out that as impressive as it is it’s only a fraction of the greatness of this area.

We are thankful to be off the open plains for a while even if it means we have to climb hills again. Actually, the Black Hills are much more than hills, they are mountains and have peaks over 7,000 feet high. We have been told that they are called hills because an Indian tribe that originated from Minnesota named them and they had no word in their language for mountain.

The high meadows, Ponderosa Pines, and rugged granite peaks are just beautiful and heavily inhabited by wildlife. We have been luck to see Mule Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, Whitetail Deer, Big Horn Sheep, Prairie Dogs and of course Buffalo, which roam free here within the huge Custer State Park. The wild herd they have now has more than 1,200 buffalo. I must say it is a bit intimidating to come around a corner and have a 2,000-pound buffalo staring you down. This morning we even saw a huge group that must have had 500 or more in it and basically closed the road. It was amazing.

We did take a day off to tour the area and treated ourselves to an all day bus tour to see all of the major attractions. If we tried to cover the same ground on our bikes it might have taken us 5-6 days or more. We started out the day with a huge cowboy breakfast of pancakes, sausage, biscuits with gravy and all the bad coffee you wanted. Oh, did we mention that it was based at Fort Hays which was the fort used in the movie “Dances With Wolves” where Kevin Costner goes to get his orders before he heads out onto the open prairie.

From there we boarded a nice “Air Conditioned” motorcoach and headed to Mount Rushmore. When you get that first glimpse of the faces as you approach the feeling is almost overwhelming. It is such as awesome sight to see that it is hard to find words to describe it. We toured the area, watched an informative movie and took tons of pictures. We spent 1.5 hours there, but could have spent all day. Another must see. From there we headed to Custer State Park to see the wildlife including the wild buffalo heard we mentioned earlier. We did see lots of the animals we mentioned and even a small band of “Begging Burros”. There are wild burros in the park that approach cars and buses for free handouts. As the story goes these burros are the descendants of the burros that the goldminers left behind after the gold rush was over in the late 1800’s.

We had lunch in the Pheasant Dining Room at the Game Lodge, one of the parks 4 resort lodges. It was a favorite hangout for Presidents Coolidge and Eisenhower. The room was decorated with 50-100 mounted pheasants. We were told that they are the same mounts that decorated the room as far back as 1923 when the presidents visited.

After a lunch of Buffalo Stew and Buffalo Wings it was on to the Needles Highway which winds it’s way through the peaks all the way up to 6,000+ feet. We went through one tunnel that was only 8 foot 7 inches wide and our bus was over 8 feet wide. It was an impressive feat to squeeze through with less than 3 inches on either side of the coach. Our driver got a hardy round of applause after that. We stopped at an overlook to view the Cathedral Spires, which were very impressive granite columns and were the first sight picked out for carving that is now Mount Rushmore. The sculpture Gutzon Borglum saw the spires and was so taken by them that he exclaimed, “there is no way I can improve on already spectacular beauty of these peaks!” From that point is when they sought the new location that is now Mount Rushmore.

Another stop during the day was at the Crazy Horse Memorial and if you are like us you may have never heard of it. It is another mountain carving in similar to Mt. Rushmore but is going to be at least twice as big. It is very impressive even though it is only about a 10th done. There is a good chance that it won’t be done during our lifetime. They have a beautiful visitor’s center and Indian Museum. That was another stop that we had 1.5 hours but probably could have spent 2 days. The day we were there we got to see them blasting rock and watching it tumble down the mountainside. We took a picture at the observation deck that we hope to recreate in about 30 years to see how much we and the mountain have changed.

We finished our long day with a Chuckwagon Dinner of BBQ beef and a Country/Western music and comedy show. It was a very long day and we were quite possibly more tired from being tourists then we are from pedaling 50 miles.

Backing up a bit. Before we got to the Black Hills we took a short 30 mile detour through the Badlands. If you have never been there it is also a must see place. The title is pretty self-explanatory and the landscape reminds us of something from outer space. The rugged peaks and colorful valleys are very diverse and there is a different feel around each corner. The bad thing for us the day we toured it was the heat and the climbing. It was very hot and humid and it was our first day back in the hills and we really paid for it. But, it was worth the 30-mile tour to see such a unique landscape up close.

We ended the day in Wall, South Dakota. Does that ring a bell for any of you? Well, if not we will clue you in. Wall is the hometown of the world famous Wall Drug Store. It is a must see for all travelers headed west on I-90. They must have 10,000 billboards along all the roads leading to them from any and all directions. By the time you are at the exit you just have to see what all the hype is about, and besides they offer free ice water, and to a couple of hot cyclists that is just what the doctor ordered.

Wall Drug started as a small family drug store and it’s first billboard offered free ice water to hot weary travelers and it has grown ever since. It now encompasses 1 entire block of downtown Wall and has every tourist nick knack imaginable and all are stamped with “Wall Drug of South Dakota” on it. It has ice cream, fudge, restaurants, gifts, jewelry, leather goods, hardware and much more.

They need so many employees that they recruit young folks from all over the world to work there. Similar to Disney World and many big ski resorts. We saw kids from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovania, Philippines and several other countries. Can you imagine how excited these kids are to come to America to work and then to end up in Wall, South Dakota? Yikes? We were told Wall Drug has bought about 50 houses in and around town for the kids to live in. We imagine that to be about 1/4 of all the houses in the area. Wall is NOT a very big place!

Anyway, they do give away FREE bumper stickers, which explains why you see so many on cars all around the country. If you are ever traveling on I-90 in South Dakota, be sure to stop and see what all the fuss is about. It’s worth a look and a free glass of ice water at least.

News Flash, as I am sitting at the picnic table writing this email I heard a noise behind me and turned to see what it was and low and behold there were 3 Big Horn Sheep right in our campsite! WOW! What a treat to see such neat animals so close. Erinn and I have both traveled to some great places but both agree that the Black Hills are one of top places we have seen and we highly recommend a visit, as we will surely return here again to explore this area more closely someday.

Also, now that we have seen this area we have a new hero, Peter Norbeck! Anyone ever heard of him? We didn’t think so. It turns out that he almost single handedly made most of the Black Hills what they are today. He was a politician and engineer from South Dakota and basically convinced the government to set aside all the land for parks and monuments and even designed and built most of the Scenic Roads in the area. Most people said it couldn’t be done to build roads through the area due to the rugged terrain, but he managed to do it and it is awesome.

They say he had many people working for him at the time of the planning and if anyone ever said, “It can’t be done.” he fired them on the spot! Our kind of guy! The Scenic byways he designed are superb with pigtail bridges to accomplish a quick accent within a tight space and several one lane tunnels through shear granite all of which manage to frame the faces of Mount Rushmore as you pass through them. Incredible!

We have had many tough climbs here but have been thoroughly rewarded each time with magnificent views and screamin’ downhills with “S” curves, hairpin turns and miles of coasting at 30 mph! Yahoo!

Well, that’s about it for now, we plan to be out of the Black Hills and South Dakota by Friday and take on our next challenge of crossing the remote, but beautiful state of Wyoming as we make our way towards the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.
Until next time…Tailwinds.

Jay and Erinn

Hello all and more greetings from South Dakota. Turns out South Dakota is HUGE and HOT and DESOLATE! Even though, it is beautiful in it’s own kind of way. We can’t wait to get to the western part of the state to see the real sights this state has to offer such as the Badlands, Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park

Now, back to our adventures here in the Great Plains. We have definitely been challenged the last week and it’s starting to make the ride from CT to Michigan look like a cakewalk. The Heat has been our main challenge and we have had to ride several days in 95-degree heat with equal humidity. If we wanted this type of weather, we would have chosen to ride in Texas or Florida. This isn’t really what we had in mind when we chose the Northern Tier route to see the country.

The other thing that has been hard is the distance between things, and we mean anything! There have been days when there hasn’t been anything for 40 miles or more and the bad news is that they tell us it only gets worse the further West we go. We are currently in Pierre (pronounced PEER) which is the Capital of South Dakota. It is directly in the middle of the state, located on the Missouri River and is rich in history of the Indian culture and of course on the trail that Lewis and Clark followed. It is a beautiful city and has many parks including a great waterfront park on the Missouri River where they offer free camping!

That is one of the good things about traveling in this area of the country, it is much more affordable. Things in general are cheaper, especially camping. We have found many city parks to camp in for $8.00 or less per night. Some others, such as the one here in Pierre have been free. You sure don’t find that out East!

We are now starting to encounter new animals as well. We have seen many White Pelicans. Yes, we were surprised to see pelicans in small roadside lakes and ponds here on the Great Plains. We also had a showdown with a Badger the other day. He was in the road and wasn’t too scared of anything; the cars even had to go around him. Even though we were apprehensive we had to get past him so we pulled out our dog spray for protection and headed at him. He crouched down, puffed up his fur and quite frankly looked viscous. Luckily for us he backed down enough to let us get by. Another close call with wild creatures. We decided a great fight would be between a Swan and a Badger. Our money is still on the swan!

We met 3 more bikers heading east and they gave us all kinds of information about what to see and what to expect as we continue West. We shared a campsite with them in a city park. 2 were from England and the other was from Portland, Oregon. All were college students and had met up with each other in Wyoming somewhere. They had great stories to tell and were also very curious as to what lay ahead of them as they finish with the plains and get back into civilization in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

When they arrived at the park, they looked quite frazzled, and with good reason. They had to ride 75 miles that day into a stiff headwind, which for us that day was 80 miles of a SWEET tailwind. We continue to be lucky with the winds, we have had tailwinds or crosswinds everyday since leaving Minnesota. We are 1/2 of the way across South Dakota and can only hope our luck continues! Anyone who is so inclined can join us in our nightly prayers to the Wind Gods! So far they have been with us and we sure don’t want to do anything to upset them at this point, especially now that the services get even further apart and to top things off the terrain is getting hilly.

Another thing about the plains is the size, severity and frequency of SEVERE weather! There are posters in all the campgrounds about what to do in case of severe weather, which seems to be about everyday. One night we rolled into the campground and set up camp and went to take our showers and by the time we came back to our site the sky had turned an ominous black and the wind began to blow. And BLOW it did! It blew so hard in blew our tent almost flat to the ground! We headed to the picnic shelter for more protection and watched to see if our stuff was going to get wiped out by the winds, which must have been 50 mph or more! It was exciting to say the least. Glad it didn’t hit at 2 am when we were sleeping. That would have been a shock. That storm did clear in time to give us a spectacular pink sunset under the receding black clouds.

Yesterday we sat out another big storm at a small store during our ride. We were lucky because there were only 3 stores in the entire 75 miles and we just happened to be at one when that storm hit. Last night the sky was ominous again and rumbled for hours. We had heard there was a tornado watch as well. As you can imagine, being in a tent is not the best place to be in severe weather. The only good thing is that it is so open out here that we can usually see the storms miles away and try to take cover before they arrive, which is always before we think it will be.

Well, we have rambled on enough and must say good bye for now. Hope each of you is well and having a great summer! Thanks again for all the continued support. We will continue to need it as we prepare to battle the Rocky Mountains, which aren’t very far away now.
Until next time…Tailwinds.

Hello Everyone, Yes it’s been a long time since we have done an update! We have been very busy and haven’t been able to get to a phone line to get online.

Gosh, lets see where should we start… Last week while we were visiting Petoski, MI. we met two cyclists from CA. Kirsten and Geoff who were both riding long wheelbase Ryan Recumbents and pulling Burley trailers. They were cycling from west to east after taking an Amtrak Train from California to Montana due to their limited vacation time. They were riding to Mass. to visit Geoff’s mother. It was wonderful to exchange stories with them and to hear what WI, MN and the Dakota’s are like. They were riding 80 miles per day, which seems crazy to us, but again they had vacation time limitations. (We are so lucky)! They invited us to stay with them when we reach Oakland, CA. It will be great to see them in September or October!

One thing that we want to mention is that Michigan is beautiful and we would recommend it as a travel destination especially the Northwest coastline on Lake Michigan. The towns are very beautiful and quaint! About 34 miles from Mackinaw city we ran into a twist in our bike riding plans. We were in the small town of Good Hart (if you blink you’d miss it). We were eating lunch at the Good Hart General store, which was pretty much the entire town.

Well, Jay’s knee has been bothering him and we have taken a few rest days here and there to let it rest. Jay decided that he couldn’t ride anymore that day because the pain was too great! He tried to ice it but the longer we sat the more stiff it got. We finally decided that we needed to find another way to Mackinaw. Erinn suggested that we speak to the General Store clerk who may have a solution. Jay went in the store and in a few minutes the two of them came out of the store and would you believe that Dave, the clerk, gave us the keys to his van so we could drive into the city get a campsite. We were shocked that he offered us the keys and didn’t even take our names!

Dave Burk was his name, he lives in Florida and is a sailor. He travels all over the world by sailboat and was spending the summer in Good Hart visiting his mother who just had a stroke. He took a part time job at the general store just to keep busy. What a nice man Dave was and we are grateful for his generosity!

As we were driving to Mackinaw City we were thinking of different solutions to our problem. We knew Jay needed to rest a few days but would we be able to continue our trip? Then we thought, if we could just get to Jay’s brother’s house in Eden Prairie, MN. and take a few days off, we might have a better chance. But, that was over 600 miles away! Erinn called the Greyhound Bus Company, rental car companies and trucking companies. All with no good news.

Would you believe that we ended up renting a U-haul truck? It was the only reasonable way to travel, carrying all our gear and to be able to see the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and Wisconsin.

After picking up our U-haul we returned the van back at the General Storein Good Hart. We were stressed out, so we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner to calm us down and take our minds off the situation. We came across the Legs Inn in Cross Village MI. Everyone we met in Michigan ranted and raved about the Inn so we decided to try it out!

The stone and timber landmark was created over a period of several decades by Stanley Smolak, a Polish immigrant who fell in love with Northern Michigan and it’s people. It is a unique blend of “Old World” Europe and Indian cultures that creates an unforgettable experience. The dining rooms are filled with a collection of natural and hand carved furniture, made of tree stumps, twisted limbs and roots, natural sculptures of driftwood and a huge stone fireplaces. If anyone is interested in vacation information see www.legsinn.com.

The next day we were off in our U-haul truck! Now that we were driving through the U.P. we decided to take advantage of all the touristy type places that we wouldn’t have been able to stop and visit on bikes. We visited a deer ranch where we were able to feed and pet all the deer. It was a great attraction and very affordable too.

It took a day to get over our worries and enjoy the moment and now we can honestly say that we are grateful that we were able to still enjoy our trip even if we had to drive through a state. The one thing we noticed about driving across the country is that you miss meeting the everyday people, seeing, smelling and feeling the wonderful countryside. We traveled over 600 miles and it only took us 4 days.

While visiting Wisconsin we decided to try the State Parks and camp specifically at Lake areas. Wisconsin is made up of wonderful national forests, farmlands and lakes. We also came across another Zoo, Peck’s Wildwood Wildlife Park. We think it’s the best animal park we have ever been too. They allow you to get up close and personal with just about all the animals.

We saw, fed and petted a baby bear cub, baby timberwolf and baby Mt. lion. They were so cute and loveable. We also held a baby skunk and porcupine. We also fed a giant 2000-pound black bear sweet juice and we actually got to touch him too. Jay’s favorites were feeding the river otters and the baby Mt Lion. Erinn’s favorites were seeing a giant tortoise and feeding a family of beavers!

We stayed at Clear Lake State Forest and would you believe got the last site on July 4th. That night we drove the U-haul into the small village of Minoqua Lake and saw a great fireworks show complete with a water-skiing and wakeboarding show before it got dark. Who knew that in such a little town in the middle of nowhere there would be such a tremendous event! Our last night in Wisconsin we stayed at Lake Wissota State Park. It had big spacious sites, lots of hiking trails and a beach right on the lake. We treated ourselves to a campfire because usually we are usually too exhausted to enjoy one!

Now we are in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. which is close to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. It’s been great spending time with Jay’s brother and family. John and Maggie have two children Jack and Katie and they have welcomed us into their home. Our plan is to relax and enjoy sightseeing in the Minneapolis area. Jay has been icing his knee two to three times a day and Jay’s brother markets vitamin supplements and has started Jay on a routine that we hope will enable us to get back on the road in a few days. As you can imagine, we really want to get back to the Pedal West 2001 tour!
Until next time, — Tailwinds.

Jay and Erinn