Through the Storm, to Yellowstone

By a show of hands, let's see how many people in the audience think of me as a punctual person.  Ok, can we turn down the spot and bring up the house a bit?  Ok...I am seeing about...zero...zero people think I am punctual. Wow, what a sharp audience, you guys are with it.

So, I left Bozeman about 5:00 in the afternoon.  The plan was for me to leave just after noon so I could meet up with Daniel and Liz in Livingston (they were taking a bus for that leg) then we would ride south toward Yellowstone together.  But guess, what?  I was a bit late leaving Bozeman.   Maybe it was all the Schlitz.  Whatever the reason, I left late and had to make up for some serious lost time.  So I took a bit of a short cut. This short cut would take me up and over Bozeman pass along a gravel road, but it would cut many miles off the total distance-- so I took it.  It was a beautiful ride, and I was very grateful to be off the Interstate, where the drivers are all more than happy to kill a cyclists rather than change lanes.  I made it up and over the gravel pass, no problems-- but then the weather stated to take a turn for the worse.

Thunderstorms were forming behind me and starting to catch up.  Soon the wind was howling; it was all tailwind, but it was blowing at least 25-30 miles an hour; much faster than I could ride fully loaded on a gravel road.  Thunder was rumbling directly overhead, and here I am in the middle of the mountains, no cars, no houses or shelter, wind roaring around me blowing dust in my face.  Not good.  So I am bombing down this gravel road in an effort to get off the mountain before the real storm sets in.  The whole time I am praying for no flat tires, no wipe outs or any other mishap that would leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere during this storm.  It was intense.  The dust was bad enough that at times, I couldn't see more than 10 ft down the road and the wind kept trying to blow me off the edge of the road down into the ravine.  Then the rain started up and I was still not to the bottom yet.  At least the rain stopped the worst of the dust.  A fork in the road comes up that was not on my map.  I go left.  It got so steep toward the end I could smell my brakes and all I want is to not get hit by lightning.

But I made it!

Just as the really heavy pouring rain started the gravel turned into pavement and I was on the highway heading south to Yellowstone.  Some people in a big truck picked me up and took me to the nearest campground, less then a mile away.  There I met up with Daniel and Liz and we waited out the rest of the storm.  Thank you, Surly for making such a bad ass bike.  Thank you Tubus for making such bomb-proof racks and Ortlieb for your oh-so-watertight panniers.
Whew.

That evening I had a bit of a moment.  Daniel, Liz and I set up camp behind a Church in the Town of Pray.  It was dark and the next day wasn't Sunday, so we figured no one would hassle us.  Daniel and Liz went straight to bed, but I couldn't sleep so I went around the corner to have a snack with out disturbing them.   And there I was, on a dark night, behind a random church in a random tiny town in the middle of MT.  I spent the afternoon almost being killed by a thunderstorm and now here I am eating trailmix and watching the stars.  And the stars were amazing-- shooting star every 2 minutes and milky way was as bright and clear as I've ever seen it.  Tomorrow we will ride out before anyone knows we were there.

This is, without a doubt, the best summer ever!!!!

Missoula to Helena to Bozeman

It was hard to tear myself away from Missoula.  Real Hard.  I met all kinds of good people!  But it had to happen, so after four nights I rode on to Ovanodo MT.  Ovando is a tiny little town along hiway 200, but it has got style and character!  They offer free camping to anyone riding through in the town center, so I camped out with another cyclists who was riding the continental divide.  We ended up hanging out with Skip, the self-appointed town Mayor, Sheriff, and Justice of the Peace.  He was an older gentleman, and he talked very slowly.  He wasn't stupid or slow in the head, he just moved at his own small-town pace.  He had very random stories that didn't always pertain to the rest of the conversation, but he was real nice.  For those of you who know Gordon Rosinski, the manager of my apt building, it was a little bit like talking to a younger version of Gordie.  Fun times.

The next day I made it to Helena, where I met up with couch surfer Kayla and her three roommates.  We had a great time that night, eating out, drinking a few beers at the Irish pub, (complete with good live Irish music).  Then I got a thorough walking tour of downtown Helena, complete with a visit to the haunted residence of Wilson Butts. (I know, his name is Butts.  Now that's a funny name!)  Then we made it back home where Kayla read out loud from a cheesy Montana-based romance novel-- complete with funny voices! (It was deja vu all over again!) Good night!
 

 (This lovely sign was on the road into Helena...now why would you keep paying for the sign after 5/21?)

On the road the next day I hit some of the worst road construction of the trip yet!  For miles I had to ride through oily gravel, being continuously pelted with rocks from passing cars until I had to stop because my tires became completely covered with tar and rocks.  It sucked.  But by the time I got out of the worst of it I had virtually no traffic for the rest of the ride.  I camped at an airport in Three Forks and made it to Bozeman early the next day.

In Bozeman I stayed two nights with CSer Josh and his roommate.  I had yet another blast in Bozeman, which is in my opinion a smaller, slightly less good but still quite good, version of Missoula.  I hit the coffee shops and co-ops in the afternoon and in the evening ate some delicious pizza (thanks to chef and his wife for the free beers)!  In the evening I hit the town with Josh and some of his friends.  We had some good beers then went to see some live ska music by a band called Skavacado.  It was a great time and I am pleased to say that I ripped that dance floor to shreds! Shreds, I say!  Good dancin music.
Day two in Bozeman I was going to leave with Dan and Liz, and go to Yellowstone, but due to an unfortunate tumble a few miles out D and L decided to come back to Bozeman for another night to recuperate.  I stayed an extra day and took care of my CFI renewal paperwork all day.  So it was a productive day, though a bit boring.  In the evening I stopped by a bar for a drink before going to see Cowboys and Aliens and was pleased to see that they had Shlitz on tap!  On Tap!  For 2 bucks a glass, no less!  Well done, Bozeman, well done.

But tomorrow I will set out, for Yellowstone!  It will be quite sonic, I am sure and I will have to cross two mountain passes, one at 8,000 ft and the other topping it out at just under 11,000 ft!  It will be great as long as I don't get eaten by a bear or gored by a buffalo or scalded in a bubbling mud pit or squashed by an RV or pass out due to altitude sickness over the passes.  What could go wrong??  

Sandpoint to Missoula

Welcome back!  Sorry its taken me so long to update-- I have been having FUN.  That's three capital letters worth of fun.  A metric shit ton of fun, if I do say so.  Montana is a great state, seriously, I have met so many cool people along the way.  But let me bring you up to speed.

 That's Lake Pend Oreille above and the city of Sandpoint Below

I spent another two nights in Sandpoint before leaving, hanging out with James B (a family friend and all around good guy), his girlfriend and her family. I had a great time- we rode bikes to the top of Mt. Schwitzer but the weather was terrible. We got rained on and the view from the top was obscured by fog. So I finally made it out of Sandpoint the next day and it felt great to be back on the road.  I had met some super people, but I was definitely ready to move on. So I crossed the border into Montana. It took two days to ride into Missoula along senic hiway 200. While riding I met and camped with a newlywed couple, Dan and Liz.  We rode together for a while, but on the second day I had to leave them behind--Why, you ask...well it was Saturday and I wanted to make it to Missoula so I could party on a saturday night.  So I rode all 125 miles to Missoula.  It was brutal but so worth it- Those last 40 miles all I was thinking about was a cold IPA and a veggie burger; but I made it, and let me tell you that IPA was sooo tasty.  I stayed in Missoula with Jamie and Jeremy, friends from ND, and of course we went out that night to Charlie Bs for a couple more beers. 
I ended up spending four nights in Missoula.  I drank a lot of coffee at the coffee shops, ate a lot of pastries at the bakeries and drank a fair amount of beer at the bars.  It was all kinds of fun-- if you've never been to Missoula, you owe it to yourself to visit.  Fun town.

 

So here's a story.  I was sittin in M town with Dan and Liz eating some burritos outside.  Having a good time.  When we hear some music from up the street.  What's going on, we said to ourselves.  As the music got closer, we could distinguish one import aspect: it was funky!  It was funky as shit!  I know funk, people, and this music was Fun-Kay!  It was a brass band, a la New Orleans, and they were playing for a wedding.  The bride and groom were at the front, the band behind them, and a gaggle of people dancing in the streets following them.  So what did we do?  We danced it up! It was great.  I am totally going to have a funky brass band playing at my wedding (not that Im ever going to get married, of course. That's not my style!)

In conclusion, Missoula was awesome!  I want to live there.  More pictures on the photo bucket site: http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k503/Gregasus/

Washington State, The Exciting Conclusion to

So long Wenatchee!  Haha, yea, thats right, Im outa here.  Thanks for the fun times, but this bird's gotta fly!  90 or so miles back to Twisp on the first day.  I left around 2:30 in the afternoon.  After a lovely breakfast with my homies.  More of a brunch really-- my homies and I like to do brunch.  Twisp was in good shape,  Alot like I left it, actually.  I stayed with a new couch surfing buddy, Kary, and of course I hit the Cinnamon Twisp bakery again.  Gotta get those carbs!  The next three days were a blast.  Each day I would climb up and over a mountain pass, and each night I managed to find a great campsite and some cool people.  It went a little something like this...

After Twisp, I rode up and over Loup Loup pass.  It was a nice day and a pretty easy ride. Going up was slow and steady, going down was fast, fun and over way too soon.  I set up camp in Tonasket behind the visitor center, chatted with a few locals and ran into a nice couple who were also biking along the Northern Tier.  Finished the day off watching the sunset, eating a big bag of cookies and sipping on a can of wine that I bought in Twisp and hauled over the Mts.  (That's right people, a CAN of wine!)  I got an early start the next morning, mostly because the sprinklers came on.  And today I learned another lesson of the road:  If you hear sprinklers coming on, but they are not currently spraying your section of lawn, move your stuff now, because in a few minutes the next cycle will turn on and they WILL be hitting your section of lawn.  It seems like common sense, but this is exactly the sort of concept that my brain doesn't understand in the morning when I first wake up.  I heard them come on across the field, but I chose to do nothing.  Sure enough, 15 minutes later the cycle changed--  now I'm half dressed dragging my soaking tent across wet grass onto the parking lot.  Good Morning, Tonasket!  

So after everything dried out, I headed over the next pass and into Republic.  For those of you who have never been to Republic WA, I would recommend it; its a cool little town.  I arrived around 4:00 PM, and had a snack outside the local Co-op.  What better to follow up the snack then a cold beer right?  So I stopped in at the local brewery for a cold one.  With in five minutes of getting my brew, I was chatting about my ride to the girl behind the counter and the people around me.  Her friend has a yurt that they let passing cyclists stay in, so before I could get a second beer I had a place lined up to stay it.  The Yurt was decked out with couches, a stove, a TV with built in VHS player, and a fine selection of VHS movies to go with (including a couple Nick Cage flics!)  Not long after securing my yurt another local, Ellen, approached me and invited me to join her and her friends on a 'full-moon' bike ride.  The basic premise:  we ride our bikes up to the top of the hill where the party is already in full swing.  We don costumes, having some drinks-- then, as the sun is setting, we ride down the hill, stopping at other peoples houses along the way for more fun and drinks!  I had a great time, made some friends, threw back some drinks and had some laughs.  Fun!

The next day, with only a slight hangover, I made it over Sherman pass; the highest pass to cross in WA (though not the steepest).  Not much traffic though, which was nice.  That night I camped at the Colville airport. Pretty uneventful.  I wanted to go into town and find the brewery there, but I was too sleepy.  The next day I rode out of Colville, toward Newport.  Along the way I ran into the same couple I met in Tonasket a few days earlier; we had some lunch together and chatted for awhile.  They were a cool couple.  I have found that I have met some really interesting people on this trip; not 30 minutes after leaving lunch I met two other cyclitst.  They were a mother-daughter team, touring since 2009 and they were carrying large stuffed animals strapped to their bikes!

That evening I was riding through a large empty strech of road, so I was going to do some serious stealth camping, but each time I stopped I got swarmed with more mosquitos then I have ever seen in my life.  It was nuts.  When you came to a complete stop you could hear a steady, constant, high-pitch buzzing.  So I just kept riding until the sun went down.  I happend to get lucky and came upon a free campground just as the sun was going down.  Of course the campsite was full of frogs that kept me up all night, but whatever.

The next day I rolled into Sandpoint, which was to be my next rest point on the trip, and where I am writing this entry.  I 'm staying with Paula L, a warmshowers host that I found through my man, John Myers, who stayed here last year on his trip.  So far its been great.  I took a much needed shower, jumped on a trampoline and I spent all of yesterday checking out the coffee shops, bakerys, and brewerys of Sandpoint.  What else do you need right?  And to make things even better, Paula is a foster parent for 5 kittens that she got from the pound.  So I have been playing with kittens these last couple of days.  Hence all the photos of kittens.  (I lost the cord for my camera so I can't upload my real photos.  The only new photos I can upload for the time being are off my ipod and are of me playing with kittens)

So I will probably spend another night here, resting my legs, eating large quantities of food and tomorrow I'll strike out for Missoula!  More to come!

Bellingham to Concrete, Concrete to Wenatchee

I did it!  I broke free from the curse of Bellingham!  Only to be sucked into Wenatchee for two more weeks...oops.  Let me bring you up to speed.

I rode out of Bellingham on a dreary, overcast day around 3:00pm.  Late, I know.  It was a big day for me because I finally got to turn East!  For the first time in 800 miles, I was riding toward my final destination.  I made it as far as Concrete WA that night.  I stayed at the airport on the recommendation of Mr. Myers in the pilot lounge but what started as an overnight stay turned into a three-night party because I met some very cool people who let me stay in their hanger.  I passed the time looking at all of the great airplanes based there and helping my new pal Preston work on his 'Rat-rod.'  It was pretty great.  There was even a cub fly-in on my last day, complete with a STOL competition.  Planes!!

So three days later the weather was finally clearing up which was great, as I really wanted a nice day to ride over the pass.  I figured if I'm going to go to all that work, I might as well get some good views of the Mts out of it.  And it was worth the wait!  The scenery crossing the North Cascades was absolutely incredible!  It was a slow and difficult ride going up, but honestly, I was expecting it to be worse.  Maybe its just my awesome bike, but I was able to throw it in a low gear and chug over the top without too much huffing and puffing.  Here are some of the best pics from the pass:  (there are more on my photobucket site: http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k503/Gregasus/)

It was a great ride; I even met some other cyclists at an observation point and they gave me a PB and J sandwich, some strawberries and trail mix.  And flying down the back side of those Mountains felt good...real good.  I hardly had to pedal for 20 miles.  The scenery changed pretty dramatically as I entered Eastern WA, and it felt good to be back in the east side.  Nice and hot, beautiful sunny skies.  I was pretty sick of the rain and clouds that are so common in the western half of the state.  I spent the night in Winthrop, then left early the next morning for the 105 miles ride to Wenatchee. 

And here I am in Wenatchee.  Good old Wenatchee.  Its been two weeks and two days since I arrived-- What have I been doing this entire time?  Nothing!  Well, not exactly nothing.  There's been a great deal of laying around, usually by a pool and usually with a beer not more than an arms length away.  I've also spent a great deal of time hanging out in coffee shops and the new brewery.  Its been GREAT!!  Seriously, very relaxing and I've really enjoyed hanging with my old Wenatchee friends and of course the family.  But here I am again, spending far more time being lazy and comfortable than riding a bicycle across the country.  Ive lost track of the number of times I've said to myself "I'll leave tomorrow" only to push it back another day or two or three.  But seriously, I'll leave tomorrow.  You wait and see, tomorrow is the big day. 
or maybe the day after...  

The complete Photo collection here:  http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k503/Gregasus/

Sick for two weeks, epic dancing, mountain biking etc.

So like I said before, I was feeling a little bit sick when I rode out of Seattle, but I wanted to get going and I figured I could make with no trouble.  The ride was pretty nice - about 100 miles total, with maybe 35 miles on a paved bike path, which was great.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but unfortunatly I was pushing against some pretty massive headwinds by the end.  Not too much fun, but it was all worth it when I got to the last 15 miles or so, riding on Chuckanut drive.  It was ridiculously senic.  The sun was setting over Bellingham Bay and by this time the wind had finally died down.  I was stopping every half mile to take more pictures-- it was too beautiful.  I finally made it into Bellingham to find my friends Gretchen and Margot partying already.  I took a quick shower, had a few beers, then we all headed downtown for drinking and dancing.

Next day (saturday) I was still feeling a little sick.  As if riding all those miles wasn't enough, I probably should've thought twice about dancing.  "oh well,"I said to myself, " I will just take it a bit easier tonight."  Well that night was Marie's last night in town, so I had to have a few drinks with Marie and her friends.  "Sure, I'll have another" became he the phrase of the evening.  Then of course, that night was foam night at Rumors (the local dance spot)  Now for those of you who don't know what foam night is, its pretty simple.  Basically, everyody's dacing in a bubble bath.  By the end of the night the foam was four feet high in places, everybody is covered from head to toe, bubbles everywhere, condoms on the floor - Epic.  Truly Epic.   Well, as you've probably guessed, I couldn't say no to Foam night.  It was soooo much fun.  Don't worry, there are pictures, thanks to a friend's waterproof camera.  

So of course I was still sick the next day.  Next couple of days, actually.  I took it easy.  I rested.  I drank a lot of tea and layed around in the sun.  I even painted my toenails.  And it was working.  I was starting to feel a bit better. 

 So on thursday I was hangin with Nick S. and he suggested we go mountain biking.  Why not, right?  I'm feeling better, probably over the worst of it.  He let me borrow one of his downhill bikes and we hit the trails. It was alot of fun, despite that my chain would pop off if I pedaled more than a few rotations at a time.  It was a blast and riding a full suspension bike really made me realize how crappy my mountain bike is.  I also managed to go over the handlebars, which wasn't too bad at the time, but I hit my ribs pretty hard.  Now it's a week later and it still hurts to take a deep breath or cough.  After riding, we picked up some booze to celebrate everyone being done with finals.  Of course, we ended up going dancing.  People later told me that I was "shirtless and all over the ladies" but I will just have to take their word for it.  

Of course, during the night the cold germs were able to regroup and make a fresh assault on my sinuses and throat.  The next two days were spent resting and recoverying.  I even went to bed early on friday while everyone else was partying and dancing. (amazing, I know).  But saturday I couldn't say no.  It was Gretchen's graduation and (forgive me Gretchen) she was soo drunk and happy; how could I not party?  Maddie was visiting for the weekend as well, so really I had no choice.  We ripped it up on High st. for a while, then back downtown for, you guessed it, DANCING!  It was great dancing.  Photobooths.  Shirtlessness.  Gyrating.  It was all there.  

Now its a couple days later.  Im still sick and my ribs still hurt.  I am going to go to the doctor tomorrow.  The doc will probably tell me to stop drinking and dancing.  To which I will reply, 'NEVER!'  But seriously, despite the fact that I've been here so long and I can't shake this cold, I've had a fantastic time in Bellingham.  This town is awesome and the people are amazing.  Thanks so much to my wonderful friends Margot and Gretchen for putting me up for so long, you're the best.  

But lets get real.  So far I've spent way more days hanging out with friends and goofing off than riding a bicycle.  What happend to riding across the country?  Well don't worry people, its going happen.  When I say I'm going to do something, I do it-- I just end up doing it way slower than I planned.  (This is why I am always late to everything)  So its going to happen, but its going to happen on Greg-time.  And I am fine with that.  Greg time is good time.  

Today we have a special guest, here to talk to you about funk music...

After a great couple of days in P town, it was time to hit the road again.  Will and I got some breakfast, then I started riding around 1:00 pm.  I ended up riding to Toledo WA that day; about 90 miles but it was pretty flat and I had a bit of a tailwind for most of the day.  I rode past a cool little airport that evening so I pulled into do some exploring.  It was here that I enjoyed that right of passage all of us clipless riders get to expierence at least once-- I came to a nice, slow stop and went to put my foot down, only to find it still quite attached to the pedal.  And down I went, in fully glory!  Fortunatly, no one was there to see it.  I kept riding, and made camp at a state park just past Toledo.

The next day ended up being my most challenging day of the trip so far.  I accidently woke up around 7:00 AM.  Thinking it was 9:00, I got up, packed everything away and hit the road.  As soon as I started riding, it started raining hard.  It was a little over 2 hours in the rain before I made it to Centrailia and by the time I got there, most of my rain gear was soaked through.  It was pretty miserable.  I contimplated stopping for the day in Centralia, but the rain quit, so I headed out.  The weather kept getting better, so I kept riding.  I stopped for a break in Elma and then again in Shelton.  By this time I had rode something like 90 miles and I had 40 more to go if I wanted to get to Bremerton where I could catch the ferry to seattle.  There was still plenty of sunlight and the last ferry was due to leave Bremerton at 11:30PM So I pressed on.  Passed Shelton, I had some amazing views of the Olympic Mountains across Hood canal and I got to watch the sun set over Mason lake, which was pretty incredible.  The last 15 miles were in the dark, but I was able to make it to Bremerton with enough time to get a beer and some hummus before the ferry pulled away.  By the end of the day I had rode 130 miles with a 90 pound bicyle from 7:30am to 10:30pm.  It was epic.

So I rested a couple days in Seattle.  I stayed with my friend, Kevin; he is a music teacher at a school teaching K-8 grade.  I wanted to see him in action so I went with him to work the next day.  It was great!  All the kids call you Mr Jans and the drinking fountains are only 3 feet off the ground.  I got to talk to all of his classes that day about music, and drums and everything.  The high point was definetly giving a lecture on funk music to the 2nd and 3rd graders.  It was pretty hilarious, I played them some good examples of funk music including Parliment and The Crusaders.  They loved it.  Then I tried to teach them the lingo.  'Ok kids, lets all say it together, "Make it funky!"'  "Can you dig it?"  Slap some skin, honky"  It was a lot of fun, and kinda made me wish I had a job teaching.  Summers off? Can't argue with that, I could do a lot of bike touring if I had every summer off.

I spent the rest of my stay with my dear sweet grandmother.  She took me out for some Thai  the first night, and the second I went to a dinner party with some friends of hers- it was alot of fun.  By  the end of my stay, though, I was starting to feel a little sick.  Nothing too bad, I suspect I picked something up from the children. Just a little cold.

Oh yea!  So a funny thing happend to Kevin and I as we were driving after my big ride into town.  Kevin has this kick ass '67 (ish) Chevy painted bright yellow.  We were cruisin down the freeway, feeling good, when we noticed that a cute and possibly drunk girl in the passenger seat of the car next to us was really diggin the truck.  Naturally, I blew her kiss which she must've liked because she proceded to flash her tits at us.  It was a good end to a very long day.