Climbing

"Ain't no mountain high enough".  ----Diana Ross

Well, maybe so. But I think we're getting close. We started the day with a 13-mile climb which ended somewhere near the Mt. Hood Ski Resort. There were no flat spots to catch your breath--just up and up and up. We had to work so hard to get to the top that we were quickly chilled when we stopped at the SAG. Freezing, we climbed back onto our bikes and froze through the couple mile descent, then another long, hard climb. Sweating, freezing. Sweating, freezing. We had some awesome descents today, but we sure earned them. Total mileage today: 66.1 with lots of climbing (5,150 ft). No real rain today just overcast and cold, but in the afternoon we got our first glimpse of....wait, what's that?...Blue sky! It's crazy how quickly the landscape of Oregon has changed. We started the day in a rainy, drizzly forest and now we're in Kah-nee-ta, a very dry, mostly treeless area. The gal at the convenience store told me Kah-nee-tah is a Native American woman's name which means root-digger.

The start of the day looked like this: wet and green.

The end of the day look like this: dry and brown.

By the way, this was an awesome descent. So fun!

Start of the day, shortly after leaving Welches, Oregon.

Finally, the mountain we've been hearing so much about these last few days.

So exciting to see her.

Hello Miss Hood.

This sign was flashing. What?!

Yesterday was record cold in Portland.

They have had snow this time of year.

Glad we didn't see any.

I love a good forest.

Wild horses on the way to our 2nd SAG.

Check out how dry it already is.

2nd SAG. A very welcome sight. Always.

I could have take lots more photos of snowy mountain tops.

This one, I think they said, is Mount Jefferson.

Oregon has at least one awesome Cowboy Canyon.

One last beautiful view before we make the last half-mile,

hot, dry climb to our hotel.

On to Prineville, Oregon tomorrow. 60 miles. 3300 feet climbing. Today's was 5,150.

Mike has started counting banana peels in the bike lanes. So far he's up to eight. I've heard of other cyclists counting bungee cords or dead animals. We've got a lot of time to fill :)   If you have a suggestion for something else to count, let us know.

Would you mind leaving a comment if you stop by my blog? It's more fun to keep writing when I know someone's reading it.

Life on the Road

We now have two days of riding under our belts. We are in Welches, Oregon. Officially we have ridden 174 miles. Most of it in the rain. Ridiculously "couldn't-be-wetter-if-we-were-standing-in-our-shower" rain. We are wearing shower caps over our helmets to help keep our heads dry. We are having a blast. Seriously.

A typical day on a bike tour: Get up at 6:00am. Eat. Load luggage in van. Start riding about 7:00am. Ride to first SAG (Snacks and Gab/Supplies and Gear, basically a feed station). Eat. Ride to a diner to eat lunch. Ride to afternoon SAG. Eat. Ride to motel. Clean bikes, and dry everything out while thinking about eating. Meet for rap (the meeting where we go over the next day's ride and places to eat). Eat dinner. Go back to room and lay out clothes for tomorrow. Go to bed by 8:30 because we are so exhausted.


                        Here we are being instructed on stuff to regularly check on our bikes.

There have been some pretty big hills to climb, but nothing like those we had to haul ourselves up when we cycled in New England.  We rode on a great bike path today that ran between the Columbia River and the Portland Airport. A coyote ran right out in front of us then disappeared into the thick brush. 

There is an amazing amount of wood chunks and chips along the side of the road. Logging trucks go whizzing by sometimes alarmingly close. Here are stacks of logs in a lumberyard.

A good head's up as we contemplate our journey.

                                   I'm a sucker for anything colorful on the side of a garage.

Our first day on the road was sooo rainy. It was like riding in my shower.

I was filthy. Look close.

                                                            Along the Columbia River.

Where Dr. Seuss got his trees.

I love bridges. Perhaps because I come from a landlocked state.

Hey look! I have a branch office in Scappoose, Oregon. 

Looks like we need to buy some vowels. 

And some consonants.

Some alumni brought Voodoo Donuts to our second SAG today.

Very thoughtful. It was hard to choose only one.

Why can't you do what normal people do?

asked my daughter when I told her we were signing up for a 3700-mile cross-country bicycle ride.
Well...we know several people who have ridden their bikes from coast to coast....they seem normal....to us.

So we are hoping to check off a bucket list item. We have signed up with America By Bicycle to ride "Across America North". We will ride 50 days averaging about 80 miles per day with 40 other questionably "normal" people. Amongst the riders are 6 women and 36 men. To help us along the way are six ABB staff members with three vans. They take our luggage in one of the vans and give us a cue sheet that tells us how to get to the next motel. Along the way during the day they offer water and snacks at the SAG stops, and mechanical help with the bikes.

Here we are at the Ceremonial Wheel Dip in the Pacific Ocean. The rear tire is dunked here, with the idea that the front tire will be dunked in the Atlantic Ocean in August.

And They Call the Wind Mariah

A short way into today's ride---Manistique to Escanaba 52 miles---we began to see a break in the clouds and a little bit of blue sky peeping through. Turns out we were trading out the rain for wind.

We bucked a headwind a good portion of the day. Mike and I took off so we could get to Escanaba in time for Mike Roon to take us to the airport to catch a 4:52pm flight to Detroit, then home to Salt Lake City. The leaders of our church were being changed, and we wanted to be there.

Breakfast at Big Boy. This is the third dressed up moose I've seen standing outside of a business.

A charming centerpiece. Do you think Martha Stewart can see the decorative potential of bike helmets?

A message to the Rain Gods... Maybe we should have been more specific.

Loren and I are twinners in our Maine jerseys

Why don't we just sit and chat a spell?

The Escanaba Airport. Our plane had room for 22 passengers.

Escanaba Standard Time?

For more photos go here.



There is Sunshine in My Soul Today...

But, pretty much nowhere else. It rained again on us---almost the entire day. We did have a few intermittent clear spells, but then the rain would start up again. To our left there was a tiny patch of clear sky trying to poke thru, but ahead of us and to the right of us were black clouds. Lake Michigan was on our left all day, but we didn't acutally see it very much because of the fog. I needed windshield wipers on my glasses. At one point, I was telling Joy just to follow the sound of my voice. (It was a joke, but not that far from the truth.)

Today's ride: Mackinaw City to Manistique---88 miles. We had to be shuttled across the Mackinac Bridge in the Michigan Coast Riders van. They only allow cyclists to actually ride across the bridge a couple of times a year. Here we are, giddy to start a new day.
Joy, JB and Loren in the front seat. Jeanne and Mike in the back.



The 5-mile long Mackinac Bridge looks like the Golden Gate Bridge. It connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas, and bridges the Mackinac Staits which connect Lake Huron with Lake Michigan.

And yes, it was already raining.

A popular food item in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) is a pasty. Rhymes with nasty, I've yet to try one. They look to me like a cross between a chicken pot pie and a turnover, but drier. Any kind of meat can be used and a variety of vegetables. (I even saw a sign advertising bison pasties.) My postcard says pasties "taste best with ketchup and margarine or gravy on the side." I, also, saw a sign for "pasty pizza." Maybe we'll consider adding that to the Pier 49 menu....um, probably not.

Joy and I looking for a potty...and a diet coke.

When in this part of the country, be sure not to miss the Smelt Fest.

The Yoopers (folks who live in the U.P.) are very friendly.

Do you think this looks like a columbine? That was our best guess.

The rain really is getting ridiculous. To pass the time while riding, Joy and I were singing any song we could think of with rain or clouds or sunshine in the title. Some of our Top 40: "Sunshine on my Shoulders" by John Denver; "Singin' in the Rain", of course; and "Blue Skies Shinin' on Me, Nothin' but Blue Skies Do I See"---we were beginning to hallucinate. Can you think of any others to add to our medley?

I, even, remembered a poem by Shel Silverstein that ends with "So pardon the wild, crazy thing I just said, I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head."

After dinner, the skies had cleared a bit and it was really quite pleasant for a walk along the beach.

Mackinac Island

But you don't say the "c." It's "Mackinaw", not "Mackinack."

Located part way between the mainland portion of Michigan and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on this island, except for emergency vehicles---police, ambulance, and fire trucks---and pick-up trucks used by the utility companies. You get around by foot, bike, or horse. In the winter, an ice bridge forms and you can ride your snow mobile across the ice to St. Ignace. Kids over age 12, after completing a saftey course can drive a snowmobile.

It's about a 20-minute ferry ride to get there. After riding our bikes almost 70 miles, it was nice to get somewhere by somebody else's power.

This weekend the 44th Annual Wheelmen Meet is being held on Mackinac Island. The Wheelmen are a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of American cycling, promoting the restoration and riding or early cycles (1918 or earlier), and encouraging cycling as part of modern living. I think they sound like very nice people :)

Here are a couple of their members out for a spin on the island.

600 of them will converge on Mackinac Island. There is a parade, and a 100-mile ride. To ride that far you have to circle the island about 12 times.

The bikes with the big front wheel and the small rear wheel are called penny-farthing, high wheel, or high wheeler. I've never seen one being ridden in real life, but because the Wheelmen were gathering they were all over the place. There were lots of other kinds of old bikes, too.

Not old bikes, just a lovely picture.

Another way to get around town.

I bet the people who live here are very nice, too.

A cousin of the lilac?

Tourists are called "fudgies" here, because there are so many fudge shops and who doesn't like fudge?

Here are two tourists buying fudge now. They look a lot like Mike and Joy.



The misty, foggy view from the ferry.



Rain, rain, go away!

We started the misty morning with birthday wishes for our Maine man JB. There will be 50-something candles on his cake.

JB and his wife, Loren, ride a yellow-orange tandem named "The Mango." When referring to their bike do not forget "the." You should see them zoom downhill.

Most of the morning we rode in the rain. As a result, I took very few photos today.

Then it rained harder.

Then it hailed.

Then we saw two lightening bolts.

Joy and I took refuge next to a truck in some nice person's yard. It was POURING! 

When it let up a bit, we still had about 5 miles to go before we reached the tourist area of Traverse City for our scheduled breakfast stop. We rode along the bike trail along the water front. We were so happy to make it to McDonald's. I don't really like hot chocolate, or egg McMuffins, but I had the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life, and my first Egg McBagel. Just happy to be out of the rain for a minute.

Along the bike trail at Traverse City

 Note to self:  When planning next bike trip, consider Miami.

For more photos go here. Thanks Mike, Shane, and Brad!