It's been an exhausting two days! Yesterday all the riders agree it was a tough ride- only 88 miles but lots of hills and a bit of a headwind. We crossed into Montana and also switched time zones which made all the phones freak out. It was a difficult but beautiful ride along the water. I had no idea Idaho was so pretty! We stayed at a high school last night where we had the option of sleeping on the gym floor or setting up tents on the lawn. Most of the girls went into the gym while the guys tried to be tough and stick it out in the tents... until the sprinklers came on in the night and everyone ended up inside. A lot of people have been having knee pain which I have luckily escaped thus far, but with a little ice and some minor bike adjustments many seem to be doing a lot better.
Today I clocked 105 miles on my bike computer and it was the longest ride we've had so far. I had done a few century rides on Long Island but they were all totally flat and even though there were only a few sections of climbing today, they were enough to wear me out. We stopped for lunch on a turnoff from state road 200 with a beautiful view of the Rockies. The weather held up for most of the day with the exception of some showers in the morning and late afternoon. I spent most of my day riding with a fellow rider Laura and we saw some lovely wildlife- mostly horses and cows. We also encountered a herd of sheep which turned out to be pretty funny because I think they were afraid of Laura's Boston accent and the whole herd of them scrambled the other direction and started bugging out and baa-ing at us as we rode by chatting. The most exciting animal I've seen so far, other than the alpacas of course, was a bald eagle that was hanging out along the route on the way to Thompson Falls.
Yesterday I began my second book of the trip- Jack Kerouac's "On the Road". I can't think of a better time to read it than when I myself am on the road. Besides the fact that he is a brilliant writer, I'm facsinted by the search for freedom he describes. I think that freedom is a really subjective concept. I also think no cost traveling is the best kind, whether it be by bike as I am experiencing or hitchhiking around as he discusses or hopping trains or anything else. It's especially great timing to introduce Kerouac into my life because he mentions his time in Missoula in the first portion of the book and today on the way into town I saw some folks trying to hitch rides and it really got me thinking. One of them could be the next Kerouac for all we know! I haven't been this excited about a book in a really long time so I just needed to share.
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