I'm glad Phillipsburg was worth the stop. The chest pain thing is concerning!

The Hoosgow looks like it would be safe from a bear attack.

I didn't check my pulse. I don't know the afib pulse symptoms, but I also don't remember any super-fast or irregular heartbeat. I just felt weak.

I take several photos, then keep the one with the least annoying pattern of swallows. I think it's odd that the swallows generally ignore cars, but instantly get agitated when a bicyclist stops on the bridge.

Did you check your pulse? It sounds like you could have been having an arrhythmia episode.

Your river shots are full of cliff swallows. They must be nesting under the bridges.

Feeling ill is not a fun way to start a tour. I’m glad it was temporary.

I prefer walking over pedaling up a 10% grade. This one took maybe 10 minutes. The top half was only 6-7% grade but I kept walking. Don't want to work too hard.

I am not a fan of hike a bike!

Cyclists can also stay in the Hoosgow. I assumed you were joking about not knowing that term - it's a familiar name to a lot of us very mature folks, but you are still relatively a spring chicken (compared to many of us ancient pedalers). I plan to stay in Ovando on a future tour, so enjoyed the pics and description.

Interesting to get some detail of Missoula. The only time I’ve come across the place is in the movie ‘A River Runs Through It’ and also when we once warmshower hosted a 79 year old, Ethel from Missoula. Someone we’ll never forget. She told us that she’d asked her husband for a bike on her 60th birthday and he gave her a rocking chair. That was the end of the marriage she declared fairly emphatically. Anyway she managed an intrepid tour of much of the North Island on her small folding bike and returned to Missoula in one piece. Happy travels!

Thanks! I never even thought about that possibility.

Actually it means jail.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoosegow#:~:text=Did%20you%20know?%20They%20also%20associated%20the,for%20any%20place%20of%20confinement%20for%20lawbreakers.

They did not offer me a free ice cream bar, but I stayed in the office reception area. I didn't go into the lounge area.

Buddy, I bought quite a few ACA maps in years past. I used the maps for planning routes, but my tours seldom stayed on the ACA routes very long, so I never got in the habit of using the maps much during tours. For example my San Diego to Corpus Christi tour was only 20% on the Southern Tier route.
I submitted an update about a 5-site hiker/biker camp at Diamond Lake that ACA didn't know about, but never cared much about map updates after I got a smart phone. I quite carrying paper maps about 10 years ago.