Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

I was awake all night listening to the wind and rain. The alarm went off at 6 AM, but I couldn't stir myself out of bed until 6:23. We went to breakfast at the campground cafe, but the cook hadn't shown up. Apparently he lived in a trailer at the resort. The waiter went to get him and came back saying,"He'll be here soon, he's feeling sick." I didn't know if he had been celebrating the holiday and was hungover or if he was really sick. In the end Jacinto finished his cup of coffee and we decided to bicycle into town to eat. That was an expensive choice. Stanley is a tourist town. We ate a $29. breakfast at a trendy restaurant. It was jam packed with beautiful people. I felt like we were in Aspen. I guess beautiful people pay beautiful prices. It started raining as we were preparing to leave after breakfast. Drat.

Not too far out of town we saw a little cafe offering a cheap breakfast special on their sign. Had we known, we would have stopped there. It wasn't fancy and didn't look like beautiful people frequented it. Just the local Joes.

We had a fabulous downhill along the Salmon River for 20 miles. There are natural hot springs in several different areas. We saw an oriental woman in a tiny barrel hot tub, just big enough for one. It was right on the edge of the road. I could see it from a distance and was trying to figure out what that barrel would be. As I passed and peered inside, I was very surprised to see her. I had time only to say, "Good morning!" before passing on. I wish now I had a photo of her.

We did stop at a hot springs further down the road and used the rest room. We discussed soaking there, but there was a large family gathering with lots of kids. Plus we knew with the constant drizzle it wouldn't be appealing to get back in our wet cycling clothes and head down the road. I have some hot springs friends who would be very disappointed in me . . . .

It drizzled most of the day. We were warm as long as we kept going, but cooled off quickly when we stopped.

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

We stopped at a very nice campground with a store for a snack. We weren't ready to stop for the day, but I did ask about camping. The owner (?) said they no longer allowed tent camping as two people would pay, ten people would shower, they'd have dogs that would tear everything up and they also had sprinklers broken off. He said they converted the shower house into another cabin. Too bad. It was a beautiful spot. I should have made note of the name. I drank two V-8 juices all by myself. There's something about V-8 that hits the spot when I'm touring. I never drink it at home.

The rain picked up and got quite miserable. We stopped at a gas station/grocery/convenience store. They had a bit of everything, including a nice little snack bar. Jacinto and I shared a sandwich. Mostly because we wanted to get inside out of the rain. We were hoping it would let up a bit - but it didn't. Riding recumbents with real seats means that we always carry small trash bags to cover our seats with. When we left it was raining heavily enough that I had a hard time whipping the bag off and putting it away before the seat got wet.

Jacinto had the new yellow BOB dry bag. He wasn't concerned about his stuff getting wet. I don't like the practical, daily use of the yellow bag as it's quite cavernous to find items in when it is open. I use the old style black BOB duffle bag. The down side is I have to cover my bag with a sturdy trash sack when it's raining. Today was one of those days that I made sure my bag was totally covered. I was also happy that I had fenders front and rear. Jacinto's big seat bag hung over the rear wheel far enough that it caught most of the spray.

We finally dropped out of the trees into mountains that were barren. Now we weren't passed by log trucks, but by trucks carry rocks. There must be a quarry somewhere close. We didn't see it.

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Challis was a couple of miles up the road from the intersection. At this point I was so wet and miserable that it seemed like poetic justice that we would have ANOTHER misery added. Why not add a couple of uphill miles? We had been planning to camp and there was a campground. We decided to check motel prices, hoping to dry out. We ended up at the Village Inn Motel $63. for a king size bed. We waited behind a motorcycle guy who was also happy to get out of the rain. Luckily for us, the motel had a roof overhang just the size to park our bikes under. I talked for a bit to a different motorcycle rider who had been holed up for two days waiting for the rain to pass. He didn't want the chrome on his bike to get dirty. I think he had a bit of cabin fever. He was headed up to Montana to help family with the haying.

We changed clothes and headed right over to the hot tub room. Blech. I wanted to warm up so much I did get in. But it was against my better judgement. There were grodies in the hot tub and it was extra, extra hot. We didn't stay long at all.

The hotel clerk said that Challis was an inexpensive town to live in. It was possible to make a decent living on minimum wage. I don't think I've ever been to a town where the people felt that way. She suggested the adjoining restaurant as a good place to eat. Ha. It was a greasy spoon. Ice berg lettuce and canned peas kind of place. Which, actually, we eat at quite a bit in small town America as we travel. You just have to go with the flow and order either a burger or chicken fried steak. I tried the latter. To say it wasn't tasty was an understatement. We had a very young, obviously inexperienced waitress. She did not keep the coffee flowing to the coffee addict, Jacinto. I don't think he would have cared too much about the food as long as the coffee kept coming.

The room was nice - very large with the very large bed. Jacinto liked the TV. The hot tub was not nice, the restaurant was not nice. Challis looked pretty large, on a small town scale. We walked a block to a store and bought some snacks for the next day. I got a newspaper to read while Jacinto watched TV. I called several different people at home since there was reception.

Reading over my post, I'm quite whiny. It really was a beautiful day along the Salmon River. We had at least 20 miles of downhill. It was probably the easiest day of riding so far and also the least trafficed. But the rain did take the edge off of the good parts.

I have a nifty little digital camera that will fit (literally) in an Altoids box. I don't like shopping. Well, maybe for bicycles and related stuff. Books also. But mostly I like the sales person to say, "Small, medium, or large?" I can point and be on my way. I wanted a new camera, but the choices were overwhelming. I read an article in Bicycling magazine reviewing cameras. Ah,ha! Someone to do my homework for me. I had always been a member of the SLR camera crowd and looked down on people with point and shoot cameras. Then I took my good camera on a tour and somehow bumped it, jostling the 'eye' out of place. I think I got the term correct. Anyway, I didn't take my good camera on tour anymore after that. I bought a point and shoot (gasp!) and used it with little satisfaction for several years. As I was preparing for my big ride in 2005 I read the camera article and bought a Pentax Optio S4 purely on the statement that it was the smallest good camera they had reviewed. I was very, very happy with the size of the camera and the photo quality. However, it took special batteries. And a special charger. I didn't want to bring the charger along, but I did bring three batteries. That had been enough for the 2005 trip, and I thought would be enough for this trip. Guess what? We took lots of flash photos at the beginning of the trip when the days were dark with the clouds. Now I was down to my last battery and it had hardly any juice left. I fussed and stewed. I thought about mailing the two used batteries home, having someone charge them and mailing them to a spot down the road. The last few days I took hardly any photos, trying to conserve the batteries. I grumbled to myself about how bringing the charger along would have been worth the trouble - look at the mess I was in. Too late - the batteries all ran out. Darn, darn. Except I was thinking of a stronger explecitive. We bought a disposible camera to use. I wasn't happy with myself. I wasn't happy with the weather, or with the lack of pretty scenery. I was missing home. Then I wasn't happy about that because here I was on the road doing what I loved to do best and doing it with my husband. So what wasn't there to be happy about? Talk about confused, that was me.