train

...now browsing by tag

 
bike bitchin' bitching brooks b17 camping Chicago city cooking cyclo-computer eating falls fenders friends generorsity generosity gps hills homes Illinois Indiana lake erie location map Minnesota Montana motel new jersey new state new york city North Dakota Ohio on the road peaches perry's ice cream pictures planning rain review tent train training trek 520 video Washington wisconsin
 

A pick me up Pt. 1

Friday, October 1st, 2010

I have to say, once I got over missing Glacier, I’ve really been enjoying our trip a lot more.  Even the train ride wasn’t so bad.  We were treated to one of the most amazing sunsets right as we approached Glacier which we would never have seen had we decided to bike there.  After that, we mostly tried to sleep the rest of the way to Spokane.  Unlike New York where life outside is always visible from a train window, out in God’s country it’s pitch dark.  In a way, it was probably best this way so that we could forget all that we were missing and focus on what lay ahead.

Our train got in to Spokane at 2:30AM which left us with very few options for lodging.  We were downtown which meant all the hotels were expensive and I didn’t care to spend money on a 5 hour hotel stay before they kicked us out in the morning.  Nor did either of us relish the thought of finding a campsite at that forsaken hour.  So, a night in the train station was what we settled on.  For better or worse, it was not long before we were awoken by the security guard and sent off the discover what the city had in store for us.

As I would later acknowledge, Spokane was good for the soul.  The weather was excellent that morning as we searched out a nice place to grab some breakfast.  We quickly decided on Satellite Diner but were none pleased when they didn’t open till 8AM and it was only 6:30.  So, to burn time, we played on the giant Radio Flyer wagon in the park.  Good times.  Also, it gave Marissa time to look up an old friend who lives in Boston but grew up in the city and was able to make some great suggestions.  Better yet, he called up his parent’s Lisa and Steve on our behalf and arranged for a lovely home-cooked meal and a roof over our heads.  Thanks Blair!

After a great breakfast, we stopped by the local bicycle shop to pick up another rear tire for my bike.  The Continental Touring Plus tires have only lasted exactly 1300 miles each before going bald.  They haven’t given me a flat yet so I should be thankful but that seems awfully short lived for a touring tire.  I replaced the rear with a Continental Top Contact folding tire which was half off from $90 and was handmade in Germany, not Taiwan.  We even got Marissa’s bike tuned up for free as well as another offer for a place to stay, which we had to turn down.  Thanks to everyone at Two Wheel Transit!

With most of the day still ahead of us, we took Blair’s advice and headed up the hill to Manito Park for a nap in the sun and then a stroll through the Japanese and formal gardens. Before we knew it, we were off again to his parent’s house for a great dinner and a lot of good company.  It felt so good to have a nice, warm, home-cooked meal after all that time cooking in the cold through Montana.  We both felt incredibly refreshed and ready to hit the hills ahead of us.  It was such a huge turn around in a very short amount of time I think we were both a bit surprised.

Of course, we got a late start the next day after eating a massive breakfast and pulling all our gear back in from where we had scattered it about the house.  We only managed 60 miles the next day but it was an incredibly gorgeous ride through some back roads before linking up with RT 395 on our way to Colville.  I wanted to go further because the more we did that day the less we would have to do before our first major climb of the trip, Sherman’s Pass.

Posted in Andrew, On the road | 2 Responses »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Change of plans

Friday, September 24th, 2010

I’ve been stressing this decision a lot over the last state or so. We really don’t have much time left to bike before I’m due back in Ohio for my friend’s wedding and we still have a whole lot of hilly miles to go. On top of that, we are still in Shelby, MT with 40mph winds. Marissa and I are both feeling a bit down and at least I am starting to feel like the trip is losing it’s appeal. Maybe it’s the deadline that’s looming over us or maybe it’s the frigid and windy weather. I feel like going east to west might not have been the best move after all. It’s hard to say and I guess there’s no point in second guessing ourselves because we are here now and it’s time to move again.

With that in mind, I’ve decided that we would be better off booking a train from Shelby, MT to Spokane, WA and fast forwarding the trip by a bit. From Spokane, we can bike north again and meet up with the rest of the Adventure Cycling North Tier route right before it hits the Cascades. This will leave us all of the major climbs west of Glacier and hopefully still plenty of time to do them. Depending on when we get out, we’ll then have to decide whether or not we go to Seattle or Vancouver from there. Our end point on the Northern Tier is Anacortes, WA which is about halfway between the two. Maybe we’ll have to look at which flights are cheaper.

Needless to say, I’m really bummed that we have to do this. I so wanted to bike the entire country from coast to coast, especially the western side which I’m least familiar with. I guess we just didn’t bike fast enough or long enough each day. I’m not sure what the solution is to that for next time. Earlier starts and lighter bikes is probably the first start. We’ve gone through all of our bags and tried to cut them down to the bare essentials for this last leg now. We managed to cut out at least 5 pounds each with Marissa cutting much more than I was able to. I’ve got the computer and digital gear that weighs so much plus the cookware. She was carrying a lot of the personal items like suntan lotion, bug spray and a lot more clothes that are definitely not needed in the mountains. Hopefully this leaves the last 400 miles a bit more managable.

On the upside, at least this will leave me with a good reason to get back out here sooner than later. Plus, now I know that I can book an Amtrak train that could take me all the way from New York to Glacier and bike this last bit whenever I wish, haha. We would have had to skip Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier anyway so I suppose skipping it all together is not that much more of a sacrifice. Most of the terrain after Glacier was heading downhill too so maybe that was the easy part too. I am worried because I think a lot of the intermediary hills we are skipping would have been a good warm up for these big climbs ahead. This might be New York State all over again.

Posted in Andrew, On the road | 4 Responses »
Tags: , ,