We are just six days away from finishing.

I have been having technical difficulties uploading my recent blog posts…until tonight. Sorry for the lapse. All is well. Stay tuned for ceremonial wheel-dipping in the Pacific Ocean 8/4/18.

We went past the three thousand mile mark back in Jackson on July 7th. Today it’s nine days later and we’ve been chewing up the miles in Montana, riding 70 plus miles per day. Tom and Charlie pose under an elk-antler arch at the Jackson town square.

I rejoined the tour in West Yellowstone. My leg was hurting from driving a car and my back was hurting from sleeping in a bed. Guess I’ve become road adapted. Yellowstone and the Tetons are a wonderland though, and seeing the sights with Barbara was a special time.

Montana offers scenic highways over mountain passes and though lovely valleys. We have been on the path of the Lewis & Clark Expedition circa 1804. We also encountered a cattle drive on the highway.

Last night we arrived at the mosquito capital of the world located in the town of Wisdom at the bottom of the Big Hole Valley.

Baker City

Yesterday, July 25, was our first full day of riding in Oregon. Today is a rest day, our last one before finishing in Florence, Oregon.

There has been a long gap in this blog… The last entry was three states ago. I have draft posts from this time saved on my phone and will insert them later. (Can’t get them to upload…)

Meanwhile, tomorrow will be 82 miles and the first day of a nine-day ride to our finish. There will be a couple of guest riders joining us before the end. The new faces will be welcomed. We are somewhere around 3800 miles now.

We are all looking rather lean and weathered at this point. Yesterday we caught up to an ACA van-supported Transam group. They had comfortable lawn chairs…with cup holders!…set up in the shade for our arrival in the late afternoon. (And cold drinks to fill the cup-holders.) Simple pleasures but oh-so-welcome!

Lovely’s shot of me and this special point of interest…the closest outhouse to a state borderline anywhere in Oregon!

We blew through the 3000 mile mark at Jackson, Wyoming and marked the occasion with this photo featuring Charlie (seated) and Tom under one of the elk-antler arches that adorn the four corners of the town square.

We proceeded to blow right past the 3500 mile mark several days ago and now find ourselves in Idaho after several days pedaling the byways of Montana. In Montana we went to Missoula and enjoyed a BBQ at the headquarters for Adventure Cycling on a layover day. Adventure Cycling is the non-profit organization that organized the tour I’m on. Their mission is to inspire and empower people to travel by bicycle. So they create maps, organize rides, advocate for trails, bike paths, signage and cycle-friendly policies and laws.

They treated us kindly, directed us to the freezer stocked with assorted ice cream bars (I had two!) and took us out back for photos and bike weighing. My loaded steed weighed in at 81 pounds.

On the wall is the tandem bike used in 1974 to scout out the TransAm Route that was created for the BikeCentennial in 1976, the same route I am doing now. For the last several days we have been following the trail taken by the Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804. The west is so majestic and so grand, it’s no wonder that Americans created a huge mythology of the west.

Towns and services in the west are further apart so we are traveling daily distances often greater than 70 miles. And for long stretches there is little or no cell service. Thus, it’s been tough keeping current on this blog. And now…the end is in sight and we are all “smelling the barn” that is the coastal Oregon town of Florence where we will have a ceremonial front-wheel dip in the Pacific Ocean and a farewell dinner on August 4th.

Today we landed in Grangeville, Idaho, where one of us on the ride was born and raised! Our companion, Bob from Cincinatti, is having the group over to his parents’ house where they are preparing a dinner for us!

The breathtaking beauty of Wyoming has been a surprise as we have made our way to Jackson Hole for a rest day. We spent the Fourth of July in the bustling town of Lander where there was a parade, rodeo and fireworks. Our little band of touring cyclists was asked if we wanted to be IN the parade or just watch it. We watched. It was a great opportunity to see authentic celebration in the middle-American west and people watch.

The parade crowd was very diverse although the majority of the parade participants were people running for political office, most of them under the Republican “brand”. There was an LBGT float and I was given a rainbow sticker. Interestingly, the announcer omitted mention of this float, while announcing every other participant. Still the crowd all had to watch this exuberant float go by…and be reminded of their family and friends and loved ones who fit the description!

In the end the fire department sprayed water on everyone at the main intersection. I noodled over to the rodeo grounds to check out the preparations. The calves (not a happy bunch) and horses and bulls were all there. The show wasn’t scheduled to start till later when I could not attend so unfortunately I am still not able to proclaim “Hey, this isn’t my first rodeo!”

They do fireworks a little differently here in mid Wyoming; there is no central location or professional show. People all over town shoot off fireworks…big ones…until past midnight. We were camped on a bluff overlooking the whole town so we had a great view. Funny how annoying fireworks can get to be after a few hours!

After not enough sleep we left early in the morning in an attempt to avoid the fierce Wyoming winds. The riding to the Tetons included the most dramatic scenery of the entire trip: spectacular vistas, red-rock canyons, lakes and rivers, and the glory of the Teton range as it comes into our view. Yes, that 17 miles of coasting downhill at the continental divide was kind of enjoyable. At Jackson Hole, a visitor showed up. Barbara and I are spending five days together to be tourists in the Tetons and Yellowstone. I will rejoin the bike tour in West Yellowstone as we continue our trek to Florence, Oregon.

After the chi-chi cool hostel we stayed in for two days in Breckenridge, we are now in the wild west of Wyoming. Everything is spread out and the scale expands dramatically as we traverse the Great Basin and join the iconic “Oregon Trail”. An estimated half million people passed this way in the mid-1800’s in search of a better life in the west: Oregon, California, Utah. Wyoming greeted us with strong cold headwinds and by mid day eight of us were sheltered in a giant hay carport with rain spitting and horribly dark skies ahead. Marie was out on the road somewhere ahead, she’d left camp early. No cell service in the Wild West.

In the end, four decided to cycle the remaining twenty five miles, four “hired” the ranch manager to hitch up a horse trailer for the bikes and drive us to our destination, and Marie jumped onboard the shuttle when it caught up with her. I was in the shuttle of course.

The natural wonder of Wyoming comes as a surprise. It would be too expansive to see well by hiking, but cycling is just the right speed. The foothills that you see on the horizon become the hills you are riding in two hours later, and the beautiful river splayed out in the valley below becomes the river you’re riding next to after fifteen minutes of downhill. The town of Jeffrey City is the story of a uranium boom town that went bust after Three Mile Island and now is like a ghost town with this free Baptist Community Church Hostel where we stayed.

The winds have been strong and when they blow as a crosswind they are downright scary. We have all been blown right off the pavement…multiple times. It’s difficult to navigate within a five foot wide shoulder!