We reached Rogers Pass at over 5,000 ft elevation after riding 18 miles. I must be getting stronger because I only walked and pushed my bike the last mile. The ride down the other side was exciting. I am getting a bit braver because I got the bike up over 30 miles an hour. We assumed this was the hardest part of the day, boy were we wrong.

Well, yesterday is officially the hardest day on the trip and possibly in my life! We biked 94 miles and the first 60 were hills, big hills. We were on the road daylight to dark for 13 hours. We rode up to the office at the KOA campground in Great Falls, Montana and I promptly fell over on my bike with spectators all around greatly concerned with this old guy laying on the ground with his bike on top of him. I usually unlock my right foot from the pedal of the bike, brake, lean the bike to the right slightly, put my right foot down, and then unlock my left foot, but I was so tired I forgot to lean the bike to the right and it went left and over I went. Very embarrassing!

We had 7 miles of construction as well with wet muddy roads that got mud all over everything. It was impossible to ride in the gunk so we pushed our bikes through most of it.

i was so tired last night that I set up my tent and went to sleep and forgot to do my Bible reading. That is the first day I have missed in over 500 days!

today is a rest day! This is a nice campground with a nice hot tub, showers, and I plan on making good use of them as well as sleep a bunch.

we have bicycled 920 miles and are pretty close to 1/4 the distance of the trip. I am so thankful that most of the mountains, passes, hills are behind us!

Rode 49 miles today, all uphill with an occasional short downhill to reward us. Much cooler today than yesterday which was a great blessing. We had planned on camping at an RV park in Lincoln, Montana but as we were riding into town a billboard caught our eye that said ” Ponderosa Motel” $50. We decided to spit the $50 and sleep on a real bed the night before our hardest ride.

tomorrow we are headed for Great Falls, Montana and it is 92 miles and we cross Rogers Pass at 5,700 feet.  All the locals we talk to say it is as hard as Lolo Pass was and the day we did that we bicycled 61 miles, sooooo tomorrow will become the new “hardest day of the trip” and could remain champion for the entire trip. I am dreading it. I am thinking I might die!

There are two things that make it bearable. The first is, mountains will be over!  Flat, flat, flat at least compared to what we have been doing since we started this trip. The second is the next day is our scheduled rest day which we will spend at a KOA camp ground that has a swimming pool. I plan on sleeping a lot.

Today while we were riding a horse fly that had been circling me for miles bit me on the arm. I don’t know if you have ever had one of those rascals bite you but it HURT! I swerved all over as I attempted to kill him, and stopped quick before I wrecked, and just as I got stopped he got me again on the leg, but I smacked him, and then stomped on him several times.

I am getting into shape more each day and the pain in my butt has been reduced to an ache that is bearable as we stop and rest for a minute about every 5 miles, drink some water, eat a little trail mix, and take a picture. Love you all. Dee

I thought yesterday was the hardest day of my life, but I think today was. On the road almost 12 hours with temperatures in the upper 90’s from noon on. We bicycled 70 miles with all afternoon being uphill.

We rode most of the day along the Blackfoot River and it was very beautiful though it was hard to really appreciate it with sweat in my eyes!

We are camped about 30 miles East of Misoulla at the Lubrecht Experimental Forest headquarters. They have a bunch of little cabins for forestry workers and some are empty so they let us slep in one. The bath house is very close and the showers have so much pressure it can blow the dirt off. So nice to stand for 20 minutes in a nice cold shower. Made me feel like I wNt to live again!

Tomorrow should be an easy day. Going only 45 miles. Should be done and in camp before it gets to hot. That will be oh so nice!!

We saw a wolf along the road this morning. Big and black. I was going to take his picture but John pulled out his high frequency horn designed to scare away dogs and started blaring away. He was protecting me from getting eaten by the wolf. The thing worked, off he went, but no picture 😦

Love you all. Dee

Today was the hardest day of the trip by far. It was sorta like climbing Mt Adams on a bicycle. We road 61 miles and the first 53 miles was all very steep uphill. I pushed my bike the last 5 miles to the summit with 6+ % grade. Several concerned people stopped and asked if I wanted a ride to the top, but I told them I needed to do it otherwise my boys would call me a wimp. 🙂 I will sleep really well tonight I am sure.

We entered into Montana when we went over Lolo Summit, and tomorrow will go through Missoula and head towards Great Falls. Tomorrow we bike 75 miles but will be relatively flat with no mountains to climb. That will be so nice. In a couple of days the mountains will be behind us, and hopefully we will have the wind at our backs instead of a head wind.

The new seat that I got is working great. Still some soreness, but not near as bad. A fellow in our church Mike Burner sent me some great ointment as well that was miraculous in taking away the pain after I got off the bike. I am feeling super tired tonight but confident that I will get stronger everyday, and finish the trip successfully.

I am enjoying my evenings reading and studying and working on my new sermon series on the Gospel of John that I will start in October. I usually lay in my tent with it all zipped up to keep out the mosquitoes laying on my very comfortable air mattress and air pillow. They squeeze down in the morning to just a couple of pounds and very small package that works super for a trip like this. I have several hundred books downloaded onto my iPad and have a wonderful time reading and writing.

The riding conditions have been mixed. Sometimes there is a nice wide shoulder, and sometimes there is none. Drivers have been good about slowing down and going around us, and many wave and yell encouragement. They are probably bikers. We had one close call with someone in a Motorhome missing us by a couple of inches as they passed us. That was on the second day going up to Hoodoo. We have seen a lot of other bicyclers doing the same route that we are. They have all been young!

Mary Ann heads home in the morning so it will be just John and I from this point on. It has been nice for the last week having Mary Ann carry our stuff in the car. In the morning all 60 pounds goes back on the bike.

Occasionally like yesterday when I don’t blog it will because there is no cell service or wifi where we are camping.

Love ya all. Dee

As I continue to deal with my very, very, very sore bottom I have acquired a new bicycle riding skill. I shift my body to the point that I am only sitting on one side of my butt at a time. When it gets sore I shift to the other side. I would suspect that I look kind of funny to someone looking at me ride by. I bought another bicycle seat and my sister-in-law Kathy brought it to me today when she picked up Cliff. This will be the third seat I have tried. This is the seat that John is using and he has had very little problem with a sore rear end. I got it put on this afternoon and I will give it a go tomorrow.

We road 75 miles today and it was a gorgeous ride as we went along the Salmon river and then the Clearwater River. It was even somewhat comfortable as the temperature was in the 80’s instead of the 90’s.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to ride only 50 miles, but it will all be slightly uphill as we ride along the Lochsa River going upriver the entire day.  It will be another very beautiful ride, and we will camp at the “Wilderness Gateway Campground” which is right on the Lochsa River.

One of the keys to growing rapidly in character is to learn how to manage pain, trials, disappointments, hurts and offenses so that you don’t let it affect your mood, behavior or attitude. This trip is offering lots of opportunities to grow in that there is almost constant pain in my butt, muscles, and feet, as well as the daily dealing with problems as we ride and camp. The main way I have been dealing with it is to focus on the good things as much as possible.  Every time there is even a slight downhill where I can stand on my pedals and not sit I yell very loudly, “thank you Jesus”, that feels so gooood! I thank Him for His creation all through the day, and I thank Him over and over again for the privilege of taking such a trip that many only dream about. The butt still hurts, but the pain doesn’t ruin my day because of the mental discipline of rejoicing instead of grumbling. Hopefully I will get better and better at this skill until it becomes an ingrained habit. Love ya all. Dee

Went 83 miles today from Cambridge, Idaho to Riggins, Idaho. Riggins is right next to the famous Salmon River. Lots of fishing and whitewater rafting taking place here. 40 miles uphill to start the day climbing 2,500 ft and then 40 miles down hill. Very beautiful ride today as we followed the Salmon River down to Riggins.

John and Cliff go as fast as possible when we have a downhill and have gone as fast as 40 mph on this trip. But I, on the other hand get very nervous on a little bicycle with skinny little tires going that fast so I brake when my bicycle hits 20 mph so I fall way behind when we are going downhill (though I fall way behind when we go uphill as well 🙂 It is a good thing that I have disk brakes on my bicycle or I would probably burn them up.

There is an organization that I joined a year ago in anticipation of this trip called “Warm Showers”. Funny name, but a great organization. When I joined I agreed to let touring bicycle riders camp in our yard and to take a shower if they like. I then can do the same with others who are in the organization. There are about 27,000 members in the U.S. and I was able to download an app for my iPad as a member that shows all the other members. We stayed at a Warm Showers host last night, and it was a wonderful time. They fixed dinner for us including root beer floats, and then we visited about bicycling, hunting, fishing etc. they had beds for us, and WiFi to boot. We will be staying in quite a lot of W.S. hosts on the trip.

Cliff is getting picked up by his wife tomorrow so it will be just John and I riding, and John’s wife, Mary Ann will be heading back home in a couple of days as well. In about 3 more days we will be on the East side of the Rockies and no more hills. Hill climbing really drains my gas tank big time so I will be really glad for the flat riding. Love ya all

With my balance problem I do wobble a fair amount on my bicycle. If I go to slow I wobble, but I fix that problem by walking if the hill gets to steep. I also wobble when I look in my mirror that is fastened to my glasses, because I look up and to the left and I tend to turn where I look and then I correct and then begins the wobble as I go through a series of correcting and over correcting. I eventually get it straightened out, but occasionally I get a car honking at me fearful that he is going to run over me.  I don’t look in my mirror much.  I also go into a wobbling fit when I slap at a bug that lands on me. It is very hard to ignore those critters because I know they are going to bite me, and that is going to itch.  But the worst wobbling episode will usually happen as I stand up on my pedals to take pressure off my rear end for a few moments. It feels so gooood, but I lose my balance easily when I do that and then back and forth and hopefully not to far out into traffic.  I am getting better as we pile on the miles, but I have a written goal to save my pennies and buy a recumbent bicycle that has two wheels in the back. The back two tires are not much further apart than my shoulders so it is no wider than a regular bike.  I have been researching them and have my eye on one that is particularly made for touring. Love ya all.