July 24, 2017
Day 21 Salem to Edelweiss Lane, near the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge: A Day of Ups and Downs (literally and figuratively)
We woke up late again and by the time we had breakfasted, put all the gear together (and then taken it apart so I could find my riding glasses),
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it was 10:00 before we left the nice, cool air conditioned Grand Hotel. It was reallly grand staying there and we enjoyed every minute!
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Heading out, the plan today was to stop in at the town of Independence and eat lunch there, then head towards the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. There was a winery near there I wanted to check out, and our Warmshowers hosts for this night, Anne and Ben lived a short distance away. We managed to get out of Salem with little difficulty and found ourselves on a lovely, mostly shaded winding road with an adequate (for the most part) shoulder to ride on. We were about 5 miles from Independence when I heard a really loud noise on my bike and pulled over. We saw that the stays holding my fender had come undone,
but while looking at that, we heard a whoosh of air. Oh no! I had a flat! And on a part of the road where there was really no nice shoulder. Off came all the gear so Jim could fix the stays. He thought that perhaps we could just pump up my tire and hopefully we could get into Independence and have a better look at it.
Tire pumped up, I hopped back on and went literally 10 feet and it was flat again. At least we were at a flat driveway now. We pulled everything off the bike again (including the Canadian flag) and turned the bike over to start the repair. Jim quickly got the tire off the bike and removed it from the rim. When he pulled the inner tube off, he found a 2" nail sticking right through my tire!
I guess even Shwalbe Marathon Plus tires can't beat that! The whole process cost us about an hour, and it was getting hot out. We continued down the road, with many ups and downs, and finally arrived at Independence.
As we were getting our lunch out, we were approached by Shiloh and Ruthie, who were avid cyclists themselves and had some some serious touring across the states. We were interested to hear about their travels and also any route advice they had for us.
As I talked to Shiloh and Ruthie, who should pull up, but our buddies Gerald and Roxie! They were staying at the campground in Independence and seemed to be really enjoying it there. Everyone said goodbye and Jim and I enjoyed our leftover dinner before packing back up and heading off to find a winery.
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At this point, the afternoon was really getting very very warm. The road ahead had some ups and downs, which normally would not bother me, but in the extreme heat of this day, was starting to beat me down badly. We found Ankeny Winery and stopped quickly to purchase a bottle of wine for our hosts but sadly it was so very hot we only had water to drink as we sat on their deck trying to cool off.
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We took frequent breaks, drank lots and lots of water, and finally, finally made it to our Warmshowers' hosts' home - such a relief! This is where Warmshowers is just the best organization! Anne knew how we were feeling and immediately showed us our room and a place where we could shower and clean up.
Feeling so much better, we sat and had a lovely visit with Anne, who is a nurse at the hospital in Salem. Her husband, Ben, is working very long hours at the moment farming and we look forward to getting to know him later this evening.
Feeling so much better, we both worked on the journal and are looking forward to a lovely dinner with our hosts. We will get to bed early tonight as we plan to be up and out early early in the morning to avoid today's pitfalls. Wish us luck!
Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 745 km (463 miles)
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