July 8, 2019
Spokane Valley - Coeur d'Alene, WA
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I woke up several times during the night. Twice I heard fire engines. I didn't think too much about it. The hallway was noisy, but we are close to the office and people would be walking to breakfast. When we actually woke up, Jacinto plugged in the coffee percolator (his first action each morning). Nothing happened! Momentary panic . . . no power anywhere. Hmm, do you suppose those fire engines and people in the hallway meant anything serious? We will never know. Power came back on about 30 minutes later . . .
We've been down to breakfast. It is carb heaven, but not even a boiled egg to be found for protein. I supplemented oatmeal with pecans from the breakfast pannier.
Now it's time to go through the panniers one last time. For example, I have five pairs of gloves. That really isn’t necessary, is it? I have short fingered, white cotton gloves, slightly heavier winter gloves, heavy winter gloves, and waterproof over mitts. My hands are the first to get cold . . . can you tell?
I haven't heard from Jim and Genny. I presume they arrived and all is good. We won't see them until town tonight. The three of us are riding the bike path along the river to Coeur D'Alene. I've read glowing reports about the bike path. Jacinto scoffed at the easy ride and the low miles. He's worked out a 50 mile route with some climbing that satisfies his bicycling needs.
OK - it's time to get ruthless with the panniers. Maybe the white cotton gloves can stay. They must weight at least 1/2 ounce.
The weather was in the low 70's and a light tailwind all day. Perfect!
Afternoon update - I left behind the white gloves and a thin pair of socks. Perhaps one ounce in all? I kept the polartec tights and did not bring the white tights I wore all of the June tour. Those were my only pannier contents decisions. Jacinto discovered that he forgot his head cover that goes under his helmet. He repurposed the bandana that goes on his umbrella. Jacinto found an umbrella last tour that he implemented in pool noodle style to warn cars to give him space. He had a bandana hanging off. Now he has a towel that I was using to clean the chain.
I tried halfheartedly to talk Jacinto into escorting me to the trailhead. It was three miles and two streets away. Could I navigate that myself? In the end, I did. I made a wrong turn at the roundabout. My opinion of the first right is not the same as RWGPS's opinion. They really meant the second right. But I made it to the trail just fine. I even used the potty at the trailhead.
This looks very nice . . . . time to cruise. I should have taken a photo at the beginning of the trail. There were many tall ponderosa pines with pine cones all over the ground. That didn't last long and I neglected to take a photo. In two different places men pushed their bikes up to the bike path from the river just as I was passing by. They appeared to be homeless people. They didn't pay me a bit of attention one way or the other, but I was aware that I was riding alone. It seemed to me the area we stayed in wasn't the best part of town. I saw a number of cyclists who were of the 'I don't have a car' variety - which sounds prejudice - but they were scruffy enough to make me slightly uncomfortable. There were also a notable number of people smoking in corners and outside of buildings. I've never paid that much attention to smoking before, other than to wave the smoke away - I thought it interesting there were so many that I felt the need to comment.
Back to the bike path. There weren't many recreational cyclists, a few couples here and there. I saw a number of people walking. One family of four on bikes. The surface of this path is excellent. I could get used to this.
Bertha (my name for RWGPS) told me my next turn was in eight miles. It passed in a delight of time. Bertha kept me up to date with slight turns left and right. I navigated a few street crossings where the path started again down the block. Got it. Look at me go. Then she routed me onto a busy roadway, N. Greensferry Road. This is correct. I can see the line on the map. Ooookay . . . how strange there's this wonderful bike path with a section on a busy road. I needed to make a left up ahead across five lanes of traffic. At this exact instant, there was no traffic. I saw what appeared to be a local cyclist riding against the traffic. He must know the way to go. I'm guessing getting across all of these lanes takes luck. I darted across the road and tucked in right behind the local guy. All was good except for the car using the off ramp. He was looking left at oncoming traffic and not right for wrong way cyclists. Yea . . . this isn't my normal mode of operation. The cyclist stopped at the side street light. I could see the bike path in front of us. I told the cyclist that when he went, I would go, he obviously knew what he was doing. He asked wasn't I supposed to be across the street, or was I getting on the Centennial Bike Path - yes, the bike path. Off we went. He sprinted on ahead and that was the end of him. I was happy to be back on the path. It's odd to be dumped on such a busy road after miles and miles of path riding.
I saw two different spots the path was marked 6% and 8%. The 6% I never did figure out. The path didn't seem to go up or down either direction. The 8% was definitely down in my favor. Today was a short, easy riding day. Perfect for easing into the tour. I have four panniers this tour. All are lightly loaded, but I do have the weight of the second rack and set of panniers. I left behind my HydroFlask to help compensate. I don't think we are going to have any blistering temperatures this trip . . .
The bike felt a little heavy in general. Enough so that I thought I'd check my brakes weren't rubbing when I get to town. Maybe it's just so many days of sitting in the van with no exercise and plenty of eating! You'd think my legs would be fresh. Jacinto commented it was good we didn't have a 5,000 foot climbing day like the first day on the Utah trip. That is sure the truth.
I was concerned about navigation in general today, but especially getting to town. Bertha told me to go left and then an immediate right. Now I've been there, I know she wanted me to turn into an area that is temporarily closed because of construction. I didn't know that at the time, so I went up the only hill of the day. I stopped at the top and looked at the map. Darn. I coasted back down the hill and turned into a shopping center. Yes, this would get me where I need to go. Look - there's a burrito place. I will have lunch.
I ordered a bowl (which is burrito fixings in a bowl) and bought Jacinto a carnivore burrito to go. I asked the lady if I was correct that the Super 8 is just down the road to the left. Yes, that's correct, she lives next door. OK. I should be able to handle that. Exiting the parking lot was tricky. Traffic was heavy. I thought it was controlled by a light, but soon decided it wasn't, or there would be some relief from the traffic. A nice man in a white truck stopped so I could cross. There was no traffic coming the other direction. I pulled out. Just then the maroon truck behind the white one darted around. I don't know if the man didn't see me crossing or didn't care. Either way, I thought he was a little too close. That's twice today - far more cars in my personal space than I like. There's something to be said for easy navigation - not that I got long term lost today - but the day did have multiple routing instructions to follow. I like simple instructions - especially since I'm riding on my own.
I made it to the Super 8 and could check in early. Our room was way down the first hallway and then way down the second hallway. I looked for an exterior exit closer to the room. It said, "do not open from the outside". Darn - I wheeled my bike through the hallways to the room. It was a bit small and getting the bike in took some finessing. I cleaned the chain, got the electronics charging, showered, etc. I called Jacinto - where was he and did I really need to buy the drinks? Usually he and Oren go for a walk and buy the afternoon drinks. I have a V-8, they have beer or a soda. For some reason, Jacinto was very opinionated that I buy the drinks today. Even though I had bought him a burrito . . . the gas station was right across the busy five lane road. I've had enough five lane roads today . . .
I tried to hurry with the journal so I could get that done before I had to buy drinks. I was just checking Strava to see where Jacinto was and he's here! I haven't bought drinks . . . eeks. I passed Jacinto in the hallway on my way to the gas station. I got lucky and was able to dart across the road, purchase the drinks and dart back again. At least there were some breaks in this traffic. Just as I crossed the road, who was there but Jim and Genny. We chatted just a minute before they checked in.
Jacinto had a slow leak on his rear tire. He's eaten pistachios and finished his drink. Now he's outside hoping to find the cause of the flat. I believe I'll go lend moral support.
update - Jacinto found a long wire bent over, but still in the tire. It was a fast fix. Hours later, the tire still feels good.
After negotiations, we agreed to leave the motel at 5:45 to walk to Texas Roadhouse for a 6 PM dinner. It was excellent - I had the ribeye. Jacinto walked across the street to CostCo to return a pair of headphones with a poor battery life. After losing his headphones in Tuba City, he's now carrying a spare pair and will just use those the rest of the trip.
The AC in our room was blowing air, but not cold air. The desk clerk came and unplugged it and plugged it back in. She said by the time we got back from dinner, it should be cool. No, it wasn't. Jim, Genny, and I sat in the breakfast room and discussed tomorrow's route. Jim had carefully and in great detail followed a frontage road for much of the route. I hadn't noticed that, I thought we were on 95 the whole way. Which mentally was working for me, no routing pressure. We spent most of our time looking at the Yahk day and speculating on food. Genny made a couple of phone calls to see if places were really open.
Jacinto arrived just as we were wrapping things up. He quickly nixed the warm room. The clerk offered to switch us to a room with a new AC unit with a digital readout instead of the old unit with knobs. We would have been fine with the old unit, had it worked. It was a process, but we moved all of our stuff to the new room. Here we are. I've agreed to breakfast at 7:30 with Jim and Genny. We aren't in a hurry tomorrow, the weather looks wonderful and we have a short, flat riding day. I am just fine with having gentle miles at the beginning of a tour. Jacinto has added a hilly loop to the route. He will have an extra 15 miles.
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Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 28 miles (45 km)
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2 years ago
I also added a map to the 30 years of paradise journal, but I did remember to check the minor update box on that one.
2 years ago