July 12, 2024
To New Meadows, ID
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I was awake before the alarm this morning. Jacinto had slept on the couch, close to the AC. He moved to the bedroom when I got up, and then shortly got up himself, saying he could tell he wasn't going back to sleep. He made coffee straight away and was awake enough to borrow my pump with a gauge to inflate his slowly leaky tire. It had gone down to 30 PSI over the day off.
This morning I had instant oatmeal to eat instead of granola. Yum? I do miss my typical smoothie at home, along with my own bed and pillow. I think a seven week trip is too long for me.This has been a good trip, with not too much adversity. But sometimes there's a tipping point where the trip isn't about exploring new roads and instead it's about finishing the planned route. This is a shame, as it's a beautiful area of the country. There hasn't been much traffic recently, and the pavement has been smooth. We've mostly had a good shoulder. All are positives, and I'm trying really hard to not count the miles down to the end of the trip, and to enjoy the week we have left. I remember when we first started touring and a week long ride was the entire trip!
I was out the door shortly after 7 AM. The sun hadn't made it over the mountain, and it was cloudy and cool. The logging trucks were empty as they passed on our side of the road. There wasn't much traffic. I thought that might be because I was earlier, but Jacinto said he didn't have much traffic either.
We had a gentle upward grade for the first 23 miles. I was averaging 6-8 mph for all of that time. I didn't feel I was working hard, and I only stopped a couple of times, but I wasn't going too fast either! Jacinto said that was the easiest 2,000 feet of climbing he's ever done. I agree.
Six miles out of New Meadows, traffic was stopped for more road construction. It was fresh pavement on the opposite side of the road, which is where traffic was going, one lane at the time. I waited perhaps five minutes. This time I was instructed to go after the cars, and to stay out of the way of the trucks. The road was level at this point, I didn't feel I was too slow. I reached a point where I could see the line of cars waiting to go next. Both sides of the road had been paved. I scooted back to my side of the road. There was a construction woman putting down orange center stripe lines. She wasn't happy with me, and pointed at me to go back to the wrong side. In the meanwhile, traffic was now coming towards me. Where exactly on the wrong side was I supposed to go? I rode maybe 30 feet more, past where she was putting her stripes, then she yelled at me I could stay over. That made no sense to me. I sure wasn't in her way, and I didn't want to face moving traffic head on.Heck. Now I was through the construction zone, and almost to town. Life was good. Except I could hear lots of little tick, tick noises as small pebbles that were stuck to the tires hit the fenders. I stopped and used my bicycle glove to wipe off the tires. That maybe wasn't my best choice. Then my glove was all gross.
I was only a couple of miles from town. My plan was to go to Subway, and then backtrack to the motel. I had called last night and spoken with Doug about getting into the room early.
The intersection of 95 and 55 was a four way stop that was crazy busy. There were perhaps ten vehicles on each side, waiting their turn. Where did all of these vehicles come from? The road hadn't seemed that busy. Especially after the road construction, which was holding vehicles into clumps.
I went in Subway. There was an older couple ahead of me. The man was mourning that his favorite sandwich, the monster, had been discontinued. He went on and on about how great it was, he always stopped here and ordered it when they were on their way to Moscow, etc. Then one of the workers asked if it could be the beast that he wanted, not the monster. Yes! That was it. Now he was very happy.
When I finished eating, I went outside and looked at my tires again. This time I used my chain cleaning rag to wipe the tires off. I got the chunks, but there was still some clumpy oil I couldn't get off that I hope wears off quickly and doesn't cause a problem, attracting pokey things to my tires.
The two motels in town are right across from each other. The other motel looks like our usual type, an older L shape motel with the rooms opening to the parking. This was one of the last reservations I made. I just couldn't decide where to stay. The Heartland was twice the price, was it twice as nice? Now that I'm here, it looks fairly similar from the street. When I arrived, the sign on the door said to call to check in. I called. The woman answering said check in wasn't until 3 PM. I let her know that Doug had said noon would be ok. It was. Calling in advance is worth the effort. I'd sure like to see what the rooms at the other motel look like. It's not that this is a bad room, it's just that I know it's twice the price and somehow I don't think it's twice as nice. But, we do have a king size bed and that's a rarity this trip.
I hadn't been in a half hour before Jacinto arrived. His front tire was totally coated with a heavy layer of oil and pebbles. His rear tire had nothing. Jacinto's opinion is that the rear tire is bald, so nothing sticks to it. I'm not sure about that. My Gatorskins don't have much tread in general, and I cleaned my tires twice.
Jacinto took a three mile side trip on Old Pollack Road that he liked. He had a man in a pick up truck turn around and offer him a ride. Jacinto speculates that the reason he gets offered a ride is that he likes to pedal standing up, and people think because he's standing up to pedal, he's struggling. Jacinto observed wryly that today he had an unsolicited offer for a ride, and the day he broke his crank, none of those pick up trucks stopped!
Now we are deciding about dinner. The choices are BBQ or pizza. I told Jacinto he could choose. Tomorrow we have a honking climb up the pass before McCall, then a cruise into Cascade. Jacinto has looked for some back roads. RWPGS shows them to be dirt. Komoot says they are paved. I tried to zoom in with satellite and can't quite tell. I don't like it when that happens. Highway 55 looks like it doesn't have as nice of a shoulder as 95. If that's correct, we might really want some back roads.
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Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 1,399 miles (2,251 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 11 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 3 |
"I think a seven week trip is too long for me.This has been a good trip, with not too much adversity. But sometimes there's a tipping point where the trip isn't about exploring new roads and instead it's about finishing the planned route. This is a shame, as it's a beautiful area of the country."
I reach that point about at three or three and a half weeks. I agree about it being a shame when you mentally switch from "sit back, relax, smell the roses, enjoy the ride" to "Only X more miles top go. Only X-1 miles to go. Only X - 2 miles to go..."
1 month ago
I was telling Jacinto just now - imagine - we will be home soon and not living out of panniers. He was just digging around, looking for salt/pepper packets that 'have been traveling with me this entire trip'. He found them. I kind of like living small. I don't mind rotating the same two shirts day after day. I spoke with a woman once who did a month long trip and she said when they got home that she literally burned her clothing (they lived in the country and had a burn barrel). I asked if she couldn't just wash those clothes and put them in the drawer for later. No! She never wanted to see them again!
1 month ago