New friends and relatives

June 13, 2021

We got up early to ride, even though we were planning a shorter day today. We left the campground at 8 am and we immediately achieved two milestones. Within the first mile we left Washington state and entered Idaho. We will be in Idaho for only a day or so. Within the first 2 miles, we pulled into McDonalds for the first time this trip. After a stupendous breakfast at McDonalds we started our serious riding. The weather today was superb, sunny skies and warm temperatures. We spent the entire day following the Pend Oreille river. We were mostly on a small road that had a medium amount of traffic. After 25 miles we came up to hwy 95, which was very busy. We rode the shoulder for 5 miles, which was safe but very noisy. Then we got onto a bike trail for the last 7 miles into Sandpoint.

At about 1 pm, we arrived at our hotel for the night. There we were met by our niece Ann, her husband Mark and son Louis. They drove up from Walla Walla, Washington and brought an awesome lunch for us. After we changed into some comfortable clothes, we went and had a great visit and lunch at a small park next to our hotel. Mark has been corresponding with us since the start of the trip. In 1993, he rode the same route as us from Seattle to Glacier Park and Mark has been sending us pictures from his ride. We discussed our trip and compared it to Mark’s experiences back almost 30 years ago. Thank you Ann, Mark and Louis for driving all that way and for providing lunch and the great visit!!!

After Ann and family left for home, we had some chores to do. We cleaned up and then did laundry. Ross got a chance to do a little hot tubing. After chores we grabbed a glass of wine at a winery near by and then went off to dinner. We had an offer to have dinner with Woody and his wife Marnie. We first met Woody at the top of Wauconda Pass and then we had dinner with him in Republic. Woody’s trip ended a couple of days ago in Sandpoint which is where he lives. We had a great dinner with Woody and Marnie, with some stimulating discussion. Thanks Woody and Marnie and we hope to see you in the future.

Tomorrow morning we have breakfast plans. We are going to have breakfast with Rachel and Patrick. We have been communicating with them since before the trip started and we are finally able to meet them tomorrow morning. Looking forward to it!

Tomorrow is another short day, just over 20 miles. We decided to have 2 shorter days rather than a break day and a longer day. Our destination for tomorrow is Hope, Idaho, where we hope to camp in a national forest campground.

Just south of Sandpoint there is a long bridge. They have half the bridge reserved for walking/biking.

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 536 miles (863 km)

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