We Perch at Missoula, Montana for a while: Training the next generation of Crazyguys

April 25, 2012

We did somehow drag ourselves out of the comfy bed and set off on this new adventure.

We leave our Island once more in search of adventure

We are pretty excited about the planned bus and train crossing to Montreal and the perennial fun of playing with Avi and Violet in Montana and Amelia in Montreal. However we covered most of that type of thing extensively in last year's blog, so it would be nutty to document it day by day for the next almost month. Instead, we will put up some sporadic reports, and not call it Day 1 of the actual blog until maybe we step onto the plane to London.

But for today's sporadic report, we note that we headed to Vancouver and met up with Conan, Avi and Violet's Dad, at our old haunt - Commercial Drive. Now for those who don't know, Commercial Drive features block after block of coffee houses, bakeries, and international restaurants. We have been thinking about our tag line "Powered by Pastries", and are having second thoughts. We don't think we can argue that all that much Pastry Power is needed for the route we have chosen for the bike ride. Looking down at our expanding girths, we are thinking maybe we should stay out of bakeries and restaurants. Maybe we should be Pedalling on Parsnips of Blasting Through on Broccoli.

With these second thoughts on the "burner", what did I do when I hit Commercial Drive? I started by observing that in our whole trip last year we never found a naan as good as at Tandouri Palace. So we better take our last chance for one of the world's best naan. Naan, or course, is nothing without Butter Chicken and a selection of other curries. Eating a whole pile of curries and naan without an Italian pastry to finish off would be just sacrilege. So the summary for how we handled our first exposure to terrific food available on the trip? Yum!

We stumbled to our van, and Dodie very patiently allowed an expedition to Main Street to search up the latest dumb electrical connection that I think will help in keeping the cell phone charged from the dynamo. Marius had recommended a little shop that supposedly has everything, but warned that the proprietor is apparently quite crabby. We walked in to the "wrong" shop, just a few doors down, and encountered not a crabby guy but an absolute sweetie pie. He supplied some parts that could help, and I will take a soldering iron to them shortly.

At Lee's Electronic Components 4522 Main St. Vancouver, friendly insightful service.

We wended our way though Vancouver traffic and eventually escaped over the border and onto I-90. After a night in the luxury accommodation of our van at a rest stop, we fetched up at the door of the wonderful Johansens, who had put us up in Mullan, Idaho last year. We sadly just missed them, left a note, and headed over Lookout Pass and down into Montana.

Lookout Pass had featured whiteout conditions for us last May, and the Johansens had ferried us over it. This time, though a month earlier in the season, it would have been a piece of cake!

Though there is snow at Lookout Pass, it is warm and pleasant

Last year, this bit (one month later into Spring) was hell.

Once in Missoula, we unloaded the two new bikes we had brought for Avi and Violet. They are now pretty much drowning in Grampies supplies bikes. We are not done, though! Two WeeHoo recumbent tandem type setups await pickup at REI! Laurie is beginning to wonder how to put a lid on us, as she struggles to get her garage door to close on all this stuff.

Do you think the Grampies have stocked Avi and Violet with enough bikes?

Like the Grampies, Avi is prone to collapsing roadside.

Avi was very impressed that one pedal of his new bike was designated "L" and the other "R". He quickly realized that this could be used to decode in what direction he was turning as we spun around the block with the new bike. If you got off and rotated the pedal to see the letter, you could unfailingly track your turns. Cool. Who needs mapmyride.com?

So here we are sort of a day or two into the trip, and not from biking but from chasing Avi and Violet in their new machines, we are beat. We will recuperate for a week or two (hah!), and check back in.

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