Well that was an interesting night for sure! I slept in the shack "out back." On my way to the shack to go to bed, I saw a large feral cat. That sprang my imagination into high speed. Hmm I wonder why it ran under the shack? Will birds and snakes crawl into my shack? Oh bother! When I finally went to sleep, I slept well. No creatures visited in the night. Monday morning. Up bright and early! Lauran gave me a gentle reminder to wake up. As she had already perked a pot of coffee, I was eager to get up and get going. We all bustled about the place packing and preparing for today's climb; almost identical to yesterday's trajectory. Today we hoped to get started an hour earlier to avoid the predicted high heat. We might make all 58 miles if we planned it right. Donning some very strange looking duck billed visors, we set off into the rising sun. What a fantastic morning. Flying up over hills and down the other side on Hells Canyon Rd. I got a great view of an Elk standin...
The moment I opened my eyes this morning I sensed that something was different. I felt different. I felt unsettled. I felt emotional, deeply emotional. The problem was I couldn't discern what emotion I was feeling. Was it sadness? Or relief? Anxiety? Or joy? A sense of completion? Or a sense of loss?? All of these were true and yet none of them described how I was feeling. Then it hit me. This was the last day of our epic adventure; 67 days, 2,900 miles, 14 states, 4 continental divides, 12 mountain passes, hundreds of hills, and untold thousands of pedal cranks were all coming to an end today, in Washington DC. I went down to breakfast at our last AirBnB to hear that everyone felt the same way. Fortunately, we did not have the time to sit and ponder the world and our existential reality. Rain was moving in later that day and we needed to get a move on to avoid getting soaked. First order of business was to change riding plans (several times!). We were still over...
Some things in life are hard to explain. Sue and David Bladek, Betsy and I have been taking bike trips together for over 10 years and we have never been rained on. On many occasions we have arrived into our motel or a planned lunch spot under a pavilion only to have the sky open up moments later, but never on us. We are the Rain Dodgers! This epic adventure was unfortunately made without Dave. (and then we were three). But the magic held. All through the west and the mid west we had no rain on planned ride days. Sadly Sue had to leave us in St Louis. (and then we were two). But Betsy and I were able to carry the magic through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. This morning we awoke to cloudy skies in Dawson Pennsylvania and the threat of thundershowers .Betsy had to sag, so would not be riding today (and then we were one). But Lisa and I set out undaunted on the GAP trail because I was there to keep the rain at bay. Well, clearly one rain dodger is not enough because 3 ...
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