Seeing small town America from the bicycle seat ___________________________
Yesterday in leaving Saratoga for the 68 mile ride to Walden, I was debating on stopping for breakfast at a restaurant or just quickly stopping by a convenience store. I decided on a restaurant. The first one I went to had a sign that said “Sorry, closed today due to illness.” The second one, Ma’s Kitchen, was closed too, but I think permanently as it looked like Ma had been away from the place for years. [Read more…]
Back in 1985 when I rode from Washington to Maine with a group of eleven, three of us took a side trip into Minneapolis for a few days. We took the most direct route, which meant riding into the city illegally on the interstate highway. I’m not sure how we weren’t pulled over. Probably because there were no cell phones back then where drivers could alert the authorities. [Read more…]
So far I’ve ridden 1,615 miles since leaving the Pacific on August 4th, with 29 riding days and five rest days. That’s an average of 55.6 miles a day for the days I’m on the bike and 47.5 miles a day for all days, including the rest days.
On Monday morning I woke up around 5:30 in the tent on the picnic table in Jeffrey City. The ride the day before was a strange one with trying to keep ahead of the storms, and two out of the three times I did. [Read more…]
I knew that Sunday the 4th (which began the second month of the trip) would offer a chance of rain, but I didn’t know at the time to what extent it would affect the day’s ride and also cause some excitement. [Read more…]
(Finally able to post this after no internet yesterday or this morning)
On some days it takes forever to get going, and it can get frustrating. Yesterday morning (Saturday) I was all set to check out of the Wind River Motel and reached for my cycling gloves which I had set on the bed just minutes earlier. But there was only one glove. [Read more…]
The evening I wrote the last post it started raining heavily for about twenty minutes (after Tom the park employee told me “it doesn’t rain around here”). It also rained a bit overnight, so the tent was very muddy on the bottom and wet, which doesn’t make packing up fun. [Read more…]
Yesterday (Wednesday) I set out from Grant Village in Yellowstone National Park and headed to Colter Bay Village in Grand Teton National Park. As I mentioned in the previous post it was good news as the southern entrance to Yellowstone was reopened after forest fires caused it to be closed for several days. [Read more…]
(Catching up from the days without internet)
I was up at 5:45 on Monday morning at the glamorous Wagon Wheel campground after a restless night’s sleep and with the temperature in the low forties. I wanted to be on the road early to get past the gate of Yellowstone National Park’s entrance and before traffic through the park picked up. [Read more…]