Before I start on today I wan to tell you about last night.
Ken C and I went out and met some of my very good friends from Trilogy who live
in Spokane. Seeing Mary Margret and Ken, and Wendy and Dan was terrific. We had a great time and had had a wonderful
meal.
Today was really interesting for a lot of reasons. We were staying in the Gonzaga dorm so we ate
breakfast in the cafeteria which was pretty interesting. Cafeteria food sure
has improved from my university days.
The ride started out with a huge hill out of the Spokane valley to the
surrounding plains. It was 10-12% and
about 4 miles long. Fortunately there were lots of side streets you could roll
in briefly catch your breath and the u-turn and continue up the hill. After we left town we rode through a lot of
rolling hills which had beautiful green crops growing in them. This continued to the 40 mile mark where we
turned off the main highway and rode down a side road which had huge
rollers. It was a lot of fun charging
down one side and then grinding up the opposite side. Finally we came to the
end of the road which had a steep down hill to the lake. The corners were so sharp you had to slow to
15 mph. I am riding my brakes and thinking I should stop and check the rim to
see if I am over heating it when BANG I have a blow out. I change the tube and put a boot in the tire.
When I get to the bottom of the hill the support vehicle is there so I grabbed
my spare tire which I had left on the van and put on the new tire.
The second part of the ride was along this rails to trails
route. You cross Lake Coeur d’Alene on
an old railroad bridge which is half mile long.
Then ride 54 miles down the old rail bed along the lake shore. It was so beautiful. Wonderfully smooth pavement with no
cars. Picnic was Mediterranean themed
with lots of really interesting dishes. It was set in this beautiful view point
which looked over the lake. The sun was
out and it was so hard to leave.
I left with Jos and were on the look out for moose. Jos had seen every other kind of wildlife on
the Rockies trip but no moose were to be seen.
We rolled along making good time in the beautiful warm sun. Then I get a second flat. It turned out to be a slow leak in a
malformed tube. Jos and I came across this turtle who had
wandered out on to the trail. He was about 8 inches across so a big fellow. He
looked baked in the sun so we stopped and put him back in the lake. By the time we got to the 80 mile mark I was
feeling pretty flat so Jos pulled for about 5 miles and it gave me a break and I was able to take a turn. It was a pretty long day at 93 miles but this
rates as one of the nicest rides on the whole tour.
Terry
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