Saturday, October 23, 2010
October 23: What do we do upon standing at the gates of a temporary paradise? I know that I'm breaking sequential order in the sequence but I must ask each other what do we remain to virtue when we have held sacred had proven...unreliable, all to easily giving up when anything gets a little tough. cowards!!! Stand and fight you red simperings.
Friday, October 15, 2010
October 8: Got up and dressed, gathering my wet items in a plastic bag as I packed. Talked a bit to Ken who then left for work. I mounted up, and took off again down highway 2. I was a bit slow in my going, my knee tight from the moisture still in the air. I reached the outskirts of Spokane and proceeded to wander hoping my natural direction sense would get me there. Highway 2 became Division Street and posted no biking notices, so I had to turn off. I had some really bad Mexican and after about ten miles of wandering found myself at my Warm Shower host's, Mary, house. Still at work her housemates let me in and told me Mary would be home soon and would be making dinner. laundry, shower, the usual right into port. Things I'm so accustomed to doing right away it's rote. Being clean is still my biggest guilty pleasure on the road. after, I walked to the supermarket to get hair gel. Mary came home and we had a big breakfast as dinner meal of eggs, potatoes fresh bread and some wine. We talked a little Mary, myself, her housemate Tessa and Tessa's fourteen year old son, Michael. Gathering my clean cloths following dinner, I retired to my room for an early Friday night. To bed and warm relaxing sleep.
October 7: It's dark. It's wet. I've been biking for miles in the night and the rain and I still have 19 miles before Spokane. The shoulder's wide bulky the weather is miserable. I stop in the town before Spokane, Riverside only to find no lodging just a grocery. Things seem bleak but just as I find the needles of despair poking against my side, in comes a gentleman, named Ken, who after conversating about my trip offers me a spot in an RV he uses for storage on his property. My one question is if it's dry and I'm sold. I go to gather food for dinner while he smiles a stoge and waits to give me directions. when I come to the counter the clerk girl Lindsay brings me a bunch of extra food insisting I take it for my trip. I tell her I'm a veggie but I will take the macaroni salad. She smiles heats up and wraps the pizza I bought and gives me a card insisting I send her and the girls a postcard when I get where in going. Ken gives me the directions saying he'll come back and find me if I get lost, which I did and he did. We hang out and talk for a bit on his porch and I meet his wife, then into the trailer I got stripping and hanging my wet layers before cold and damp can seep into my bones. another day that providence has blessed me with fair fortune and I fall asleep dry, warm and thankful.
October 7: I woke up to the proper Pacific Northwest welcoming: Rain! I tried to wait it out a little, sending pictures and writing notes. Norm went to the computer lab to complete his homework for class. Finally with the rain continuing, I packed up and headed over to the vegetarian cafe and tea house in town called Common Knowledge to spoil myself on some long awaited goodies. The food was great although it took a whole, the clock ticking away the hours of the day. Great vegan cookies!! I was about to leave when a patron, Clark struck up a conversation and bought me tea. We chatted for an hour before I said I had to leave. The conversation was great and among other things I found out that I was lucky in where I was in Idaho as the rest if the state was not so hip. To have all the time in the world, but with the time at two thirty and seventy miles still to go, I began pedaling in the steady drizzle.
October 6: A scary way into town. I found myself biking in the darkness for Sandpoint, little shoulder to ride and heavy traffic in the darkness. To make matters worse I still have no music and no reply from anyone from couch surfer besides a guy named Joel, who's in California but gave me some spots to look for people to put me up. Fifteen miles down and I get to civilization but I'm actually in the strip mall suburb of Sandpoint not the city itself. I grab a bite, talk to Joel who gives me directions and points out a great pub where I might find someone named Eikhardt's. I finally get there and order a sampler of local brews. Some very tasty local one at that. Although distant at first the bartender Bob starts to warm up to me as we along with this patron named Norm get to talking. Norm lives outside of town but is housesitting his friends place just down the street. he offers me some floor space and I take it as I order us a round of beers. We stayed for another hour talking and sipping our beers, Bob, Norm, and two bikers named Chris and Dave who are driving through all offering route suggestions and topography hints. We leave and walk back to the apartment, Norm helping me carry my bike up the landing as it begins to rain. We spend the rest of the evening in enjoyable conversation mostly over geography. The big surprise is though when I find out that the person he's housesitting for is actually Joel from couch surfer. I laughed myself quietly to sleep that night over the small world irony of the moment.
October 6: Flat number nine! Another for the rear tire, big surprise, but this proved to be the most enjoyable flat of the trip. I pulled off in from of this multicolored bright market in the town of East Hope. It was another pebble rolling against the tube flat, which are the worst because you can't save the tube as the problem is a series of small punctures along a horizontal line. Sad too because this particular tube had lasted over eight hundred miles. As I was changing the tire, a pick up pulled up and killed the engine. Out popped JT, a geologist by schooling, a cook and proprietor of the cafe in the market. The mostly vegetarian cafe. We get to talking and I help him move a stove into the kitchen. He shows me around his garden and the property. The market is more like an art community house, hosting classes, visiting artist and gallery space. JT offers me a place to crash, but with my busted phone still buzzing in my head, I know I need to make Sandpoint tonight, and so decline. As I'm finishing my tire off JT comes out and gives me a sparkling orange drink and a hummus and fresh organic greens sandwich. This is the first veggie and hummus goodness sandwich I've had in thousands of miles and I devoured it greedily a little down the road, ignoring the wizzing by cars and the fading sunlight bouncing off the waters of Pend Oreille Lake.
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