Photo: Me, the new beard, and the Idaho state line.
Thanks to the burrow, we woke at 5:45 a.m., twenty minutes before the alarm sounded. A short hill climb brought us up to about 2800 feet elevation, letting us know that we were getting closer to the mountains. The climb was followed by an exhilarating five-mile descent to about 900 ft. elevation. A few flat miles later, we finished our first Adventure Cycling map book at Clarkson, WA, and then we continued to Lewiston, ID. A bike shop owner directed us to a Waffles and More restaurant, where coincidentally, our waitress, Laurie moonlighted as an Adventure Cycling trip leader, who bikes to work each day. She helped us with our map options, and even offered the use of her house, should we pass that way.
As Laurie suggested, we took the river route from Lewiston, which took us along the Clearwater River and through Myrtle and Lenore, and into Orfino, ID. On the way, we had a great adventure. Along the way, my fender loosened, and scraped against my tire requiring quite a bit of time to get it properly adjusted! Then came more
Then, just outside of Lewiston, Tom fell onto the road, breaking two ribs. He fell because highway 12 was being widened. Part of the widening process meant that the berm had been cut off at the edge of the road and replaced by a soft bed of very loose gravel, which trapped Tom's front wheel, causing him to go down into the road. Luckily there were no cars coming at the time.
Then I gained the experience of changing a flat rear tire. This took a while because I hadn’t ever changed it before. Then, as we headed east, it started raining. Then about 8 miles from Orfino, in a rain storm, one of Tom’s tires went flat. He thanked God that at least there was no lightening. Seconds later, BOOM! Now, he discovered that both of his inner tubes were flat. He couldn’t patch either in the rain! This created one of our best human kindness stories:
About two miles ahead, I found a Ron Browning, Highway #12, Lenore, ID, with a pickup truck who was willing to go back to pick up Tom. As he started to head west to pick up Tom, we saw Tom and his bike headed east in a mini-van driven by Kate Bush. Mrs. Bush, whose husband was working overtime, at the moment, at the local dam, had stopped to help Tom, and offered her house to both of us. We were a bit concerned that her husband August might not be so welcoming of us, but Kate assured us that her husband would do the same thing. With no other good option, Kate took Tom, and Ron took me to Kate’s house in Orfino. Neither of them would accept money from us, even for gas money. We took showers, and then took Kate to her favorite restaurant where Kate bought carry-out for August.
It was a little unnerving when Kate left the restaurant with Tom and I in her car just as August, on his way home from work, fell in right behind Kate as we headed toward the Bush home. Kate pulled in the driveway first, followed by August who exited his car and marched up the walk, and onto the porch and nearly into the front door. Kate watched, and then called to him, asking him to say hello to their two bicycling guests. His attitude changed from indifference to friendliness, and he welcomed us into his home.
August is a mechanic at the nearby Dworshak Reservoir dam, which at 724 feet high is one of the tallest of it’s kind in the US.
Miles today 72.98, trip: 453, 12 MPH average
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