We enjoyed a very nice night in the cabin, sleeping in until
about 8:45. Our little cabin was nice, I can see us doing that again soon (and
the Missoula KOA and staff there was amazing)!
Devin quickly got ready and took his bike to the dealer to
get an oil change while I stayed behind and packed things up. When we arrived
in Missoula I thought I smelled lighter fluid when we opened the trailer. We
chalked it up to probably a little spilled and shut it up for the two days we
were there. When I opened it this morning the smell was overwhelming. I
promptly removed the bottle of lighter fluid only to find it was nearly empty.
I called Devin to ask how much he had used. Long story short, there was a crack
in the bottom of the bottle that leaked out nearly an entire bottle and we are
in the process of airing everything that was in the trailer out…
Before Devin had made it to the dealer he stopped at a gas
station to get coffee. At the dealer he was really enjoying it until about the
last 3 drinks when he took a swig and got a mouthful of coffee grounds. The
bottom of his cup was full of grounds.
After Devin returned we loaded up and headed to get gas and
then Wal-Mart to get new backs for my earrings and something for lunch.
Wal-Mart is always a hassling mess of people no matter where you go. We were
excited when we finally got on the road. Today was looking to be a short, easy,
relaxing day.
We had some easy riding and came upon a very exciting sign
for a biker:
We enjoyed the riding despite getting behind a few slow-pokes.
And it got hotter. And hotter. And hotter. The road was rough and vibrating the
handle-bars making it tiring for Devin, making his hands sore. Between that and
the blazing sun we were beat by half-way. We stopped to eat lunch at a picnic
area alongside the river. It was a welcome break:
We kept going. And it kept getting hotter. The sun was in
our faces and it seemed like every mile we went we had double to go til we got
where we were going. Which we weren’t even sure where we were going… Anyway, we
finally gave in and found a rest stop. We stopped there and agreed to take a
nap and wait at least an hour to attempt to kill off some of the heat of the
day. We napped on the picnic benches for at least 45 minutes. The next town,
Lewiston, ID, was only 24 miles away.
When we got back on the bike it was still as hot and miserable. Luckily on our
way into town we hit construction in which the road was torn up and we were
riding on gravel…wouldn’t want to miss one day of no-pavement road
construction! We finally made it to town and stopped at a Dairy Queen. When we
sat down Devin said that the Winding Road Next 99 Miles sign should have said
“Welcome to the gates of hell.” Ironically he didn’t know that “Hell’s Gate
State Park” is just south of Lewiston, which explains our day…
We found a nearby campground and made a reservation. We were
too tired and hot to do anything so we had dinner at DQ (which was not that
great). Then we tried to leave the town. We ended up doing the Lewiston 500
getting lost several times trying to get back on the highway.
As we were leaving the sun was just going down. We made it
to our final stop, Starbuck, WA, set up camp and took our showers. We are
laying in bed now laughing about the whole day. This trip has not failed to be
interesting and at the end of the day we are still glad we are able to do this.
Today we traveled 306.9 miles for a total of 5263.1 miles
across America.
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