Questions & answers

Tonight I spoke to my mom on the phone and she asked me: Where are you going exactly?

We have had a few questions this past month so here are a few answers:

We left from home (Rossland BC) and are hoping to get to Tucson, Arizona, early December. On bikes.

Our first big rest will be Moab, Utah where we will meet Ken, Andy's dad and paddle the Green River. Then, if we still enjoy living the life of cycling gypsies, we'll continue our bike journey down to Tucson.

We average about 25-30 miles (1mile=1.6km) per day. We take a rest day every 3 days or so.

We ride mostly on backroads. If there is too much traffic and no shoulder we ride the backroads of the backroad which is often gravel. If there's no backroad, we hitch a ride. So far, we've only had to hitch a couple of rides.

Our family has agreed from the start that if we are not having fun, we'll do something else. So far, it's lovely.

We eat pretty well. We shop at grocery stores along the way. We can carry about 3-4 days worth of food. We carry a water filter just in case.

We sleep in a 4 person tent, in campgrounds almost every night.

Andy is planning to do an art show down in Tucson in December.

Our long term plan on this trip is to fly to Costa Rica in January and travel around for a couple of months (not on bikes) and then fly to Cuba and bike there for a couple of months. (that could change...)

Then, sometime in May, fly to Montréal and back home in June.

Alors voilà maman! Un peu d'info.

Xxx

Martine

The whole gang in Nevada City

42

This is suppose to be the ultimate answer to the ultimate question regarding the universe..........from the book "the hitchhikers guide to the universe". Found it in Motana!

Chickens

Chicken dance

Parked with two story outhouse behind

Magical companions

Everyday truly is another roadside attraction

Yesterdays encounter is a perfect example. The names of those involved have been changed to protect everyone's interests.
We had coffee with R who dropped by with an espresso maker and gifts. We received miso from Japan and maple syrup from Maple Vinny who is an X mob boss and a friend of R. We discussed religion, bikes, guitars, philosophy, art and the inner workings of the universe. R is a refugee from Hollywood and the chaos of southern California. He comes from a wealth built from the inventions of his Russian ancestors. At one point I was given a tour of his worldclass art collection which is said to be worth millions. R is a flamenco guitar virtuoso who learned the art in southern Spain while hanging out with a Greek revolutionary wanted by Interpol. I had the good fortune to hear a small piece on the guitar which was rather impressive............ There is much more to the tale, but as with all tales, not all can be told at once...........
The Montana skies are vast and the potentials even vaster..........

Martine, Sylvie and a parked steed

Another of the strange and wonderful creatures along the way

Your average ghosttown grocery

Our traveling companions

These are a few of our companions, many of which have magical powers. They are of German-Chinese ancestry.

Everyday

Girls and bear

Martine et al

Packing up after lovely stay at Bike Camp (Twin Bridges, Montana)

Andy, Woody & (Surfer)

Backroads continued

Ghost Town

Rest stop for Greenland

A beautiful Montana backroad

A typical pay phone in America

Learning something new everyday

It would seem that the Inglish teachers in America are all soldiers.

Vaches noires au pays des cowboys

Ça fait officiellement plus qu'un mois qu' on est en vélo! Ça va bien, très bien même, mais bien qu'on ait pris 2-3 jours de repos je sens toute la famille un peu fatiguée. Ken et Rita s'en viennent nous rejoindre et on voyagera avec eux pendant quelques jours au parc Yellowstone.

Ce matin, un drôle de monsieur est venu nous faire du café espresso et partager notre déjeuner. Nous avons eu des conversations intéressantes sur l'art, les voyage et la vie.

Puisque l'école commence bientôt on commence nous aussi l'école sur la route. À suivre!

Journal de Sylvie

Today we saw a lot of horses. We saw black horses, white horses and brown horses. We also saw a group of deer and a lot of cows.

Journal de Lily

Un cheval nous regardait. Quand on est passé, il a couru avec nous. Il voulait être avec nous.

Cycling princess

Montana weathervane

Wisdom ( rust never sleeps)

Another roadside attraction (by the pool in Dillon)

Parked outside our room in Dillon

Sisterly love at the pool

Walking on water

Our favorite pastime at the hotel

Parked outside our room in Dillon

I am drunk on pomegranate juice, a warm bath and rest. Reflecting on the past few days I am awed by the feeling of having lived lifetimes in this short time. We have followed rivers winding out of the mountains and experienced backroads with just a handful of vehicles. We pass people collecting hives from a field and I yell thanks for the honey. Chuckling, they yell that it is their pleasure. They look like aliens in their bee suites. We experience a plethora of birds, some in migrating V's as well as an assortment of other creatures ( butterflies being the most abundant). In writing this, I realize this is one of the many pleasures of bicycle travel. The pleasure of traveling with the butterflies rather than careening past them ( or into them). I suppose that seeing and experiencing so much in our slow travels is certainly a factor in the phenomenon in each day feeling like a lifetime. Long live the bicycle.

Our first rain

We had our first rain just before Dillon. We have also begun seeing some "V"s of geese heading south.

The deliverance campground

We arrived in a small town before Dillon and looked for a campground. We found two so called "campgrounds", the first with no shade and the second was a scene straight out of deliverance. The road to the camping left from behind the bar and was rough. Martine and Sylvie waited behind while Lily and I went forth. We found, among the buzzing mosquitoes, rusty trailers appearing from behind smokey fires. There was a darkness from the tree canopy and smoke even though it was midday. We heard a man cursing as he tried to tie a fishing fly and two patches of dorito vomit in the middle of the road. We turned around. When we met the others, Lily declared that "I think this campsite is full". Needless to say we went to the other campground and found shade behind a garden shed and some friendly company.
Note: all the campground thus far have been amazing. This is the one notable exception.

Andy

Faeries by the river

We're motoring

Leaving Wisdom and following the Wise River, we do our longest day yet. We cover 50 miles which we think is about 80 canadianometres. The vernacular down here is a little different and we are adapting. We use words like:
Howdy
Ya all (y'all)
Mam & sir
Crick (creek)
And we have adapted to the low angled cowboy nod as a form of acknowledgement or hello. The two fingered Jesus wave is also a common adress from passing trucks.
Regardless, we travel far and quickly leaving Wisdom with a tailwind and a slight downhill. For all you eighties rockers, I had the "motoring" lyrics from the song Sister Christian (by Night Ranger) echoing through my head. For this song I thank my sisters who took me to my first concert when I was twelve (ZZ Top and Nightranger) which is a story into itself. As I have a poor memory for lyrics, "motoring" was basically all that was echoing through my mind.
The day was beautiful, the scenery amazing and the traffic minimal (as per usual on these backroads).

Andy

A little laundry everyday

A little dance before biking

Fill er up

Wind catching prayer flags during a rest stop

The lovely Lily

Sage

Picking sage surrounded by the mountains of the bighole. We travel a Road with little traffic and remnants of a récent cattle drive.

Montana skies

The sun set like a blood clot with a flaming marshmallow surround (thanks to Tom Robbins for the twisted imagery inspiration). We ate pizza and sipped soda pop inside our comfy Nez Pierce sleeping quarters. Our trusty steeds were put to stable and our well used legs lay sprawled on beds. This is the scène that faded to darkness and a beautiful dreamy sleep in Wisdom.

Andy

Reflections from the Bitterroot

This is a photo of some of the lovely folks who helped us through a section of road that was windy, busy and had no shoulder. We were helped by Greg (who has 23 bikes and has aided cyclists across the country) his lovely wife Brenda and Dwight the local pastor who had a robust and vibrant laugh and a will to aid anyone in need.

Andy

Hotel bed is a fun change from our lovely tent

?poem?

We ride through wisdom
A dusty splendor
Seeking the perfect path
& find rest

Journal entry from the Bitteroot (several days ago)

We road the washboard road from hell today. Our gauge as to how bad it was was to guess how many eggs we broke while traveling it. The guesses ranged from two to six. Surprisingly it was only one. We ride backroads often, usually lovely and meandering off into the distance. The road I mention here had some lovely parts as well, but several miles were slow, dusty and bumpy. Lily said she was wishing for 1000 sprinklers or a magic wand to smooth the way. I prayed aloud to random deities in a deep voice that resonated in the tones of Tibetan monks accentuated by the vibrations of the road. Sylvie and Lily got a chuckle out of this. Eventually we found both good pavement and a sprinkler to run through. We are now camped out on the lawn of Cassey and Tim who have been kind enough to host us. Yet again, American hospitality is hard to beat. We find traveling by bicycle is a good way to renew faith in humanity, should such faith be waining.
An abundant and fecund sense of humor is also a worthy traveling companion through paradoxia...........

Andy
God bless
Eh

Yay for cycle routes

Grasshoppers view of the road

There are many grasshoppers on the road. This is our attempt to get the "grasshoppers eyes view"......