Day 81: MJ’s First Ride

After yesterday’s brief shakedown ride getting from the airport to Tony’s house, today was the real deal.

We saw Tony briefly this morning before he went out fishing for the day. Claire made us fancy coffee drinks with a manual espresso machine, which I’d never seen before. Claire then made breakfast burritos while Katherine was baking a cherry crumble with cherries from their tree. Both were scrumptious.

Katherine’s new ducklings have been hatching the last few days so she brought in a couple for us to meet. They were so fluffy and tiny and soft.

Thankfully the forecast was favorable today, as it was tough to leave their great hospitality. We did get going by ten after Claire documented our departure with a very professional camera.

We were on backroads for the morning, some dirt, some paved. The dirt road vibrated off one of the screws attaching MJ’s rack and then broke the zip tie I used to try to hold it in place for now. Eventually MJ borrowed a screw from the top of the rack to use on the side.

We stopped for a snack break along a river and under a bridge late morning. There were lots of bugs on the water, but no fish visible. MJ fly fishes, so was studying the situation.

After a good run, the back roads ended and we were on a highway for a good while. The shoulder was often narrow to non-existent, but the traffic wasn’t too bad and the cars were generally pretty good. The scenery continued to be excellent as we biked through forest and by lakes. We met a cyclist named Russ headed the other way on this stretch. He had already biked cross country on the Trans Am, starting on his 70th birthday, and was now biking home via the Northern Tier to his home in western MA.

We took a brief lunch and mail stop in the tiny town of Olney. This post office had the strangest hours of any I’ve come across on the trip - 7:30-9:30am Monday through Friday. Thankfully they had a slot to accept outgoing mail.

Another ways down the road, we turned off and back onto quiet roads. We had hoped to find excellent pie in Fortine, but it was closed, so we rested in nice chairs under a tree instead. We rolled into Eureka and met a couple Great Divide riders hanging out at the park. Our hosts for the night weren’t back from their adventure yet, but gave us instructions on acessing the house so we headed there to get settled. Phoebe, the cat, greeted us very happily, demanding many pets and rolling onto her back over and over.

Latimer and Kari’s Warm Showers profile includes many recommendations in town. Sadly, many are closed on Wednesdays, but Sumi’s Kitchen was open and was a great spot. It’s a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant with Sumi, the chef, manning the wok and cooking all the food. MJ got the special, lemon chicken, and I got chicken lo mein. It hit the spot perfectly.

MJ was pretty tired and fell asleep early and Kari and Latimer aren’t back until late, so it’s been a quiet evening of reading for me. And the crossword of course.

Tomorrow’s ride is supposed to be quite pretty, though it’ll be hilly and hot so probably an early morning.