I've camped before.

Today we started out of camp and had to go backwards a mile to the grocery store.  T and I are cooking tonight and the grocery store on the way to the campsite burned down either last year or the year before and hasn’t been rebuilt.  So, as a team we have to carry our food for tonight and then tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. Dinner is served!  We had some pretty great reviews on our chicken  pad  Thai .   We added in peas, mushrooms, and broccoli.   And then there was strawberry shortcake for dessert.   I have two more days that I’ll be cooking on the trip and have to come up with some more recipes.   As far as riding goes, today was a lot of miles with some rolling hills.  There is something very freeing about being on a bicycle.  I’m not wild about when we’re riding along busy highways.  But when there's a car every 5-10 minutes, and plenty of shoulder to ride in, life is pretty good.  There’s lots of farmland. ...

I tried yesterday and today to use an app on my phone to track the route and mileage.  It hasn’t worked well.  But I think from what other people said, we did 58 miles today.  Almost 2000 ft of it was vertical climbing.  Gross.  But I did it!  And used my lowest gear and huffed and puffed A LOT.  I had a chance to chat with this British biker who was going from Canada to Mexico.  I will say cyclists are cool people and for the most part really great story tellers. When we arrived at camp, another ACA tour was there, but they are a fully supported ride.  So there was a UHaul with all their stuff, a caterer to make meals, and a massage therapist. We had our first non-Costco night.  No complaints, but I'm up next with T tomorrow night. As we started to make a list of the things we were going to need from the grocery store, I mentioned that we had fruit snacks the last two days, do we want to do those again?  “Well, I don't really l...

Today was the first day of real riding.  WAHOO!!  The weather looked like it was going to rain on us and threatened with a little thunder.  However, we stayed dry and the sun didn't even peak out until mid morning, which made for some nice cool riding.   The people I’m with are super nice and lots of fun.  There’s a competition between many as to who is going to be the last one to make it to camp.  I hope to stay in the middle of the pack.  I’m not the fastest, but hopefully not the slowest either. We did this quaint loop out of Missoula and our destination was the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) headquarters.  Now, as a side note, I didn’t really know what to expect fully of touring cyclist.  There's my wonderful husband who rode across the US with 1 pair of underwear and he’s pretty fantastic and then some.  We’ve had some really neat people stay at our house through warm showers, a network of touring cyclists that stay at each...

With the address of our campsite punched into the GPS on my phone, I was rolling out the entrance to the airport, exhilarated.  So many sights to take in- mountains and open space.  This is not a Connecticut landscape, not even close.  Plus the blast of heat- it was 96 degrees and I’ve packed a winter coat…. The GPS says I go for a little over a mile, turn right and I think then I had 4 miles to go.  I’ve got this. But now I’ve gone a ways, maybe even more than the 4 miles and the GPS isn’t telling me when to turn.  Time to pull over and investigate…. Thanks iPhone for letting me know that you’re nearly hot enough to fry an egg on from sitting in my map case and have to cool off before you can work. No big deal, I tell myself, just ask someone.  I see the first girl up at the next night.  “Excuse me, can you tell me where the KOA campground is?” “Oh, um, I’m not sure, I heard it was on the south side of town.”  “Thanks” is what I say to her wh...

There are two other people in my group documenting our trek.   Eric is keeping an  online journal . Tom has a cool  GPS tracker  to let you know where we are.  The password is Canada 2017. Tom Reitter can also be found on  Fb . In case you want to check in on those too!

For REAL this time! Again, I was stuck in that dreadful additional services line at the ticketing counter because the kiosk didn't like me.  Again, I had time, but not as much as I wanted because I thought it was going to be a quick and easy process.  My bike should already be in Missoula-it took the last flight out. But then they pulled my bag after it went through the X-ray.  "Ma'am, you have a large lotion."   "No, I don't. I did this all yesterday and I didn't buy anything."   "Can you tell me where it is without touching your bag?"  I had my backpack tucked in my pannier to be down to one carry on.  "I don't think I have anything."  Out comes the large purple tube of Butt Butter Chamois for Her.   "Oh, I had no idea that was in there- it went through the x-ray yesterday."  (I'll own that I looked like and felt like an idiot) Well, TSA, you are now the owners of a brand new tube of anti-chafe lotion...