Where the West begins...

The days still seem to be meshing together, but I am once again trying to sort them out. Today is the 22nd, 21 days total on the road. We are now in state number 3, Idaho. It is beautiful here...
The day we left Whitefish, Tad cooked us up some breakfast, we re-loaded our gear back onto our bikes and headed on the road. Once we left Whitefish the rain began and didn't let up much all day. We stopped for lunch in Stryker, MT (aka at a post office with a few trailer houses around it). It was then I realized how wet I was under my rain gear and how miserable being cold and wet made me feel. The longer I sat eating, the colder it got, so I hopped on my bike and began to ride. We only stopped one more time at the Fortine gas station for some warm coffee and Toby's typical 4 packages of string cheese- snack. The Fortine gas station also serves as a grocery, deli, bar and casino... very typical in this part of Montana, very strange where I come from!
We remained in the cold rain until arriving in Eureka, MT and were debating if we should continue on or stop and check out the camping there when we saw two other touring cycles outside of a pizza shop. Loving our new touring community, we decided we had to stop in and say hello. When we walked in we saw two wet, down-trodden young men. As we introduced ourselves and inquired where they were from and heading it was obvious that it might be an awkward time to discuss such things. They soon explained, in amazing English that they were from France and had started in Canada... had been riding almost 3 weeks in straight rain through the mountains and were done! They were looking up bus travel back to Vancouver to get back home. We wished them well and ordered a pizza and took it to the bar next door to debate on free camping in the local park or pushing a few miles forward for a forest service site.
As we ate our pizza and made the big plans for the evening, in came the two men from France. We invited them to sit down, share our pitcher and soon we were sharing stories and pictures from the trip so far. Realizing that night was falling, we decided to grab some wine and share the park with our new friends to learn more about each other. Together the 5 of us shared our backgrounds, them helping us to translate and us helping them and we stayed up drinking the wine with our new friends. Their mood took an upswing as they were impressed with how much cheaper the US was then Canada and I would like to think that we helped to raise their spirits a little as well.

In the morning we woke up to rain, again... packed up camp and headed to Jax's for breakfast, coffee and more stories. I passed on the maps we had already used and they decided to head towards Yellowstone and then take a bus back to Vancouver.
We said our goodbyes... hugs, double cheek kisses for me and handshakes for the boys. Our ride started with overcast skies and continued on with rain. The hardest part of these days isn't the rain though, it's knowing that there are mountains surrounding you that must just be breathtaking, but you can hardly sneak a peak because of the clouds! And either way... you just keep riding.

Most of the day we spent riding past Lake Koocanusa... a beautiful huge lake just south of the Canada border. The hills went up and down.. .over and over. I spent most of the day singing to myself "this little light of mine"... trying to keep the promise to myself that no matter how difficult, I wasn't going to ruin any day with a bad mood... and just as I was singing and crested one of the many "hills" a beam of light burst through the clouds and directly down onto the water below. It was just magnificent! It was enough to rev my spirits and continue you on (despite a very uncomfortable saddle day). Finally we pulled into the Lake Koocanusa Marina resort and the rain cleared. Warm showers and a lakeside campsite were all we needed to hear to say "We'll take it". And although the shower was now warm, but rather very cold... the spot was beautiful and we enjoyed the sunset as we cooked our dinner.

We woke up to the sun prying through the overcast sky and pushed on, stripping layers immediatly. nto long after, you guessed it the rain started. And then it rained and rained and rained. We made a stop at Koocanusa Falls... talk about whitewater! While we were getting ready to make the small hike another cyclist who had seen our bikes on the side of the road pulled in and began to chat with us. Willy hiked in to the falls and took a walk on the swinging bridge with us. He was from Portland and almost home after about 2 years... he had been sailing around the world and then got on his bike in NY and has been riding west. once we got back to our bikes we took a moment to discuss directions and realized we could all just ride together. Once again, another cyclist joining and we were quickly a group of 5!

As we continued the day in the rain, Willy told us about a place between 2 and 200 on 56 that was called the "Halfway House" that apparently had camping available. Not knowing what to expect we pushed on through the day and eventually arrived at a small bar on the side of this relatively desolate road. We inquired about camping and were told we could camp out back under the "shelter" they had, set up our camp and enjoyed a few beers while talking with Ellen the bartender.
The next morning (man these are long stories, eh?) The next morning... more rain! We hopped on our bikes and continued to push on towards Sandpoint, ID. I had been talking about Sandpoint the entire trip... and had heard so many wonderful things, I was very curious to how it would play out.
Most of the day we rode along the water, lakes EVERYWHERE! with the beautiful backdrop of mountains and clear-enough skies we could see them. Giant pine trees lined the roads we were driving down and even though there were still rainshowers throughout the day, it was more enjoyable then the previous days. We passed through a number of cute towns, including Clark Fork and Hope. The sun came out for a bit as we left Clark Fork and the boys rode on.
From day to day how we ride changes, but often for parts of the the day the boys ride ahead and I catch up, being of slower pace and a bigger desire to stop and take pictures. This day though, after the sun came out I hadn't seen them for awhile. I rode on and on with no boys in site... until I came to a cross roads. You see, I have the maps... they do not, and my maps showed  a short cut off the highway with a bike trail, and decided to take the map route figuring they could somehow get to Sandpoint if they made it that far without me. I bee-lined it for the first place I could sit outside with my bike and wait for them in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho. It happened to be Mick Duff's Brewing company.. ordered a local brew and ate some chips. I was hungry, cold, wet and pretty worn out from the day. Not long after the boys who had taken the highway in and then stopped and waited for me figured out where I was.. Toby had headed back to Hope thinking I broke down somewhere... and as we all de-stressed about the situation, I headed to the outdoor store next door to inquire about camping in the area.
Right away we were told that there wasn't any camping unless we went a few miles back, HECK NO, or a few more miles, IMPOSSIBLE! Until a woman working at the store piped up. Sharon must have seen the exhaustion, hunger and frustration of the day on my face when she said, "You can camp in my backyard".
We were so grateful at that point... and took her up on the offer right away. Made our way to her yard, pitched our tents and she quickly invited us in for 2 buck chuck and a desire to hear our stories so far. The rest of us headed to Eichardts, a coffee-pub kinda place that I would highly recommend to anyone passing through. I had a fresh salad... something I had been craving for miles and we split the best garlic fries in the world! That night I slept well on a well manacured lawn in an amazing new town.

This morning we woke up and were welcomed to sunshine and morning tea. Willy began the rest of his journey while the rest of us took showers. Our original plans were to take a half day, get things done and then try and push about 30 miles on. Instead, we walked with Sharon down to the Evans Brothers coffee shop and met two women named Yvonne who had just met minutes before. All of us talked like we had known each other forever. I began to wonder how cycle touring has shown me that friendships can start with a simple smile or meek hello and within minutes you feel as if you have known someone your entire life. It didn't take much to decide we could stay one more day. Willy also showed us a link to when he "went missing in N. Dakota", really not that funny, but funny to us as we sat comfortably with him in Sharon's home. With about 4 days of no connection to his family (during his 2 years of traveling the world... ) they went looking for him and he even made the local news.
We spent the rest of the day doing laundry, blogging, airing out our damp gear, picking up groceries to get us through the next few days. After deciding to spend one more night in "Sharon's personal camp-ground" she walked us down to City Beach, a beautiful park on Lake Pend Orielle which this town rest on. Sharon told us her stories of travel and why she was drawn to help us out. Generosity seems to run rampent and continues to amaze me. ( I say as she cooks us dinner and I peck away at the keyboards)
This journey feels never-ending, and yet we are coming up on our last big leg of the trip! Washington is only a few miles away and then up and up and up, downhill and we are at the end ( I shouldnt talk about that yet!)
Closing in on the last week I am trying to hold every site and moment and memory close. Compared to Willy and Kala/Will and Scotty our trip seems so short. I can tell already though that this is just the beginning of many adventures I will get to take in my lifetime.
I may not blog again until the trip is over, but leave with this for now:

Out Where the West Begins- Arthur Chapman

Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,
Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
          That's where the West begins;
Out where the sun is a little brighter,
Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter;
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter;
          That's where the West begins.
Out where the skies are a trifle bluer,
Out where the friendship's a little truer,
          That's where the West begins
Out where a fresher breeze is blowing,
Where there's laughter in every streamlet flowing,
Where there's more of reaping and less of sowing,
          That's where the West begins.
Out where the world is in the making,
Where fewer hearts with despair are aching;
          That's where the West begins;
Where there's more of singing and less of sighing,
Where's there's more of giving and less of buying,
And where a man makes friends without half trying,
          That's where the West begins.