Day 14

JUNE 22 Apgar, MT Rest Day #2

After we ate breakfast on Sunday morning, I headed up to the bathroom by our site. As I stood in front of the urinal, the man at the sink called over to me, "Are you with Adventure Cycle?"
"Yeah," I said, finishing up my business and walking over to him; he was middle age man with very short gray hair, tan skin, and a leather jacket, "well, sort of. We're not with one of their groups, but we're following their maps."
"Yes, I see, I see. I'm a member for life. Your doing the northern tier?" I nodded, "I've been taking ten days a year to bike across the country. I've been at it since '97. I started along the northern tier until I got here; then I went down the Great Parks Route until it reached Pueblo, Colorado. From their I took the Trans America route through Kansas until it ran into the Great River Route on the Mississippi. I took that down to the Southern Tier. I'm all the way to Florida."
"Your almost to the East Coast. What are you going to do when you get to the end?"
He gestured to his jacket that had 'BMW Motorrad' printed on it, "I've got a different sort of bike now. I'd like to go back over the same route by motorcycle. So, I saw another tent at your camp site..."
"Yeah, my dad and I figured we'd be at each other's throat by the end of the summer if we shared a tent."
"Oh, you're with your dad? That's pretty lucky!"
"Definitely; I'm really fortunate to have a dad who will come along with me and a mom who will let us go." We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. A few minutes later, he showed up at our campsite.
"I had to meet the father...." With that, all three of us were off and talking. He introduced himself as Jon, and we gave him our names in turn. Eventually, he we said goodbye for a second time; just after that, we saw him roar out of camp on his motorcycle.... off on some adventure, no doubt.
The rest of the day was a pretty typical rest day... laundry, writing, puttering around camp. Steve and Michael showed up around noon, followed shortly by Greg, Caroline, Pat, Bill, Dave, and Jerry.
That afternoon, Dad, Michael, Steve, and I decided to go for a hike up to Apgar Lookout, from which you're supposed to have an excellent view of the mountains. We never found out. The ride up to the trail head was along a rough gravel road, which continually jarred my walking shoes off the back of my bike. "Steve," dad called up to him after about a mile, "how far is the hike?"
"3.3 miles each way... climbing 2000 ft." Steve replied nonchalantly.
"This is way too much work for my off day." dad said, "Take some pictures for me." then he started to ride back up the road. After he left, we crossed a flooded out section of road, the water reaching up to my ankles, then started to climb up a steep section of gravel road. The road continued to get rougher, until finally Michael and I pulled to a stop.
"I'm going to turn around." I said, "I'll just fall over if I keep going on this gravel. I really don't want to eat dirt today."
"Yeah," Michael agreed, "I was just waiting for you to say something so I could go with you." We called ahead to Steve, who sounded a bit disappointed, but decided to come back with us.
After our failed attempt at a climb, it was dinner, ice cream in the village, and staying up late to write post cards to an eager class of first graders. I finally called it a night at 10:30, easily my latest night so far on the trip.

P.S. As an addendum to my last post: my 'wave-buddy' was no older than twelve years old. I realized I forgot to mention that. Believe me, if it had been an attractive seventeen year old riding by, I wouldn't have been wincing and grimacing.

P.P.S. If you haven't noticed, I'm tragically behind on my posts (as in 15 days behind). Tomorrow, with any luck, we'll stop in Minneapolis for three or four layover days. Hopefully, I'll get some quality time with a computer during my off days, so expect a deluge of posts over the next handful of days.