Idaho/Montana

We were in Idaho too short a time. We spent the night in Sandpoint Saturday, neat place with great huckleberry shakes. Sunday night we were in Montana, in Thompson Falls for Kathy's birthday. The ride to Thompson Falls seemed effortless, about 85 miles, the temperature not too high. Dinner at Minnie's was delicious, with pie a la mode for dessert. All the riders can put away incredible amounts of food, but the crew has to be careful - not enough exercise. Everyone was especially packing it in for the first century (one hundred miles in a day) of the trip. The first part of the century was beautiful, along the Clark Fork River, very scenic. We had nice rest stops in a couple of very small towns and then had a less pleasant ride with a lot of traffic (drivers not giving the bikes the amount of room they deserve on the road), and temperatures got pretty high. There was a long, gradual climb in this unpleasant portion, and then there was a terrific downhill into Missoula, a pretty college town. The downhill grade had riders going up to 47 miles an hour. Missoula is a great place for a rest day - REI and a couple of bike shops. We had dinner last night and breakfast this morning in the college cafeteria and are looking forward to eating at an Indian restaurant tonight. Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch (more PB&J sandwiches) are done from the gear truck in the parking lot in the morning. Bill's relaxing this afternoon, and Kathy's going to try to get a pedicure. We are enjoying the other riders and crew tremendously. For all you RC folks, we have a participant along on the ride - Marty Minkoff from Sound Transit. He's fun to get to know, as are the rest of the riders. There don't seem to be real divisions between individuals based on age or any other factor I can detect. Just really nice people united with a focus on going from one end of the country to another.