les lanternes rouges

I really struggled leaving Spokane. While a rest day was great, I felt like I’d only gotten half of the things I’d intended done, and my body didn’t feel anywhere close to recovered. I’d “saved up” all of the blog writing for the rest day as I generally don’t have access to electricity and internet during the in between days, but that actually took up quite a large chunk of the day, so I decided to try and do it day by day, so it doesn’t build up (although most days I don't have internet connectivity... hence my sporadic blogger behavior). Also, hopefully I’ll be able to better recollect each day’s happenings if I don’t have to think back so far.

We ate breakfast in the Gonzaga cafeteria, and once again, I managed to get off to a somewhat late and frazzled start. However, I am very happy to report that due to the purchase of a new, larger duffle bag, and a reorganized packing system involving putting each individual outfit into its own ziploc bag for easy retrieval, packing is blissful compared to the first week. Whenever I previously wanted to get anything out of my bag, it seems that I succeeded in pulling everything else out of the bag and throwing it around the tent like a little Tasmanian devil.

I did find a really lovely little riding group today. And while we were slow, we were all slow together, and it was great to have company. We dubbed ourselves ‘les lanternes rouges’ – the lanterns rouge. I am not alone anymore! :o)

We also crossed our first state line today – from Washington into Idaho, which felt amazing. We’re going through the very skinny bit of Idaho, so we have another state crossing to look forward to tomorrow – into Montana! We’ve been really fortunate with the weather so far, and haven’t had a drop of rain. Today was pretty chilly, and I kept on long sleeves all day. Also, it turns out there’s something in Idaho that I’m seriously allergic to. My eyes were watering so much that several people asked me why I was so upset and had been crying! I grabbed some Visine at the store this afternoon, so fingers crossed that I won’t be a sobbing mess tomorrow.

We passed by a parade in Newport, Washington, where we stopped for a lunch of sandwiches by the truck, and I couldn’t help but notice how “America” the photo below is. It includes the American flag, a rodeo flag, a cage fighting truck, a vacation bible school truck, and the Oneal drug store, which has been a family business for going on three generations now.



I also learned a few new on-bike skills today. I mastered the art of eating trail mix – a daunting task as it involves so many little bits – and also I learned how to do several different stretches on my bike. I took it pretty easy on today’s ride as it was one of the shorter ones at 76 miles, and we have two doozies coming up over the next several days – 88 miles tomorrow and 101 miles the next day, with a lot of climbing involved.

Ah, and I learned an excellent thing tonight – how to make my tent stop running away! If I put the stakes in first, then it can’t run! :o) I do struggle with the stakes in general though – everyone else seems to have these nice little hammers for putting the stakes in, but I lack such a hammer. So I push it as far as I can with my hands, and then I start hopping on it (while wearing shoes), but I try to keep it subtle so that no one can tell what I’m up to. This is difficult at times. I still haven’t worked out how to determine which way the tent entrance is going to face. I appreciate that this is probably pretty straightforward, but at the end of each day as I’m erecting the tent, I just don’t have the mental energy to devote to noting which color loops the entrance falls between. This has led to some interesting tent positions – sometimes I’m facing the nice little circle of tents, just like everyone else, and sometimes I’m staring into the wild blue yonder facing away from everyone else.

It turns out that today is national ‘Camp in your back yard’ day, and while I’m not camping in my own backyard, I am camping in a backyard -- specifically, the backyard of the Sandpoint Athletic Club. We’re also able to go inside the gym, and it’s amazing. After today’s ride, I spent some quality time in the pool followed by the hot tub. They also have towels we can use, which sounds like a little thing, but is actually very exciting.

The mechanic was helping me make some adjustments to my bike this evening, and I ended up walking to downtown for dinner a bit after most folks had. At the first restaurant I saw, Ivano’s Italian (which was amazing by the way), I spotted some folks from the ride and headed in. It was a group I hadn’t gotten to know too well yet, and we were all sharing about our background over dinner. The conversation got focused on marriage and children, and everyone went around the table sharing about themselves. When the conversation landed upon me, as you know, I don’t have much to share in the way of marriage and children. So I took the opportunity, while talking to a group of diverse ages, walks of life, and backgrounds what advice they would have for me on the matter. What were some of the lessons they’d learned, and what do they wish they’d known at my age? It was really interesting to see people reflect on the important things they'd learned throughout their lives and relationships, and we had a really great conversation about it. The high points of their advice included...

If there’s something you don’t like about someone now, you’re not going to like it later. They’re not going to change after you get married, and you’re certainly not going to change them.

Trust your intuition about a person.

The competition in the marriage should be about who can out-serve the other. Your goal should be to make your companion’s life easier. If you start keeping score, it’s over.

You should enjoy doing the same things.

And that brings me to my next point. I have an idea.... :o)



After dinner, we walked down to Lake Pend Oreille, a massive lake, on par (at least by water volume) with the great lakes. Sandpoint is an adorable little town, and I wish we had more time to explore!