it's a tough time to be a heiny

Without going into too much detail, I'll just state that it's a tough time to be a heiny around here. If you think about it, heinies generally have pretty luxurious lives. They come into the world, get to hang out in fluffy diapers for the first several years and sit around on cushions for the rest of their lives. (In fact it now it occurs to me that perhaps this is the origin of the term 'your royal highness'?) Anyhow, asking them to sit on a small, hard saddle and be jostled around all day every day is quite a change from their life of luxury! Other areas that I put constant pressure on, like my palms against the handlebars, have developed a dull ache as well. Very thankfully, tomorrow is our last day before a rest day in Missoula, Montana.

On a random note, you may be surprised to know that while three people have fallen over on the trip (well, two were on a tandem... but I'm still counting it as two), none of them have been me! I've managed to stay stable and upright thus far!

It got really cold (40F!) overnight, and I woke up with my face freezing and had to curl up and bury my head inside the sleeping bag. We also had a cold start this morning and rode with jackets, long pants, and wool caps. We shed them throughout the day though as things really warmed up.

Today's ride was 88 miles and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We're making our way through the foothills of the Rockies, so there's been some climbing as well. We also had our second state crossing today as we went from Idaho into Montana! We also crossed from the Pacific time zone into the Mountain time zone, which is exciting except that we lose an hour of sleep tonight.

Several riders also spotted moose today, and while we were warned not to keep food on us since this is bear country, and it may attract them, I am please to report that we had no bear encounters! :o)

Tonight we stayed at the Thompson Falls High School, and got to stay inside on the gym floor (yay -- no messing about with the tent! :o)) We had dinner at Minnie’s Cafe which served up country culinary delights such as country fried chicken, fried fish, and I had the delightful (local!) huckleberry ice cream

I'll keep things short today and just post some photos, as I'm sure they can describe today much better than I can. :o)