Viva La Vagabond: Ice, Ice Baby

We are knockin' out states like nobody's business! I know you guys felt like we were in Oregon forever but look at us now! We expect to be in Yellowstone, Wyoming by Sunday. So the riding conditions took quite a turn for the worse since our ride up to Sula on Tuesday. We had to conquer Chief Joseph's pass the next day, but waking up to cold rain and news that it was going to snow on the summit had us taking our time and enjoying a long breakfast in the country store. While we sat there trying to muster up the desire to intentionally travel into such unpleasant weather conditions, some familiar faces walked in the door. We met Terri Lynn, Margie, Ray and Mike on our way through Hamilton and here they were at the country store, also about to head up the pass. They have been planning a route from Oregon to Maine for a couple of years and are now traveling it. We have been traveling to some of the same places and running into each other the last few days. It is funny how that works out. We meet some bikers, travel together for a day or two or three, then either split ways or change paces. A few days or weeks down the road we will pass cyclists coming from the other direction and they usually have encountered some of the same people. The way this connects so many different people from different places and walks of life really makes this seem like a small world. But anyway, back to our cursed Dwayne's Day. If you have been reading carefully you may have noticed that Dwayne's Day is supposed to be a celebratory day of rest. We are on our 4th Dwayne's Day and they have all been quite the opposite. We finally get going up the pass and well..it was as bad as we expected. It rained the whole way up and sleeted once we reached the summit of over 7,000 ft. We have been taking pictures of almost every pass we have gone over but due to the conditions I made the decision that stopping, taking off my gloves and unwrapping my camera from the many bandanas and zip loc bags (a.k.a. my life proof case) was not worth it. A nice older lady entertained us as the Visitors Center and also told us we were crazy, until we knew we had to leave to make it to Wisdom or it was just going to get colder. The entire way, we just kept calculating the miles left, how much time it should take, and if our hands and feet could stay that cold and wet for that long without any permanent damage. The previous day's ride in no way foreshadowed the misery that was before us. We made it to Wisdom and immediately went to Antler's Saloon, where we heard they had excellent pizza. That pizza could have tasted like cardboard but it was warm and it was food so it WAS the best pizza that we have ever had. We decided tonight was the night to cash in on Natalee's dad's offer of one hotel stay when we are in need of a recharge. We probably would have sacrificed our first born to not have to sleep outside that night. Thanks Dad. This graciously accepted hotel room was extremely hard to leave in the morning, but we finally did. The weather conditions, again were not favorable, but the rain mostly held off and and the temperatures did warm up out of the 40s. Once we got through Jackson we had two passes to go over and a small, unexpected hail storm to conquer. We succeeded and by the end of the second pass we were at a little lower elevation, therefore a little warmer weather. We stayed in Dillon and camped right next to our new roadie friends that we met in Hamilton. Dillon is a neat, quaint small town and after our tough two days we decided there was no need to rush getting on back on the bike today. We checked out the Taco Bus and the Patagonia Outlet then got some groceries before finally heading out. We had a flatter, slightly warmer, significantly dryer day, but slight head winds made for still a good ride ahead of us. We have made it to Alder for the night and once again are camping next to Margie, Terri Lynn, Ray and Mike. After a small pass tomorrow it is all down hill into Yellowstone! Jordan may even get to try out his new cycling-herding skillz on buffalo so stay tuned!

Jordan not excited about a rainy day