"Entry for Tuesday, 29 July 1997

Connie relaxing in front of the truck in Sandpoint, ID.

Day's Narrative: I started out at the usual time -- just before 07:00. US highway 2 out of Spokane is four lanes all the way to Newport, WA. There's a wide shoulder, so there's no problem.

These long stretches of road remind me of working on my Father's farm as a teenager. Then I drove a tractor all day mowing pastures or cultivating fields. Typically I was out there all day, only taking a break in the shade of a tree to eat lunch. Bicycling long distances in kind of like that. You think your own random thoughts for hours on end.

I've noticed that in the east people tend to throw girlie magazines out on the highway. In the west they throw out mail order catalogs and underwear. I wonder if there's any underlying social anthropological significance to this.

To my dismay, I have discovered that from a distance the design on the the bicycle shirt I'm wearing looks like a spotted owl. I will change this shirt before I get back into logging country.

I had a snack at a Conoco Station convenience store in Newport, WA about 10:30. As I was finishing my ham sandwich I saw a young woman across the road bicycling the direction I would be going in a few moments. After I got back on the road again I could see her in the distance. However, after I went around a curve she was gone. A few minutes down the road I came upon her fixing a flat. Her name was Lynn Moore and she was training for an iron man triathalon coming up soon in Canada. We chatted for a while before I rode ahead. She shortly passed me with a wave and disappeared in the distance ahead of me.

Connie and connected again in Sandpoint, ID about 2:30 pm.

The motel here has an internal phone system which will not give a dial tone on my modem. Thanks to the owners, I connected to Roadrunner and updated the web page using the fax line in the motel office.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1997