Jay planned to ride with Art today. In a previous post, I mentioned that we had our front brakes on the truck replaced, but they didn’t have the necessary calipers. We’ve had to order them from Les Schwab in Spokane, who will deliver them to us on Thursday. Unfortunately, because those are still bad, our brakes got hot as I was coming down steep hills. I pulled over where we were dropping them to ride to smoke! It scared me. Jay stayed to drive us to the RV park because of that. I feel awful that I interfered with a riding day for him, but he had not wanted to ride, either. It gave him an excuse. After discussing this situation, he decided to stay with me on the days we have to move and ride with Art on the days we don’t. In the meantime, we’ll leave our locations early and keep working with me on backing at the truck stops. We’ll do this until I am handling backing well. Honestly, I need to get comfortable. We headed out on this trip a bit too early. Jay needed to find joy in riding again first, and I need to be comfortable with any issues.
Our rig is so big, I couldn’t fit it all in the photo, even from across the exit.
We dropped Art off, and he headed toward the bike trail according to the detour information posted. There is, of course, a lot of construction going on this time of year. Jay and Art checked out some things on his bike to track mileage:
He’s ready!
And he’s off:
You can see the landscape has changed, and so has the temperature! Today is Sunday as I write this, and it got to 102 degrees!
Art headed out on the detour bike path for five miles. He came to a locked bar across the path with an eight-foot chain-link fence topped by barred wire. There were workers there, and he hollered, asking them to unlock it. They ignored him. He had no choice but to turn around and ride back five miles, then ride down the very busy I-90 again. When he could take the path, he did. Here are some photos from Day Nine.
This was the trail, loose gravel again, which made it dangerous.
The loose gravel causes a bike tire to slide out. Art had to take care to stay safe. But he also had some beautiful and interesting views = Orchards:
And this one:
Some water, a reservoir or lake, on the way:
Does he look like he’s having fun? Yes! He is! Now, a cooling spray ahead:
A correction from the original note about the photo below. Art was uncertain if this was a dog, like a malamute, or a wolf. My guess is wolf because it turned and ran from him when it saw him. But a dog would likely approach. It’s a bit blurry because the original photo was taken at a great distance.
Art didn’t want to count his ten miles up and back down the detour road that was blocked off. But I told him I was counting it. It’s not his fault the detour was wrong. He rode a total of sixty miles yesterday! Sixty! He only wanted to count fifty. No way! He’s working hard on this trip to reach his goal. Now I ask you, is this joy or what?
He is living his best life on this trip and enjoying every second of it. Keep reading, subscribe for free, and watch him make it as far as he can in the next three months. Will he make it? We’ll see…
Next Up: A Restful Sunday
On Hummingbirds Wings 