Finish

What a great adventure! The finish to the trip, was very intense, I crossed the state of Washington in four days in order to make it to Anacortes when my parents were there. That men riding about 120mi wed and crossing Sherman pass. 120mi Thur crossing Waconda and loop loop passes. 150 mi Friday crossing Washington pass to finish. Friday I rode with James my brother-in-law, the ride from my sisters place near Mazama to Anacortes took exactly 12hrs.
But hell i'm done! now what... Its a very strange experience being home even though I've only been away for 53 days. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do instead of being granted with that mission without question every morning. An existence with a mission without question is a great way to live, I envy thouse who have that.
I'll be posting pictures of the trip now. Thanks for all your wishes of support along the way!

Enjoy!

...I'm posting pics to the Mallochdigital site which is a lot easier, I'll make an update when they are there with a link.

Whitefish Montana

Its crazy to think how far North I've traveled since my first day on the road. In fact its just crazy to think back how far I've traveled. My first day on the road back in Yorktown seems like forever ago though its only like 45ish days. My friend Reed put it best I think, "your confusing distance with time". I'm almost to the Northern most part of my trek; Eureka, Mt.
Montana continues to display amazing scenery and is surprisingly flat, but that is just due to the rout I'm taking. Traffic here is fucking INSANE! the speed limit on two lane shoulderless roads is 70MPH! It is by far the scariest riding I have done to date. Going into Seeley lake two day ago (just out of Missoula) day I had the worst harassment of the entire trip (even worse than Missouri where I had trash thrown at me); lots of logging folk who hate us bicycle riding librawls.
I visited the Adventure Cycling Association headquarters in Missoula, its is the central Nexus of the touring wold and full of friendly folk. While working on truing my wheels there I was treated with free ice cream...awesome. I also saw the best bike sticker of my life 'my other ride is your mom'. Note to self: must get this sticker. I was also granted with a new jersey I want to have made: 'my other water bottle is a GLOCK'. Yes, the traffic here is getting to me, it has definitely detracted from the beauty of this state.
I'm starting to get a bit ancy about getting home; that or the coffee is just getting stronger as I head West (which happens to be true). I'm now well ahead of any schedule I had thought I would be on, even just a week ago. The thought of not being always on the road sounds very nice. However, the only problems with this plan is what to do when I return... Though one of my goals for this trip was to try and figure this out, I haven't. While I have ruled out some ideas, others keep popping into my head... maybe I just need to go on another trip after this one when I get back!
Returning home after being on the road, experiencing what I have, seeing what I have, and getting used to always being on the road, feels like it will be both a blessing and a challenge.

Day 40? Montana

I'm now in Twin Bridges Montana. I've spent the last several days riding with a great group of guys from Tennessee and Virginia as we traveled through Yellowstone Park. Though I've been to Yellowstone twice before, the crazy geothermal anomalies there still intrigue me. The traffic wasn't as crazy as I imagined even though it was the 4th of July weekend. The worst by far are stupid people who have rented RVs and have no experience driving them, then try to pass you on blind corners...stupid. (Picture: Back to front: Dan, Chris, Dave, Mike)

Over the past week it seems a lot of bikers have been in my relative proximity. In the city of Landers, Wy there were about 15 cyclists all together storming the the town. While its nice to be around folks of the same persuasion, it can be a bit obnoxious trying to coordinate anything.

I'm now back on my own which is faster but kind of a shock. The scenery continues to be amazing but also hillier in general. Furthermore the weather has become predictable with thunder storms every afternoon. I've been trying to make progress but have defiantly jumped off the road into drainage ditches dropping my bike and squatting while the lightning passes. I feel pretty stupid doing so but riding a chunk of steel on the open road in "big sky country" with electricity shooting down at you is not too smart. Aside from lightning, people in Montana seem to love or hate bikes either buzzing me as close as possible when the road is clear and strait or swinging onto the rumble strip of the opposite lane...stupid.

I hope to be in Missoula in two or three days at which point I break from the regular Tansam route and continue North to White Fish and Eureka before turning West for home. I expect to see fewer bikers on that route since the Transam generally gets more patronage than any of the others.

I've included a picture of myself crossing into Montana just inside the Western boundary of Yellowstone. The west has shown a sharp decline in the number of showers. I can't remember how longs its been now but I think I'm smelling bad because the guy on the computer next to me is giving me funny looks.