June 27, 2010. Bear Paw Camp, WA to Sandpoint, ID. 46 miles

As we were leaving Bear Paw Camp I saw 4 wild turkeys in the field next to the road. It was quite cool, but when they saw me they moved on, so no photos of those turkeys... The Pend Oreille River was beside us much of the day, and I took reflective photos in the morning calm.

We encountered rolling hills all day--it was like interval training; we pedaled very hard for an interval and then hardly pedaled for the next interval, repeated many times over. It was great fun... Dianne and I started out together, and stopped at the State Line sign for a photo op after 12 miles of riding. This is the first state line photo of my new bike! Yay! After we crossed into Idaho, it seemed very much the same as Washington--rolling hills and farmland, a lovely ride overall. We were warned of a steep downhill--it was an 8% grade. Nothing scares me any more after the 12% down grade into Jerome AZ in 2008...

The sag vehicle was at the 15 miles point and the 30 mile point, perfect spacing for a 46 mile ride. As we got close to Sandpoint, there was a bike path parallelling highway 95. That was a great idea and it's unfortunate that it was in such poor shape. I took this photo of a cow bird sculpture along the road. There was also a chainsaw carving of a chicken that was taller than me, but that was when my camera told me it was going into battery save mode.

I rode into Sandpoint solo and headed straight for the bike shop. Bill had researched area bike shops and sent me google earth directions to the one he thought would be best for my bike. I passed another shop on my way to Sports Plus, and Bill was right. The mechanic at Sports Plus, Tony, took care of me right away, and I told him that the bike only "ticked" when I was riding it, not when rotating the pedals unloaded. So he hopped on my bike and rode it around the block! Then he took apart the crank and poured water out of it--he said there was not enough grease in it. Of course we have ridden through a LOT of rain, and I was supposed to take my bike back in after riding it a couple of weeks, but I did not have a couple of weeks to do that! I rode it a week and shipped it off to Anacortes! Anyway he also checked my cables and adjusted my brakes, all while I waited. He charged a very reasonable price, and now my bike rides like a new bike again!

While I was at the bike shop, Dianne came to meet me, and after we were done there we had lunch at Dub's, a hamburger joint right next to the bike shop. We met Paul there.... he is riding across the country every which way, self supported, and has been doing that for three years! He told us that he camped last night along our route for Tuesday and found a moose in his camp in the morning. Guess we'd better be alert when we leave here...
There are 2 Lindas, a Lynda and a Lin on this tour, so I renamed myself "Detroit". Alison sent me a Detroit sticker which I put on my bike right away. Now there is "little Linda", lin, Lynda from Louisiana, and me, Detroit. My camera battery finally told me it was all done. Fortunately the battery and charger I left in Winthrop will arrive here Monday, along with our Scrabble timer, my computer mouse, and my raingear. We are all very ready to have a rest day. We celebrated our first state line crossing with free Margaritas, pulled pork sandwiches, salad, and cake. There was the usual toad food (tofu) for the vegetarians, and below is our sous chef, Amy, threatening us with a butcher knife and colander.