I made it to Missoula 3 days ahead of everyone else!

Guess who tripped over the 45th parallel on May 23rd? Any guesses?

One clue -- me.

That's right my friends, me and my bike tripped right the hell over it -- you know, the 45th parallel is half the distance between the North Pole and the Equator! Crazy.


Long story short:

I was drafting behind another rider - missed the signal that we were stopping and proceeded to run into said rider's trailer. Once we connected, I immediately went down -- the way I tell the story, I went over the handle bars but other witnesses claim I wend down on my side ----- either way, my bike had seen better days.

I basically crumpled my spanking new steel Surley fork - tore a spoke nipple (just wanted to say nipple) out of the rim and bent the hell out of my front racks.

As illustrated by these wonderful photos.

the fork should sweep forward

NEVER FEAR - I was unscathed! Not a drop of blood. Not a scrape on my helmet.


In fact - I'm counting it as my best wreck ever! It's never a pretty site when I go crashing to the earth - I'll usually injure a limb or two - maybe tweak my back - or even bruise a rib. But nothing on this one -- and we were probably cruising around 17-20 mph. Zeus be praised!








I would like to give a big blog shout out to Gordy and Jenni at Mud Creek Outdoor Gear in New Meadows, Idaho -- the accident happened about 2 miles out of New Meadows and without even asking, Gordy came to pick me up for a ride back to town. Not having the parts at their shop, they graciously called all of the nearest bike shops to try and get me rolling. No luck. I decided to make my way to Missoula - where my buddy Ben was anxiously awaiting my visit in 3 or 4 days -- I figured I would be able to get the bike fixed and then meet up again with the group as they came through in the next few days.




I was fixing to thumb the 260 miles to Missoula -- not psyched about it -- but willing. Then Gordy mentioned that the bus comes through every day -- "Glorious" I shouted --- beats the hell out of standing there with my broken bike and a pile of gear, hoping some traveler is going to Missoula and has tons of room for all of my crap (pictured left).



Again, they (Jenni and Gordy) helped me with phone numbers and looked bus info up on the internet ---- extremely nice people -- go by stuff from them!!! They even drove me and my crap 3 blocks down the road to the bus stop so I didn't have to carry it all in 2 trips -- way cool!


Thursday morning (10:45am) I hopped on a bus heading to Spokane, Washington -- where I chatted it up with my busmate - Charlene Montgomery - who has 3 kids (one daughter and 2 sons) and too many grand kids for me to keep track of -- also a very nice person.

I had a connection in Spokane with a Greyhound bus that would take me to Missoula -- the only problem was, I needed to have my bike in a box or Greyhound wouldn't take it -- so bus driver Jim on my first leg, called everyone and his sister to try and find me a bike box before we arrived in Spokane. Luckly we found a bike shop - Paradise Creek Bicycle - in Moscow, Idaho that was a stones throw from the bus stop there. I gave them a jingle and they saved me a box - which I ran over and picked up during the 2 minute stop. All was well.

Then I met my second busmate - Adrienne - home schooled most of her live is currently attending the University of Idaho in Moscow with a major in literature. Given our age difference -- 13 years -- it was surprising that we had very similar taste in music --- her favorite band being U2! That rocks! I've got to try and remember her recommendation - Sugir Ros.

I finally reached my destination - Missoula's bus stop -- around 11:30pm - where Ben picked me and my boxed bike up and headed to his place. We caught up a bit and then I crashed.

Took my bike in today to the shop ---- that I had called the day before to make sure they had the parts -- Missoula Bike Works --- were they will hopefully get me back on the road. I'll keep you posted.

I have other stuff to post from days past, but I felt this was the most important ---- who needs chronological order anyway.