We continue to meet amazing people as we travel across the country. The relationships we form, even as briefly as they may be, have truly made this trip what is has been thus far. Although we would love to mention all we meet, we will highlight a few that have made an impact on the trip.
After our stay in Tonasket at Shannon’s Place, we had quite a climb up to Wauconda Pass. A few miles before the pass, we biked through the Okanogan Highlands where the community of Wauconda is found. There are a few houses among the rolling hills and a post office. We decided to take a break at the post office where we met Dan and Charlotte. Dan is a retired engineer and Charlotte taught sewing for multiple different homeschool co-ops. What struck us both about the couple was their openness to two cycling strangers and their genuine interest in not only our trip, but who we were as people. When Dan found out I was an engineer, he told me his career story and gave me advice on contract engineering and what had helped him out most in his own career. For me (Spencer), this was welcome advice being between jobs. They invited us to the barrel races in Curlew, WA and gave us a ticket to participate in the festivities. 
Unfortunately our timing did not line up with the race and we did not attend. Meeting with Dan and Charlotte was a continuation of the hospitality we had been shown in Eastern Washington.
Where to begin with Kay. We could probably write an entire post alone about the hospitality and conversations we had with Kay. We met Kay through a nonprofit collective known as Warm Showers. The collective connects touring cyclists with people who open up their homes and allow them to stay on their property for free. Each host can offer different amenities, from camping on their land to use of a full finished basement. Our first experience with this was in Republic, WA. Boyd and DiAnne open up their walkout basement to cyclists, fully furnished with a bed, bathroom and shower, and use of their washer and dryer. When we arrived in Republic, Boyd and DiAnne were gone, but Kay was house sitting their dogs and graciously agreed to take us in. We immediately knew we were in for a treat when Kay greeted us with a warm, Eastern Washington mountain welcome. They had set out extra sheets and a blow-up matress for us, and the fact we didn’t have to set up and break down camp was an incredible blessing. Kay gave us some recommendations on places to eat in Republic and told us she would make us breakfast in the morning. And did she ever make us breakfast. The next morning, after a wonderful nights sleep, we awoke to coffee, poached eggs, and toast with homemade Huckleberry jam. Now this was our first experience with the Huckleberry, and as we have come to find out, people in eastern Washington and Weatern Montana are quite creative with this little berry, putting it in anything from tea, to jam, to cheesecake. Kay’s homemade Huckleberry jam was probably some of the best, if not the best, we have had on the trip. We sat and talked with Kay for two hours listening and sharing stories. She had cancer when she was 27 and has been cancer free for 40 years now and still going strong. She gave us a lot of advice on growing up in the mountains, dealing with town bullies, and how to make some of the best Huckleberry jam. We are not sure what it was, but something about Kay made us feel at home, like we belonged in that place at that time. That gift of hospitality is one that we were incredible blessed with by Kay, and as we parted ways, Kay took down our address to send us Huckleberry jam when the berries came on for the season.
We have met many different cyclists along the way and we cannot mention all of them, but we did want to mention this family we met while riding into Sandpoint, ID. David and his son Jackson were on a tandem together, and David’s wife/Jackson’s mother Lisa came riding up from behind as we crossed the bridge over Lake Pend Oreille. David went to school in Earlham College in Richmond, IN and Lisa attend college at the Univeristy of Michigan, so our Midwest connection was immediately made. They told us all about Sandpoint and how they had fallen in love with the area, mountains surrounding a beautiful lake. They were very passionate about raising awareness for autism, as they had helped plan/organize weekend cycling events for the cause. As we came closer to Sandpoint, we both needed to visit the local bike shop. They began giving us directions, but instead went out of their way to ride with us all the way to the shop before parting ways. A small but generous gesture to go out of their way and ride with us to our desitination that made a lasting impression on us both.
So truth be told, we had to snag this photo from another cyclists who you can follow on Instagram @nomad_duane (thanks Duane!). Duane is touring across the Northern Tier and is WAY far ahead of us at this point, but also met two people with whom we wanted to mention, Irene and Gaylon. We met Irene while we were refilling our water at Dunn Creek Campground outside of Libby, MT. Irene was sitting on the dock of the Kootenay River watching an eagle across the river. As we filtered water from the river for that night and the next day, we struck up conversation and Irene told us all about her travels with her husband across the US. She and her husband were traveling with a nice pull behind camper. As we went on our way the next day, we ran into Irene and her husband Gaylon as they were out in their truck scouting out their next campsite. They stopped and Gaylon got out of his truck to chat. He is 83, and in the words of Irene, he is a talker. We gladly listened to him tell us stories about their travels, he showed us his solar charging setup he installed on his pickup, and his time in Alaska as a defense contractor. As they parted ways, we once again felt as though we had been invited into someone’s life, and if we ever saw them again, we would be greeted as old friends. Just another example of the bonds formed while on the road.
Traveling across eastern Montana to the North Dakota border was a logistical challenge. From Glasgow, MT to Medora, ND was around 240 miles. This mileage was best split up into three 80 mile days; however, the ACA has no place to stay between Glasgow and Glendive that allowed us to stay around this mileage. Our options seemed to be either split the 240 miles into 4 days or continue with 3 days, one of which would have to be over 100 miles. Neither of these options seemed too appealing to us, which is where Carol and Ted enter the equation. There is a town between Glasgow, MT and Glendive, MT called Vida. This town was at the perfect mileage to allow us to get to Medora in three days without pulling our first century day, which would have been near impossible for us with the winds and rolling hills of the area. The official ACA route had no lodging options listed in Vida, but there was a post office. Vida also had two churches and we had heard that many churches allow you to camp on their property if you call and ask. So Nick called the post office in town to inquire about who we could contact to ask if we could camp on the lawn of one of the churches. The worker at the post office told Nick to call Carol and gave him her number with no hesitation. Nick called Carol and when he asked if we could camp on the Church lawn, she replied with a question of her own, asking if we were good guys. Nick told her when we were not on this bike trip, we both attended church, not knowing any other way to be qualified as “good”. She said she had plenty of lawn space between her lawn and the church in which we could camp and told us to stop by when we arrived in town. Nick told her we would arrive in the evening of the next day and we both were thankful to have a piece of land on which we could make camp. On our ride from Glasgow to Vida, we caught a tailwind for the first 50 miles and ended up arriving in the early afternoon. As we pulled into Vida, we did not realize how small of a town this actually was, consisting of a collection of less than a dozen houses, a post office, a service station, a K-6 school, and a bar/restaurant that was closed. We rode on the dirt/gravel road a quarter mile to arrive at the green, well-manicured lawn of Carol and Ted. Carol came out to greet us and immediately made us feel welcome. She gave us water and showed us where we could put our bikes. Before we even began to unpack, Carol took us around her house and started telling us about her family, most of which lived in the surrounding houses. She took us across the street and introduced us to her grandson, daughter, and son-in-law. Her daughter was the local school teacher for grades 2nd-5th. Her son-in-law farmed in the surrounding area. Her daughter told us they had hosted a group of cyclists earlier in the year and let them stay in the school. She offered to unlock the school and let us do the same, which sounded great to us as we would not have to set up and tear down camp. But Carol insisted we just stay in her basement, as there was construction in the school during the summer months. We went back to Carol’s house and began disassembling our gear from the bikes. Carol popped out and invited us in, showed us where we could shower, offered us towels, and showed us the finished basement where would would sleep that night. She then asked if meatloaf was OK for dinner, as she had prepared it ahead when she knew we were coming to stay. About this time is when her husband Ted came home. We immediately hit it off with Ted, as he had a great sense of humor and a welcoming personality that complimented Carol perfectly. That night, we ate dinner together and had wonderful conversation, us learning their story and they learning ours. Ted and Carol both had been widowed. They remarried 5 years ago and in their words were still getting to know one another. To us it seemed like they had been married for 50 years. Carol was a stay at home mom and farm wife in her previous marriage and Ted was retired from the post office, a job that in his words had helped support his farming habit over the years. He recently sold his farm north of Wolf Point, MT and was now happily retired with Carol. They both were incredibly proud grandparents, showing us pictures of all of their grandchildren and telling a bit of each of their stories. By the time we went to bed, they had opened up their home and their lives and made us a part of it. The next morning, Carol made us farm-fresh eggs, sausage, and toast. While at breakfast, Ted showed us a picture of a paddlefish fish he had caught that was 74 lbs. He explained you can eat them, and to that Carol said she preferred not to. As we packed up our things and left, we once again had been welcomed in as complete strangers and made to feel not like guests, but as friends. As we have traveled across Washington and Montana, we feel like we have experienced hospitality in a new way. Being on the receiving end of this type of generosity is both humbling and truly a blessing when away from home. We both hope to carry these experiences forward and serve the sojourner in our own lives both on this trip and beyond.
A Slight Detour 