Otis & Julia Pedal for a Really, Really Long Time

We’ve been home for about a week now and I decided I should probably do some kind of wrap-up for the blog.

At the last update we were in Ashton, Idaho. The next day we rode 90 miles to Howe, Idaho, population 20. Seriously. We had dinner at the only establishment in town and were waited on by an 8 year old. We camped that night in Howe.

The next morning we got up and rode 20 miles to Arco, Idaho, which was the first community in the world ever to be lit by electricity generated by nuclear power (in 1955). They celebrate that every year during Atomic Days. We happened to roll on to town just in time for the Atomic Days Parade!

After the parade we started riding again but didn’t make it far before my hip started really bothering me (I had done something to it earlier but was trying to ignore it). After awhile I was having a pretty hard time riding so we decided to give hitch hiking another try. We were picked up by self-proclaimed “crazy” Joyce. We threw all our stuff in the back of her pickup truck and climbed in. We spent the next several hours hanging on for dear life. Joyce was only going to take us to the next town, but the town had a population of about 75 and she just didn’t feel good about leaving us in a “hole in the wall place like that,” so we continued on. Joyce made really good time (90 mph down the interstate feels really fast from the bed of a pickup truck!) and we ended up in Boise in no time! Joyce dropped us off at a hotel and then came back to give us her phone number because “it’s always nice to know someone.” Crazy Joyce turned out to be a pretty nice lady!

We left Boise the next morning and rode to 70 miles to Vale, Oregon! It was SO awesome to cross the river into our state :) The only disappointment was that there was no welcome to Oregon sign! We had to take a picture with the welcome to Nyssa sign, which was in the shape of Oregon. We stayed that night with some friends in Vale.

The next morning we set off again. My hip was still bothering me a lot so it was pretty slow going. We made it almost to Unity, Oregon where Lewis, Maria and Jasper found us sitting in a ditch. We were very happy to see them! We road-tripped with them the rest of the way home. Otis is going to ride to the coast tomorrow to officially finish the ride. Maybe I’ll do that someday after my body recovers :)

Here are the official stats:
- Miles covered: 3,400
- Miles pedaled: 2,400
- Number of States: 13 (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon).
- Number of weeks: 5
- Number of flat tires: 3 (pretty amazing!)

So there you have it. We pedaled for a really, really long time, met many interesting people, saw some beautiful country, and made some great memories. I’d call that a successful adventure!

Thanks to all of our fans for reading our blog and keeping track of us along the way! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

We left Colter Bay Campground on Tuesday morning and rode to Flagg Ranch (between the Tetons and Yellowstone) before the stormy weather got the better of us. We sat around the lodge reading for a couple of hours before it cleared up enough to ride.

We rode into Yellowstone National Park a little while later. We camped that night at Lewis Lake and just about froze! We were at around 8,000 feet elevation and there was still snow on the ground in many places.

The next morning we rode through the south end of the park over Craig Pass all the way to Old Faithful. It was another beautiful ride! We saw lots of elk and a huge bison, but no bears (I looked so hard for bears I almost crashed!).

We spent some time walking around the geysers while we waited for Old Faithful. The geysers (and the colors) are amazing! We saw Old Faithful do it’s thing right before a storm of epic proportions blew in. After the storm passed we continued on.

We rode past more geysers, springs, waterfalls, creeks and meadows. We followed the Madison River out to West Yellowstone. It was late afternoon and with the sun shining and the sights and smells I could have kept riding forever!

We got to the campground in West Yellowstone and met up again with Mike and John. We had some dinner and sat around visiting and sharing the last bottle of wine. Mike is 75 and about the funniest guy ever, by the way.

Apparently a bear who has been visiting the campground showed up again last night but I missed him!

We got up this morning and said good bye to Mike and John (they are continuing North and we’re headed West). We rode 52 miles to Ashton, Idaho where we are staying tonight.

This past week has definitely been the best part of the trip. We rode through some beautiful scenery and enjoyed good company. We met a lot of other touring groups as well. Otis and I are considered very “unconventional” by cyclist standards (which is okay by us!!) because we ride in sandals and normal clothes and don’t keep track of our stats. I can’t imagine what they would say if they knew that I rode across part of Iowa in a sun dress and flip flops!

We’ve had a lot of fun but we’re starting to look forward to home. We only have 710 miles left to go!