Off-the-bike touring
We aren’t doing the RAAM or trying to set any type of record bicycling across the countries. This is a vacation and although we have a reasonable amount of time to make the crossing, we aren’t planning on doing it in a zig-zag pattern. That will be some other trip. Our route takes us through some interesting territory, but misses other points of interest that we really should stop and see since we are only a few hours away. That’s a few hours by car. We usually figure that one hour of car travel is equivalent to a day’s worth of bicycle riding. Attractions a few hours away would add days to our itinerary, hence we will be renting cars now and then.
The first spot that we want to visit is Mount St. Helens. That’s early in the trip and our host in Longview has told us that it is possible to rent a car there. I would really like to visit John Day Fossil Beds National Monument again. I have a framed poster of the painted hills in my room. It’s been ages since I last visited there and Robert has never been there. I can’t imagine that there would be rental cars available in Biggs, Oregon, which appears to be not much more than a truckstop.
One of my favorite National Parks is Glacier. I first went there as a kid and will never forget camping at Cut Bank, a primitive spot in the park. There was no water, except that from the stream, which we frequently fetched. We thought that it was such a thrill to get water directly from the creek that we inadvertently kicked over the water bucket numerous times. In those days, I guess that we didn’t worry about giardia. That would have been a picnic compared to the oatmeal flavored with white gas that we were forced to eat for breakfast at that campground. Waste not, want not. Cut Bank often is the coldest spot in the US and it always was exciting to know exactly what Cut Bank looked like when the weatherman mentioned it.
I have been back to Glacier several times, most recently in the winter when I had a chance to go snowshoeing.
Lake McDonald in winter
Robert hasn’t been there yet and since we are relatively close, it would be worth the effort to get there. Missoula is on our route and would be an easy place to find a rental car.
Besides those places, I can’t think of any others that would make us deviate from our itinerary. I have been to 49 states and have seen much of what is along the route. Should we see or hear of some not-to-be-missed spot, we can always consider our options and alter our itinerary. Speaking of which, the trip hasn’t budged from its currently planned route to our house near Albany. Maybe one of these days, I will sit down and figure out a route from here to Portland.