Looooong Day

After I left Devin and Franci's I went to the bike shop and invested in 2 new tires and 3 new tubes... I meet back up with Bill and Nick after that. They met a guy from Seattle that was doing the trip as well. The new tires felt great and the ride was going smooth. Zach is traveling real light and he has done a bit of biking before, so he was definitely picking up the pace.

I stopped to check my tire because it was wobbling a little bit and I tightened some of the spokes. I rode up the huge hill only to remember that I left the tools on the guardrail, so I had to ride back down the hill and I dropped my toothpaste in the road as I was stopping and there was only one vehicle coming and I was hoping he wouldn't hit my toothpaste in the road.... Splat, toothpaste all over. Picked up the tube, there is enough for a few days left and then I got my tools and went back up the hill. 

By the time I caught back up to Bill and Nick who were waiting for me on the side of the road, I had broke a spoke and my tire was wobbling. We met some girls at a store who are also going cross country on their bikes and they go to school about 20 miles up the road from Bill and Nick in Massachusetts. 

We had a beautiful ride to the campground and there was an awesome lake we took a swim in and did a little washing of the clothes. I couldn't stay long in the water because I had to figure out how to straighten my tire. Because it was the rear tire, I would have to take the cassett (rear gears) off to change the spoke, so I couldn't do anything except try to straighten the wheel. By the end of the night, the wheel was so bent it wouldn't go past the brake, so I decided to work on it in the morning when I could see properly. 

We did cross Idaho and made it into Montana as well as a new time zone.