We have met the BEST people on this trip.  Special shout outs go to the Nortons, Hudsons, and Jeff!!!  We met the Nortons the first day of our trip, and since they're doing the TransAmerican Route we see them periodically throughout the trip!  The Nortons, an Irish couple in their 50s, traveled all the way from Britain to do the tour across the United States!  It has been Dermot's dream since he was just seven years old.  To follow their story, go to http://nortonsdousa.blogspot.com.  The Hudson's, a retired couple from Maine, have been touring for thirty years!  They've definitely taught us a thing or two... half the weight they carry is in awesome food!  Our kind of people!  We don't ride all together during the day, but we sweat up some hills together and catch up at the next town for lunch/dinner/camping.  It has been so awesome to get to know them both.  They've been our families out on the road.  Today, we realized that we won't be seeing either couple anymore and the goodbyes were hard!!!!  Susan Hudson caught me peeing on the side of the road and said I'm a woman after her own heart.  I knew we were going to be fast friends after that. It's crazy how close you get with people when you're roughing it!

Last night, it rained just as we were getting to our camp ground.  We hid underneath the bathroom overhang for two hours waiting for the rain to let up.  Then, Rach had a brilliant idea!!  We put the tent together in the bathroom to stay dry, and we ran with it fully assembled(rain fly and all) to the hiker/biker campsites 500 yards away.  We looked like fools, but dry ones! :) 

It has been a long/awesome couple of days since our last blog.  We have biked up four mountains (If you count hitchhiking a ride up one of them with the FABULOUS JEFF!)  This morning we stopped at a diner for breakfast (even though we had already eaten breakfast) because we were dreading the three mountains that we were planning on biking up.  While we laughed with the locals, one of them (Aka Angel Jeff) offered to give us a ride to the top of the most difficult of the three mountains!!  Without a moments hesitation, Rachel and I agreed! :)  Jeff later told us he was shocked we actually took him up on his generous offer!  Little did he know how desperate we were to take the 30 miles of mountain climb off our day!  Since Jeff gave us a ride, we ended up making it to Baker City a day earlier than we originally planned!!!!  Hallelujah!!!  And now, we get to share the hotel room that Dan got for himself tonight!  Not only did we get a hot shower immediately after finishing our ride, but Dan also got us sloppy joes and banana bread from the hotel front counter.  It doesn't get much better after a long ride. :) :) :)

Since we last blogged, we have finally found Rachel's weakness.  The cold!  As we were climbing one of the mountains of the trip, it started hailing on us!  Literally.  Hail!  It was all good until we had a 31 mile descent in the freezing rain.  Rachel's face was set in a grim line, and I wisely kept my mouth shut until we reached the bottom.  At the bottom, we hopped off our bikes, took off our shoes, and shoved our toes in the hot rocks on the side of the road to warm up.  We shivered and laughed and Rachel's mood warmed right up with her body.  For my sake, pray for sunny weather until the end of the trip! :)