Great Western Electric Vehicle Road Trip (Grand Canyon Rafting, Glacier Park Cycling and Columbia River Gorge Cruise and Cycling) August 2025

Thursday July 31, 2025

Last May, we went just to look at the new Audi Q6 EV, and ended up buying it! In the back of my mind, I didn’t know if we’d be able to pull off the road trip we had planned for the month of August. However, after a few months of driving the vehicle up north and to St Paul, we felt confident enough to embark on this journey!

Audi has an amazing charging planning app so I’ve used that to plan our route (5583 miles and about 40 charging stops) - adapting the routes to where we’ll have access to fast chargers (not always the fastest route or the route I wanted to take). We plan to stop at Electrify America fast chargers whenever we can, as Audi offers free charging for a year with EA. I’ve also found the app “Plug Share” to be helpful as it lists all manner of chargers available to the public - fast and slow. In our experience so far, the EA fast charging stations charge us from 30% to 80% in about 10 minutes - not all that much different than a gas/toilet/drink stop in our old Audi!

We left Waunakee about 11:30am and headed towards Iowa. With our plan to get to the EA charger, we cut it a little close and cruised into Williamsburg IA with 18% power (the A/C and radio shut down at 20% to save power)! We drove just over another hour again and detoured into Des Moines to hit another EA super charger since there wouldn’t be another until we reached Kansas City.

I’d booked a room at the Fairfield Inn just north of KC using my Marriott points and we arrived there about 8pm with 32% power so we’ll need to charge in the morning before we hit the road again. Our plan was to make it to Albuquerque so we knew it’d be a long day: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico!

We ate snacks out of our cooler for dinner and vegged out watching some Netflix. Good day of travel - 478.8 miles, one McDonald’s stop and two charging stops (33 minutes total).

Friday August 1, 2025

On hindsight, staying on the north side of KC was probably a mistake as it had us driving through rush-hour traffic in the morning. We were up at 6am, dressed and went down to the hotel breakfast where JT experimented with “Red Velvet” waffle mix (doesn’t recommend it). We were on our way by 7:30am. Like yesterday, the air is thick with wildfire smoke. It gives a pretty tint to the sky, but leaves our eyes feeling scratchy and irritated, who knows what it’s doing to the respiratory system!

Staying with our plan to try to use just EA chargers, we set out to go into the heart of KC, starting with about 32% power so we dropped below the 20% zone with about 4 miles to go. Not where we want to be, but the stress of having the car drop into that zone is lessening. Especially in town where there are other options; not so out on the interstate!!

Finding the station was interesting - it was an area with several blocks of high-end stores. When we reached the area, Google maps just said “arrived.” We drove around a few blocks not seeing the charging station, then finally noticed a small entrance for a parking garage and entered that, and there we found 8 empty EA charging stations - whew! It was a lovely drive out of KC along a green space with a mostly dried up river, but lots of beautifully landscaped homes. By 8:30am we were back on 35S headed towards Wichita.

About halfway to Wichita, Jeff was getting sleepy so he stopped at a gas station and we switched drivers (I’d already had my first nap of the day by then). We were traveling on the Kansas Turnpike by then, wondering if we’d activated the “Integrated Toll Module” in this vehicle … I guess we will see!

I’d only travelled this road once before and that was in February 2022 when we were headed to a BrightStar Owner’s Conference in Dallas. Due to an ice storm, our Thursday flight to Dallas had been cancelled and couldn’t be rescheduled until Saturday and by then, the conference would nearly be over. That Wednesday night, we made a spontaneous decision to drive to the conference. We didn’t check the weather and didn’t realize how widespread the storm was (it wasn’t localized to Texas!!). In southern Illinois, we gassed up and switched drivers. I hadn’t been driving long when ice started freezing on the windshield and cars started sliding off the interstate in front of me. Jeff was sleeping, but awoke to the sound of my whimpering - I really dislike driving on icy roads (probably goes back to an accident I had on an icy bridge a lifetime ago). The next exit had a sign for a hotel so I safely exited and pulled up to the hotel. Jeff went in and rang the bell to wake up the night manager (it was probably around midnight). He paid cash and the woman came out to the car to verify that we were a legitimate couple and he hadn’t abducted a teenager or something like that - tells you what kind of fine establishment it was! We didn’t bring anything into the room and slept fully clothed on the bed, not turning a lot of lights on and looking around too much (the hotels on our cross-country bike trip lowered our standards drastically, but this was right up there with one of the sleaziest we’d seen). We set an alarm for 3am to check the weather and make a plan. Using my iPad to check the weather and iPhone to plot a route, we thought if we headed West to Kansas and Oklahoma, we might be able to skirt the storm, so we headed out. No problem getting through St Louis, and we stopped in a diner around Kansas City for a good breakfast. Then we jumped on this route to Wichita, Oklahoma City and Dallas. The majority of the snow had passed, but bridges were slippery and as we got further into Oklahoma, much of the road and all of the ramps hadn’t even been plowed! We lost count of the number of cars and trucks that had slid off the road, but I’m sure it was more than 100 all the way from IL to Dallas!! It was tense driving, but the Audi Q5 with its “Quattro” drive train performed fantastically. Our biggest problem was we ran out of windshield solvent just south of KC and couldn’t find it ANYWHERE until we got back to southern Illinois the following Sunday afternoon! Anyhow, as I was driving today, I marveled how different the ranch land of Kansas looks without snow and ice.

Our EA Charger station in Wichita was at a mall. We were surprised to find all 4 stations in use, but one guy was just unhooking so we were able to get right in. About 5 miles before arriving, we’d dropped to the “efficiency plus” mode that happens under 20% again - woke JT up from his nap as it got stuffy real fast after the A/C cut off! We plugged in and headed over to the mall in search of restrooms. It was crazy there - so many kids! There was a play area near the food court that was just crawling with kids - something to do on a hot summer day I guess. We arrived back at the car just as it reached 80% (20 minutes). Not sure if I mentioned that after it reaches 80% you have a 10-minute grace period to unplug your car and move it to prevent hogging the chargers. Last week we lost track of time browsing at Target while we were charging in Wausau and got hit with the $0.40/per minute parking fee!

Uneventful segment to our next stop in Oklahoma City, especially for me because I napped most of the 150 miles! There, we turned west, and stopped at another mall for a EA charging session (18 minutes to jump us back to 80%).

I drove the next section along I-40 to Erick, OK. We went past Garth Brook’s hometown (at least that’s what the water tower claimed!). Since we had a mostly full charge and only 142 miles until our next charging stop, I set the cruise at 75 mph, which uses significantly more energy. When we left OC, the skies cleared and the sun came out and the external temperature climbed to 90 degrees! The charging stop in Erick was at a Love’s Truck Stop, and presented us with a few more learning opportunities. There was a truck plugged into 1 of the 4 stations, so I pulled into the 1st station. As we were plugging in, I noticed it was a 150 kWh “fast charger,” but not a 350 kWh “rapid charger” like we’d been using. Now I’ve learned if I study the specific information for each station a little closer, it says which pumps are out of order and while are “fast” versus “super fast.” Meanwhile, a VW came in and pulled into the other open 350 slot. We started the not-so-fast charger and the app said it’d take 60 minutes to charge to 80% and it wasn’t the sort of place I felt like hanging around for 60 minutes!! The guy in the truck left and we pulled into that slot. We plugged in and went inside to use the toilets. When we came out, we saw it had charged to 53% and then had an error. I said “it’s only 116 miles to our next stop in Amarillo so let’s just go.” We should have known better - it’s no fun to be driving down the interstate staring at the miles to go and the car’s suggestion of how far we can go and calculating whether we’ll make it or not!

Other than obsession with charging, I’d gotten a notification from the library that my audiobook of Janet Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum novel “Now or Never” - always good for passing the time!!

The Amarillo EA station was on the west side of town, so since we were again cruising in with low charge, we decided to forgo our “All Electrify American” challenge and use a different kind of charger on the east side of town, at a Flying J Truck Stop. There were 4 rapid chargers with just one in use, and a nice canopy over the station and garbage / recycling bins. JT plugged in and I swiped my Apple Pay credit card and we were off to the races - easy peasy. About $18 for a charge to take us the next 200 or so miles.

After we charged, we crossed the highway to go to Buc-ee’s and picked up two sandwiches - a brisket and a pulled pork, and a pack of homemade kettle chips. We decided to eat on the road as we were burning daylight by then, it was almost 8pm and we still had nearly 300 miles to go! As I pulled onto I-40 West, we were looking directly into the setting sun and thought that would be a pain. That ended up being a non-issue as clouds formed and made for really beautiful sky and sunset.

We started noticing lightening all over the western sky - some just flashes lighting up the whole sky, some spectacular bolts. The “show” went on for nearly an hour. Jeff decided to nap so he’d be ready for our last 110 mile stretch. About 10 miles from Santa Rosa, we finally caught up with the rain and it came fast and hard. Jeff had just woken up and pulled up the radar on his phone - it was a bubble of color, heading right at us, but slow moving. The road had a lot of rough spots, and so many hunks of truck tires laying all over which was bad in the light, but in the dark it was horrible. The lightening actually helped a bit with the visibility!! When the hard rain started, I was driving on a newly paved section of the road - dark black asphalt, interspersed with white dots where the centerline should be and no ability to tell where the road ended and the shoulder started. I started to freak out and even with yoga breathing I couldn’t calm myself. My neck and shoulders were seizing up with the tension. Jeff coached me to just slow down and run with the flashers on, then it seemed cars and trucks were all just pulling over so I joined the line and did that too. The rain was coming so hard we couldn’t see and the wind buffeted the car. I climbed into the back seat (even though they’re folded down and full of gear) and Jeff climbed over to the driver’s side. We didn’t know we could switch positions without going outside, but we can! We sat along the side of the road for about 30 minutes. Most people were pulled over, but there was still the occasional truck or car flying by. I can’t believe we didn’t see a pileup on either side of the road!

We slowly made our way to the Love’s Truck Stop in Santa Rosa where there were four charging stations, but only three were functional. The place was a zoo with travelers seeking refuge from the storm - including non-EVs parked in the EV charging slots. One guy was sitting in his truck and Jeff wrapped on his window and he drove off, leaving us a super-fast 350Kw slot. It was still raining, but not pouring. Of course, our rain coats were in the way back in our backpacks. I grabbed an umbrella, which did little good with the rain coming sideways, and puddles around the base of the charging stations. For whatever reason, our charging session cut out twice, so we’d head back into the elements to get it restarted, and hung in there until we got to 80% charge with the third attempt.

Jeff drove the final 110 miles segment, and about 20 miles west of Santa Rosa the sky was clear and the moon was playing peek-a-boo behind some clouds. We put on some John Prine music and laughed about lyrics we’d never heard before in songs we thought we knew. Just after midnight, we arrived at the Albuquerque Uptown Fairfield Inn and Suites. We quickly brushed our teeth and then passed out.

Big day - 892 miles, 6 charging stops. We’re a good road trip team, going through some stressful moments and working things out together. We know that the hardships we conquer make the best stories down the road!

Saturday August 2, 2025

We both woke up feeling hung over, even though we haven’t had a drink in days!! I was awake at 6, which is like 7 CST, and I read for a bit until Jeff woke up. We decided to hit the road to get to the Grand Canyon as early as possible. We dressed, filled the cooler with ice, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out to get a charge.

About a half mile from the hotel, we found a “charging park!” There were 4 EA’s, 12 Tesla chargers, and several Rivian chargers! Other than a few Tesla’s we were the only ones there. We plugged into a Super Fast, but it took 18 minutes to charge and ran at a slower rate (unsure why that happened?). While we waited, we danced around the empty parking lot for a bit, and then watched a couple of roadrunners poking around the rocks in the parking lot, that was a little unusual! We were back on the highway by about 8:30am.

Uneventful drive to our first stop in Gallup NM. It’s a gorgeous morning, and we drove through gorgeous scenery with dramatic mesas, cliffs and canyons. It’s making us excited for what we’ll be seeing this week from the Colorado River as we traverse through the Grand Canyon! In Gallup, we stopped at the Walmart for a charge. Even though the day looked glorious from the air-conditioned car, it was already quite hot! There was one family there struggling to get their car connected. We easily connected to a 350kW charger, but it ran at a very slow rate for a reason we couldn’t determine (connection?station?the heat?shared load at the station??). It took 45 minutes to charge up to 80%! That’s a long time to hang out at a crowded Walmart with screaming kids and stressed-out parents. We bought a charging cord for my iPad and JT bought a sandwich.

While in Walmart, I glanced at my bare left wrist and remembered unplugging my Apple Watch at the hotel this morning, and setting the watch on the night stand … where I realized it probably still is. Ugh. I called the Marriott and they confirmed they have it. They have an agreement with “ILeftMyStuff.com” (ask me how I know) to pick up the things you have left behind and ship them to you. So for $40, my watch should be waiting for me when we get home in 4 weeks. This forced break may help me with my obsession to close my rings and track my exercise each day. I wasn’t planning to take it on the rafting trip, but I’ll miss it while we’re biking.

We headed out with the plan to charge next at Flagstaff, but when we got on the highway, the Adaptive Cruise Control displayed a sensor error and it was tough driving without that! Jeff drove about an hour, then stopped on an exit ramp and we switched drivers. Jeff napped and I made the decision to stop in Winslow and see the “standing on the corner” statue, and hit another Walmart for a charge, although two Walmart’s in one day is two too many! It was now over 100 degrees, so it was a very brief stop in downtown Winslow. At Walmart, we couldn’t get their 350 kW charger to work, so we hooked up to one of the 150 kW stations - which ran at 180 (fast than this am) and charged us up in 18 minutes.

Back on the road, I thought we could do the 120 miles to the Grand Canyon, but we were traveling faster and blasting A/C, so we stopped for a little boost in Williams before turning towards the South Rim. All day the scenery was gorgeous - flat mesas, white rock, sandstone looking rock that has eroded to really awesome shapes, and then forests and mountains. We stopped for a quick charge at Williams, then headed to the canyon, amazed at the traffic streaming OUT of the canyon! We arrived about 4 pm, and the gang had just checked in and were getting settled in their rooms. We are bunking with Sandra and Matt. Molly & Hans and Calvin & McKinley are also together.

As we approached the canyon, we were mystified to see smoke from the wildfire burning on the north rim. The “Dragon Bravo Fire” is a massive wildfire burning which was started by a lightning strike on the Fourth of July! We’d been assured it wouldn’t affect our trip, and I assumed that to mean it was mostly controlled.  But we were looking at plumes of black smoke!

We brought in our suitcases and backpacks and repacked, making some final decisions on what should stay in the car and what should come with us for the next five days! We were reintroduced to Mollie’s parents, Erik and Judie, the organizers of this trip. Besides my sister’s extended family, there are about 14 others that we’ve yet to formally meet. Plenty of time for that. We went to the Pizza Pub at the main building and I realized it was the same place we had pizza and beer and celebrated our successful Tanner-Grandview backpacking trip several years ago!

The gang walked down to the rim for sunset and a group photo, then we came back to the room for showers and early to bed, as we need to meet our guides at 5:30am tomorrow for a very early start!

GRAND CANYON RAFTING ADVENTURE

Sunday August 3, 2025

Early start to the day! My 4:30am alarm didn’t go off (or I didn’t hear it with my ear plugs), but we all heard someone’s 4:45am alarm. Everyone sprung into action, brushed teeth, hiking clothes on, packs packed and extra stuff moved into the car. We moved the car to the Backpackers Lot and walked to the Bright Angel Lodge where the group was to meet our guides at 5:45am.

Heading Down the Bright Angel Trail

It was 43 degrees this morning, but it felt just fine in shorts and a light long sleeve sun shirt. Weather.com still said “Heat Advisory” and we could tell it was going to warm up fast!!

We were the first to arrive at the Bright Angel Lodge and met Ronnie and April, our guides for the hiking portion of the trip. There is a group on our rafts that did 5 days on the the upper portion of the river - they’re walking up the trail today while we’re walking down. Both ways were tough today, but I was glad we were going down (we also heard we’ll be on the best part of the river - gorgeous views and more exciting rapids and side hikes). We were to meet at the halfway point, Havasupai Gardens, and then Ronnie and April would guide the other group back up, and the river guides would usher us down the rest of the way.

Especially due to the heat, we were advised to drink twice the water we’d normally drink, consume electrolytes and eat at every stop even when you don’t feel hungry! We also learned about “Desert Air Conditioning,” which is dousing yourself in water so the breeze will help cool your body and head.

Probably due to some kind of inversion, the wildfire smoke had been sucked down into the canyon, creating a beautiful scene. Even Ronnie the guide had never seen anything like it!

I expected a hard day, but the heat made it super tough. We started down switchbacks and initially the trail was mostly shaded, and I was thankful we had an early start. We walked towards the front of the group at a good pace, and it was good to visit with Hans and Calvin while we hiked. I was following Jeff, and suddenly he teetered over to the side, when he’s generally very sure footed. We got him up and he was fine, except for a scrape on his forearm. He said he was dizzy, so I got out a snack and made a batch of electrolyte water in my Nalgene. About 10 minutes later, we encountered our first official rest stop. We were surprised to see that this trail had three stops where there was fresh water available as well as compostable toilets! nothing that fancy on the trails we had backpacked on 7 years ago.

We took it slowly, with lots of breaks, but Jeff continued to be unsteady on his feet. I followed close behind him, and could generally grab his backpack before he fell, but it was really troublesome for both of us. As we got down further, the air actually smelled like campfire although the smoke wasn’t like anything we’ve seen at home this summer with the Canadian wildfires. Sometime during the morning, the smoke cleared and the sky was blue and clear.

We got to the halfway point which was about 4 ½ miles just before 10 o’clock. There was a thermometer there that said it was 90°. I took off my sun shirt and soaked it in the water fountain and put it back on, that felt fantastic. The river guides were Emily and James, and they told the group we could go on ahead and they would catch us. The Bright Angel trail was technically closed from that point to the river, but the sign said river trip passengers could proceed to Pipe Creek Beach. As we walked along the trail, we could see evidence of a pipe project in progress, something to do with bringing water to Phantom Ranch.

The rest of the hike was a slog, there’s just no other way to say it. A really nice guy named Jeremy noticed Jeff was struggling. Jeremy was walking without poles and suggested that he would walk behind Jeff and help him stay upright and it was really great to have his help. Calvin had taken some things from Jeff’s pack to make it lighter, and with about a mile to go the river guide James took Jeff’s whole pack. With a few more stops we made it just fine, and I was so elated to see the river and the boats waiting for us. We were among the last five hikers to make it down, and I don’t think I could’ve gone faster even if Jeff hadn’t been struggling. It was hot! There was a nice breeze, but the breeze was like putting your face in a hot oven.

I took off my boots, and soaked my feet in the cold Colorado river, it felt so good! We met the lead guide, Tristan and the fourth guide, Jamie. Tristan brought us dry bags, and reviewed how to configure our gear. We have a small dry bag that is like our “carry-on luggage,” and in that bag we put our phones, sunscreen, lip balm, and anything else that we’ll need while we’re on the raft. The second larger bag contains the outfitter provided sleeping bag, pillow, sheet, and space for us to put our backpack and anything we didn’t need access to while we’re on the raft.

After about 10 minutes of relaxing, the guides had loaded all the larger dry bags onto the raft. Tristan gathered us at the back of the raft, demonstrated how to wear the lifejacket and told us the plan. It was about 12:30 then, and we were going to raft down the river just a little ways where there was a shaded campsite and we would stop there. After we unloaded, Emily would make lunch, and we would have the afternoon to rest in the shade.

We beached the rafts and were instructed to select a spot for our camp, so we set out seeking shade.  Then back to the boat where we made a human chain and worked to unload our packs, the cots, the chairs and the “kitchen.”  Besides the sleeping bags, the outfitter provided us with cots for sleeping. Tristan demonstrated how to put the cot together, and explained that most of us would be comfortable sleeping on just the cot, no tent! He said they have tents for us, but that would be like sleeping in a sauna. I was not so sure how I feel about sleeping outside without a tent, given my fear of creepy-crawlers!

The campsite was long and narrow along the river, and just above a fantastic rapids, which provided great white noise, I loved it! Jeff and I staked out a spot underneath a willow tree, and put our two cots together. I was overcome with the need to lay down, probably a touch of heat stroke? The crew called that lunch was ready, and I wasn’t hungry, but I thought I should try to eat and drink more water. I noticed people had set up the chairs in the shallow part of the water, and that looks like a great way to cool your feet while we ate lunch. I made a small Caesar chicken wrap and grabbed a Coke, which was mostly warm and sat and ate and visited. The Coke revived me somewhat. While we sat in the river, several boats came by, scouted the rapids, and then shot the rapids – looks like a lot of fun! The Kammerer boys started drinking beer, but I just couldn’t imagine drinking warm beer when we were already so hot. I took a couple of the beers that we had ordered, and put them in the drag bag, which is a mesh bag attached to the raft. The river water will cool them somewhat, but what I wouldn’t do for a bag of ice!

After lunch, I walked down to the river and washed out the clothes I had worn today and hung them on my little travel clothesline. On a warm windy day like today they should dry just fine. I laid down on my cot and had a great nap, waking up about 5 PM. I was still very thirsty and our water was hot hot hot!

Relaxing in Camp

I read for a bit, then went down to join my family at the beach. I had a beer and enjoyed some laughs. Several people went swimming, while others just waded out to pee; rule of the river - #1 goes in the water!  Given that it rarely rains here, the camp would smell like pee if people were peeing in the bushes!

Dinner Buffett on the River

The guides were busy preparing dinner, but it wasn’t served until nearly 8pm and it got dark shortly afterwards. We stayed in our chairs while Matt read us the first chapter from Colin Fletcher’s “The Man Who Walked Through Time,” his account from walking the length of the Grand Canyon National Park as close to the river as possible, supposedly the first person to walk the length of the canyon below the rim (in 1964).

After that, I got ready for bed. Still uncertain about sleeping on this cot and without a tent, but it’s still very warm and the breezes are still HOT!

Monday August 4, 2025

I slept pretty well, waking a few times and the stars were spectacular. Once I woke and realized the breeze finally felt cool and I covered up with the sheet - I looked at my phone and it was 4am.

I was awake and stretching when I heard the call for COFFEE! That means coffee and hot water are available. The group is supposed grab a hot drink and go back to their bunk and start packing up until the call for BREAKFAST. This camp was disbursed and people were moving slow (and walking like they’d had a tough hike yesterday). As people emerged, they started talking about the horrors of the evening: Matt had a lizard fall on his face, Sandra might have been bit by a scorpion (something that made her nervous system tingly for two days), Jeff had two ticks, lots of people reporting bat and moth fly-bys!  Made me feel grateful I had an uneventful night!!

Sandra and Matt - Morning Coffee

Breakfast was eggs made to order, hash browns, ham, yogurt and fruit. Good start to the day. By 7:30am we were loading the boats and ready to shove off. Jeff took the front spot and I sat behind him. It was warm and we just had our sun shirts on plus our life preservers. When we hit the first rapids however, everything changed! The waves of cold water splashing over the rubber tubes were beyond exhilarating! We’d go through a rapids, then a little flat spot, and ten minutes later another rapids - just enough time to warm up and dry off a little! Jeff was shivering so hard, he got his Gore Tex jacket out of his dry bag and put it on under his life jacket! For some of the smaller rapids, the guides allowed us to sit on the side tubes like a horse - that’s really fun!

We stopped at a side canyon and walked up the river to a waterfall. The pool was warmer than the Colorado, and the power from the falls was so amazing! It was a fun rest-stop, and good chance to stretch the legs with some rock hopping!

About 11:30, we stopped on a beach for lunch: sandwiches, Pringles and cookies.

We spent the afternoon alternating with fun rapid rides, lazy pools where we’d actually nap as the raft floated along, and watching the amazing scenery of the canyon as we drifted by. It was fun to sit near Calvin as he’d explain the geological formations to us. Its hard for me to wrap my brain around the layers that are millions of years in the making!

Besides being an excellent boat captain, Tristan was full of canyon history, telling us stories about early explorers and stories about how the various rapids are named. He’s also quick to spot big horned sheep, and today we saw an impressive ram with the classic curled horns.

We found a beautiful camp spot just below the rapids tonight. Jeff and I selected a shady alcove with some sturdy trees. I set up my bunk and then went out to the sandbar and a nice pool for bathing.  We’re so hot that it seems like it’d be easy to dip into the water, but the river is soooooo cold!  After I toweled off, I slathered myself in lotion – I can’t remember my skin ever being this dry! I laid on my cot for a bit in the shade and read some of the book I’d brought along: the journals of Lewis and Clark.

When I emerged back into the world, the water level was rising rapidly! There must have been a change upriver at Glen Dam. Over the course of the evening, the river rose about a foot, obliterating the sandbar completely. The hot wind continued to whip up the canyon, so people had their chairs in the shallow during cocktail hour. Because of the rising river, you had to move your chair back about 3 feet every 15 minutes, it was crazy!

Thought I’d ordered bourbon, but Tristan checked the list and saw I’d ordered water, porter and a box of Cabernet Sauvignon. He said he had a bottle of whiskey we could have (about 2” left) and we passed it around and it was quickly disposed of! After that, San and I opened the box of wine and enjoyed that with our Chicken burritos dinner. Dinner was late again, guess that’s part of the routine! We cleaned up our dishes and then went back to the tent to get our headlamps, returning to the chair circle for Matt to read us the next chapter of “The Man Who Walked Through Time” before we went to see how we were going to sleep tonight!

Tuesday August 5, 2025

I slept very well - woke up briefly about 2am and marveled at the stars and covered up with the sheet. Next thing I knew, it was 5am and the sky was getting brighter. I laid in bed for a bit and tried to stretch, a bit surprised that my calves and quads are still so tight!

When it was light enough, I got my swimsuit off the line and took advantage of the dark (and sleeping bodies) to change my clothes and pee in the river. Sandra woke up and we walked to the “kitchen” and got coffee / tea. When we arrived back at our camp spot, Jeff was just waking up. San went down to the beach to do some yoga, where she was joined by Calvin (who appeared to talk all the way through yoga!). We packed up our gear and hauled it to the drop zone in front of the boats. It appeared we missed the “breakfast” call, so we had to scrape the dregs of the oatmeal pot. After that, there was about an hour before everyone else was packed up and it was time to load the boats.

We got underway, then shortly stopped at a waterfall - the only one you can see from the river. The morning hadn’t heated up yet, so very few people went into the pool - and only three (Matt included) stuck their heads under the powerful cascade!

Then I took a turn in the front spot of the boat - and ended up being frozen - the coldest I can remember being in a long time. We hit some good waves and it was really fun. For the first time, I realized how easy it would be to be thrown from the boat! I had to hang on with all my might! After about an hour, I made my way back to the “princess seat,” where you’re less likely to get wet. The canyon was gorgeous and we went through the most narrow part, with steep walls and no little beaches. That also meant the sun doesn’t get down there so it added to my chill.

Our next stop was at Havasu creek - a series of gorgeous pools and blue water. It was so different than anything we’ve seen these past few days! I missed the part of the instructions that said we’d have to swim, and brought my phone along (I probably would have brought it anyway). In order to visit there, the rafts had to be anchored in the middle of a rapids, and then we had to walk along the cliff wall. We were instructed to leave our PFDs on as we walked along the cliff wall as they would have been lifesaving in case of a fall. We piled our PFDs at the mouth of the creek, then entered the water. Under an arch, and then we were swimming! I like the sidestroke, so I swam with my phone in the air and just used my left hand and feet to swim. The current was working against us, as were our clothes and sandals! It was also tough swimming along side others. One lady panicked and went under and then was grabbing onto others nearby. Jeff and I dodged her as we knew we’d end up going under with her. Tristan threw her a rope and dragged her to the ledge. I rested on the ledge a bit, then swam to a sandbar. We had to cross once more where the current was strong, but Calvin was standing on a rock and helped haul us across. From there, we hiked up the side past a series of a half dozen pools - each one was more beautiful than the last! I handed my phone and sunshirt to JT and joined Cal, Hans and Sandra body surfing between a couple of the pools, bouncing off some rocks, but no major abrasions. The swim out was easier! Fun stop!!

We traveled about another 20 minutes and pulled over at a shady but red ant-infested beach. Seemed like the lunch break lasted too long, but the guides were napping on the boats.

Just after 3pm we were back on the river. Similar to yesterday afternoon, we had a few exhilarating rapids, some long pools where we laid down and napped, and more observing the beautiful canyon walls and looking for sheep.

About 4 PM we pulled into our campsite for the night. Tristan was delighted it was available, he called this Plan A. From the boat, it didn’t look fantastic, but once we settled there we agreed it was really nice. There were no large trees, but plenty of alcoves stuck among the little willow trees, and we were able to secure a shady spot to set our bunks and it had direct access to the river.

Same routine as yesterday, I set up my bunk, jumped in the river and then changed into my camp dress and slathered myself with lotion. By that time, the sun had moved beyond the canyon wall, shading the entire camp, which was wonderful. We still had the hot air blowing through camp, sprinkling us with little pieces of sand, but it was a really great site.

During cocktail hour, there was a shout and we looked up to see three ewes running along the ledge just above camp. They stopped and watched us watching them for a bit, then moved on.

Dinner was lasagna - cooked in three Dutch overs stacked one on top of another, each with a layer of hot coals. It was served with salad and garlic bread and was amazing, especially with our fine vintage of boxed Cabernet Sauvignon. Plus there was cheesecake for dessert.

Calvin had brought along a few games and Tristian built us a table and we played about 5 rounds of Uno Flip, with lots of laughs. We’d invited others to play, but no one was interested. At this point, we’ve pretty much given up on integrating our family unit into the Crookston MN group, which I think leaves Molly a little conflicted as she’s the one that knows most everyone. There are a group of guys (including Jeremy who is outgoing and helpful all the time) that work for a trucking company along with the guy that owns it - they have an odd dynamic going. There is a friend of Judy’s, Kristy, who has been here many times - she’s the most outgoing person on the trip, but she’s here with her husband (who owns the Trucking company but doesn’t really talk to anyone), her step-daughter and two granddaughters who are 17 and 21 and clearly don’t want to be on the trip. And then a few others that are tangentially connected - a mother and daughter (the drowning woman with false eyelashes) who sit together but don’t even appear to like one another!

Jeff and I were exhausted and retired to bed before “Chapter a Day” so we’ll have to get the book and read it on our own.

Wednesday August 6, 2025

I was awake at 5am again. Still unbelievably sore calves! This morning, the smell of bacon was wafting over camp - yum. Went through the morning routine as usual.

Today is Cal & McKinley’s 2nd anniversary!

When the boats were finally loaded, Tristan gave us some sage advice to keep our brains in the canyon and not be thinking about the logistics of tomorrow and “life above the rim.” Stay in the moment. Great advice for ALL the time, but I’m not always so good about following it!

The morning was mostly calm, with the exception of Lava Falls, which was a lot of fun! Tristan took a few runs at going back up and turning around, lots of fun water!!

We stopped at a beach for a snack / potty break about 9:30am, then continued on until lunch. No significant rapids, but enough splash here and there to keep us cool.

We are still in the canyon, but the walls aren’t as beautiful or layered as the first few days. Tristan pointed out the areas where volcanoes filled the valleys and rerouted the river a millions years ago! Then the canyon filled with water and the river busted through on a new path. He said rocks have been traced back to this area hundreds of miles downstream - the power of water is so amazing.

About 30 minutes after lunch, we stopped at a spot where we had the opportunity to jump off a cliff into the Colorado River. It took me a bit to get up the nerve to jump, but it was exhilarating and I did it twice. It feels like the hottest day so far, and most of us just stayed in the water until it was time to go. Someone said the river gets about 1 degree warmer every fifteen miles we travel - I’m not sure if that is true because just today we traveled 60 miles? Anyway, when you get in, it’s still cold but super refreshing!

We pulled into camp about 4:30pm, it’s hot with blowing hot sand, and not enough beach for setting up chairs in the water. There was a nicer site back a few miles, but we passed two rowboats supporting 4 kayakers, and they were desperately seeking a place to camp and a little freaked out about the motorboats taking the good spots! Tristan told them we’d leave the next two spots open for them.

Jeff said it felt like we took a wrong turn and ended up in the Sahara Desert! The hot wind is blowing the find sand and it looks like a blizzard is happening!? We found a spot that had a little shade where we set up 4 chairs. We sat in the shade for about an hour. I waited to take my final dip in the river until I had the energy (and shade) to set up my cot!

We went down to the river by the boats where there was a good spot for swimming and a few rocks to sit on. Cal & McK and Hans & Molly were there, eventually joined by San and Matt. It was a fun time - cooling off in the water, drinking a few beers and being entertained by Hans and Cal and their knowledge of The Simpsons trivia!

Then we went back to our camp to slather in lotion - I’m sure my skin has never been this dry, but the combination of sun, constant hard water, and oven-like dry wind has been brutal!! Then on to dinner:  steak, potatoes and corn. We were joined by the staff, which was awesome. We were able to express our gratitude to them for this wonderful trip, and also hear some amusing stories.

I gave my blog card to Emily as she wants to read about our Kilimanjaro journey.

I also gave a card to Tristian with our generous tip and Jeff encouraged him to keep half of it for himself, but he demurred and said he always splits the tips all 4 ways. Shows what a great leader he is, but in my opinion, Jamie doesn’t deserve it (high creep factor and not as helpful) - but he didn’t ask for my opinion!

A super early morning tomorrow, as I know they’re anxious to drop us off! We were in bed about 9pm, with the almost full moon rising over the mountains - will make for an interesting tent-free night. It’s still warm, but there are bugs landing on me so I’m going to cover up with the sheet!!

Thursday August 7, 2025

I was awake again to watch the sun rise and the stars and planets disappear. Sometime in the night, the wind finally died. Many folks reported being annoyed by ants and flies overnight, but I think I slept unbothered.

This morning, we were instructed to pack all of our stuff into our own backpacks, so they could just kick us off the boat when we got to Diamond Creek! We made sandwiches for our lunch, then went through the breakfast line and had pancakes and sausages. Unfortunately, the pancake syrup attracted dozens of bees / hornets and that made the rest of the time at camp slightly annoying. It’s funny as the wind yesterday and last night was so hot and strong, and now a little breeze would have felt fantastic. I guess there is something to do with the heat later in the day in the canyon that makes the wind blow up the river so strong!?

Even though we had an earlier wake up this morning, it was still about the same time that we were on the river; tearing down the kitchen, loading the boat, last call on the groover always seems to take about an extra hour.

We motored down to Diamond Creek, just about 45 minutes. We rode through some riffles, but not enough water to get anyone wet. It was enough time for some guys, my nephews included, to consume a few beers!

We landed and our shuttle bus wasn’t at the landing yet, so we pulled up to the beach and got off the boat to wait in the shade. Jeff and I had a good conversation with Calvin about travel and his work. I walked up through the landing to search for the toilet, and it was like stepping right back onto the Sahara again! I hustled back to the river to cool my feet.

From where we were beached, we couldn’t see the road and apparently our drivers ended up waiting for us for a bit, which seemed to be a problem that Tristin smoothed out. We formed a line from the boat to the bus and off loaded all the backpacks. Then a quick goodbye to Tristan, James and Emily and off we went. They’re going to deflate the outriggers and travel another sixty miles to Lake Mead today - expecting to arrive there late tonight.

It was 9:20am when we left. Tom, the shuttle bus driver took us to town (Peach Springs), where we transferred to a coach bus. It was a dusty and bumpy one-hour ride on a gravel road, but apparently we were lucky to be on a small bus with A/C. Other years it’s been reported to be a hot and scary ride on a school bus!

Our coach was waiting and the driver said we were ahead of schedule so we could take the time and go to the market across the street (plus the trip leaders forgot to give us our sandwiches that we’d made!). I’d forgotten about how odd it is to see yourself in a mirror and also be faced with so many food options after 5 days off the grid! I bought snacks, a banana and cold drinks for our bus ride back to the Grand Canyon village. We drove about 30 minutes before getting on I-40 heading east toward Williams. It was odd to be looking out the window at all the flat ranch land - knowing the massive canyon was just to the north!!

We arrived at the Backpackers Lot where the cars were parked about 2pm. Sandra and Matt were headed back to Phoenix for an early flight tomorrow am, so we said goodbye. Some others are staying in GC, but we were happy to get into our car and do our own thing. We checked into El Tovar hotel, one of the historic >100 year old hotels. We took long showers and set out to organize dirty clothes we’ll need to wash sometime soon, backpacking / river clothes that we won’t need again this trip, and a small bag for our night tomorrow somewhere in Utah or Idaho on our way to Whitefish.

Final thoughts:

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed riding on a raft - especially a motor driven raft. We were able to cover a lot of miles (136 river miles) and see more of the canyon, and also had the luxury of taking the time to hike to waterfalls and stop for a swim. The only deterrent of the motorized craft is the sound of the motor detracting from the solitude of such a vast expanse of canyon! I always thought I’d like to paddle the canyon, but I’m not sure I have the skills to handle some of those rapids. I’ll keep it on the list just in case.

August is a hot time to be in the canyon, although the river does get progressively warmer as you go downstream and by Wednesday I could fully submerse myself without yelping out loud!

The Grand Canyon exploration history is so interesting. I bought 3 books in the shop today and can’t wait to read them. We looked at, but didn’t buy, “Death in the Grand Canyon,” a disturbingly thick book with gory details.

Friday August 8, 2025

Early start to the day, it’s part of our routine now I guess. After we cleaned up and organized our stuff last night, we dressed in real clothes and headed out in search of burgers and beer. Erik had told us they had good ones in the bar inside Bright Angel Lodge, and he was right. We saw a few people from the trip, and had our longest conversation with Judie while we were there.

After we ate, we decided to drive the 7 miles into Grand Canyon Village to charge the car and look for ice cream in order to save some time in the morning. We were back to the hotel about 7:30p, prime sunset time, so it took us awhile to grab a parking spot in front of the hotel.

I finished my book and still didn’t feel tired, but Jeff was already “sawing logs. “ As I was trying to fall asleep, I thought of the irony as it should have been so easy to sleep in a hotel versus out under the stars along the river. But the A/C unit was loud, the sheets weren’t very smooth, the pillow was too big and the light from the thermostat was too bright. Talk about first world problems, right?!

We got up around 5am without an alarm and we were on the road by 6am. I took the cooler and a bag down to the car first, and there were two huge elk hanging around the front of the hotel - really cool - the closest I’ve ever been to one, and closer than I wanted to be to the one with the antlers!!

It was a slow drive out of the park, elk, mule deer (including a doe and two fawns), and squirrels were very active in the early part of the day. We drove out the east gate, past the Desert Tower where we started the Tanner-Grandview hike seven years ago. As we went out the east gate, we were further from the canyon and the terrain looked dry and barren.

We turned north onto Hwy 89, and went through a couple of dusty sad settlements before entering rolling beautiful hills. We arrived in Page AZ, and stopped at a Circle K to charge. We chatted with a guy from Seattle charging his Ford truck. It’s his first road trip so he’s learning about charging too (driving his son to college at ASU). We went inside and bought hot sandwiches and yogurt for breakfast. After we charged, we stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam Visitor Center for a quick visit, then continued along Hwy 89.

Everything is so dry, and as we drove we’ve seen several burned spots. The drive was pretty, sometimes over mountain passes with large trees, sometimes ranch land. We skirted several National Parks - Zion, Bryce Canyon, etc. It was a pretty drive and traffic was OK. Just south of Beaver UT, we joined I-15 north towards Salt Lake City. We charged in Beaver, Salt Lake City and Pocatello, Idaho.

We were going to head to Pocatello for the evening, but the Marriott properties there were all booked (Friday night), so we decided to go another hour north to Idaho Falls.  It’ll be a shorter drive tomorrow that way.

The traffic around SLC (actually from Provo to Ogden) was backed up and we probably lost an hour there. Not great planning to hit it at rush hour! Of course, we then hit the one lane construction zones north of there when it had gotten dark. Not fun.

We arrived at the SpringHill Suites about 10pm, and checked into a room that looked a lot like others we’ve stayed in before. The familiarity helps with getting settled. Long day of sitting in the car.

13.25 hours of travel (including about 2 hours for 4 charging stops). 732.2 miles!

Saturday August 9, 2025

After the best night’s sleep in awhile, I found myself awake just after 5am again. I read for awhile, caught up on the Washington Post puzzles, then decided to get up. I brought our laundry to the Guest Laundry room on the third floor and started a load of wash, then went to the gym. It felt good to stretch, do some yoga and lift weights for the first time in a long time! Then I switched our laundry to the dryer and went to take a shower. Jeff was up and doing sit-ups and push-ups in the room. We had hotel breakfast, collected our clean laundry and packed up. We were just a block from the Walmart with an EA station so we drove there and plugged in. We went into Walmart for some toiletries - we’ve been to more Walmarts these last 10 days than I’ve been to in my lifetime!!

By 9am, we were on the road with 100% charge. 437 miles to Whitefish. As we were approaching Montana, we could see the mountains in the distance. It was cloudy, but also appeared to have some plumes of smoke from fires? I checked google and saw that there are dozens of fires across Idaho and Montana - some as new as yesterday! It is so very dry.

Our first charging stop was in Dell MT at an adorable Mercantile and Post Office - much better than a Walmart! We’re having better luck with the Audi route planner, although it had us going to 10% twice and we don’t want to do that - we know how vast and remote Montana is!

I drove the next section and was going to drive to outside Butte where we’d get another small charge. Jeff was sleeping when I made the turn onto I-90N, so I kept on driving to Missoula where we cruised into the Walmart parking lot at 21%. It was a real nice 78 degrees so pleasant enough to stand outside the car and stretch during the 20-minute charge. There was a guy with a Hyundai Ionic there that wasn’t happy with the speed of charge. After we visited for a bit, Jeff remarked that we’re having a completely different experience here with the EV community with which we (well, mostly he) are interacting.

Just North of Missoula we headed off the interstate and onto two lane roads to lead us to Whitefish. Heavy traffic, and the road wasn’t the best, but the scenery was so gorgeous - mountains, lakes, rivers and pine trees. I was sleeping so I’m not sure exactly how we got along the east side of Flathead Lake, but it was pretty and it reminded us of Seely Lake where Calvin and McKinley got married two years ago.

We arrived at our hotel, The Firebrand, just after 5pm. We booked here as we’ll meet the Trek Travel group here in the morning, and we’ll be back here Tuesday-Thursday evenings with that tour. It’ll be a great place to leave our car. We dropped our bags in our room and went out to walk the tourist district. By then it was after 6pm and most of the shops had closed down.  I was concerned that I didn’t have enough cold weather clothes along, somehow I didn’t pack my puffy jacket so we were in search of a store with outdoor gear, but only a few tourist shops were still open.  I got a “Glacier” sweater that will be fine if it cools off.   Instead of a big meal, we opted for salad and cheese from the market across the street and ate in our hotel room while we vegged out.

Next, we set out to organize our bags for the next couple of days - a logistical challenge that JT is having a hard time wrapping his brain around! After that, we played our first backgammon match since the night before we left home 10 days ago - it’s been a whirlwind trip!!

For this segment of our trip we travelled 1174 miles. Since the Audi app / Electrify America connection isn’t working, we paid for the 7 charging stops, a total of 7 stops and $208. We travelled 21 hours, including 3 hours and 15 minutes of charging time.

GLACIER CYCLING ADVENTURE WITH TREK TRAVEL

Sunday August 10, 2025

Day One of our Trek Travel adventure through Glacier. We got up, finished packing, took a load of things we don’t need for the next two nights to the car, and we were in the lobby to meet our group before 8am.

As usual, our guides are top notch! Scott and Sammy have been running this trip all summer, and a young man, Quill joined the team just yesterday as Scott is moving on to lead a cross-country trip starting in Astoria next week (we will be there at the same time!). We handed over our luggage to be loaded in the trailer, then did quick introductions before splitting up into two groups of 9 in each van (18 guest total). Also as usual, our fellow travelers are likeminded people and it’s easy to fall into conversation and swap stories.

Jeff and Jan - Albuquerque

Sherry and Shelia - friends from Iowa

Chuck and Jackie - from Middleton WI (he’s a surgeon at UW Children’s Hospital)

Fred and Cindy - from Jacksonville FL

Julia (Dallas) and her dad, Brad from Maryland

Family of 5 from California

Liz - from Mexico City

And us!

We drove about 90 minutes along Hwy 2, passing sites that were familiar to us from our trip where we cycled the route in 2012 and also from being here backpacking two years ago. We stopped at Goat Lick Overlook to stretch our legs and use the toilet. As usual, they brought out a cooler with cold drinks and a basket of snacks. It’s so odd to me to have cold drinks after our time on the river! I’d forgotten how the Trek guides fill their guests water bottles with ice and water - the little luxuries like that are what make these trips so amazing.

We drove to Two Medicine Lake where we took photos, explored the gift shop, had another up-close look at those cool “Red Buses” that have been restored and drive tourists around the park. Then Scott prepared an amazing lunch spread and we had lunch, a route briefing, a safety briefing, a Garmin lesson, and a bike fitting, and we were ready to ride.

Jeff and I had popped an extra $300 each for the use of the Trek Domane SR+ … the “plus” is electric boost. Otherwise, we’d have the choice to ride the Trek Domane SR7 (a very sweet bicycle) or their upright e-bike. I knew we’d want the extra boost given the routes we’re going to ride through the mountains. The bikes were so much fun and the route was gorgeous. The road could have been better, but Jeff and I are comfortable riding out in the car lane when that is safer and we did that a lot. There was a lot of traffic of course, but all were very respectful to a large group of cyclists.

The route to follow, just three left hand turns, and it gave me a chance to get reacquainted with following the Garmin – always a process for me to learn so it was nice to not need it to follow a route!  Instead, I had it displaying speed and percent grade.  Quill rode with us today, and Sammy drove the support van and set up a rest stop every 11 miles - which made for an easy ride. Figuring out the shifting was the steepest learning curve for us. These bikes have Shimano shifting, where our tandem has Sram. For these bikes, the right hand shifts the back derailleur, and the left hand shifts the front rings. On our tandem, you press both hands to shift up. Sammy told us if you press both hands on this bike, you’ll drop the chain (Jeff inadvertently tested that out and it’s true). We brought our Sena helmets with the microphone / speakers that allow us to talk to one another and that was invaluable help to us both as we started riding and were trying to figure out the shifting as well as how to activate the electronic boost. It was a great ride, and we arrived at the St Mary Hotel at about 4:30pm and had a cold beer from the van.

We got settled into the room. This is the first time we’ll spend two nights in one place on this trip (after 10 nights!).

At 6:30pm, we met the group for dinner at the Snow Goose restaurant, attached to the hotel. We’d been informed that the tribe had declared these couple of days to be “no alcohol sales” in stores and restaurants. Scott said that happens occasionally without notice. It’s okay for the guides to offer us beer out of the van, they just can’t buy anymore while on the reservation and they can’t serve it at the restaurant. We had Huckleberry margarita “mocktails” instead, which were yummy and refreshing.

After dinner we walked through the gift shop, where Jeff bought a new hat and I was drooling over the Pendleton display. I held myself back as we’re actually going to Pendleton on our next trip, but I did buy a roll-up travel backgammon board that is so adorable.

Back to our room, we played a game on our new board and found it to be a little challenging to keep the pieces on their lines, but its cuteness makes up for any aggravation!

Monday August 11, 2025

Good thing we set the alarm as I was sleeping so soundly when it went off at 6am we probably would have slept past breakfast and departure time!

The lodge is dated, but in a rustic and comfortable way. Our room is spacious with two queen beds, a desk, a comfortable chair, a great coffee bar with a sink and a large deck overlooking a rushing river. We slept with the screen door open which gave us that wonderful sound of the rushing river and fresh cool air overnight.

Back to the restaurant for breakfast buffet (waffles with Huckleberry syrup) and we met the group at the vans for our shuttle into the park. We drove past the trailhead where we started our backpacking trip two years ago - this trip is a cushy contrast to that trip - although that’s the only way to appreciate the vastness and the beauty of this park, the gorgeous glacier fed lakes and remote mountain peaks with the few remaining glaciers.

Our morning adventure was boat rides and hiking. They sent Quill to guide us, even though this is his first time in the park - trial by fire I guess!

We drove to the Many Glacier hotel, built by the Great Northern Railroad in 1915 - Swiss-style hotel. Tourists could launch to multi-day chalet trips via horseback from here. It’s fun to try to imagine those days, and the old photos around the hotel are spectacular!

We boarded the 9am boat across Swiftcurrent Lake. Sarah, our driver and guide, was fun and knowledgeable. A black bear walked along the shore - like a fantastically placed actor! The shore was lined with Lodge pole pines, which are fire dependent in order to pop their seeds, so they’re the first to come back after a fire. Sarah told us a funny story about a fire that broke out in the 1930’s, but the staff saved the hotel. When they called the railroad to tell them the good news, apparently the response wasn’t positive. The hotel had been losing so much money they would have preferred for it to burn down and collect the insurance check!!

We docked, and then had a short hike up and over to Lake Josephine, where we got on another boat and a young man named Jack motored us across the lake. The shores of this lake had many avalanche chutes, which open up the vegetation for berry bushes = bear habitat.

Jack talked about bears for a bit. We learned that the shoulder hump on grizzly bears come from the muscle built while they’re digging a den and digging through avalanche chutes for animal carcasses! They’re opportunistic meat eaters, but 90% vegetarian.

After the second boat ride, we walked about a mile to Grinnell Lake. We crossed a river on a swinging bridge, and went through lots of thimbleberries - reminded me a lot of our backpacking trip here, except the trail today was much wider!! As we arrived at Grinnell Lake, some ladies told us a moose had just walked through, and he was laying across the river. Even laying down, we could tell he was a massive bull moose - he had quite a rack!

We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the scenery and having a snack. Quill did a great job leading us, even though it was his very first time here! We arrived back at the lodge about 12:30p and Scott had sandwiches, chips and cold drinks laid out for our lunch. We ate, changed into our bike clothes and climbed back into the vans. There is about a 4-mile stretch of gravel road just at the park entrance, so they drove us over that before we started our ride (happy for that!).

It had clouded up, which made it a lovely day for a ride. Perfect temperatures and a break from the hot sun (my skin needed that!). We rode the rest of the park road, then took a left, then another left, which had us heading up the Chief Mountain Pass. We climbed up to the Chief Mountain Overlook, although the mountain itself was ensconced in clouds. We had the option to get in the van (19 miles) or keep riding back to the hotel which would be about 32 miles. We were feeling good, and opted to ride back. We are much more comfortable on our bikes today, which is good, because tomorrow we’re doing “Going to the Sun” road - one of the country’s most epic bike rides (we’ve only done it on the red bus tour).

We had a beer and a nice visit with Julia, then headed up to shower before meeting the gang to walk over to the local pizza place. The guides had preordered salads, cheesy bread and a variety of pizzas. And the liquor ban was lifted today, so we were able to enjoy beer / wine with the pizza.

Tuesday August 12, 2025

I slept well even though I was so excited for the day. We were up before our alarms went off, dressed and with our packed suitcases outside before 7am. Then we headed to breakfast where we sat with Chuck and probably bored him to tears with our cross-country bike trip stories!

By 8am we were at the bikes, itching to get started riding, but we had to wait for the route talk, and Scott leading us out. We rode together for a few blocks to the classic Glacier National Park sign at the park entrance and stopped there for individual and group photos.

From there, we rode on a bike path through the visitor center, and then Scott sent us off in groups of 4 once again. We don’t need to stay in the groups, but the idea is that the park service wants groups like ours dispersed in order to make it easier for cars to get around us.

Every moment of the ride today was gorgeous. Besides the mountains, trees and lakes, the wildflowers were blooming all along the route. We stopped often for photos and rest breaks when we got on the climb. The climb wasn’t as bad as what I was anticipated, but that might just be the electric assist talking! It also appeared that the climb to Logan Pass wasn’t as steep as when you come from the West, not sure if that’s the case though? Traffic wasn’t bad and the cars that passed us were mostly respectful. There appeared to be a lot of people using the shuttle buses, which thankfully reduces the number of cars on the road. The only other time we’d been on this road was 13 years ago on a Red Bus tour, and at that time I didn’t notice all the hiking trailheads and trails that begin along the road.

Sammy was set up with a rest stop about mile 16. We grabbed snacks and refilled our water bottle before setting off for the pass through a tunnel. Jeff and I had started out in jackets this morning, but it quickly warmed up and we tied them around our waists rather than stash them in the van (we kept them as we were certain we’d be cold on the descent, and we were freezing!!).

We stopped briefly at Logan Pass to use the toilets, but it was crazy busy crawling with tourists. We had a guy snap our photo at the Logan Pass sign, and started our descent. It took me a few turns to feel comfortable, but once I was assured the road was in pretty good shape, I eased off the brakes and what fun it was!! I was whooping with delight much of the descent!  We stopped periodically in the sun to warm up and relax our hands from squeezing the brakes. It seems crazy but we were mainly riding in the shade and there were little waterfalls coming off the rock face that made it feel like a cold air-conditioned building! We stopped about halfway down and ate the bananas and power bars that we’d stuffed in our pockets back at mile 16.

It was about 10 miles down, with little need to pedal other than to keep your legs from cramping up! Once again, we had no trouble with cars - seemed like most of them were heading up and very few were coming down at that time. After the descent, there were still about 10 miles to go, mostly flat, to where we’d meet the vans at Lake McDonald. The road led us through thick beautiful forests, and then along the gorgeous McDonald creek - with pretty blue-green pools and awesome cascading falls. There the traffic was a little more difficult with frantic drivers vying for scarce parking spaces along the creek!

We arrived at the vans (Sammy drove up and over the pass but Quill had to drive the van with the trailer around to West Glacier and into the park), and changed into non-bike clothes. We didn’t have time to explore McDonald lodge, but we’ll bike here on Thursday and check it out then.

We piled into the vans and drove outside the park to West Glacier for a celebratory lunch at The Glacier Highland Restaurant - our third visit there! We stopped on our 2012 bike trip, and had a celebratory dinner there after our backpacking trip two years ago (the Glacier Guides lodge is just up the hill). We enjoyed beers, burgers and pie (they’re known for their pies and they didn’t disappoint this time either).

It was a quiet van ride back to Whitefish, where we checked back into the Firebrand Hotel for three nights this time! Jeff napped while I edited photos and worked on the blog.

We were on our own for the evening, and Jeff and I walked down to the depot park where Farmer’s market was going on with music and food trucks. It was a gorgeous evening and we enjoyed a pork bowl with yummy vegetables and spices while we people watched. We’ll be early to sleep tonight as we’re exhausted after such a fun day!

Wednesday August 13, 2025

Last night before I went to bed, I started working some logistics for the next portion of this extended road trip. With three nights and four days of biking left on our Trek Travel excursion, I shouldn’t have been doing that (in my mind, I heard Tristan saying “stay on the river, don’t worry about life above the rim”), but alas, I am a planner and that’s not all bad. Anyway, I spent a little time on google maps, booked a hotel in Spokane for Friday night and a tentative one-way rental car to travel from Lewiston ID to Portland on Saturday … more about that later!

I woke up before my 6 am alarm this morning, dressed and headed down to the gym for some yoga and light weight work. When I returned, Jeff was up and we headed down to breakfast. Our guides gave us vouchers for breakfast at the hotel, and breakfast was 5 different options plus coffee. I went for the healthier steel-cut oats and fruit, while JT had the yogurt-fruit-granola bowl. We both really wanted the eggs and bacon though.

Today’s ride was out and back from the hotel, so very simple logistics. We were out front to meet the group just before 9 am. It was another gloriously perfect Montana summer day: clear blue skies, some wispy clouds and no humidity.

Today’s ride took us on the eastern shore of Whitefish Lake, and across the top where it dead ends. There we turned around, stopped for a snack break and headed back. Given that it is a dead end, traffic was light and the road was very nice - rolling hills and fun curves. We saw only a few cars, and many other cyclists. The lake itself is about a mile wide and seven miles long. We didn’t have much of an unobstructed view, as there are so many trees, and also seemed to be houses built between the lake and the road.

On our way back, we had the option to add another 4 miles and 1000 ft of elevation gain by riding up through a development just south of the Big Mountain ski area, another out and back. Given all we’re consuming (plus the fact that we have electric assist bikes), we chose the “avid” option. Again, we could see only slices of the lake, but had no unobstructed views.

We arrived back at the hotel about noon. We sat around the van and had a few snacks. We had the afternoon to ourselves. Jeff and I headed up to the room and I found myself fast asleep on the bed before I even showered! We eventually showered, then went out to do some shopping. First stop: Glacier Cyclery - the bike shop that fixed our rim tape issue in 2012! Jeff bought a “Going to the Sun Road” jersey and I bought a t-shift and a really cool merino cycling sweater a lot like the one my b-i-law Matt has! Then we visited a few other favorite stores, eyeing up >$1000 cowboy boots, wraps with peacock feather trim and other outrageous clothing items, and a quaint used book store. Fun way to spend the afternoon recharging our batteries after this much travel.

At 5:30p we went to the hotel bar for a drink and a round of backgammon - Jeff eked out the best of five match, as usual.

At 6:30p our guides picked us up to shuttle us to dinner at Hellroaring Saloon, a bar at the base of the Big Mountain ski area. It was filled with fun ski memorabilia and photos of the antics of many of their patrons - seems that it lives up to its name. We had a nice dinner with great conversations. Back at the hotel about 9pm, feeling more exhausted than I should be, but it’s probably a cumulative thing.

Thursday August 14, 2025

We were both sleeping quite soundly when the 6am alarm went off this morning. We went through our morning routine and joined most of the gang for breakfast at 7am. Several people were missing and reported to be sleeping in – my body felt like it should still be sleeping, even though I was there eating the oatmeal.

We met at the bikes at 8:30 am and headed out for a one-hour drive to where we’d starting riding today, the Hungry Horse Dam Visitors Center. The base ride was from Hungry Horse to Lid Creek and return (22 miles). The avid option added on the ride to the base of Lake McDonald, for 40 miles total.

Hungry Horse (town, river, mountain, dam and reservoir) gets its name from two husky freight horses, Tex and Jerry, who worked in the rugged wilderness of the Flathead River’s South Fork area. Legend has it that during the severe winter of 1900-1901, they wandered away from their sleigh. They were lost and struggled through belly-deep snow until they were found a month later, so starved and weak that considerable care was needed to nurse them back to health. From then on, they were legendary and pulled wagons for the local fire department and mercantile.

Normally, a ride out and back might feel a bit boring, but the out and back this morning was fantastic. It was probably in the 60’s - I started out in my new biking sweater, but quickly peeled it off. The road was great - smooth pavement, very little traffic, rolling hills and sharp corners, and less than 5 cars the whole 22 miles. We passed several National Forest campsites on the reservoir - one with a tent and two chairs overlooking the water, would be an ideal spot to share a bottle of wine and a cribbage game while the sun goes down!

16 of the 18 riders opted for the “avid” portion of the ride and after a short break at the dam, we continued on for 18 more miles. The description of the turns on the route sounded quite confusing, but Scott rode along with the group and was there the two times we were a bit confused to help us out. We rode the bike path along Hwy 2, a path that wasn’t there in 2012 when we rode US 2 most all the way across Montana! There were several times the path ended, and we rode on “Old US 2.” One of those times we went past the Glacier Guides outfitter where we launched and ended our backpacking trip two years ago.

We took a left into West Glacier, across McDonald River and along a path that led to the government housing area - seemed kind of like military housing without the fences. The path continued about 2 miles through the forest. It was awesome to ride a path through the forests of Glacier National Park, except for the bumps - too many roots in the forest don’t make for smooth blacktop paths!!

We popped out onto the road and went up another hill to Fish Creek Picnic Area where Sammy had picked up the salads and sandwiches we’d ordered for lunch. Sitting on the bluff above Lake McDonald, the breeze made it feel a bit cold, but they’d told us to bring swimming suits if we wanted to take a dip after lunch. I’d brought my suit, but I went in with my bike shorts, sports bra and bike sandals (it was very rocky). The water was clear and refreshing - not terribly cold, but I was happy to have my biking sweater after I’d dried off and changed into the clothes I’d brought.

We arrived back at the hotel about 2:30pm with a few free hours until dinner. We snacked, even though we’d just had lunch, and started packing our bags.

At 6:45p we were back out front to meet the gang for our last dinner at the “Last Chair.” It was a funky place with an eclectic menu, on the highway on the way to the ski resort. It had a ski resort motif, but a little more upscale than the place we ate last night. As usual, the guides had ordered enough appetizers to make a meal, and wine flowed freely. I was only able to eat about half of my meal and just a few bites of Jeff’s huckleberry ice cream! They dropped us back at the hotel just after 9:30 pm - a long night, but good visiting. It really is an amazing batch of people on this trip!

Friday August 15, 2025

Last day of the Trek tour. There was a 20-mile optional ride this morning, with a start time at 7:30 am at the van. Only about half of our group opted for the ride: Cheryl and Shirley, Chuck and Jackie, Julia and Brad, and Liz (and us). Scott lead us, Sammy did sweep and Quill drove the van. It was a pretty ride through ranch land, no real climbs. Our destination was “Columbia Falls,” and it was disappointing to learn that was the name of the little town we didn’t see a river or a falls!

I hadn’t checked the weather before we went out to join the ride, because if I had I would have added my new wool cycling sweater and socks to my outfit this morning. It was chilly and we were at the 10-mile turnaround point before I started to warm up.

Back at the hotel, we handed off our bikes, which made me so sad. I LOVED that bike and am considering adding one to my bike collection! We said good-bye to the guides, and headed inside to order breakfast, this time JT and I opted for eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast rather than the healthier oatmeal option. Over breakfast, we discussed keeping in touch and meeting up on another Trek Travel adventure in the future. We typically just look at the overseas tours, but I will definitely be studying the US options in my travel planning.

Back to the room, we showered, and we were on our way before 11am. I’ve reserved a room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Spokane for the night - about a 5-hour drive. We’ll get there early enough to do our laundry and repack our bike clothes and find dinner somewhere on our own.

We charged to 85% at a Charge Point in Whitefish before heading south. We headed SW on small roads without much shoulder which we were glad we weren’t cycling on! We travelled through beautiful canyons and mountain passes, and through ranch land. Wherever we were, it was very sparsely populated! From Plains to St Regis, we drove along the Clark Fork River, which was gorgeous and such amazing timing as we’re just finishing listening to Undaunted Courage. These are the mountains the Lewis and Clark expedition were having to traverse to find the route to the Pacific Ocean. It’s impossible to imagine the courage it took to be headed through this country with few supplies and no real idea where you were going or what you’d find when you got there!!

We got to I-90 and headed west, the road still very pretty and up and down over a few passes. We stopped at the Walmart in Smelterville ID to charge (named for the nearby Bunker Hill smelter - this is silver mine territory). It was a pleasant 77 degrees - a far cry from when we were roasting and shade-seeking while charging in Oklahoma two weeks ago! We took advantage of the time to pull some things out of our backpacks that we’ll want in this next portion of our adventure. Tomorrow will be our biggest logistical challenge as we leave our car in Lewiston ID and take only what we’ll need for the Columbia River - nothing more, nothing less, at least that’s the plan.

After driving about 25 more minutes, the houses started getting bigger and we went over a bay of Lake Coeur d’Alene with yacht-like boats - what a stark change from rural Montana! We’d driven from Spokane to Coeur d’Alene before, and it was exactly like I’d remembered, solidly built up with commercial businesses on both sides of the freeway.

We arrived at our hotel about 3:30pm, easy afternoon of travel. We’re suffering a bit from what Sammy calls the “Trek Travel Blues,” where we feel that we need a snack every hour and someone to fill our water bottles! When we got to the hotel, we were looking for a white van with chairs and cold beers!

We checked in and I brought our stuffed laundry bag down to the guest laundry. 90 minutes later we had clean bike clothes and undies - ready for the next adventure. We relaxed for a bit, then headed across the street to Casa de Oro (the gold house). It didn’t look like much from the outside, but inside we found quaint decor, a friendly family running the place, good margaritas and chips and salsa, and portion sizes generous enough that we’ll have the rest for lunch tomorrow!

We explored the neighborhood for a bit, trying to walk off some of our dinner. There was a large outdoor shopping plaza across the street - probably once held a big box store, but now is subdivided into smaller businesses. There was a place called “Sunny Buns,” that I thought would be a bakery, but upon further review it was a tanning salon! A nail salon, a bar with a guy in drag sitting outside wearing thigh high pink platform boots, a drug store, an accountant, a nail salon, a barbershop and a trampoline park - we poked our head in there and it was full of middle schoolers and oozing hormones!

Back to the room for some backgammon and early to bed. Tomorrow, the adventure continues!!

Saturday August 16, 2025

We left the hotel just after 8 am, still had 76% in the battery so we didn’t stop to charge. The Audi route planner said we’d arrive in Lewiston ID with 46%, so we went for it. The couple from Madison on our Trek trip have two EV’s and they introduced us to the term “range anxiety,” a feeling we’ve become intimately acquainted with!

Today was the first morning we’d awaken to rain in the 2+ weeks we’ve been on the road. We’ve been prepared for it, and know we’ve been blessed with the weather we have had so far.

The drive was rolling wheat fields (most harvested). It gave the landscape an appearance of being very dry, as even the weeds along the highway were mostly dried and brown. It was a two-lane road, through a couple of small western looking towns with wide Main Streets. We saw some cattle and horses, but mostly wheat fields.

We finished listening to Undaunted Courage and continue to marvel at the guts the men (and Sacajawea) of the Lewis and Clark Expedition had! When we leave this area in 10 days, we plan to drive over the Bitterroot Mountains and explore some of what they had to “portage” before finding the Snake and Columbia Rivers to take them to the Pacific Ocean.

As we approached the twin towns of Lewiston ID and Clarkston WA, we were high on a bluff looking down on the impressive site of the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. We pulled over so I could get out and take a photo. We first drove to where I think the American Pride will dock when we arrive on Sunday August 24th. I wanted to check out the area to see if it was a good place to leave our car, and we deemed it was. We also found a charging station there, and charged up to 70%. We’re going to have to get it to jump to 100% in order to get over the mountains on the route I wanted to take to Missoula on the 25th (about 220 miles)!

We drove back to Idaho and picked up a small Mazda SUV at the Enterprise agency near the airport. Since both river towns are built on steep bluffs, we had to climb to the flat land on top of the bluff were we found big box stores and the Lewiston airport. Jeff drove the Mazda and I drove our car back to the boat landing in Clarkston. By 11:45a we had the Mazda loaded and were on our way to Portland (5+ hour drive). We drove Hwy 12 W along the Snake River for quite a while, and then overland to Walla Walla, WA. We stopped for gas there and then took a bit of a detour to go to Pendleton OR, where we stopped at the Pendleton Mill Store. We both bought a shirt and I bought a few others things (scarf, hat and jigsaw puzzle) and Jeff bought the sweater that “The Dude” wears in the cult movie “The Big Lebowski.” It is quite cozy and looks great on him. Since we have no extra room in our bags, we had the clerk ship our purchases to our home.

Outside of Pendleton, we got on I-84 for the remainder of the drive to Portland. Without our Sirius radio, we were playing Jeff’s music through Apple Car play - our old road trip staples from our CD days: Jim Croce, John Eddie, Bob Dylan, etc.

Thirty minutes later we were along side the Columbia River, with amazing views and a fun drive up and down hills and around sharp corners. I had to keep reminding myself I was driving a Mazda, not my Audi!!

We could see Mt St Helen’s from over 100 miles away - didn’t get a photo as I was driving and JT was sleeping, but it had a cloud hanging around it’s “neck” and looked really amazing.

We passed several dams and locks. Depending what time of the day we are passing through those, we should have great views from the boat!

West of the Dalles, the scenery abruptly changed to trees and rocky cliffs - finally seeing what I’d expected to see most of the day today! We went through a narrow part of the river where signs warned us about wind. In the river there were hundreds of windsurfers and kite surfers - not sure how they weren’t colliding!

It was an incredible drive - I kept wanting to stop to take photos, but I should have lots of opportunity for that from the boat over the next week!

We arrived at the Embassy Suites near the Portland airport about 6 pm (after just one wrong turn when I was fumbling with google maps and our CarPlay connection). We checked in for two nights, grabbed two luggage carts (one for the pieces of our tandem and the other for our miscellaneous bags) and got everything offloaded to the room. I’d asked the clerk about the walk from the airport and she said go to island two and take the shuttle. We drove to the Rental Car Return and asked that guy about the walk back to our hotel and he said “take an Uber, that’s too far to walk.” We walked - it was 1.2 miles down a delightful bike path (the signs say the bike path continues 11 miles into downtown Portland. I guess not everyone in Portland is an outdoor enthusiast!

Back at the hotel, we grabbed a drink and light dinner from the bar menu and began the game of deciding which other couples were part of this trip - it’s not too hard to guess, actually. The REI style clothes and sandals mostly give us away. We chatted with a few others for a bit, then headed up for a good night’s sleep. We are both feeling a bit exhausted and need these two nights of good rest before the next adventure!

COLUMBIA RIVER CYCLING CRUISE

Sunday August 18, 2025

A low key day. We’re glad we got to Portland a day early and had this day to decompress. We slept in, then dressed and went down to breakfast. Once again, it was pretty easy to pick out most of the fellow cyclists. We sat next to Beth and Chris, a couple from Sussex (north side of Milwaukee), and quickly bonded with them. We lingered for a long time chatting with them.

Back to the room, we organized our stuff and put the bike together and it seems to have made the journey just fine.

We went down to the gym to lift some weights, then showered and decided to head into Portland. We walked the 1.5 miles back to the airport and caught the light rail there; $2.40 one way. After about 30 minutes on the train, we got off at the Old Town / Chinatown stop.

We were immersed in one of the homeless / mental illness sections of town, which is always an uncomfortable experience. We walked down towards the waterfront and it didn’t get much better with bodies sleeping all over the sidewalk.

We ventured back into town, past historic old buildings and some shops and restaurants. We looked for the REI store that had been downtown, but Google said it was permanently closed. We did see that Deschutes has a brewery here, so we walked there. Their main brewery is in Bend OR, but we were delighted to find an offshoot here. We fell in love with their Black Butte Porter on our cross-country ride, and drank it most days all the way to North Dakota where we couldn’t find it any longer! We had burgers and porters, and bought some merch, even though our bags are already bursting full! We also saw they had a limited release of a whiskey they had distilled and aged in a Black Butte Porter barrel, so after we were done at the brewery, we walked to a nearby liquor store and bought a bottle of that.

We caught an Uber back to the hotel, with a great driver who told us the homeless issue is actually getting better since COVID, when the whole city was overrun with tent encampments. Yikes. So sad.

Back at the hotel, we heard that there was a packet pickup room, so we went there and retrieved our packets. Included in that were large name tags with a magnetic back - so now it’s completely obvious who is on the trip, some that I wouldn’t have guessed!

The hotel had a free drink happy hour and that room was loud and overwhelming. I grabbed two glasses of wine and we sat in the bar and perused the booklet that was prepared for the trip - a bio of participants and some trip information.

We were up in the quietness of our room by 8pm, early to bed to get ready for another full week.

Monday August 18, 2025

I was up again before my 6 am alarm. Dressed in our bike clothes, we finished packing and had our luggage ready at the door by 7 am: one suitcase each, my large duffel bag, and two extra bags tied on with our overflow!

We went down to the breakfast buffet. Part of the breakfast entertainment was watching the porters go by with overstuffed luggage carts - seems we weren’t the only ones with overflow baggage!

Back to our room to get our bike, and then we went out front looking for a tire pump. So far, Santana Adventures doesn’t appear to be as organized as some other rides we’ve done. I know better than comparing any organization to Trek Travel as they’re so top notch!

We huddled around Bill, the leader, for the route talk. His helpers were handing out hand-drawn maps that weren’t suitable for navigation!!!! Yesterday, they’d sent out the link to the routes for “Ride With GPS” app, so I opened that and used that to help us navigate (two wrong turns and a detour, so it came in handy)!

Our first few blocks were a little unsettling: getting used to the tandem after riding singles last week, and trying to get a feel for the riders around us - some of them clearly don’t ride much and that can be dangerous in group riding!  About 50% of the participants are riding rental e-bikes, so we know they’re still getting used to their bikes as well.

Bill told us we’d ride over an Interstate bridge, which is the only option to get to Washington where we’d catch our boat. I wasn’t quite understanding what he meant, but we entered a terribly littered bike path and then emerged onto a bike path between the Eastbound and Westbound lanes - 4 lanes each side flying by at 80 mph. The noise level was terrible, and the amount of debris on our path was unbelievable! While it didn’t feel dangerous, it was very unpleasant. I kept my head down and endured it.

We made a few turns after the bridge, then found ourselves about a half mile off course. I pulled out my phone and the app directed us back to the route. Then I discovered I could leave the app open and tuck my phone into JT’s camelback and get the turn by turn directions.

We rode through a suburban area and down through a nice wilderness area with ponds, but the trail was in terrible condition. Not just roots pushing the blacktop up, they were completely pushed through the pavement!

At about 19 miles, we stopped in a small park across from the coffee shop, where we were encouraged to wait patiently since we wouldn’t be able to get on the boat until 11:30am. From there, it was just 1.5 miles down the Lewis and Clark path to the boat. We showed our IDs and got our boarding passes. We had been instructed to load our bike onto one of three trucks, depending on the route we’re going to ride tomorrow. Not only do we not like handing our bike off to be loaded by someone else, but they were going to load tandems last so we had to just leave it propped up next to a shipping container. Hard for JT to walk away!!

We boarded the boat and went to our cabin - 401. I booked this trip in the fall of 2022 while working on the deal to sell our business. I must have felt that we deserved a treat as I booked a really nice room!! It’ll be a comfortable place for the next seven nights and I took the time to completely unpack.

We took quick showers and went in search of lunch - a full sit-down restaurant or a 4th floor soup, salad and sandwich buffet option, which we chose to be fastest. We had wine with lunch - unlimited wine and beer on board. I’ll try to practice moderation!

After lunch we had to go back to our cabins for muster drill, then assemble in the large room on the 2nd floor where the evening entertainment will be. We were introduced to the crew, and Bill gave a welcome speech. Then we were underway!

We went out to the front deck on level 4 and sat in rocking chairs and enjoyed the journey. We took a detour up the Willamette River into downtown Portland, then turned back around and continued our journey to the mouth of the Columbia. I was surprised to see ocean-going freighters and the commercial activity along both rivers.

Bill hosted another rambling welcome. It’s their 199th tour, but he droned on too long about what we should do if we’re not happy, and why they’re not like other bike tours. However, we barely got the information we needed about tomorrow’s route.

At 6:30p, the restaurant opened for dinner, and we were among the first in. We sat at a table for 4 and were joined by a nice couple, Rick and Deb from Orlando. They had a tandem 30 years ago, then became motorcyclists. In February, they bought a new Santana tandem and are just getting back into cycling. We had great conversation but probably talked too much about our travels and our business.

There was evening entertainment in the lounge, but we opted to head back to our quiet room for a good night’s sleep. There are plenty of nights left on this trip.

Tuesday August 19, 2025

We slept well except for the boat shuddering when we were beaching about 2am. Jeff was disoriented and asked if an earthquake was happening. Apparently, this isn’t a regular stop for this boat, but they’re doing it to accommodate us. It was crazy to look out the window this morning and see that we truly are beached!!

We had breakfast at the buffet, rather than in the sit down in the restaurant. Oatmeal, bacon and yogurt - perfect meal for me.

At 7:45 am, we gathered in the salon for our route talk. There are three different ride options (27.2, 48 and 68.5 miles) we’ve selected the medium route.

Bill’s philosophy for these trips is that we’re all adults and can decide to spend the day however we like:  choose one of the three cycling options, or the option to not ride, or the option to explore the port on our own. Anyone cycling will get off the boat where we’ve beached on the Washington side, and while we’re riding the boat will move to Astoria OR. Bill was a bit harsh about novice cyclists and e-bikes, for good reason. One person went down in the parking lot yesterday and ended up hospitalized, trip over!

We walked off the boat, across the sand, and boarded a bus to be boosted to where our bikes were. I’ve long wanted to cycle the Pacific Coast, and this will just be a little taste of it!

When we got outside, the coolness and marine fog reminded me of Anacortes and the San Juan Islands.

Our bus driver was very knowledgeable about the area, and he told us some of what we already knew about the Lewis and Clark Expeditition but also about the history of Astoria as a town, and it was very informative. The bus dropped us off at Okies Market in Naselle WA.

From there we rode to Long Beach WA, and it was a beautiful 20-mile ride. Really nice roads with little traffic and good shoulders, cool temperature and overcast skies. Lots of rolling hills, many of which we could run, which was fun. The little village of Long Beach was cute and touristy. The first portion of the route ended at “Marsh’s Free Museum,” which was also the home to “Captain Bob’s Chowder.” We split a bowl of chowder and a Dad’s Root Beer - great fuel for the next 20 miles. While we were there, a guy dressed as a pirate (and his pirate partner) entertained us - singing and playing guitar (he was really great!).

From there, we rode to the beach and then about an 8 mile stretch down a windy beach path called the “Discovery Trail,” after you know who. The path was fun - as long as there weren’t other bikers or dog walkers coming towards us, or riding alongside us! It went up and over gorgeous grass-covered dunes, and we’d get a brief glimpse of the sea now and then. Along the beach, some kind of amazing kite flying exposition was happening - perfect days for it, with gentle breezes and a slightly overcast sky providing great color contrast. It was magical to see.

Then the pine trees started growing thicker and before we knew it, we were in a coastal forest. The path became dirt, so we detoured around it on the road, climbed a big hill and then the path started up again. This time it was up and down very steep hills, over bridges, around tight corners - all while in a very thick forest. Like a costal rain forest, everything seemed moss covered and damp. The path looked like it could be slick, but we didn’t have any problems with it. I’d never ridden through such an enchanted forest before - it was amazing.

The path ended just outside Ilwaco, a picturesque fishing village. We rode along the wharf and then rejoined Highway 101 through Chinook WA and a cyclists “push button tunnel,” where a light supposedly flashed to let motorists know that cyclists were in the tunnel. It wasn’t the scariest part of our ride today … we’ve ridden through worse tunnels!

Now for the scariest part of the ride: across the Astoria-Megler Bridge into Astoria - 4.2 miles long, high enough for an ocean ship to go underneath. I don’t like bridges in general. I especially don’t like bridges that are hundreds of feet above the water. I don’t like bridges where there isn’t much of a shoulder and what shoulder there is seems to be full of junk and dead birds - hundreds of large black dead birds (Cormorants?). I don’t like bridges where fully loaded logging trucks pass about 2 feet from your elbow. I thought we were just about over the bridge when we realized we still had to do a major climb to the scariest portion of the bridge. Not only was the climb physically taxing, mentally I was just about at my end point. I put my head down and shut my eyes and probably went into a semi-catatonic state. I’m thankful for my strong and confident captain having gotten us safely over that bridge.

Our ride today was 48 miles, 1104 ft ascent but it felt like a lot more than that. Overall, we’re feeling really good. Am I missing the electric boost I had last week in Glacier? Yeah, but together we’re doing just fine.

After the bridge, we rode 2 miles through town to where our ship was docked. None of the trucks had arrived yet, so they just had us declare which route we’d be riding tomorrow and tie a corresponding ribbon on our bike. For now, we’ve opted for the long route.

About Astoria: in 1811 John Jacob Astor founded the town, although he never travelled here himself. He sent a group overland and another by sea, to establish a fur trading post. It is considered to be the first American settlement west of the Mississippi River.

We showered and had a snack, and headed out on an optional excursion to Fort Clatsup, the winter home of the Lewis & Clark Expedition from December 1805 to March 1806. While the fort is a replica, it was still cool to tour and see the exhibits of things like the clothes they would have worn, the canoes they would have made, and some of the tools they carried during the whole expedition.

We got back to the boat in time for cocktails and Bill talk, then dinner at 6:30pm. We had really amazing crab-encrusted Columbia River salmon. Time for backgammon and then to sleep. It was a big day and we have 5 more days of riding!!

Wednesday August 20, 2025

A comfortable night sleeping on the boat. We awoke in Kalama WA to the 6am alarm and went about the morning routine: dress in bike clothes, stretch, breakfast, route talk.

Today’s route is back to the boat from Mt St Helen’s. It started with a 2-hour bus ride to the Coldwater Ridge Visitor’s Center in the Mt St Helen’s National Park; elevation 3150’ (lots of downhill today). It’s been 45 years since the eruption in 1980. I recall when it happened but I didn’t know much about it.

The road was in good shape. When Reagan was president, he brokered a deal with the logging company that they’d donate the land around the volcano for research and education as part of the National Park Service, then obviously, the government would build this amazing new road - for tourists and logging trucks!

It was hard to wrap my brain around just how much material came down the mountain when the volcano erupted; dramatically reshaping the volcano’s summit, reducing its height by 1300 feet! The subsequent melting of glaciers and snow caused “lahars” or volcanic mudflows which followed the riverbeds … so the rivers are still there, they are just 200-300 feet above where they used to be as the river beds filled in! So much debris reached the Columbia River that it interrupted shipping and even when channels were re-established, continued sediment washing down the rivers continued to impact the river for many years.

We arrived at the visitor’s center and they told us to go inside while they unloaded the bikes. We watched an interesting, older movie which made what we’d seen on the drive up come to life. Unlike most volcanoes, it wasn’t spewing lava. It built up pressure over two months or more, and then just blew its top in a “pyroclastic flow.” It released 1.5 metric tons on sulfur dioxide and flattened vegetation and buildings over an area of 230 square miles. The damage was devastating and happened suddenly. The ash plume reached 16 miles above sea level and moved eastward at 60 miles per hour - reaching Idaho by noon. The video clips of the ash accumulation in Eastern Washington were unbelievable. Within the week, they said ash had circled the globe!

It was sunny when we left the boat, but as we reached 3000’ in the bus, we drove into a cloud. It was gorgeous but made for interesting riding. Jeff had put tights on this morning, and we both had two layers on top of our jerseys and socks.

There were not many people riding from the top. We started out downhill, but then actually had about 800 ft of climb, which helped warm us up and we took frequent stops to peel off layers.

At the welcome sign, the trucks were there dropping off the “Medium Ride” riders. We stopped at talked with a mechanic about the squeak/creak my seatpost seems to have developed - nothing he could do for us.

We continued downhill. Up to that point, our average speed had been 8.8mph, after the next downhill stretch, our average climbed to over 16mph and we hit a max speed of 52.2mph. It was fun to fly downhill with a good road and little traffic.

The next stop was the “Forest Center Museum and Learning Center,” presented by Weyerhaeuser (a logging company). We didn’t go inside, since Bill said it’s a lot of logging company propaganda. The short route riders started here, and we decided to head out near the front of the pack. Passing less confident riders while flying downhill can be dangerous!

We continued down the road. It was nice not to have to worry about making turns. The squeak on my bike seat was driving us both a little crazy so I unlinked the audio connection on our helmets and linked mine to my music - Mamma Mia soundtrack. The music also took my mind off my sore butt!

The next potential stop was at the Mt St Helen’s State Museum - at 500’, supposedly the best of the three museums, but we skipped it and pressed on. By then it was nearly 2pm and we had our hearts set on McDonald’s in Castle Rock about 5 miles down the road. There we had double cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes - good to have real food versus snack mix.

It was another two miles from where the trucks and buses were parked in downtown Castle Rock. We opted for truck / buses back to the boat. We’d already ridden 44.5 miles with 1379’ ascent and 4371’ descent! Our average speed was 16.4 mph and our max speed was 52.2mph. There was an option to ride an additional 23 miles (and climb 950’) directly to the boat, but you had to be onboard before 5:30pm when the boat was leaving!

A couple of things we learned today from Cody, our bus driver:

Kalama (the port city where the boat is today) is “where the rails meet the trails,” the end of the Northern Pacific railroad. From here, they’d transferred railroad cars across the Columbia on barges.

·       Logging is one the biggest industries here. In the “Log Yard,” the logs are stripped of their bark, then they’re shipped to Asia where they’ll be made into furniture (and probably shipped back here).

·       The largest grain elevator in the US is here.  A lot of what we saw driving to the Columbia River probably ends up back here. The grain is shipped to Asia, where it’s made into noodles - with many shipped back here again.

We got back to the boat just after 4pm. Felt like a long day, but we didn’t start riding until after 11am! We showered and napped before heading to the lounge for the “Bill talk” and cocktails. It’s a little frustrating to me that we don’t have tomorrow’s route in hand. Bill said they’re still working on a surprise detail and talked us through some of the things we might see in general.

The boat left the port about 5:30pm and we headed to the Washougal (WA) Waterfront Dock, which is where we got on the boat Monday afternoon. Tomorrow morning, we’ll all be bused to the area around Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the river, where we’ll have various options to ride from there.

Thursday August 21, 2025

It was our normal morning routine, but we made the wrong decision at breakfast. We were about the last ones at the sit-down restaurant with 45 minutes before the morning briefing.  With the combination of a slow, disengaged waitress and probably a backed up kitchen, we got our food with just 5 minutes to wolf it down and grab our stuff before the route talk. It left us feeling a bit out of sorts for the start of the day.

We loaded on the bus and sat there for 20 minutes, questioning while we felt so rushed when we end up waiting for others anyway. This trip is designed to see the best parts of the Columbia River gorge, but lots of patience is required with this large of a group and this many moving pieces!

We rode on the bus for about an hour, back over to the Oregon side, and east to Multnomah Falls. They told us to go explore the falls while they unloaded the bikes. The long option today headed up and down Vista Point, adding 1250’ and about 7 miles to the route; we opted out of that.

Jeff and I had been at Multnomah Falls in 2003 when we were just starting to date. Jeff had been working in Portland and I flew out to join him. Since we’d already been there and hiked around the falls, we just snapped a quick photo and didn’t walk the trail up to the bridge.

We rode on the old Columbia River highway which runs parallel to the river, interstate and railroad. After about 5 miles, we got on a bike path which was beautiful, but had lots of bumps so we took it slowly. After lubing up every possible joint on the back seat, the noise continued and it was driving us crazy!  I accidently figured out that it was actually the connector joint on the top bar that was creaking (a critical piece that holds the two halves of the bike together)!  I reached down while we were riding and noticed I could move it with my hand – not good!  Jeff pulled out the special tool and tightened that up and it fixed our problem.  After a bit, I recalled the same thing happening on our Natchez Trace ride - duh. Hopefully I can connect the dots a little sooner next time as it’s unbelievable how aggravating that squeak was to us!!

Our first official stop was the Bonneville complex - lock, dam, fishery and visitor center. You’re not allowed to bicycle across the dam, so the ship had a bus there to run a shuttle for us to cross over and visit the visitor center and fish ladder. On the down river side of the dam is “Beacon Rock,” where Lewis and Clark camped and noted the tidal inflow and confirmed they were close to the ocean.

The fish hatchery was interesting. They had a video showing the way they harvest the sperm and eggs from the adult salmon, mix it together, wait for the eggs to grow eyes, sort through the eggs to discard the unfertilized eggs, grow the eggs into fingerlings, sort out the dead fingerlings, grow them into fry, then eventually release them into Tanner Creek where they swim to the Columbia and eventually to the ocean. The most amusing part to me is that they count the numbers at every step, and then they remove one of the back fins of the little salmon and tag each one with a tiny little device, injected by hand. The salmon stay in the ocean for 2-3 years before coming back here to spawn. The big attraction at the hatchery was “Herman the Sturgeon,” an 85-year-old White Sturgeon, but I found it difficult to get excited about huge ugly fish!

The Pride was just going through the lock as we were driving over the dam, but we were forbidden to get out of the bus to watch. We practiced a little more patience as we sat on the bus for 30 minutes waiting for the swing bridge to close and allow us to cross the dam.

The visitor center had a nice exhibit of Native American and Lewis & Clark information, but not much new to us. There was a whole floor dedicated to building the dam, and an option to tour the power generating part of the dam, but we opted out of those. The coolest thing was a salmon ladder with windows that allowed you to see underwater and watch the fish jump up stream. I was surprised by the variety of salmon that we saw just right there: Coho, Chum, Sockeye and Chinook!

We waited about 10 minutes and then caught the shuttle bus back to our bikes at the fishery. We went into the coffee shop looking for food, and came up a little short. We bought “Smoothies,” that were just berry sauce (sugar) and ice blended together, and a brownie. We’d already eaten the mixed nuts I had in my bag! We only had about 10 more miles to go, but it was hot and we aren’t used to taking a couple of hour break in the middle of a bike ride!!

We got back on the bike path, and was gorgeous - winding through a beautiful forest. We’d been warned that it abruptly ends with a stair case! There were rails along the side designed to have you roll your bike, but that doesn’t really work for a tandem. Good thing we’ve been weightlifting and we easily carried it down the 4 flights of stairs. Just before the stairs, the bike path merged with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). We saw a few hikers going in both directions.

The bike path ended at Cascade Locks, and there we climbed up to and crossed over the “Bridge of the Gods” which was the kind I classify as a scary bridge with the steel decking. The bridge gets its name because there had once been a landslide here that brought rocks and allowed the Indian tribes to easily cross to the other side of the river. Jeff did a good job maneuvering us over the steel decking. Me, I was moaning and hyperventilating on the back of the tandem.

Another two miles and we stopped at the Columbia Gorge Museum. We stopped only for a cool drink, as it was really warm by then. It was a gorgeous museum with a collection of beautiful native baskets and weavings. There was also a remarkable modern day display of hand-woven rugs depicting the sections of the river. From there, it was about two miles to the boat.

While we were riding today, the boat made its way through the Bonneville lock and docked on the WA side in Stevenson.

A shorter ride today - 18.2 miles and just under 1000’ of elevation, which gave us time to poke around. It took us 5 hours with the big breaks, but still took a lot out of us, probably a cumulative effect as we’ve been on the road for three weeks now and it is so hot!

We got back to the boat about 3:30p. We passed a brewery just a block from where the boat is, and there were a lot of bikes there, as well as “cleaned up” people walking there from the boat. We showered, and took advantage of not many people on the boat and we were able to squeeze a load of laundry in. This company/boat hasn’t ever had a tour like this before, but they seem like they’re being really good sports and accommodating us in every way they can. Just one example is they’ve offered their staff laundry to the group for our use - soap and everything!

We relaxed until 5:30pm, then went down for cocktails. The usual piano player, Steve, was playing and then he launched into a “port talk.” These had been scheduled for 9pm each night, but he said no one on this cruise has been attending because we’re all too exhausted from riding, so he thought he’d change things up and tell us a bit about The Dalles, tomorrow’s port before Bill does his 6pm talk. It was really interesting history - we learned that “The Dalles” is the longest occupied civilization in the world, and that its only one of three places in the US that includes “The” in its title (The Villages and The Bronx are the other two). Before the dams and the modernization of the Columbia River, The Dalles was a critical place for native tribes who build platforms for cat

ching salmon as they jumped the rapids. It was also pivotal during the Oregon Trail days - today we saw drawings of stage coaches where they took the wheels off and put it on a raft to cross the river in the rapids!

Bill’s talk raised more questions about tomorrow’s route than what he was willing to answer today - I guess we’ll tune in for route talk tomorrow!

We had dinner with Chris and Beth from Sussex WI, and had a fabulous time telling stories and getting to know them better - they’re really nice people!! We were about the first to enter the dining room, and the last to leave!

Friday August 22, 2025

We started cruising last night just after we returned to our cabin. The boat was doing the shuddering thing as we were falling asleep.

When we awoke, we were docked in Hood River on the Oregon side, where we will ride from the boat and return to the boat, kind of what I expected we’d do most days! I opened our curtains and could see the top of Mt Hood peaking out.

We started with a little freeway ride (!), then rode through the new Mitchell Point bike tunnel. It’s a dead end right now, so we turned around and rode right back, through the tunnel and onto the freeway again.

Back through the town of Hood River and then out to the country for what they call the “Fruit Loop” circuit.

We bypassed the WAAAM (Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum), but took the opportunity to stop at Marchesi Vineyard for a free glass of wine. In addition to our wine, we purchased a charcuterie board. I loved the Pinot Noir Rose and bought a few bottles of that (which they transported back to the boat for us in the SOS van).

The day had grown very warm - 98 degrees before noon. We’d already done nearly 2000’ of elevation gain, mostly on some very steep climbs. The boat was going to move to The Dalles at 2pm, and there was an option to ride an additional 27 miles and 1800’ to catch the boat there, but we were happy to hand over our bike and get on the boat about 1pm at the Hood River dock.

Hood River is the area where we saw the wind and kite-surfers when we drove through last Saturday, but unfortunately, we didn’t see the same action today. It was warm, but barely a breeze.

We grabbed some snacks from the lounge and Gatorades from the cooler and headed to our room and cranked up the AC. After a bit, I showered and then slept for about an hour, until the boat started moving again. Jeff went out on the deck to watch the scenery, but it was too hot. We went up to the 5th floor and sat in the shade, and the breeze from the movement of the boat made it tolerable.

We docked in The Dalles and it was fun to watch that process and the two guys manually haul a gangplank down to the pier. There were a number of riders that had gathered even before we docked - mostly e-bikers, but a few hardcore tandem riders. We got off the ship and walked into town. It was a little unsettling to walk by a homeless encampment under the bridge, and then town was busy with a protest being staged. A lot to take in! We walked a few blocks of Main Street, then ducked into a saloon for a beer.

Back to the ship about 5:30pm, we caught the Steve/Bill show about tomorrow’s activities and port call. You had to be there, but it was unintentionally funny. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 100 degrees, so Bill is great about helping those of us concerned about the heat to modify our activities and enjoy some alternative sites. As it stands now, we’ll probably only bike 8 miles, and I’d be okay even with a zero day!

We had a nice dinner with a couple from Southern California, David and Mary, long-time Santana tandem riders. Then we got the announcement that we’d be motoring through the Dalles lock, so they threw an impromptu party on the deck of the 5th floor with music, dancing and drinks. I’d been through locks before, but it was really cool going through a lock of that magnitude with a boat this size!

Back to the room for backgammon and blog posting. Another action-packed day tomorrow!

Saturday August 23, 2023

We travelled a great distance overnight and awoke in the desert. We’re now in Oregon Trail territory, more interesting history.

It was a bright sunny morning, already warm with temperatures expected to be about 104 degrees today. We’ve set our sights on the short route today - about 8 miles, mostly downhill.

The ship was beached east of a grain storage facility, not really in a town, but supposedly near Irrigon OR. It’s not a normal stop for this boat (obviously) but it’s really cool how the crew is working with Bill to accommodate us, and interesting to see the various ways the boat can “dock.”

The buses took us to a truck stop, where the long riders got out for a 27-mile ride along the Old Oregon Trail, to the city of Pendleton. The rest of us continued on to Tamastslikt Indian Reservation, where we toured the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, a joint project by the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes.

We were greeted by the assistant director, and he told us a very brief history of the Native American experience over the last 250 years: the treaty that signed away much of their land and established the reservation, the further reduction in the reservation, the decline of the Indian culture with drug and alcohol issues and nearly 50% unemployment, the establishment of the casino and truck stop and recovery to 4% unemployment and social services for families, and the mutual project of this center. They were doing an outside demonstration of native games, and it would have been fun to hang out longer and try our hand at those.

The center had wonderful exhibits, a gorgeous collection of beaded costumes and accessories, interactive displays and an extensive museum store featuring items made by tribal artisans. The first movie highlighted the native connection to the moon, stars and sun, as well as to animals and plants, water and all natural resources. It went through the ugly timeline of being infiltrated by white people with diseases and greed, being forced from their land as the natural resources were squandered. Next came the missionaries with the goal of imparting a different value system on them, Christianity versus the spiritual connections they’d had since the beginning of time, and then of course those Indian Schools where they tried to “beat the Indian” out of the kids. It’s an important history to learn, and it’s so devastating to know in so many places that kind of intolerance for difference and culture still exists.

We started the ride at about 10:30am, an easy mostly downhill ride into Pendleton. When we arrived there, we were instructed to park our bikes with assurance they’d all be loaded on the trucks, and then set out for Underground Tour, and lunch.

Even though we drove through Pendelton last Saturday, we didn’t scratch the surface on the history and culture of the town. Several railroads converged here, and there was a large Chinese population as they were the primary workers building the railroad. Even back then, there was discrimination, and they were forced to live in the basements underneath the shops. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was enacted with the purpose of driving Chinese out of the US and to give the jobs to Irish and European immigrants (it wasn’t repealed until 1943!). In Pendleton, it was forbidden for Chinese to be seen when they weren’t working and they created underground tunnels, connecting their living spaces to Hop Sing’s Chinese laundry. In addition, during prohibition, some businesses (speakeasy’s, card rooms, taverns, bordellos, an opium den and more) operated freely underground. At one time, there were eight square blocks of rooms and tunnels, home to both legal and illegal businesses.

There is a nice collection of memorabilia on the underground tour, and it was interesting! Outside the Chinese laundry, there was a bath house, when men paid $0.10 for a bath, necessary before their visit to the bordello. There is a re-creation of the Empire Ice Cream Parlor, even though the parlor had been above ground and just the preparation and storage rooms were in the underground. Similarly, the Empire Meat Market had a store front above ground but the butcher and storage facilities were below ground (imagine the smell)!

Pendleton is a true cowboy town, and was known as the “Las Vegas of Oregon” in the late 1800’s, saloons, casinos and brothels. It’s currently the home of a rodeo championship, the Pendelton Round Up, where 80,000 people come to this little town of 17,000 residents.

After our tunnel tour, we were hustled down the block to Sister’s Cafe where 120 cyclists overwhelmed the staff, despite having preordered lunch. Once again, we found ourselves wondering why we were taking a three-hour break in the middle of a hot day, but it was out of our control.

When we finished lunch, we followed the crowd to our buses and got on the first one, which bumped all to the start of the afternoon ride. The first leg was 21.8 miles, mostly downhill to the river, but 825’ feet of climb, into a hot wind. It seemed like the choice was to sit on the bus for another hour, or get out and ride, so we opted for the ride. There were 2 more bail-out options for those choosing to continue to ride. Buses and trucks were to be at various intervals to pluck riders off the route if they want to bail, or if they’re riding too slow to be at the boat by 5pm. Since it was just after 3pm when we got to the river, and it was HOT, we stopped there and luckily got the last two seats on the first bus back to the boat, arriving about 4pm.

The boat was parked at Sacajawea State Park, at the confluence of Columbia and Snake Rivers. We picked up some snacks from the River Lounge, then back to our room to clean up - feeling sweaty and dusty from our ride through the harvested wheat fields this afternoon!

After showers, we went down to the salon for Bill’s chat and also Steve’s “port talk” about Clarkston tomorrow. The photos he showed made me more confident we’d parked our car in the correct place.

Just a short ride tomorrow - about 17 miles, then the afternoon for a jet boat tour of the Snake River rapids, which sounds like fun on a hot day. Bill had information for disembarking Monday morning, but I’m trying to “stay in the river” and not think too far in advance. On one hand, it seems like we’ve been away from home for a long time, but on the other hand - this time on the American Pride has gone so fast!

Sunday August 24, 2025

We made good time traveling up the Snake River. We went through a lock about 6:30p last night, and another around 10pm just as we were starting to fall asleep. This morning, we awoke just after 5am with the boat bumping the sides of another lock! That’s a different kind of alarm clock.

As we saw on our drive here over a week ago, the terrain is really desolate. When we were closer to Richland yesterday, there were areas of grapes growing along the river - highly irrigated, I’m guessing! Now, it looks like sage brush is having a hard time growing on these steep canyon walls.

Visibility was hazy this morning, I’m guessing due to wildfires somewhere. It was a cool morning in the 60’s but it will be above 100 again today.

The boat was still moving during breakfast, then it stopped during the route briefing, on the north side of the river. Again, not an official “dock,” but this boat is quite nimble in pulling up to the boat and letting us off. There were four tents pitched on the pullout where the trucks were unloading our bikes, people “car camping.” I imagined those people thought they were pitching their tents in a quiet remote spot, and then we showed up! As soon as we were all off the boat, it departed. The captain joked that it was the first time the American Pride was going to be in a race, and that they’d try to beat us to the dock in Clarkston.

We claimed our tandem and we were riding at about 8:15am - well before the heat of the day. The ride along the river was pretty dull, but flat. We took a diversion off the highway through a “port” that was basically a huge log yard and sawmill - mountains of wood chips!

Today was the last ride - just 18 miles along the river to Lewiston ID, then across the bridge to Clarkston WA. I was overjoyed to see that the route looked like it ended exactly where we left our car 9 days ago (and a little anxious that it was going to be there unharmed)! There was an option to add to the ride - 12 miles round trip up the “spiral highway” to the overlook. We’d just driven that in the car and didn’t feel the need to climb an additional 2000 feet this morning. In addition, with the smoke in the air, there won’t be much of a view from the top!

We crossed the Clearwater River into Lewiston ID and rode along the bike path on top of the levee, then through town, and across the Snake River on another bridge, along another bike path to the dock, and then another 100 feet to our car - looking dusty, but otherwise no worse for the time we’d abandoned it!

We loaded the bike in the car, and as we were doing that, the boat pulled up to the dock - perfect timing. It was just getting warm and we were happy to get into our room with AC and have a cool drink. We were going on a jet boat excursion this afternoon, so opted to not shower just yet. We were lounging on the bed reading when we heard an announcement for ice cream on the back deck, so we headed there and had ice cream at 10:30 in the morning. We sat around and socialized a bit, then back to our room to chill until lunch time. Today’s lunch was a buffet of salads, salmon, chicken and an amazing dessert bar. We sat with David and Mary again. He was in several Olympics - luge and kayaking, and their travels around that as well as his time in the Army stationed in Heidelberg made for great stories.

Back to our room, we grabbed a small pack with rain jackets as we didn’t know how wet we’d get on the jet boat. We would have changed into swimsuits under our clothes if we’d been smart. All week I’ve been wanting to swim in the river, and this was my best shot and I missed it!!

Snake River Jet Boats

We loaded onto three Jet Boats for the 4-hour adventure up the Snake River, fun and interesting, but about an hour too long! Having been on the air-conditioned boat for a few hours though made me forget what a hot day it was! Lucky for us, Tanya, the wife of our driver had a cooler full of Kirkland water bottles and tried to keep us hydrated. Hell’s Canyon supposedly is North America’s deepest river gorge. We saw many Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep and some mule deer. The terrain wasn’t nearly as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon - mostly basalt (volcanic) rock. There were hundreds of people out enjoying the river on this hot and mostly sunny Sunday (despite the still pervasive wildfire smoke). There seemed to be a favored style boat for fishing and pleasure boats, different than ours with a metal hull and railings on the back platform. Also lots of paddle boarders, kayakers, and about a dozen rafts that were starting to set up camps on beaches along the way (some rafts with duckies like we’d paddled on the North Fork of the Salmon River). The jet boats were cool the way they could drive up the rapids, and they could do sharp turns where we’d all get splashed, which felt terrific, but we didn’t end up as wet as we’d expected to.

The ride took a break at the historic Garden Creek Ranch where we were given refreshments, had a restroom stop, browsed the gift shop and orchard as well. It was also our best opportunity for swimming, which about a dozen people did. Jeff and I just waded in, which helped to cool us off a lot.

We continued upriver for a bit, to the confluence of the Snake and Salmon Rivers. I kept anticipating that the river would become narrower and we’d go through a gorge, but that didn’t happen. The scenery really didn’t change that much. On the way down river, I actually stretched out on the bench and napped for a bit. I don’t know what the temperature was, but I’m certain it was over 100 degrees. The hot wind reminded me of being in the Grand Canyon again.

We got back to the boat about 6:30pm, many people headed straight to dinner, but we needed showers to wash away all that dryness and get our wind whipped hair under control. Quick showers, and down to dinner where we sat with David and Mary again, enjoying their company and joking with our favorite waitress, Jade.

We were just finishing up when they called everyone to the salon, where they reintroduced the staff as sort of a good-bye. Bill said with the money they’d already collected from us as part of the cost of the trip, they’d tipped each staff member $300 (we also tipped our room steward, Felicity and waitress, Jade extra as well).

After that presentation, we had three members of the Nez Perce tribe perform a song and grass-stomping dance, talk to us about their traditional clothing, and tell some stories. They were fantastic ambassadors from their tribe - very interesting and moving. White Buffalo told us the coyote and monster story we’d heard a few days ago. He said they dress in the style of animals they admire. His braids were wrapped in otter skin, and Lydia Rose’s dress was made from mule deer, and she showed us how each part of the animal fit her body so perfectly. Her outfit is over one-hundred years old, and he is the 4th generation wearing the traditional headdress and vest handed down from a great-great grandfather who was a chief that was a participant in the treaty negotiations. Of all the things he said about that, most powerful was: “leadership is a submission to duty, not elevation of power.”

It was our latest night all week, but a fun-filled day to end this great trip.

Monday - Wednesday August 25-27, 2025

We awoke at 6am without an alarm - clunking in the halls with other people out and about. We were among a small group without a shuttle to catch, but we needed to be off the boat by 8am.

We had hauled a load of stuff to our car yesterday, so we just had our two bags. We dressed and finished packing, then headed out to the back lounge for breakfast. The vibe had changed and people were stressed about travel arrangements. We ate and moved on with a few quick good-byes.

Final Santana Adventure Thoughts:

I’d anticipated a lot of climbing from the Columbia River gorge, and there was, and we did okay, but the heat was what really took a toll on us. I was disappointed the days we didn’t ride further, but maybe that is just a sign of aging, and I need to accept we’re no longer as strong as we were ten years ago!!

Our bike performed well - we’d taken it in for complete maintenance after our Natchez Trace ride last Spring. The brakes worked well with no brake-drag noise that we used to have. The shifting worked well, although we dropped the chain twice - once bad enough that Jeff had to use tools to move the derailleur to get it unstuck!

We enjoyed the cultural events and visited so many visitor centers and museum exhibits that we might have normally bypassed. It was a struggle for us when we did those in the middle of the ride - those three-hour breaks during the day made it tough to get going again.

I struggled with the way Bill was kind of making up the schedule for each day as we went along, however I did come to understand that he was working out details to the last minute and trying to provide the best experience for us each day. It’s always a good exercise for me to practice giving up the control! Will we sign up for another Santana Adventure? Probably not, but I can’t exactly say why. We made some really good connections with some other people, but 120 people is really too big of a group for me, I think.

We retrieved our bags from our room and exited the boat for the last time. We loaded the car and drove it across the parking lot to get a good charge for our drive over the Bitterroot Range to Missoula (via Lolo pass). Continuing the path of Lewis and Clark, but it’s 220 miles between chargers!

It took about 20 minutes to boost us from 72% to 92%, we took the time to get the car organized for our road trip and download another audiobook (Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”).

It was quite smoggy again this morning, and as we drove up Hwy 12 along the Clearwater River, it got even worse. I’m sure the drive would have been gorgeous, but the view was obliterated. After we left the Nez Perce reservation, about 1.5 hours into our 4-hour drive, we started climbing more and the sky mostly cleared, with just some slight haze. We saw three fully-loaded cyclists and felt some pain for them on this long stretch with no services! We stopped at the Visitor’s Center at the top of the pass, good break after that kind of driving. I drove down the pass, and we “regenerated” 20 miles, which helped me ease the “range anxiety” I was feeling!  In Lolo, we went through the McDonald’s drive-thru and picked up Double Cheeseburgers and a chocolate shake for JT, then cruised into Missoula back to the Walmart for a charge (same place we’d charged on our drive to Glacier).

We were looking for a place to buy a bottle of bourbon to bring to Calvin’s for the evening, and knew Walmart wasn’t the place to do that! We asked a clerk and she said to go to the liquor store across the street. We left the car charging and walked across the street to a casino / convenience store but they only sold beer and wine. We walked back to the car and I saw there was a Costco as we were going out of town so we stopped there, even though the parking lot was CRAZY! We got to where the beer and wine was, and found that’s all there was. We asked an employee and he educated us on Montana Law and told us where the actual liquor store was - back into town.

We ended up killing an hour in Missoula and came out with a good, not great, bottle of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. The drive from Missoula to Butte was longer than I’d thought, and sometime in there we changed from PST to MST so lost another hour there, so it was about 5pm when we arrived at Calvin and Mckinley’s bungalow in Butte. We had a quick tour, met the cats, Homer and new kitty Hugo, then headed out for dinner and a city tour, including a stop at the overlook where there is a tribute to all the miners that have lost their lives over the years working in the area, including about 50 in one tragic accident. We went back to their bungalow and sat outside drinking bourbon and enjoying the gorgeous evening. So nice to sit outside with no bugs.

In the morning, Cal prepared breakfast for us, lemon scones and some well-seasoned venison medallions. It’s so hard for my sister that her eldest lives so far away from her, but he is so at home in Montana - I can see why he’s so happy there. He loves the mountains for hiking, skiing, biking, fishing and most of all - hunting. He sent us with a few pounds of ground venison as hunting season is coming up and he needs to empty out his freezer to get ready!

We headed east, uncertain if we were going to take the SD or ND route, figuring we’d make up our minds when we got to Billings. We had Electrify America chargers every 70-100 miles, so took frequent stops for breaks and charging: 2 Targets, 2 Menards, several convenience stores. We can’t drive this route without reminiscing about our 2012 bike trip, which is probably what lured us to the ND route. There had been just a slight haze to the day today, so it was a perfect day to stop at the Painted Canyon overlook in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Somewhere along there we lost another hour as we entered CST, so it was about 1am when we stopped in Fargo for the night (not helpful when the hotel clerk greets you with “good morning” though!).

We left Fargo around 9am, charged up at a Menards and bought Caribou drinks and muffin for breakfast. Traveling south along that stretch of I94 to Alexandria and St Joseph make us recall many TRAM rides along the trails that parallel the highway. Driving through the familiar scenery of farms, cows, corn and beans was comforting. I tried to imagine someone coming from the mountains, how would this look to them? Would it feel as exotic as their scenery does to me?

We stopped at Charlie’s cafe in Freeport for a caramel roll to go. One TRAM ride we rode there from Sauk Centre in the rain and recalled it as an amazing respite stop. We stopped at the flagship REI in Minneapolis - the zipper on Jeff’s REI bike jacket broke last week and he wanted to see if they’d fix it or take it back, but alas, he’d had it for over a year so he was out of luck. He bought a new jacket and I bought a new pair of low hikers for our Japan trip that will come up soon.

We stopped in Tomah and got Culver’s for dinner and ate while we charged at the Walmart just a few blocks away. Home around 8pm and happy to be home!! We’ll have 3 days to catch up on things and then head up to the lake to check on things there and continue to decompress from this trip. As usual after a trip like this, we need to overhaul our snacking habits and work regular walking, weights and yoga back into our routine as this trip was a different kind of mix of exercise where our appetites get stimulated and road trips where we snack all day.

Road Trip Stats:

We drove over 4900 miles, ten days of driving.

Thirty-eight charging stops, only three which were not our “free” Electrify America stations. We paid less than $50 for those 3 non-EA charges.

We found if we drove 70mph or less, we were much more efficient in energy use. Typically, driving on the interstate, we got about an average of 3.2 mi/KWh, but it would drop to 2.9 mi/KWh when going 75-80 mph.

Most of the EA stations we used were “HyperFast,” rated to provide 350KWh of charge, although the actual rate of flow of energy would be more like 120-150 KWh and as we approached 80% the rate would drop. Occasionally, even the HyperFast would charge at 50 KWh or less - no idea why, but those charges take a lot more time.