Tandem Acts of Kindness

We're alive! Sorry for the lack of posting...service has almost been non-existant! I left off shortly after Missoula...so here's how it goes! Remember the Palmers?? Well on our way through Montana, Gary Palmer passed us on his way home from work. Keep in mind this has been about 2 days since we saw the Palmers at that cafe in Idaho! Anyhow, he stopped to talk to us one last time...and get this...he had a printed out copy of our blog in his hand to bring home and show his wife. Really cool if you ask me!

Ok, one of the next towns we got to was Darby, MT. This is where we met Frank! Frank is a through-hiker that was hiking the Continental Divide Trail. He has hiked the AT twice and also the Pacific Coast Trail. What a cool guy! They call him 'Sunset!' :) So Sunset was at our campsite, freezing his ass off, sitting at a picnic table, eating ice cream! Who does that? It was so funny! Anyways, he was the sweetest old man (well 60 isn't that old) and we enjoyed his company while we waited out the rain all afternoon! We went to a little cafe where we ate more ice cream :) He picked up the tab and we headed out while he tried to hitch a ride back the the trail head!

Next town was Sula where we made it after pedaling through the rain! This is where we met a crazy guy on a motorcycle, or Jim as he called himself! Jim would NOT leave us alone! It took us forever to get out of there because Jim was writing a book and he wanted to add us to it! Haha, yeah right! From what we could get, he was a washed out/retired teacher who took pride in being thought of as Forest Gump! He kept saying that he wasn't that smart, but he wasn't stupid either! 'Kinda like Forest Gump,' he would say! Hopefully he was joking about the teacher part!

The Andersons! :) As we headed to West Yellowstone we realized that we miscalculated our mileage for the day! We passed the campsite we had picked out to stay at after our 60 mile day, and figured out that we passed it by about 10 miles! We made the decision to continue on because there was another campsite about 15 miles ahead! It was getting dark and rainy when a white Suburban pulls over with the Andersons inside! They brought us the rest of the way to West Yellowstone! AND, not only did they pay for our campsite, they took us out for dinner! Thank you soo much Bryce and Nadene...from the bottom of our hearts!

As we made it into Yellowstone National Park the weather had gotten a little better! It was sunny, but still pretty cold! What an amazing place though! We rode arms length from a bison and got great pictures of elk! That night it got really cold! We woke up to hail, rain, sunshine, then hail again! That night we made it to a place called Colter Bay! It was not as far as we had hoped to get, but it was getting late. We were starving too! We ate at the restaurant there where a couple approached us to talk about our bike! We talked for a minute and before too long they had offered us to stay in their cabin! Coming from our previous night of rain and hail, we happily accepted their generous offer! Erie and Deater where their names! A wonderful couple out of Colorado taking some time to vacation! I think they were just as happy to brag to their kids (who are grown) about their overnight guests, as we were to have a warm bed to sleep in! What great people! Another God-send on our journey! Thank you again :)

Now we are in a town called Dubois, WY! We went through the Teton National Park pretty quick today! It was beautiful, but I think we were too cold to appreciate the scenery! The pass to get to Dubois was the worst yet! I would go as far as saying that today has been the worst day yet! As we started nearing the top of the pass, we ran out of road! Yup, it just became gravel for the next 10 miles! Luckily there was a construction worker who offered to shuttle us to where the pavement started again! Right at about this time, the blizzard came! So we sat in the back of a pick-up holding on to the bike while the snow just dumped! We've never been so cold! Miserable is the only word that comes to mind! But, we're safe and finally down the mountain! Well it's bed time because typing that just took me forever! :)

Much Love,
Mike and Candace