Wei:
The short-term and immediate problem solving demanded of living on the road is what makes it exciting. Although we just as eagerly look forward to relaxing at friends' homes; where the daily search for camping and water suddenly evaporate.
Arriving at the Milwaukee Amtrak station to find that our train had been cancelled due to flooding, threw us straight back into the thick of things! But the Gods were kind enough and with unexpected calm, we managed to bus, train, and taxi our way through the flooded countryside with our boxed bikes in tow (even surviving our first McDonalds meal, 'forced' upon us for lack of other sustenance, which disagreed considerably with my stomach for the rest of the Greyhound ride...).
Not wanting to face the isolation of Northern Ontario with possible worsening knee injury and with time running out, a train ride across the prairies didn't seem like a bad idea. Weeks of cycling across seemingly endless flatlands would have to wait for another trip, but it did mean that we would have more time in the lovely BC mountains.
Twenty hours reclining in our giant seats, reading 'Runner's World' from cover to cover, spotting deer from the observation deck, making chess-playing-friends, dining communally, finding our 'train legs', draining our ipod batteries, listening to the 'oh-so camp' chimes of Monty from the lower deck bar and we were finally deposited out at Shelby, Montana, bicycles still with us, and the mosquitoes were already biting.
Montana was a beautiful change in landscape, low strangely lush green rollers, huge skyscapes and snow peaked mountains gradually growing larger on the horizon with every mile. Meeting five other cycle tourists heading East raised our spirits even more and we managed to encourage our train weary legs to Camp Disappointment, where we feasted on a potent Thai tuna, rice dinner whilst the locals shot beaver...
No comments:
Post a Comment