The spring storm that blew out of the Rockies and rolled out into the plains is finally gone and along with it, the gale-force winds in Wyoming. Today, we sailed through the last few miles from Hoback Junction into Jackson, WY under deep blue skies and calm winds. There is some fresh snow on the Teton peaks from this latest storm, but the temperature in town was in the 60s. Tonight, we are holed up at the Motel 6 in Jackson to catch up on laundry, sleep, and school work. Yeah – I’m teaching three web classes from the road this summer: Astronomy I, Astronomy II, and Intro to Chemistry I. This is a working vacation for me.

Let me take this opportunity to say a big HELLO and THANK YOU to some of the nice folks and new friends that we’ve met on our journey so far:

Chad, Dawn, Molly, Audry, Tom, Sorrel, Jim, Courtland, Dusty, Micky, Anna, Tim, Tammy, Dave, and Wes. I think that all of these were actual people, but some might have been guardian angels in disguise that disappeared after our paths crossed. Seriously, meeting and trading stories with you folks has been the highlight of our trip so far. Please know that we will pass along your kindness and smiles to others that we meet.

Also, a special THANK YOU to Mary from CMC who was the only person to see us off last Sunday as we left the CMC campus. That meant the world to us :’)

And, a special THANK YOU to Gina, George, and Father Jim who invited us to stay our first night out in a little apartment at St. Michael’s Church in Craig, CO.

Chad – you saved our butts on the road to Rock Springs. Thank you!

Tom & Sorrel – we would have been eating Dusty’s cold cheeseburgers at Sitzman’s Motel without your kindness! Please, please, please sign in to our blog and write down your story of saving your horses from drowning up in the Yukon!

Anna – you saved our LIVES on the road to Pinedale. Literally! What a joy to meet and travel with you 🙂 Have fun shooting through those Gates of Ladore!

Monday, we will resume pedaling through Teton National Park and into Yellowstone National Park. The next few days promise to be some of the most beautiful and exciting on the road to Alaska.

Jimmy*** and Linda

We had a good day of rest here in Rock Springs. Went to Staples and designed a card with the trip blog address on it to hand out to folks. Got tired of writing it down! We’ll send you a few.
Popped the cable on the rear drum brake coming down a big hill yesterday – went to a bike shop to get it fixed today and pick up a couple of spare tubes. Ready to hit the road in the morning for Farson, then Pinedale, then Hoback Jct, then Jackson on Sunday.

Gina and George wished us safe travels as we left. Gina gave me her Pilates roller to stretch out my IT band every day. We strapped it to the top of the trailer.

I counted dead deer carcasses as we rode to Irish Canyon, over 150!

Had a flat tire on the back of the bike about 20 miles from Irish Canyon. Had to camp in a field. No trespassing sign! I made some black bean burritos! We hauled 2 cans of beans and a can of corn and also 14 lbs (6 liters) of extra water for the ride to Irish Canyon.

Rough day! Lots of hills!!

We’re taking a off day today. We had a flat the 2nd  day and didn’t make 20 miles to Irish Canyon. We slept in a pasture behind the barbed wire fence. There was an old, shot up no trespassing sign posted, but this was out in the middle of nowhere. The law dogs didn’t get us.  So yesterday, we knew we couldn’t make it to Rock Springs and we flagged a real nice guy down, Chad, who brought us to RS.

We have to replace a tire and tubes, we had spares, when we had the flat, but we don’t anymore. Also, my rear brake broke so we have to get it fixed.

I lost my windbreaker somewhere , so we need to replace that. We think we left it laying on picnic table in Irish Canyon. Maybe the person who finds it needs it more than me.

I left my regular sunglasses at home, thinking I wouldn’t need them and on the way to Craig, I said I wished I had brought them, and all of a sudden, Jimmy said there’s some sunglasses for you on the ground and we stopped and picked them up. They even had a little magnified part at the bottom, so I can read with them!

Yesterday was a real tough day and I was about worn out.  I had just said out loud, “Lord, please send somebody to pick us up and in a few minutes Chad stopped! The Good Lord is providing for us!!

We are fine. A little tired and sore, but that will pass. I hope everybody is fine. We will try to put more pix on the site today. Don’t worry if y’all don’t hear from us everyday. Sometimes we won’t have coverage.

Sent from my iPad

at 12:35pm EDT/10:35am MDT… started the ride to AK.

Sorry for the back n’ forth 🙂

The weekend before our Alaska journey begins, we wanted to do a dry run with a full trailer with all our gear for the road. We also wanted to see how tough it would be to pull a mountain pass with all the gear. So, up Gore Pass we went, up to 10,000 ft. Found a good spot and set up camp, surrounded by moose, elk, deer, pronghorn antelope, and a turkey.