July 13, 2005 – Wednesday – Day 18


48 States or Bust – The USA on Two Wheels
Miles Today: 0- Total Miles: 4375 – Daily Average: 257.4 (travel days)
Rest Day in Superior, MT
(-stayed at the Budget Host Big Sky Motel (MT– 18/48)

Yup, decided on a rest day. Almost all the factors were weighing in favor of taking a day off: the price of the accommodations, the nice setting, the fine room, the wireless internet that worked, the availability of laundry facilities, the proximity to stores, and a few more. Besides the fact that we were pretty exhausted after more than 4,000 miles and 17 days on the road. The main negative was that we would not be able to touch base in Portland with friends we had met at a wedding we shot in April!

We watched some news on tv to catch up on things going on. (I hate doing that on a trip!) And we had a good nap.

I spent much of the day, as much as three hours on-line, with the great tech support people at Apple. Seems I had accidentally transferred 1000 pictures onto my desktop instead of into a folder. (I knew it would be problem if I had put them on the desktop, and I was soooooo careful, but…) Well, they talked me through a bunch of things, but then I figured a way to fix things through my image program which still seemed to work.

I also IM’d with friends back home, including website guru Carl. I told him how it was so good to have the site updated the one particular day when we checked into the Livingston Motel. They were asking about the trip and I told them about the website and the one guy in the back went right to it. He shouted out to the front desk where I was finishing the signing in process, “Hey, I didn’t know they added a fifth head on Mount Rushmore!!!” We all went back for a look, and everyone had a good laugh.

Karen got a bunch of things checked off her list today. She balanced her check statement on-line, she did her laundry, she wrote some old fashioned postcards, she worked some more on updating the expense listing, and she re-waterproofed our boots. She also patched the red bag that had fallen off yesterday on the highway. (“My new red waterproof bag now looks like a hobo bag!”) She also made dinner from some of the stuff we grocery shopped (refried beans, salad fixings, pb&j, bread), made lunches for tomorrow and worked on our routing for the next few days ahead taking us into northern California.

I put together a picture showing what all goes on our bike for those trying to figure how we carry a lot of what we do. By clicking the image below, you will get a much larger version of it so you can see all its details.


PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURE


Author: Joel Perlish

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