MS Ride - Day 2 - Part 2 of 2

Joe Vandal’s Perspective – Alright, already!

Bill is standing over me with a yard stick making me finish this tale of bicycling mayhem.

The last thing Bill and Steve were doing was resting at the turnaround rest stop. After resting they decided to head on back to McCall.

I should pause right here and say that I was never offered a snack along the way. I was not offered the smallest of morsel to keep me going on this ride. I was not even offered any water. You would think that these two people would have thought of offering this poor mascot something for his effort during this two day ride. Oh, the humanity. At least I did not have to peddle the bike.

As we rode out of the resort we saw quite a few other bikers heading towards the turnaround. Steve and Bill chatted as they made their way. Don’t really recall much of the conversation that they had since I was busy worrying about what everyone was thinking of when they passed by us. I also had different questions that went through my mind: was my hair messed up; did it look weird with me riding in front of this jersey; is bicycle riding actually fun…?

We did see Deb riding towards us. She was looking good as she headed towards the turnaround. We just kept on going towards the Donnelly. Every so often Bill or Steve would have to pull in front of the other to let cars go by. We continued to see other riders heading out to the turnaround. We finally made it to Donnelly and had a little rest.

We crossed Highway 55 to follow our bike tracks back to Roseberry. This part of the ride was more of a chat session again. Bill said later that it was nice to have Steve ride with him on the way back. We passed all sorts of things on the way back: Cows, horses, old buildings, a Finnish Cemetery, and European Fallow Deer. I don’t remember seeing these things on the way out. It might have been that we travelled at a much greater speed then when we came back. We did have a little bit of a head wind so it did make it a little slower going.

We stopped at the final rest area at the turn off for Jug Mountain before finishing up the ride. They did not need a snack here so Steve and Bill got back on the bikes and headed out. The rest of the ride was pretty good. The climb up the back side of Bethel Hill went pretty good. Bill said that this is the fastest he has gone up it. Ride down the other side and take the turn to head over towards the middle school. Then back across the highway to follow get towards Alpine Village.

It was a great sight to see the finish line for the ride. This meant that I did not have to be riding along for a while and that we would be heading back up to Moscow a little bit later. Bill and Steve waited for a while to see if Deb was coming but she had rode back to the house since she had bonked (hit the wall, ran out of energy) part way back to McCall. When Bill and Steve heard that she was at the house they went ahead and ate lunch and Alpine Village and then wondered back over to the house.

Bill and I will do this again next year and I think he wants to take me on the 4 Summit Ride next July. I think that will be quite the ride. He tells me that it is quite a bit more climbing then the first day of this ride.