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We have been basically away from media for a few weeks now and the first thing
we heard upon getting into Missoula is about Paris Hiltons involvement in the
Presedential Campaign. Now I think she is pretty smart to take advantage of the
situation and the media idiocy. But the fact that it becomes a big media event
and uses up time that should be available for a meaningful discussion by the
candidates about fundamental problems confrunting American society should start
seeming strange even to the media crazed public. Now you may say Romaniello
you've been out in the Idaho cani ons too long. But frankly I found the whole
thing distressing. Really there's something clearly wrong.
I've been listening to lectures discussing the great books and it has been
really interesting to see the redundancy of problems that have confronted
society over the last few thousand years. These lectures are in such contrast to
the TV shows that Leah turnd on when we got to Missoula. Go trough the channels
and you see hours and hours of broadcasting with no meaningful content. Think of
the society we could have of super educated people if the media wasn't just
wasted . We should start really talking about weather capitalism hasn't been
taken to some extreme form in recent years so that much of the intellectual product of civilization is meaningless TV trash.
Finally I would be remiss in not mentioning what a beautiful and wonderful town Missoula is. Surrounded by mountains , at the the junction of rivers that flow through town, Missoula is a very wonderful college town of 57 thousand with great food, friendly people, and somehow the perfect ballance of industry and aesthetics. Leah has fallen in love with Missoula and dragging her away for further bicycling adventures may be a problem. In any case tomorrow we hit the road again for the 2 or 3 day assent to Chief Joseph pass 7241ft one of a few obsticals between us and Yellowstone.
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Monday August 11th
I met up with Leah and Chuck at about 5PM in Dillon, Montana. They were at the local bike shop having Leah’s pedals replaced due to a annoying clicking sound they were making. It was great to see them and they looked like a couple of happy travelers. We headed to the local KOA to set up camp on a pleasant grassy site near a gently flowing river. We ate a nice meal at a Mexican joint where we chatted with the beautiful Mexicana waitress about the mess the Bush administration has made of the US. I find that everywhere we go people seem to realize this and are fairly bitter, or maybe we just attract people of similar mind. We then proceeded to lay our bones down for the night to the sound of the flowing water and my snoring.
Tuesday, August 12th
We headed for Virginia City, Montana. I rode 10 miles up the road and then turned around to get the car while they pushed on to this weird little berg that is a relic of the old west, really, the place is full of old mining equipment and other crapola. We stayed at a campsite where we got clipped for 48 bucks. The woman who ran the place was extremely anal. She was originally going to charge us $66 ($22 per tent) but I told her that we were going to set up 2 tents. As soon as we arrived we met a lovely couple who offered us beers and good light conversation. She is the mayor of a small town in Washington and he is a retired engineer of some kind. We joked around and had a few laughs but then the bitchy clip lady broke up the party by insisting that we set up our tents so as not to “disturb the other campers”. She was really a most annoying person.
After a giant feed at the local eatery we hit the hay.
Wednesday August 13th
From Virginia City which is at the foot of a steep mountain pass, Leah and Chuck hauled ass over the mountain with considerable ease and headed north to route 289 but we stopped in Enis (rhymes with…..) for a huge breakfast. From this point we road together for about 12 miles then I turned around and rode back to pick up the car. (24 miles the second day, not bad!) The car makes things easier for them in that they don’t have to carry all of their gear. I can schlep a lot of their stuff to the next campsite which was about 40 miles from west Yellowstone at a big bend in the road. There we met a couple of solid fisher guys and helped remove an imbedded fly in one of the guys fingers. The surgery was performed with my needle nosed pliers. There was a nice doggie who liked to fetch as opposed to the mean lady from the campsite the day before who liked to kvetch. We ate like pigs and then went to bed.
Thursday August 14th
Time passes quickly when yer on the road. Today we peddled on a beautiful stretch of Montana between the campsite and West Yellowstone. We got a late start due to the breakfast joint was seven miles up the road and even though we drove the car they were chip sealing it which added to the delay. We talk the alternate route, 84 to 20. Chuck said that 20 was really a drag in that the width of the side edge was narrow and the rumble marks forced you into the road up against some crazy vacationers in a big hurry and some bad ass truck drivers. I put in my ten miles uphill with a nice tailwind only to have to pay my dues on the way back into a fierce headwind. Even on the steepest stretches I had to peddle. C and L made it to West Yellowstone in very good time and were going to head to Madison but the campsite was full. So we stayed at a nice campground in West Yellowstone with plans to hit it early in the AM.
Friday August 15th
Chuck and Leah started from the main gate at Yellowstone’s west entrance, while I drove to Grant Village with their stuff to secure a campsite. Then we met up at Old Faithful about three hours later just as the geyser was about to blow. There were literally thousands of humans gathered around a huge semi circular plaza to bare witness to this phenomena. We then went into the amazing Yellowstone Inn to check it out. I think C and L were taken aback by the sheer numbers of people at the place and Leah said it was like a giant shopping mall. Having been in the relative seclusion of the road and small town America. Grant Village was also somewhat of a zoo. I rode my bike around for about 12 miles looking at geysers and other amazing thermal features, but the high point of the day was that on route to Grant Village to meet up with C and L, I made a wrong turn onto a secluded road and saw a mom Grizzy bear and her cubs crossing the road twenty feet from the front of the car. It happened so fast there was no time to take a picture.
Saturday August 16, 2008
Leah and Chuck rode through Grand Teton National park while I went ahead to Cooper’s Landing to secure a campsite. This place is astoundingly beautiful, and the Tetons are unbelievable enormous mountains jutting straight up from a crystal lake. Their ride was really spectacular, almost all of it down hill. I spent the day riding 8 miles and then taking pics. They rode to the Moran entrance (50 miles) and then I picked them up and brought them back to the campsite. After a fine dinner at the local eatery we strolled along the lake’s edge and skipped rocks on it’s mirror surface.
This is my last night with them I will post one more entry tomorrow about the departure.
Sunday August 17, 2008
This is my last day with Leah and Chuck. After a big breakfast at Grand Teton Natl Pk restaurant I drove them to Moran junction where they began there assent into the Rockies and over a huge pass. The plan was to meet them at the top of the pass and give em their stuff, but even though I spent a couple of hours taking pictures and riding my bike they were only half way up the pass by about three O’clock and I had to start making my way back home. So it was that they strapped their stuff to their bikes for the long grunt ahead and with a smidgeon of sadness we parted ways. I’ve had a wonderful time with my brother and daughter. They are having a fantastic experience and I was thrilled to be a small part of this fabulous adventure.
Steve Romaniello
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