Winding road, 77 miles
That's what the sign said, about 10 miles out of Kamiah. But let's backtrack a bit.With every intention of getting an early start, Chris hopped on the bike, to ride across the street to Perfection Tires, to buy some spare valves, but Mum pointed out the the front tyre was flat. So he walked instead.
Once there, he explained his mission, mentioned the flat front tyre, and the nice folks not only gave him some valves, but offered the use of the compressor and dip tank to help fix the flat.
Bet I know where you'll go to get a new tyre if your's dies in Kamiah Idaho
After that, and loading up at the store on consumables. They're off.
Speaking of consumables, Chris said the best place for cigarettes, was someplace called the Purple Feather smoke shop in Kooskia Idaho. Now you know
To the best kind of bike road, 77 miles of winding road. Both the explorers extolled the beauty of this bit of the ride, part of it, along the Clearwater river, which is apparantly well named, Mum said the water was very clear.
Crossing into Montana at 13:15, and changing timezones, to Mountain time, they pushed on to Missoula.
In Missoula, they stopped at the WalMart, to dump the digicam pics to a CD, which will be sent to me, so I can put up the pics here. Look forward to receiving the disk in a couple of days.
At the 1 hour photo booth in the WalMart, Lynndell was quite helpful, despite Chris's hindrance, she ragged Chris when he kept yapping. Good on her.
On to the Radio Shack, to exchange some items bought in Oregon, but the Radio Shack there didn't have the right stuff, so they didn't bother. Although Chris noted that Radio Shack sells a radio intercom set, that is incompatible with it's mike/earpiece units. Pretty silly.
Chris also replaced the rolled up army blanket that he was using as a replacement for the broken air bladder on his seat, now, the shock absorbing function, is being taken care of by a $3.99 junior football from WalMart, instead of the $100 part from Harley-Davidson.
Back on to 12E, which they have been following for a while, they pushed on to Helena, passing only one dead fox, some numbers of live deer. On an Ural, pretty much all the motorised traffic passes you.
At the Gold Creek exit, the weather, which had been quite hot during the day and afternoon, began to chill, and they stopped to put on warmer gear. Again, Chris has the electric heated vest, and Mum snuggles into her sheepskin.
Pulled into Helena at 20:20. First hotel they stopped at, was working on the plumbing, so they wouldn't have showers, or toilets, until at least, 03:00. So they moved on to the Comfort Inn, where they not only had the above facilities, but a hot tub also. No guesses on which one they picked.
Tomorrow, they hope to make it to Yellowstone. That will be quite a ride. But they are falling behind schedule, Chris has to report no later than 20 Oct, and Mum has to work on I think, the 18th in Kansas City. So a little push is in order.
