Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. I open my eyes to find exactly what I hoped it wasn’t. Rain. Light rain tapping away at the tent. Oh boy. I guess it will be another wet ride. What happened to Williams forecast of 10 straight days of good weather??? Hmmmm. I guess I better find a new meteorologist in town! I looked over at my now fired meteorologist and he was still past out like a little baby. Wet weather didn’t bother him, well at least not yet. So I got up and took Ms Aurora for her favorite kind of walk…in the rain. She’s like a puppy in this weather. Jumping up and down and trotting with a smile on her face. So cute! Just work for us when she comes back in the tent with her fur all soaking wet. But ya gotta love her.
By the time I got back to the tent with a wet dog, William was waking. First question out of his mouth “what do you want to do?” Well I knew what that meant. Stay or get going on the bike? I chose let’s give it an hour or two and see if the rain stops. So that what we did. I pulled out the computer and started to go through more footage while William cooked up some breakfast and took another nap!
Low and behold about 3 hours later the rain stopped….finally. Or at least we had found our window. So we packed up our things and hit the road.
We did have a goal today by the way. It was to get to the border and then find the next city after crossing and stay there for the night. So it meant at least another 50 miles. I was cool with that. I knew my tush still needed more time to recover and I knew we we had about 2,000 more feet to climb for the day.
The first part of the day was a struggle for William. He didn’t feel fresh at all. The body felt beat, legs heavy, and he was hurting. We took it slow. No biggie. We weren’t in a rush. Just weren’t planning to leave so late in the day. The climbs were challenging and at points we wished we had 1 more gear, but we pushed through it. The air was cool today as well, and definitely damp. The dampness really made us feel a bit cooler than we’ve been, and had to put on some layers today rather than take some off like we were doing yesterday. The only layer I decided not to put on today were my gloves. Bad decision. Between the wind and cold, the hands got burnt. Yikes. Lesson learned there. I didn’t even realize it until I was cleaning up this evening.
We found a lot less snow headed south today, many pot holes, and lots of trees on our path. No animals to be found today, which was a bummer, but something very special happened about 30 miles into our ride. We stopped at a motel/ gas station that was closed, where a gentleman was outside. The gentleman immediately struck a conversation with us about what we were doing and where we were going. He happened to be the “caretaker” of the motel. This man was so stinking friendly that after about 5 minutes into the conversation he invited us in for hot tea/coffee. Oh my goodness. Closed motel, but open for a warm cup of tea and some warm air for us??? Please and thank you!
The gentleman’s name was Jim. Jim and his wife were getting this hotel ready for opening in 2 weeks from now for some construction workers in the area then opening up to the public around September. This place was called Border City Lodge. About 22 miles from the Canadian border. It was really nice inside even though they were still renovating. Jim’s wife, Janice, even joined us for some hot tea! We sat and had great conversation. We shared stories from our past, learned of our commonalities, and learned a lot about Alaska. We actually were spending quite awhile there chatting. So long Janice offered us to stay for dinner. Pot Roast. Hot tea and a warm meal?? I’m in! And in we were. Ohhhh a warm meat and potato meal! How happy our belly’s were and how warm our hearts were meeting our new friends. Oh wait! It doesn’t stop there! They offered us a room at their place for the night! Again…I’m in!
So what happened to a day that was supposed to be 50 miles and across the border, ended up being a 30 miles day, a warm meal, conversation, and even a warm shower with a roof over our heads tonight! We couldn’t thank our new friends enough! Such wonderful people in this world can be found! We found some today and ended our day where we were PLEASANTLY SURPRISED! Today’s miles can wait until tomorrow! Sweet dreams world!