Missoula!

Wow! It's been a really long time since a good blog update and new photos from us! Well, here we are, in Missoula, Montana. It seems like a world away from the 101 degree 101 mile day to the fire station in Newton, Kansas. Since then, we powered through headwinds and sidewinds in Kansas, crawled over and through the Rockies in Colorado, and cruised past the Tetons on our way to and from Jackson, Wyoming. Weather? It went from hot and humid in Kansas, to cold and dry in Wyoming, all the way to really cold and windy and rainy in Yellowstone. It's pretty much perfect these days, although we wouldn't mind a little tailwind every once in a while.

As far as animals go (our favorite, right??), we didn't see much in Yellowstone. We heard lots of stories of whole herds of Buffalo filling valleys, bears ambling near campsites (and eating campers!), Moose, and Elk... But, alas, we saw lots of uinta ground squirrels, one coyote, and two female moose, reallly far away. Although it would have been really cool to see others, I guess we were on the safe side not seeing them? On our way out of Jackson (Montana this time), we had a hawk, or maybe an osprey, dive in attack mode at us! We have always admired these animals, and never thought much of their pretador instincts, but man, that was scary!

Scenic views? Yeah, we've had a few of those too. I (Stephen) couldn't keep my jaw from dropping through the heart of the Rockies in Colorado. But the first sight of the Tetons caused a seriously big "holy crap!!!" reaction. I just can't describe how ridiculously beautiful this country is... and it just keeps getting better.

We're feeling a little bit strange about the human interaction factor of the trip. We haven't encountered any other cyclists going the same direction as us since the middle of Kansas (perhaps as some cruel punishment for not posting photos online). We've met many interesting folks going the other way, but haven't been able to spend much time with them and share tales from the road that make a trip like this so rewarding. But we have been greeted with warmth and hospitality from people and towns along the way, and we're not feeling too lonely on those stretches of the trail through the middle of nowhere.

We're limited on computer time, so we can't select the best of the photos we've taken to highlight here. So, sorry, but you'll have to browse through the eighty million or so we've taken since the last big update. They're at TransAm2010 Part Two

-Love, Stephen and Erica