Waking up this morning to heavy smoke in the air and ash covering the car, I have decided to play it safe and not ride. I have started some contingency planning given the forest fires in the Northwest.
We headed to Missoula to check out the Adventure Cycling Headquarters. Here they gave me some local Intel that said my planned route was doable. Currently the remainder of the TransAm route, from east to west from Missoula, is blocked due to the massive fires in Oregon. The group that I ran into coming out of Washington DC the first week and a half of my ride, finished about a week ago on the West Coast. They were able to get through Oregon before the fires hindered their passage. I got my picture taken for the ACA cycle tourist wall. While I was there, Ben from France arrived. He started in Alaska and is working his way down to Argentina over the next 18 months. Amazing. WOW!!! I am taking today off in hopes that I can continue my ride tomorrow. Like I said earlier I will make contingencies and choose first thing in the morning what will be next.
Insights from Lisa Marie
Well today was different! Norm came into the room at 615 and said no riding today. The smoke and ash was super bad and air quality was in the orange/red zone. We drove to Missoula to visit the adventure bike office that Norm really wanted to talk with about routes. Got his picture taken for the wall, yes this is a thing. Color coordinated for different routes or make up your own😁. Met a guy from France doing a route from somewhere in northern Canada to Argentina😳. Then we ate lunch, got to our hotel and did some options planning. Of course because there was a hailstorm with winds of up to 106 miles in Missoula on Wednesday and so power was still out in many places. As we drive through the town we could see many trees down along the streets. Fortunately our hotel did have power but internet was down. At dinner in checking the air quality map again, Hamilton was now in the purple so no biking. We are now changing plans and heading to the California to see the Red Woods and babysit our grandson in LA. Hoping for rain so we can pick the bike route back up again in another 10 days.
