Day 5: Really, it's going to get harder.....

Day 5 report from Tom.  Another "easy" sort of day.  88 Miles in under 5 hours, 18.3mph....not much climbing....great temperatures, starting out around 60 and climbing to a warm 90 or so at the finish.  Absolutely no way of getting lost today as we followed Hwy 200 from Sandpoint to Thompson Falls, MT....except for a mini-break stop along a side road which detoured us on a 5 mile stretch of dusty hard packed gravel roads. Our second state, Montana!  Big skies, evergreens, mountains, and daisies in the grass along the roadside.  Both Mike & I pulled equally strong today and are looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow's (and the following 24 days) of longer riding. 

The stretch tomorrow is approx. 135 miles and takes us on and off I90 about 5 or 6 times on our way to Missoula, our 2nd of 5 nights in Montana. And it will be hot with forecasts of 90+ in the PM. 

We are both getting into a rythym of getting up, preparing for the day, eating breakfast, getting out on the road, eating and drinking at the stops and on the bike, finishing and cleaning up the bikes and ourselves, blogging, download data and pictures, getting a massage (not every day, unfortunately), dinner, calling home, checking emails, etc and finally a bit of reading before falling asleep.  Then starting it all over again.

A quick aside.....yesterday I received a phone call on my cell but couldn't answer it in time to take the call...so I listened to the message.  It was from a reporter from Estonia's largest newspaper...Postimees.  Apparently someone forwarded this blog to him and he's thinking about interviewing me for an upcoming article.  With the time difference from Estonia (10 hours...now 9 hours as we're on Mountain time) it's been a little difficult to arrange a Skype interview....but we'll get it done and see if something comes of it.  Obviously it would be great to get some more visibility to the Baltic Studies Program (and more pledges/donations) in the old country as I don't think too many people there are really aware of the good things going on at the UW.  If something comes of this, we'll put a link to it.....probably in Estonian!

So I am sitting in 90+ temps outside my motel room alongside the Clark Fork River with beautiful forest covered hills all around as I write this.  Today's cycling clothes are quickly drying in the sun after washing them in the sink.  Thinking about getting a beer (or two) before my first of many massages on this trip.  Great idea.......cheers!!!  Oh, and road kill for the day: one coyote, one squirrel, one something small (like a mink?) and a couple spots that were not identifiable.