I had a conversation with a 60-ish gentleman in the lobby, then headed out. I was only a block away when he drove up next to me and asked if had seen the carousel... and then led me there.
Missoula has a beautiful operational carousel with hand-painted horses in a park by the river. A nice start to the day.
I was headed for the Adventure Cycling office when I saw another loaded cyclist and stopped to chat. Mickey is 2 months into the Transamerica route. He told me he was going to stay at the hostel tonight. I decided to stay there too so we can continue our conversation over dinner - can't beat the price at $8 a night!
On to Adventure Cycling... I met 4 other bikers there - who recommended Kananaskis Hwy over going through BC to Radium Hot Springs. I wonder if I can do both. I'm actually hoping to get to Banff early enough to swing down to Kananaskis (which was written up in a recent Bicycling magazine article). I must have spent 2 hours at the office talking to people. Greg Siple - one of the founders and resident photographer - took pictures of all of us for the "picture wall" in the office. Then he spent time talking about some of his travels. He and his wife June did a 2 1/2 year trip from Alaska to Argentina. He showed us some fabulous pictures from his trip.
Adventure Cycling has a lounge for cyclists with books, maps, and free soft drinks and ice cream. Everyone there was really friendly. I also met Ernie while I was there - he runs the hostel. I asked if there was room available for the night - and the answer was yes.
Once I finally peeled myself away from the office, I headed out to the airport to see the Smokejumpers Visitor Center. Tim Eldredge - who I spoke to a couple of months ago when I was looking for Forest Service maps - led the tour. It was fascinating. There are only about 400 smokejumpers in the country, with 68 of them based here. The training facility here is also used to train jumpers from other countries and from the military. Smokejumpers are used for "small" fires caused by lightening strikes in inaccessible areas. On of the things that surprised me is that the smokejumpers make / sew all of their clothing - jumpsuits and clothes that they wear on the fire line. The parachutes are manufactured outside - but to Forest Service specifications. They do all static line jumps using round chutes. They must roll on landing - but there have been NO chute failures.
After the tour I did a bit more riding, then headed to the hostel. Did I say this was supposed to be a rest day? I guess I'll have to take a real rest day soon.
I met up with Mickey again at the hostel. We had mediocre Thai food for dinner - but we had a great time talking and sharing our experiences. He's taking 2 years off. He'll finish his Transamerica tour, then head to Alaska for a month. After that he's going to Australia and New Zealand, to a monastery in India for several months, then to China to study martial arts. Wow. I have a feeling that this trip is really going to make me think about what I want to do with my life...
