2015 began with a new hope for good health and a busy itinerary for travel: this was the year for Larye’s 50th college reunion, and several family reunions were scheduled on both sides.
Larye continued to build strength from his medical setbacks of 2014, with sprint intervals on his stationary bicycle in the basement until he got his heart rate “in the zone.” Our first trail outing on the Bike Friday Tandem was on February 28; by September, we had logged 541 kilometers (335 miles) riding trails in six states. We mostly stayed on bike paths and trails, limiting rides to no more than 20km (12 miles) from the car, as Larye remained on blood thinner until our return from our “grand tour.” As it turned out, we found that limit to be a pleasant workout, and didn’t extend our rides farther this season.
Winter and spring were busy times for the weaving guilds, as Judy finished her term as Program Chair and also helped with the workshop planning. A highlight of the season was an April workshop with renowned weaver and clothing designer Daryl Lancaster, in which the participants wove fine cloth and constructed a fitted vest (shown above). After the workshop and guild program, we delivered Daryl to her next workshop venue, taking the opportunity for a weekend stay and bike ride in Birch Bay, near the Canadian border.
We continued our traditional anniversary celebration with a two-day retreat to rainy Lake Quinault in late March, marking our 30th anniversary.
The Grand Tour–13,500km (8500 miles) in the car, plus 288km ( 180 miles) on the bike–began on May 1, with a trip to Montana to deliver Judy’s brother-in-law, Ben, for the summer, and a brief stop at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory to see old colleagues. We took advantage of our loose schedule to tour points of interest along the way–national parks and monuments, etc.
Along the way, we stayed in
- Salmon, Idaho
- Logan and Green River in Utah
- Chama, Santa Fe, Donã Ana, and Clovis, New Mexico
- Dodge City, Kansas
- St. Joseph, Missouri
- Waverly and Decorah, Iowa
- Middleton, Wisconsin
- Jackson, Lanesboro, Winona, Litchfield, Staples, and Park Rapids, Minnesota
- Aberdeen, South Dakota
- Roundup, Montana
before stopping again in Polson, Montana. We visited a friend in Moab, Utah, family in Santa Fe and Las Cruces, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; Jackson and Motley, Minnesota; and Polson, Montana. We attended school and family reunions in Waverly, Iowa, Jackson, Minnesota, and Polson, Montana. We stayed at motels, AirB&B hosts, with family, and camped in our tent four nights.
On our return home, we retrieved Delia, the cat, from the Just Cats Hotel and settled in for the rest of the summer, receiving a steady stream of bicycle tourists in July and August, between short camping trips to Dungeness Spit and Cape Disappointment, to ride on trails.
In September, we traveled again to Montana, first to sign papers on the sale of our cabin, and then after a week at Lake Chelan (after the wildfires had died down), returned to Montana to bring Ben back to Washington to fly home to California. But, on the way home, we detoured south to South Idaho to visit our niece, yet another family reunion, as Judy’s brother and sister-in-law were also visiting.
Between groups of fall bicycle tourists, we traveled to Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada to vacation with our friends Gary and Char, returning home via eastern Washington, where we retrieved a floor loom we had loaned to Judy’s sister-in-law several years ago. The last bicycle tourists of the season came through with the start of the November rains, and we finally found time to attend our weaving and quilting guild meetings, from which we had been absent since April.With the sale of our last Montana property, we paid off some remodeling bills and replaced the black and stainless kitchen range with a white one more suited to the house style. And– uncharacteristic of us, who kept our last cars for more than 15 years–we traded in our bright green Jeep Patriot after a bit less than five years–but nearly 120,000 miles (200 000 km)–for a new dark gray Ford C-Max Hybrid, which is teaching us to drive with fuel efficiency in mind. That’s something we thought we were already doing, but the electric-assist energy-management display demands a bit lighter touch on the brake and power controls to minimize fuel consumption and maximize energy recovery. We also had to get a new rack system that clamps onto the smooth door openings, but, unlike the “permanent” installations on our other cars, we intend to only mount it when we plan to take the bicycle out, to preserve the aerodynamic flow–and our fuel economy. We have become “road mopes” like the other hybrid drivers we have gotten stuck behind on the highway the last few years.
Our first long trip with the new car was a return to Canada, again with our friends Gary and Charlene, this time to downtown Vancouver, BC, for a week in the heart of the city, taking in the Canadian way of preparing for the holidays.
Additional material: Our blogs (http://blogs.parkins.org) have more
detailed articles about our travels and activities. We also publish
videos from our bike rides on Vimeo.com
(https://vimeo.com/user10747705) and have recently published a
two-part, one-hour video on YouTube of our bicycle adventures and
Larye’s rehab from heart surgery, 2012-2015
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVO1uvNM_c_Pq5mMhfvW1mQ).