We Made It!

Hello Everyone!

I am happy to report that Dad and I have now finished our adventure from Las Vegas to Lakeside.  We'vegone from hot to cold, tumbleweeds to huckleberries, and sin city to the promised land (aka Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp).  I can't believe it is already over!  It was a long haul, but a very enjoyable trip!  Don't worry, I won't sign off before telling you about our last two days.

On Friday, we went from Missoula to just north of Polson.  It wasn't the easiest day of riding as there were lots of hills and wind.  But, compared to Wells, NV, the conditions were great.  It must've been a good day, because I started off the morning singing.  That's always a good sign.  However, I must tell you, my favourite thing to do as of late is to sing songs that my parents are very familiar with (such as Elvis) and make up words.  Of course, my parents (especially Mumsie) keep on saying "Those aren't the words, Annika!" so much that it became hilarious to make up ridiculous lyrics to annoy them.  Here's a sample of Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes". 

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Getting ready for our second last day of riding! 

 

Such beautiful scenery to look at for the day!

Finishing up the day on the bike path.

 

We finished quite early in the day because we were ahead of schedule and wanted to leave SOME distance for Saturday when we were planning on arriving at camp.  We were fortunate to have a bike path that led into Polson which was a nice treat.  We had lunch at "Betty's Diner", a run down shack of a restaurant that of course, Dad loved.  I have to admit, it was quite tasty.  We went to bed early and got some rest for our FINAL day of riding!

Final Day of Riding!

Our final day was filled with adrenaline and excitement.  It wasn't a particularly easy day of riding with all the hills we had to climb, but then again, WHY would I expect the last day to be easy?  That just wouldn't be right.  We only had to go 33 km to reach camp and my goodness, I was excited to be done!  It is so exciting when you have been dreaming of reaching your final destination for so long and then the big day finally arrives!  We stopped at the sign that indicated we were so close!

Almost There!

What's even better than arriving at your final destination?  Having a cheering squad.  We were so blessed to have Brooke, Lindsay, Ellie, Will, and Sam cheering for us as we made it to the FLBC welcome sign.  Well, technically it's a parking sign, but whatevs.  It felt great to know that people had been following our adventures and were anxiously awaiting our arrival!  

WE MADE IT!

Best Welcome Ever!

As soon as we got the first round of pictures done, Dad and I went down to the dock to view the beautiful Flathead Lake in all its glory!  It still amazes me that I get to spend the whole summer here.  I am so excited!  

Trying to look BA.

Of course, a diva picture also had to be taken. 

And...a final video.

Words cannot express how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to do this trip with my parents.  It has been a difficult physical and mental journey, but the past 3 weeks have also been filled with laughter and great conversation.  I am so blessed to have parents that are able to leave home and do these sorts of things with me.  As I grow older, I appreciate them more and more not only as parents, but as individuals.  I also am blessed to have parents that make music videos with me to songs performed by teenage boy bands.  Who am I?  Who are my parents?  WHO ARE WE.  We are weird, and I love it.

Thank you to all of you who read my blog.  It is always a joy to know that people are entertained by my adventures and care enough to follow along.  I hope, if anything, this blog has inspired you to go on an adventure of your own!  I recommend taking your parents with you.  I bet you will learn a lot about them, and a lot FROM them.  I know I certainly did.


This is the diva signing off-it's time for my next adventure at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp...!
A

Welcome to Montana!

Hellloooo readers!
Today I greet you from beautiful, Missoula, MT!  Last time I wrote we were in Idaho, but we have crossed the border and made it to the beautiful state of Montana.  It feels great to be back!  I can't wait to spend another on Flathead Lake.  However, we still have a few more days of biking to go!

Before we made it to Montana, we had quite the summit.  I didn't think anything would be as bad as the Galena summit, but this was worse.  It was the summit in the Bitterroot Mountains and as soon as we reached the top, we had made it into Montana.  It was not an enjoyable experience as we gained over 3,500 ft in elevation.  Plus, it was SCORCHING hot.  Dad and I had to stop every 2.5 km to find some shade and drink water.  I thought I was going to pass out a million times.  It was so steep and so long that my legs were burning and I thought I was going to pass out.  Of course, I start to cry and continue to do so until we finally reached the top.  I never thought it was going to happen and I had never been so happy to be in Montana.  I certainly enjoyed the ride down, that's for sure!

About 1/4 of the way up the summit

Hating life as the climb gets steeper

Finally made it to the top!  You can't tell from the picture, but I was bawling my eyes out.

We spent the night in Hamilton and I enjoyed a lovely blizzard from DQ.  It was glorious and the highlight of my day.  The next day was a great day of riding.  Most of it was downhill so that was a nice treat for us.  We did have about 10 km with no shoulder which was a little scary, but Dad and I had system set up so that we made sure we didn't get hit by anyone.  There was also the beautiful Montana scenery to look at as we rode along the river!

We had lunch at A&W and then Dad and I had a two hour nap at our hotel in Hamilton.  Who are we?  Serious cyclists, obviously.  We were tempted to just stay in for the rest of the day, but we fought the urge and went another 40 km.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and was looking forward to making it to Missoula soon enough!

Yesterday we made it to Missoula by 11:00 in the morning and my heart was full!  I really love this city.  We planned on going hard until 2:00 so we could get some mileage in, but enjoy the afternoon.  We ended up going 88 km and even though there were some uphill climbs (as per usual), it was still a good day.  We then got to our hotel, I had a glorious shower, blow dried my hair for the first time in 3 weeks and went out for coffee with a friend.  No offence to my parents (we know I love them to bits), but it was nice to converse with someone other than them.  :) 

That night, the big event was our music video.  I know, I know.  You've all been waiting for this.  The following video is a parody of One Direction's song "One Thing".  For those of you who don't know the awesomeness of this band, you should acquaint yourselves with their greatness.  This boy band's songs have been my go to pump up music for the trip, and I felt it necessary to honour their greatness by doing a video.  Enjoy...

I just love the fact that my Mom and Dad participate in these silly things with me.  I don't understand how they put up with my ridiculousness, but they do and I love it.  I usually watch these videos back afterwards and can't get over how absurd they are.  I think it's the situation where I think it's hilarious but nobody else does.  My Dad doesn't even understand why we do these, but he does it anyway.   What a trooper!

After the video session, we went to bed and I enjoyed the most wonderful rest day ever.  Firstly, I forgot how AWESOME it feels to sleep in.  Then, we had a great breakfast and Mumsie and I headed over to Ross Dress for Less.  I mean, were we really going to go anywhere else?  Of course, Target was an option, but we had already been to a few of those on this trip and I wanted to "save" another trip for when we get to Kalispell.  The morning was great and I got two new pairs of divalicious shoes so I was happy.  I have spent most of the day trying to get things organized for cruise ship applications, but there is so much to do that I have not finished everything yet!  I am not sure what I'm doing after the summer, but it is exciting to think about the possibilities!  I really want to get everything done by the time I get to camp, so here's hoping.  I didn't go out for dinner with my parents tonight because I met up with a friend for coffee which was sooo great.  I was mad when I got home, though, because I found out they went to "Famous Daves" which is LITERALLY one of my favourite restaurants.  We don't have it in Canada so I always try to make a trip there when I can.

Tomorrow we head off to Polson.  We are about 33 miles away and only have about 100 km left for the trip.  In one way I can't believe that the trip is coming to an end, but in another sense, I am exhausted and ready to not have to wake up everyday and cycle for 6 hours.  We're heading into the final stretch and will keep you all updated!  Thanks for reading!

A

My Love/Hate Relationship with Mountains

Ok so I am quite frustrated right now because I just wrote ¾ of this blog post and then it got deleted.  All I want to do is go to bed, but I know that if I do I will never get this done soo....here we go all over again. 

Friday: We left from Twin Falls and headed to Ketchum, Idaho.  Ketchum was supposed to be the most beautiful place we’d ever seen.  Everyone in Twin Falls was telling us that it was “God’s country” so we should be very excited for what we were about to see.  It is true that it was beautiful.  It had a “Banff-y” feel, (I mean there was a lululemon so I couldn’t HELP but think of Canada) but the mountains were half the size and...there was nobody there.  As soon as you left the city of Ketchum, you hit Sun Valley.  Again, this was supposed to be the most beautiful resort area in all of Idaho.  Perhaps it was, but compared to Banff/Kananaskis it was subpar in my opinion.  It was really just a bunch of condos and mansions on golf courses.  Not exactly what I call “getting away from it all”.  Nevertheless, we had a great day of riding.  We began to see the Sawtooth Mountains and they were stunning.  Dad and I even had a chance to ride on a bike path for part of the day which reminded me of Fish Creek Park in Calgary so that was a nice change from the highway riding that we normally do here on a daily basis.  We had a great dinner at an Italian place in town, and finished the night off in the hot tub which felt great. 

Mom's attempt at an "artsy" shot.  Love it.

On the bike path!

Beautiful lilac trees that I couldn't stop smelling!

The beginning of the Sawtooth Mountains...

Hot tub!

I couldn’t really enjoy the evening, however, because Dad kept telling me “You’d better rest up because tomorrow....well it’s just going to be a killer of a day...”.  Great.  I love it when Dad says things like that.  NAT.  I didn’t sleep very well that night because I was nervous about the uphill climbing that we would have to do the following day to reach the summit.  It also didn’t help that I have heaviest breather #1 and #2 sleeping next to me. 

Saturday: We got up the next day and were ready to face the dragon.  Ketchum sits at an elevation of 5,100 and the Galena summit had an elevation of 8,701 so we had quite the hill ahead of us.  The first 40 km went pretty well and then we got to the steep part.  And when I say “steep”, I mean “working as hard as I can in my lowest gear and moving at a pace of 6 km/hr”.  AKA gag me with a jagged spatula.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the mountains.  But, I tell you, in that moment I was cursing the land formations over and over again because I was so sick of moving at such a slow pace and feeling like I’m dying.  This 6 km/hr pace went on for about an hour because we had about 4 miles of mountain to climb before we reached the very top.  It didn’t help when Dad and I were passed by a group of serious road cyclists who looked as though they were racing each other.  There’s nothing more encouraging than people whizzing by you on their bikes while you simply try to breathe.

This is the moment when I wanted to shoot myself in the foot.  NBD.

 Eventually, we DID make it up the summit and I have never. been. happier. The mountain range was stunning, but it was much easier to appreciate from the top. 

So happy to have reached the top!

The whole family!  Minus my four siblings.  

End of the day feeling good!

The positive side of reaching a summit is you get to go down the other side!!  Oh my land, I have never smiled so much while biking.  The 6 miles down was absolutely glorious and then it just kept going downhill slowly for what seemed like forever.  We went 30 km in about 45 min so yeah, we were going fast and enjoying it.  The last few hours of riding that day were the best hours I’ve ever had cycling.  The scenery was absolutely amazing.  We had moved from the mountains to trees, the Salmon river, smooth, paved roads without traffic, the wind at our back etc. etc. making it one of the most enjoyable afternoons of my life!  I felt like I was high.  Of course, I’ve never done drugs before, but if I DID, I think that’s what it would feel like.  It makes me want to tell people that do drugs to stop it and just go on a bike trip!  My mind was completely zoned out and for the first time ever, the bike riding didn’t feel like work at all.  I was also making a music video in my mind the whole time and, I don’t want to brag but, it was amazing.  We did a total of 130 km and I ended the day a very happy girl! 

Sunday: Today was also wonderful.  We were starting in the middle of nowhere along the Salmon river which was fine by me!  Before we began, we stopped at the hot springs that were randomly located on the side of the road.  Dad explored, and I did a dance routine.  It just made sense at the time.

  

You can tell in the video below that I was very energetic this morning.  Today was a day of singing, that’s for sure.  I think in the entire day I went from singing my own music to Motown to Elvis Presley (?) to the Sound of Music.  Who am I?  Mom captured this lil’ diddy on the video camera before we started the day.  For the record, I was trying to change the words to this song to make them about cycling, but I only ended up changing one line and Mom kept thinking that I was just getting it wrong.  Oh gosh.  Enjoy the randomness of the Odegard family.

Our great day came to a halt when one of Dad’s spoke broke.  This does not sound like that much of an issue, but it is.  It actually involves about an hour of maintenance to fix because this particular spoke was on the back tire on the side of the wheel where the gear was so...it definitely needed to be fixed.  Instead of trying to help Dad, I did what I do best-entertain!  I set up a little spot beside him on the side of the road, played a fake piano and sang my heart out much to my Mother’s delight.  I was loving it. 

But, when heard Dad say “You piece of junk” to his bike 10 times under his breath, I knew it was time to be quiet and actually help him.  

We got everything fixed and were on our way!  Then, the man on the motorcycle came.  (Skip over this next paragraph if you don’t want to hear my rant).

Ok so Dad and I are cycling along on our merry way when this guy (probably about 56 years old with a mustache and long hair) on a Harley Davidson is driving in the opposite direction of us and while he passes us, looks me dead in the eye and yells “GET OFF THE F***ING ROAD!”.  My thoughts: Firstly, sir, why would you say something like that?  Here I am, this non-threatening blonde girl trying to ride her bike up a hill on the shoulder of a secondary highway and you, the big man on the motorbike yell at me.  You know, what I could’ve used were some words of encouragement like “Go girl!”.  That’s what my Mom says when she passes in the car and it always helps.  Instead, you yell at me and think, what, that I’m going to ride off a cliff to satisfy your wants and desires?  Secondly, why the foul language?  I mean, honestly, did you not think that I would understand the message you were trying to get across if you had not used the F-word?  So unnecessary.  And rude.  Finally, why in the world would YOU care?  I am riding on the SHOULDER of a SECONDARY HIGHWAY on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD from you.  Have I really impacted your life so negatively that it would warrant such a reaction from you?  Why don’t you focus less on me, someone using my own physical strength to travel from Point A to Point B and more on the 20-something brunette sitting on your bike behind you squeezing you oh so tightly.  I bet you guys are in love.  Why waste your energy yelling at me?  Oh WAAIIITT...I forgot.  You’re a MOTORCYCLIST.  You OWN the road, right?  Man, I guess I didn’t get the memo.  Maybe you guys should have meetings or something to make sure us ignorant cyclists don’t go where it may inconvenience you.  Dipstick.

But don’t worry.  I didn’t say any of that.  Instead I just smiled and waved!  I didn’t see him smile back at me, but I’m sure he wanted to.  Then, I started singing Beyonce in my head and all was right with the world!  We went 110 km today and tomorrow we are hoping to make it to the Idaho/Montana border!  Three more days of hard work and then a rest day! Woo hoo!!

A

 

 P.S We celebrated Mother's Day with some strawberries (in the shape of a heart, might I add) on the side of the road. Gosh, I love my Mumsie!

What A Difference A Day Makes!

I come to you with good news, readers!  Mom, Dad and I have made it to Twin Falls, ID and have just enjoyed our first rest day.  It was ah-mah-zing.  After our day of defeat and disappointment on Monday, I was nervous for the conditions that we would face on Tuesday.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and the wind was NOT against us!  It wasn't at our back, but I wasn't going to get greedy.  We backtracked in the morning and got started right away to make up for lost time!  We started to get a bit of a tail wind and it felt incredible!  We were enjoying the ride and I celebrated by eating 10 chicken nuggets from Burger King at 9 in the morning.  NBD.  I was feeling GREAT.  Thus, a diva picture was taken.

I'ma a diva.  I'ma I'ma a diva.

The day went very smoothly and Dad and I were happy to be on our bikes again.  It was the first time in awhile that I actually enjoyed myself while on the bike.  We had optimal weather conditions all day.  It wasn't too hot, we had  a little bit of a tail wind, and the terrain wasn't too rough.  Of course, there were some uphill climbs (there doesn't seem to be a day that goes by without them), but overall it was a wonderful day of riding.  The interesting thing about Tuesday was that we seemed to be attracting the attention of various law enforcement officers.  We were actually eating lunch in the van pulled over on the shoulder of the highway when the Elko County Sheriff vehicle showed up.  Of course, Dad says "Oh great...he's going to ask us to move.  Oh great.  This is JUST great...Oh man..." while Mom and I say "Calm down, Dad.  Just relax".  And whaddaya know...we were right.  The man simply wanted to know about our trip because he had seen us cycling a few miles behind and was an avid cyclist himself!  It was nice to meet someone who didn't think we were completely crazy for riding 1600 km across the country.  I said to him "Well it's nice that you came over to talk to us.  You seem to be the only person who doesn't think we're totally weird or out of our minds.  Then again, you are carrying a gun..." He laughed.  We laughed.  It was a wonderful moment.  Then of course, we got a picture with him (we ARE travelling with my mother, remember) and carried on our way.

Myself, Jeremy, and Dad

Later on that day, Mom was approached by three highway patrol men who were making sure that she was ok and that the van hadn't broken down.  She said it was actually nice to have someone to talk to (she spends most of the days in the car reading while we ride) and usually made remarks to us about how great these "men in uniform" would be for Ingrid and Kristen (my two eldest sisters who are currently single, gentlemen!).  We went 142 km and were exhausted by the end of the day. Here's a few pictures from our adventures!

Almost to the top of the Summit!

And there we are!  You can tell Dad's excited because we know we're about to go downhill...

We had pushed ourselves on Tuesday to reduce the distance we had to cycle to Twin Falls on Wednesday.
We had about 80 km to cycle to Twin Falls on Wednesday so I was excited because it was going to be a relatively easy day in my  mind.  I've learned to NEVER think that because I am always disappointed.  The day started off wonderfully.  We had a beautiful tail wind and life was great.  We were very excited to make it to Jackpot, NV and finally cross the border into Idaho!

At this point, we had lost Mom.  Apparently she was waiting for us in a parking lot and we missed her so...we just kept going.  It wasn't until we had cycled for another hour and a half that we called her and realized that she was still waiting for us in Jackpot, NV.  It wasn't a big deal because the wind was at our back and we were making great time, but I needed her because I had been badly burnt by the sun on my calf and could no longer cycle unless I reapplied some sunscreen.  I've never had a problem with the sun.  I have only been sunburnt once in my life, but this trip has been a bit of a different story.  I am badly burnt on my back, my shoulders, and my calves.  My ankles are also quite red but they have not reached the state of pain yet, so I'm happy.  When Mom came, we had found comfort under a tree where there was lots of shade (side note: so nice to be in Idaho where they actually HAVE trees in comparison with the desert of Nevada!) and waited for Mom to arrive.  I thought putting on some sunscreen would do the trick, but alas, my calf was just too burnt to ride without some protection.  So...I pulled an ol' red barn con and used Dad's bandana as a makeshift shield from the sun.  And it worked like a charm!  


When the sun started coming at me from the west, my OTHER leg started to burn, but other than that, I was pretty comfortable.  The only thing was the wind turned against us (surprise, surprise) so the last 20 km of the day were quite hard.  We actually went through the city of Twin Falls so that we could get started on the highway on Friday which took awhile as Idaho drivers don't seem to be very inclined to give cyclists any room on the road.  One of the highlights of riding through the city was the stunning gorge that lies just on the edge of town.  It was absolutely stunning!  We even saw some people parachute jumping off of the bridge which was a sight I had never seen.  As I was watching them crawl over the edge about to jump, I just thought "Thank goodness all I have to do is ride my bike and NOT that!"

Crazy People!!

We went 106 km and it ended up being a very tiring day.  I was VERY excited for our first rest day!  Mostly because Mom and I were going to be making a trip to Target which...basically means that my life gets 100x better.  It's like the smell of the store just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, I don't know what it is!  I especially like buying clothes while on a bike trip because I can't wear any of them until I am done and that gives me something extra special to look forward to. :)  The lowlight of our rest day was Mom accidentally threw an article of Dad's cycling clothing into the dumpster (I don't know how you "accidentally throw" that, but whatever) and recruited me to dig it out.  Awesome.  Of course she was taking pictures the whole time.  Anyway, that was about the only thing that wasn't wonderful about my day spent in Twin Falls!  We have a tough week ahead of us as we make our way to Missoula (shout out to all my friends there-I want to see you!).  We are hoping to be there in 6 riding days so...that would be on Wednesday.  If we make it there on time, we will take a rest day on Thursday which will be great because as much time as I've spent in MT, I have never spent more than an afternoon in Missoula so I'm excited for that.  Of course, Dad reminds me that we have a lot of work to do before we get there (Thanks, Dad I was unaware of that), but it's nice to have something to work towards.  We are off to Applebees now for dinner (YAY!) so I'm going to sign off.  Thanks for reading everyone!  Hope you are all loving life!  The parents and I are sending you all love, hugs, and smiles from Idaho!
A