My eyes open and to my surprise, I am in a bunk bed.  Oh yeah, I am at the Bunk + Brew that probably means there are five other people in here with me.  Sure enough, slumbering away in their respective bunks were three women and two other guys.  The time was 6:30 a.m. which meant I probably had a good shot at one of the two showers in the place.  The upstairs was in use, but the downstairs was mine for the taking.

Post-shower, I packed and took my duffle downstairs so that I would not disturb my bunkmates any more than I already had even though one of the women was getting ready to make her exit as well.  I then headed to the “Serve yourself” breakfast.  I found some yogurt, granola, orange juice, and the heartiest/nuttiest fresh bread for toast that I had ever had made by a local baker.  A little later, someone shuffled by and started some coffee as well.

I caught up on my computer a little and was happy to find that a potential new client sent me an email looking for a meeting the day after I return from the Hack-bbatical! By the time I finished my wifi session, and breakfast, the first Bunk + Brew employee rolled in at 8:00 a.m..  I needed them to open up the basement where I stashed my bikes behind locked doors.  I grabbed the bikes, strapped them on the Subaru, loaded my duffle bag, put in the address to my next stop and hit the road.

I was now 977 miles into my journey as I pulled out of Bend.

My next destination was Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

The next adventure would be Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene!

I was immediately reminded of the volcanic reality of this region as out my window in the distance were the Three Sisters and Mt Bachelor still heavily snowcapped.  One of those four blew 2,000 years ago and is still considered a threat today.  For those of us who remember Mt St Helens, it can happen.

As I rolled down the 97 highway, I was still kept company by my friends from The Great Race.  It was heartwarming to see a number of car clubs parked in the small towns along the way holding up signs of encouragement for the vintage racers.  We finally parted ways at a turn just South of Wasco where they continued on the 97 toward Tacoma and I veered off onto Old Sherman Hwy which would eventually lead me to a variety of backroads through mostly grasslands and grain producing agriculture until I met up with the 84 East for a long ride along the mighty Columbia River.

Finally, I headed North on the 90 and spent the next few hours in the land where french fries come from with miles and miles of potato fields.

I continued with a few of The Forward Podcasts, but at times just wanted to enjoy the scenery and music from various channels across Sirius XM.  Here are a few of the podcasts and again feel free to click on the play button of each which will take you to the actual program.

The first was with Ryan Holiday.  It was certainly promotional, but I must say his content was intriguing and it seems that he did his homework to get to his conclusions.  In particular, he has written a book called “Perrenial Seller, The Art of Marketing Work That Lasts.”  As I am currently working on a book that I think could be a sort of bible to the subject matter it is based on, I was highly intrigued regarding his thoughts around his theory.  Other titles such as “Ego Is The Enemy” and “The Obstacle Is The Way” were also interesting enough to make me lean toward investigating his work more.  The latter two titles were, of course, very topical in relation to the host Lance Armstrong which they did have some conversation around in addition to their mutual love for the band Iron Maiden.

Next up was Rickey Gates who is an ultra runner.  He mostly discussed his 4,000 mile run across the USA and his interactions with people as he met them along the way.  His run was done just after the most recent Presidential election and much of his conversation related to his experiences of how we are very much the same, yet have very different perspectives during this time of great division in our country.  I very much enjoyed his mellow and objective open review of his experiences.

I also enjoyed the fact that he did his run fully self-supported.  No support van.  He also limited himself to a budget of $30 per day for food, lodging, and anything else he needed.  If he saved money on one day, he could carry it over to the next.  But if he overspent, he had to deduct it from the next day.  Very cool guy and very cool stories of who he met and their stories.  Highly recommend this one from a social perspective.

An old friend had retired just North of Coeur d’Alene and was nice enough to let me stay there even though she and her husband would be gone.  However, she called me a week and a half before my departure to let me know the plans had changed a bit.  They had been waiting for a contractor to finish up another job to start on a renovation on their house.  He finished the other job and by the time I arrived, the renovation would be in full swing.  I was still welcome to stay there, but I would have to stay in a trailer they had on the property.  The trailer would have electricity, but no plumbing would be active.  If I needed a shower or running water, they were keeping the master bathroom active for the length of my stay.

No problem!  I had been camping in a tent and living in a set of bunk beds with six other people thus far on the trip.  My own trailer and a short walk to a private bathroom sounded like an upgrade.

Upon my arrival, I found the trailer as described complete with a sizeable fridge lightly stocked.

The house was beyond what was described.  By the time I got there, it was completely gutted upstairs and downstairs.  Except for the bathroom of course.  Whenever I needed to use the bathroom, I would have to walk through the garage and then walk all the way to the back of the demolition in the photo below.  At night, it was a little spooky since there were no lights and I would have to use a flashlight to find my way back there.

I unloaded the bikes and my gear into the trailer and the garage.  In the process, the neighbor invited me over for dinner and beers which I took him up on.  He also had two retired couples visiting with their trailers who had been traveling across the upper USA on a road trip from Michigan.  The fact that they were from my home state made the conversation flow easily from the first five minutes of opening the first cold brew.

After dinner, I headed back to the trailer to get some sleep before checking into the Ironman race the next day.  On the way, I was intercepted by a flock of overgrown turkeys.  Yes, turkeys!

I had never seen wild turkeys this size.  They also had no fear.  In fact, they kept coming closer to me leaving the lawn and traveling over a dirt berm in my direction.

As the sun set and I drifted off to sleep, the thought of rising in the night to walk 40 feet to the house to use the facilities brought an interesting vision of encountering zombie-like turkeys circling the trailer in the middle of the night.  Sort of a “Night of The Living Turkeys” kind of dream.  Clearly, I had been driving way too much over the last few days and needed some sleep.