Whew! If I thought yesterday was tough, today was a killer. We woke up in the cold; I couldn't pitch my tent properly and so the dew came through and soaked the end of my sleeping bag. We got a good start and did an easy first 15 miles but then had to climb again and I just fell apart. I ended up talking to Kip about how wiped out I was and we agreed to take a rest day tomorrow. My bike started squealing to high heaven - it was the front disc brake - so I rolled into town right to the bike shop, where the guy had the garage door open working on bikes in the front yard. He fixed me right up and we had a great chat about both having gone to UBI for bike school. He told us to stay at the Mountain Village Lodge because they had their own hot spring (!), so I finally got to go in a hot spring! It was awesome; right overlooking a river. While we were there 3 older ladies stopped in and it turned out they had lived here for 25+ years, and one of them was the old mayor. They were a little drunk and she told us about how terribly sad it was that none of them can even afford to live in the town they grew up in. Housing is a real problem in the US. There was also a couple from Michigan, and I realized the only time I'd been in Michigan was that trip long ago to Detroit. We've met a lot of really interesting folks, and I'm really tired. We're going to spend tomorrow in Stanley and then take a bus down to Ketchum and ride from there.
