Riding Hiawatha

What or who is Hiawatha, you may be asking.... The Hiawatha is an old train route that they have converted into a biking trail. I have heard about this trail for 10 years, since I moved to Spokane. Today, we finally made it....it is right on the Idaho/Montana state line, which is about an hour and a half from us. Before we got there I told the kids that we were going to a new place, called Montana. Brayden said, "Like Hannah Montana?" Good lord, my kids are getting old.... I didn't even know he knew about her. We made the trek up the mountain, unloaded and prepared for our 15 mile ride down. I was thinking this would be a quick, easy trip down the mountain.

It wasn't quite what I expected. Right off the bat you enter a tunnel that is PITCH BLACK, 45 degrees, with ditches 4 feet deep on both sides full of water. I did know about this, but I didn't realize how hard it is to balance and ride a bike in the dark. We had flashlights strapped to our bikes, but it was still the blind leading the blind with me in the lead.....

We made it through the tunnel without any major catastrophes, as you can imagine, people could hear us coming, and cleared out of our way! There were about 8 tunnels and 7 trestle bridges, which were amazing, but a little scary too. The trail was a gravel road, which made it rough for me to pull the trailer. I was more worn out than I expected to be. I thought it was paved with patches of gravel, no such luck, 15 miles of gravel.

We ended up going on a day that wasn't hot, good planning on my part, BUT it was a cool 60 degrees with rain! Mud was flying everywhere, the kids thought it was great!

At the bottom of the trail, you pay to catch a shuttle (school bus) back to the top where your car is. It took us about 2 hours to get down, with stops and a picnic lunch, and it was a 30 minute bus ride back to the top. On the way back home we asked the kids, "Was that fun, would you like to do it again?" They all agreed, "YES, I want to ride that school bus again!" Fabulous, we will be sure to do it again really soon!

On the drive home we were driving down the mountain pass, which of course, is a huge hill. Every hill we go down the kids think they need to say, "Weeee!" (thanks Grandma Phillips) Kent said, "Ok this is a really LONG hill so can you say that in your head?"

Dani screams: "WEEE in your head! WEEE in your head! WEEE in your head!" Thankfully she starts pre-school in a couple of weeks. Maybe Ms. Jenny will have more luck than I have had with her. :) I love you Claire Bear!

My Heart Hurts

Last week we all suffered a great loss. My friend, Patti Lambie was hit by a car and killed. Patti was a mother of three. She was participating/supporting her daughter in the Spokane to Sandpoint relay. Her daughter, a senior in high school, is on the cross country team. Her team was doing the relay race and the moms were following/supporting them in a suburban. A parent would ride a bike behind the girl to encourage the girl and be their for safety reasons. On Patti's leg of the race she was biking behind a girl at 6a.m. on a Saturday morning. A 31 year old drunk driver, mother of eight crossed 2 lanes of traffic and struck Patti while she was on her bike. Patti did nothing wrong, she had all of her protective/safety gear on and she had no idea the SUV was coming up from behind her. She was killed almost immediately and the girl in front of her thankfully, only suffered from 5 broken bones in her foot. Patti was definitely her guardian angel.

I have been numb with this news for a week now. It became more of a reality when I attended her funeral two days ago and saw all of the lives that Patti has impacted. Just looking at her husband and three children would bring anyone to tears. Patti was in my book club, therefore I knew her from our once a month meetings, but when I think about her, I think about her children. She was one of those moms who was SO proud of her kids and you always knew what activity/sport they were doing at the time. She was a girl scout troop leader and she attended all of their dance recitals, soccer games, track meets, and cross country meets. She was always going 110 miles an hour to fit everything into her schedule. I think she may have even fallen asleep at some of our book club meetings. :)

Until now, I have never been directly impacted by drunk driving. I have heard tons of horror stories, but I have never personally known anyone involved. I think it is the most senseless thing that a person could do. I have always thought that, but now I can't even fathom the hundreds of thousands of lives that this woman has impacted, including her own eight children.

Patti will be deeply missed and always remembered.