An invitation from Jim Conrad of Moscow to ride the Trail of the Couer d'Alenes generated some excitement mid-week. Cliff and I already had plans for a century, but several folks from the Palouse and the valley had a knee jerk reaction to riding the trail in the fall colors.

Linda tried to get Tony on a bike but he had good sense. "A 5 hour ride? I'm not ready for that," he said.

Linda didn't join up withJim but did talk Gary and Ruth into going up. She came back agog with the beauty. This couple does a lot of tours with a group on the Oregon coast. They don't join us much because they are pretty slow. Linda wants to start an alternate Saturday's no-spandex ride from the confluence to Hell's Gate and back for such a group. More power to her.

Dan shows us how a triathlete takes his rest--anywhere he can get it.

Dan tries to schedule his triathlon training so he can ride with us. He's been a regular at ice cream rides through the summer. He's faster now that he bought one of Sean's bikes.

Dan's on his new Trek, playing with all the gears, riding the aerobars, and and enjoying every moment.

Cliff and I did a century plus on Saturday. We started at 7:30 road around Lapwai but at the Rose Garden we stripped off the arm and leg warmers and climbed the Spiral Highway. Becky Phillips and Dave Tibbals joined us at Sage Bakery and the four of us rode back to Pullman together. Cliff and I stopped at the DQ for an ice cream. The temperature was just 70 degrees. We had a little head wind on the way back and I found the shadows on the grade chilly, but it was still 65 when we got back to the boat launch. I ended up with 120 miles and my 26th century of the year. I didn't expect to get that many given the autum century and one day of the Joseph ride had been rained out. Good old Cliff kept me on my bike.

Cliff and his tupperware.

The bikepath to Asotin has been freshly paved. We rode the highway out, but on the way back we ducked under the yellow tape and tried out the paving. We weren't the only ones.

Back at the boat launch, Linda broke out the cake. Cliff had made me ride hard yesterday and again today. I was really hungry. I gladly had a second slice and put my bike in the truck. It was a 242 mile week. Sean will huff at that, but I'm pleased to still be getting such good mileage this late in the season.

Catholic Bazaar at Holy Family: Linda brought us a Catholic chocolate Zuchinni bread. Not quite loves and fishes but we were fed.

Mike and Nicky, Debbie, Cliff, Corrie and Linda, Dan, and even Mike Minnick enjoyed this fine fall weekend.

Looking forward to next Sunday's chili ride. That's chili, not chilly. Pray for good weather.