Chapter 2

Chapter 2 begins with a snow day. It started to rain hard & then soon turned to snow & the winds blowing pretty hard. Needless to say cycling was out of the question, so we lost  Sat. completely. Sunday was a good news, bad news day. The good news is it turned very nice in San Diego & I completed the 18 miles & got to the Pacific ocean. The bad news , it was140 miles round trip in the truck from camp at Live Oaks Springs to San Diego and back to camp.
The good news is we got back to camp & the 8 " snow we got was almost gone & the roads were good. We were able to get the trailer out and down the road .Back on my bike to get as far as I could the rest of the day. The bad news is we have lost a lot of daylight & won't make our pre-determined destination at Brawley, CA. We did get to a small community called Seely which is about 6 miles west of ElCentro. It looks like we will lose a day early in the ride. The good news is I saw my first RoadRunner today-bad news is no sign of Wylie Coyote. I'll sign off with this observation. In western Montana every 3rd vehicle is a logging truck, in southern Ca. every 3rd vehicle is a Border Patrol. We are safe and all is going to be good as we are now seeing some sunshine.

Camping at Live Oaks Springs , CA

SNOWING

Chapter 1

Left Marion about 11am on Wed the 23rd with the snow and wind at a rampage. Was able to stay just ahead of the storm, but never got away from the high winds. Got 50 miles south of Salt Lake City around 1:30 am Thurs. morning. Left about 7 am and got to Barstow fighting head winds all the way. Guess we should not complain as we heard the weather up west was really bad with snow, wind and - temps. Left 6am Friday morning and arrived at our first camp site at Live Oaks Springs, CA. Got set up about noon only to discover that our Montana weather was following us. I made the decision to ride from Live Oaks Springs to San Diego (70miles) because of the weather forecast for Sat. Because of darkness was not able to get the last 12 miles in. Grounded at camp because of snow on Sat 2/26. Hopefully will be able to finish the last 12 miles of this leg Sunday morning. Thanks for following will try to keep you updated each day as we go along. So far temps look better the next couple days.

Today I drove to Missoula to interview with KPAX TV about my ride. For those who are not aware, I am doing this ride to raise money for C.M.N. (Childrens Miracle Network). My employer, Costco, is a big sponsor of this great organization and for those who wish to make a donation  can contact me at pawsagility1@gmail.com for a donation form and I will send it to you, or go directly to the Shodair web page. You can go to  www.shodair.org   click on make a donation, go to designation and click on Mike's CMN Cross Country Ride for Kids and make your donation. Shodair Children's Hospital is a C.M.N. hospital located in Helena, Montana.  Thanks to everyone for your outstanding support.

What's on your bucket list?????

Ok, here I am on Feb 16th, at home, looking forward to warmer weather. Ten more days and I will be on this bad boy riding across California.