YOUR NIAGARA PAUL

Monday 20 August 2012

CYCLING THE NORTHERN TIER, MARBLEMONT, WASHINGTON - STAGE EIGHTEEN - MY LANTERN ROUGE

AUGUST 15, 2012

MARBLEMOUNT, WA

Not comical at all, but the rider who is still riding, but finishes last in the Tour de France is awarded the Lantern Rouge. It is symbolic of the light that hangs on the caboose of a train.
After a rather short but hot day I rode the last of the the Miracle Miles and into Marblemount. Besides Newhalem, the first oasis of services for close to ninety miles.


 What do you do when one rolls into a one gas station town and it's going to hit 95F. Go stand in the smoke of some BBQ joint to cool off. This town was very small. It had only one espresso shack.



Lunch. 
 Later went out when the coast was clear(sun went down)for some roadside BBQ chicken dining.
Then sat at the gas bar with the locals( and some random dog that was left at the station in the morning by some lady that I guess said she was coming back for it) and got caught up on all the gossip(some random dog was left at the gas station in the morning by some lady that said she was coming back for it). 
Talked for the longest time with this elderly couple who came into town for some ice cream. They have a cabin deep in the Cascades. No services. We traded all sorts of stories.

 Stayed at a shared facility place. Nice, clean and cold.

Shared adventures with hikers and climbers in the common room. The nice thing about travelling alone is that all the stories I tell are true. Of course I did a wheelie up the steep part of Washington Pass. Do you want me to retell the whole thing for the third time?


 COMING SOON : A SOMBER REALIZATION.

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