Phase Three starts tomorrow

In the morning I will get on a plane and fly to Spokane. I will gather all of my equipment (I know the bicycle is safe but the trailer?) spend the night and head out early Tuesday morning for Montana. I am taking the route north through Sandpoint Id and then dropping onto Hwy 200 that heads more or less southeast towards Missoula; the target for this segment. I have to really pedal hard to make it by a week from today (Sunday) as I want to be in SLC for family coming in from L.A., a meeting of the Behavioral Health group that I chair for SL County, and a meeting of Writers @ Work which I also share. In the words of Bokonon (Cats Cradle? by Vonnugut) "busy, busy, busy."


I will return later in the month to continue east. I want to at least get over the Continental Divide before I mothball for the winter.

Other random thoughts.  I watched a documentary on Neanderthals a few weeks ago that suggested that our cousins had adapted quite well to a number of habitats but failed to evolve technologically, hence their demise. After some speculation and after watching the "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on TV I have to disagree; I don't think Neanderthals died out. I think they adapted well to the societal habitats of the modern world. I think they are walking among us! Their tools have also evolved. I submit as proof Glen Beck. His tools aren't a club and spear but innuendo, misinformation, and the ability to leverage mass displeasure and hysteria. And understand this: he is damn good at it!! We don't need this kind of rhetoric. It solves nothing and further divides out country. I pity us: those who follow him blindly and those of us who walk around impotent  not knowing how to work with his stuff.

I wonder if the people who live here give a damn what Glen or I think?