Last night the weather forecast was not at all good - rain, thunder and lightning for all of today was forecast, so rather than have a dismal wet ride to Libby, 60+ miles down the road, we decided to do that tomorrow, in predicted glorious sunshine, and to spend today finishing our various reading, doing the history of Eureka, for it has an excellent museum including many buildings from its past and that have been gathered in the museum site. And also recuperating from 57 days, without a break, of cycling. I've just finished Vanity Fair by Thackeray, witty and wise as it is. An epic of Regency Britain, dashing and fast moving, with a happy ending for Becky and Amelia amidst their moral and sentimental education. Includes the battle of Waterloo as a social phenomenon. If hundreds of pages put you off, the adaptation by the BBC on 1998 was widely appreciated, though I see that more recent adaptations are now available.... even so it's several hours of viewing. Recommended! Now reading 'The Beekeeper's Lament', real paper... The buildings at the museum include some saved from flooding when the Koocanusa Dam flooded Rexford's valley nearby. The lake goes into Canada, which is about 10 miles away. We'll see Lake Koocanusa tomorrow. The museum brings out the boom and bust history of Eureka. The timber boomed and bust, the mucic acid (to make baking powder) boom and bust, the Christmas Tree boom and bust (1.8 million Christmas Trees were sold per year), the arrival, slightly belatedly, of the railway (the surveyors missed this lovely wide and straight valley in a moment of blunder, later corrected). The valley is called Tobacco Valley which puzzled me - this is not the climate to grow tobacco, but Eureka is, for the Native tribes that were long here, a place to grow the bitterroot, their tobacco, good for smoking in a pipe as much as eating dry or in a nice stew. Herby and full of good things for your health. The bitterroot is Montana's State Flower and 20 years ago we crossed the Bitterroot Mountains and River. It's a very pretty flower. Eureka is not old by European standards but I rather fancied the homely log cabin from 1891, first building in Eureka hence my photo - I just need a stetson, chaps perhaps, and some logging equipment to be perfect for the picture. The myth of the West is nicely captured by some verse in a museum exhibit:
Oh for the West, the dear wild West
From sin and sorrows free
Up in the clouds where the eagles nest
Is home, sweet home, to me
('Captain Jack' Crawford)
The logging seems to be the one industry that has never gone bust, logging trucks hurtle along State Road 93 - as we have experienced at first hand. Well driven, so far, for such huge vehicles. Eureka is not so far from the coast - by interstate it is perhaps 6 or 7 hours to Puget Sound at 70mph). But for us bicyclers on the Northern Tier, we have several big alpine cols to get over including the biggest climbs of the entire route at 4000'+ of climbing - the coastal Rockies commonly called the Cascades. Gulp. But we will deal with that when we come to it, one eye on the road and the other checking for bears. We should have time to do a wander around the islands of Puget Sound, reputed to have orcas, or killer whales. Hmmm, a dolphin or two would be enough for us. The rain has stopped (9pm now), the tent is drying out.... Another tent has been pitched next to ours - transam motor biker and he's doing Florida to Alaska, part of a well known motorbike route done by some hundreds of motorbikers each year, some are ahead and some behind, not on interstates but a real motorbiking route across country. He is riding about 10 to 15 hrs a day and will get to Alaska in two days (wow, after all that's the other side of Canada)! Two week transam. So if you fancy a transam but not the pedalling you could do that. Adventurous but you couldn't eat the calories we eat.... We are still here.