Before beginning this journey we have had many people tell us that it would be quite the emotional roller coaster and I am starting to understand quite well as to why they were saying that. We are reaching our two weeks out on the road soon and it has been a wonderful first two weeks but the emotions are certainly all over the place! For the last few days our views consisted of endless rolling hills of wheat with an occasional tiny town đž. The open space is really quite beautiful. It allows my mind to wander and makes me think about how majestic this world is! but then I can't help but feel a bit lost and alone in it at times because we are such tiny ants compared to it all! Biking through the small towns has also been very interesting! We stopped at one with 210 people! The town was called Kahlotus and we had a nice lunch break and swam in the community pool there too:) It was intereting speaking to the people and seeing what seemed to be such a simple life. Everybody knows each other, birthdays of town members were posted on billboards, and well, there just wasn't much around. I used to think I would love living in such a town, and while I still admire the harmless pace of it all, I think I need a bit more stimulation in my life, if you will. I can't imagine it'd be easy to find competitive sports, places to learn to play music and attend good schools in such a small area. I think I'd miss that :) Anyway, we eventually made it to the city of Spokane on Sunday and arrived right as Hoopfest was going on! It's the largest there-on-three basketball tournament in the world and took over all of downtown! What a change of scenery and pace! A friend of ours from the DU rowing club lives here so we stayed at his parents home and it was simply wonderful âşď¸ They were such kind hosts and we enjoyed having a relaxing rest day. So far we've rode close to 500 miles in total, we have successfully changed a flat tire, and have continued to meet so many kind folks all over the place. We will soon be leaving Washington and entering Idaho then Montana. I'm ready for some flat roads and rail winds but I better not count on that just yet... đÂ