Day 41: Coeur d'Arlene, ID to Spokane, WA: Day 42 Early Morning (J's Version)

Good morning!!! I'm blogging to you from Atticus' Coffee Shop which also owns Boo Radley's

Gift Shop down the street! Whoa. Am I in Heaven? There's several mockingbird stuff in here, and I even bought an Atticus t-shirt. I know there's a different Atticus bookstore in New Haven, but this is still pretty cool! The Boo Radley store doesn't open until 10 though. Hopefully, I'll still be around. After i'm done here, I plan on checking out the Spokane Riverfront area. Do some walking and exploring. I'll be honest, the area of Spokane that G and I explored yesterday was not that impressive at all, so I was glad to learn that there's more.

Pictures from TKAM movie

G's trying to stay off the highway today as much as he can because I 90 in this area is not as calm as we're used to; however, this makes it extra tough for roadie support crew. Some of the time he's on an actual bike path that I cannot go on and other times he's on these streets that are hard to find.We'll figure it out. We are aiming for a small town called Connell that is about 90 miles from here. Honestly, at this point, I feel like we've been through so many different obstacles, we can handle what comes our way. SO CLOSE!

G updated last night, so you already know about Mike, the minister. When I met him, G said, "Guess what he does for a living?" It was about 10 guesses before I got it right and that was after some prompting. It was so awesome to meet him. I'm not very religious anymore at all, but the prayer he did with us was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. It really is so refreshing that probably 98% of the people we've met on this journey really have been nice!

I'll be the most popular teacher wearing this shirt.

I can't believe it's August 1st today. Whoa. I'm so not ready for work again. If you're at teacher you know that as soon as it hits August the summer in your mind is over. haha We estimated 6 weeks for the trip then a few days more once we got into the swing of things, so by that logic we are right on track. Tomorrow will be exactly 6 weeks then we will have just a few more after that before we reach the ocean.

We called At&t, and it would be $400 to break our contract! Yikes! No, thank you. We have another year, so we'll suck it up. We looked into the prepaid phones, and those are a little pricey, too and a hassle for only about two days of possibly not having service, so we did not get them.

Spokane has like 5 Viet restaurants!! We went to the one closest to the hotel, and it was delicious. We did not get Pho (Are you sick of my Pho talk yet?) but tried other noodle soups. Mine was pork and shrimp with egg noodles. YUM! Then, back at the hotel fresh cookies and milk would be in the lobby from

Not Pho and don't say all Viet soups looks the same!

7pm-9pm. I waited ALL evening for these cookies, and it was an epic fail. They only had oatmeal raisin and flies were all on them.

I forgot to mention that back when I was waiting for Jenard to be done at the bike shop, I got my hair trimmed. Just a trim. Don't freak out. I don't know if i'll ever chop it off. The hairdresser asked what I was doing in Idaho, and I told her about the cross country trip, and her response was unique. "Is this something that you guys do a lot?" Then, at a restaurant back in Montana, I noticed that everyone working there seemed super young. Not just "Oh, you look youthful," but did you loose your baby teeth yet? Apparently, you can legally work in Montana at just 14!! If you work for your family there is no age limit.

Yesterday, when I was waiting for G at a Starbucks in Spokane I noticed right next to me were these two really in shape women. Not only were they in super shape, but they both looked tough like they could totally kick anyone's butt and had that type of attitude to go along with it as they were talking. 10 minutes later another lady joined their group, but she was a reporter! I ease dropped on the interview and apparently both women are UFC fighters! It was fascinating to hear about how they are in a man's world in UFC and have to constantly prove

Tough!

themselves. I just did a search online for "UFC women Spokane" and one of the women, Julianna Pena was actually the first UFC female winner from a reality show search for a UFC female. SO cool!

Three Things I learned/Tips;Advice:
1. Invest in a cooler. I know I was against it initially but the cooler is great for ice and cold beverages to provide your athlete with.
2. Explore: Go beyond your comfort zone. Talk to people. Check out new places. It's fun!
3. Smile: It makes you taller.

Have a great day!

This UHaul was parked at our hotel. Great childhood memories of A of G.G.