So when I finally got packed up and ready to start my day, I rode to the edge of the road where the campsite intersects with a picnic area. Standing on a hill, looking through a pair of binoculars at some birds across the banks of the Salmon River, stood a woman. We greeted each other as I rode by, then quickly struck up a conversation. Turns out, she is from Maryland and is driving the support vehicle for her husband and two kids that are riding the TransAm Trail. While they ride, she scouts out that evening's campsite, brings them water and food, runs errands, and when there's time, enjoys the surrounding scenery. Her family gets moving alot earlier than I do (they're not coffee drinkers) so they had a few hours on me. We figured we'd be seeing alot of each other in the next few days, so I said goodbye and started pedalling.

A few hours later, I was climbing a mountain pass on my way to Grangeville when the car behind me honked. It was Miriam. She rolled down her window and asked if I needed water. It couldn't have been any better timing. The road up until this point was unshaded by trees and void of any streams while it cut through the battlefields of the Nez Perce Indian wars. The road itself was the old Nez Perce Indian Trail and was 8.5 miles of switchbacks. My water was running low and I had a half a bottle left and about 3 miles to the top remaining. I'd hire her any day to drive my support vehicle, her timing was impeccable.

Well, the inevitable finally happened. I was riding my bike along the side of the road where the long stems of grass tend to lean over the rugged shoulders. Not really paying attention to the road immediately in front of my tire, my eyes were quickly drawn to the side of the road. A two foot rattlesnake was slithering along the pavement, weaving between the blades of grass and the debre on the side of the road. Needless to say, I was pretty startled and quickly swerved into the middle of the street. Fortunately there weren't any cars around and by the time I slowed down to try and get out my camera, the snake slipped away into the grass.

That evening I entered the Nez Perce Indian Reservation and stopped in the town of Kooskia to buy a Gatorade and a Snickers bar. I was sitting on the front steps of the store, when a Nez Perce, travelling with his girlfriend, pulled up beside me in an old, beat up RV. "Which way you headed?" he called from his rolled down window.

"East, towards Missoula."

"How far you going tonight?"

"Don't know. Are there any campsites between here and Lowell?"

"Not many, best place to camp is right here at the city park."

"Where's that?"

"Just two blocks down, two blocks over. It's right on the river."

"How much does it cost?"

"No cost, man. It's a city park, it's free. Free water and electricity, too if you can use it."

"Don't have much use for electricity, but I like the idea of free camping. Guess that's where I'm staying tonight." So I rode two blocks down and two blocks over to the city park. Sure enough it was right on the river and a great place to set up my tent. While I was setting up my tent, the old, beat up RV pulled into the parking lot, next to one of the electrical hookups. The door opened and a tiny puppy jumped out and began peeing all over the place, while the guy I met at the store followed and headed over to me. He had long black hair, dark brown skin and was wearing faded jeans and a denim shirt, buttoned halfway to display the native jewlery he wore around his neck. His sleeves were rolled up, and his arms were covered with tattoos displaying ancient native symbols. Upon second look, he had tattoos covering his entire body, even his earlobes were inked.

"See, isn't this great? My old lady and I stay here all the time. My name's Rudy, but my native name is Peote."

"Nice to meet you Rudy, my name is Dave. Cute puppy, how old is she?"

"Three weeks, she's half Chow, half Shitzu. Just got her from the breeder, but still need to work on breaking her in though, she pees everywhere. The old lady and me decided to get a puppy after our wolf died. Wanted to get it in time to be house broken before winter."

"Wolf?"

"Yeah, pure breed. Had him since he was a pup. Gentle as could be. Great animals. Real smart too. I had him trained real well, then he died this last winter, so we decided to get Aho. That's what we call her. Aho means 'thanks' in native. We were so happy to get her, that we named her after how we felt. If you ever want to say thanks to a native, say 'Aho.' They'll appreciate that. So where you headed?"

"Connecticut, started in Florence, Oregon."

"That's cool. My old lady did a lot of biking around about 20 years ago. I couldn't do it. Too many hills. Maybe she'll come out later and talk to you. She's not much of a talker. I'm a big talker though. She gets mad at me sometimes cause I talk so much, but I like people. I like to talk. So, is that where you're from?"

"Born and raised in Connecticut, but I've lived in San Francisco the last six years. Have no idea where I'll end up when I'm done with this trip."

"That's cool. My old lady and me lived in the Redwoods for a while, near Eureka. It's beautiful over there, but then decided to come back home to try and find work. I got one job working for a guy in the mountains up there. Thought it was a good deal, he put us up in his house and we helped around his ranch. Money was okay, but it was a good life style. Then it turned out the guy was a drinker. I hate drinkers. He didn't do anything and expected us to do it all. Then he'd come home and get all violent. Drinking is bad stuff. I used to do all kinds of stuff when I was younger; drink, hallucinagenics, marijuanna, you name it, I did it. That stuff can really mess you up. My old lady and I still smoke the herb once and a while, but we don't do anything else."