Travel Mates (July 4, 2012)

A big part of the magic of bike touring is the amazing people you meet along the way.  Early on we met a young guy by the name of Andrew.  Andrew rode with us off and on from the Oregon coast to Grand Village, WY ... he is now headed to Colorado on the TransAm route with Washington D.C. as his finish point.  Andrew is a multi-talented artist, designer and interesting conversationalist.  Recently we rode for a few days with a very experienced touring cyclist from the Neatherlands ... Kees.  Kees is now headed to Denver.

Back in Jackson Hot Springs, we camped along side the two young guys in the adjacent picture ... Mohammed (on the left) and Muntasir.  They, along with Kim, are now a part of our traveling troup.

Mohammed and Muntasir (due to we English speakers' difficulty in pronouncing his name correctly, he has allowed us to call him "M") are from Bangladesh, and are riding across country monitoring the amount and types of trash along the roadside.  I would try to explain it all, but better you should visit their website: http://www.trashmaniac.com.  They are also heading to Washington D.C.

In my previous posting regarding the ride from Riverton to Hiland, I mentioned the "town" of  Moneta ... the town with the huge Confederate flag.  As Mohammed approached the fenced area with a request for water,  Kim, Roger and I were joking about the flag ... M asked the significance of the flag.  After we explained about the probable "white supremacist" residents, M commented that Mohammed rather looked like a Mexican. 

Both Mohammed and M are very gentle souls, and a joy with whom to share this adventure.  They ride (and often push) their Bike Friday tandem ... loaded down with somewhere around 140 pounds of gear.

The magic of the road continues.