July 6, 2016 The Invisible Trampoline

With not enough family time for my taste, we hit the road early setting our sights on arriving in Couer d’ Alene, Idaho by Friday for our prearranged week at the Lovett’s cabin. We have 2 nights and three days of driving to get there. We really wanted to make our first stop be Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but it was just too far so we “settled” for Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park by Mandan, North Dakota. What a great find this park turned out to be. We enjoyed the roomy pull-thru site with hook-ups and miles of trails to ride our bikes and get some needed exercise. Below are some Mandan Indian shelters.

It was a whole adventure in itself deciding how to transport our bikes with Molly and Scoop. While I was kitting out the inside of the trailer, Denis took on the outside equipment.  Using websites, forums, blogs, YouTube and a little common sense, Denis got a Thule bike rack mounted on Scoop’s back bummer adding another three feet of length to our rig. The Thule was supposed to hold three bikes; we have two cruisers and Denis has a fatty for mountain and beach biking. Fatty, the fat-tire bike, took up too much darn space to sit nicely with the cruisers, so it got left at home. When we’re on the road you can’t see those bikes on the back of Scoop so it’s a leap of faith that all is okay. Shortly after hitting the road another RV passed us on the highway with the bikes mounted on the back of their trailer bouncing like they were on an invisible trampoline. We pondered what our bikes were doing and concluded that they couldn’t possibly bounce like that. Denis bought the best Thule rack he could find with locks and tightening mechanisms. He bought and even used extra tie downs and bungee cords.  Upon reaching our first night’s destination our first stop was the back of Scoop to inspect our bikes. They were still there and in one piece! Closer examination revealed most of the tie downs were gone. Guess our bikes are on an invisible trampoline as well.