Bike Trip Awards!

Now that we've been on the road for more than a month, we decided that it's time to give out awards to a few of the most memorable people, places, and things we've encountered. Thus, without further ado, we bring you Round One of the Bike Trip Awards!

Favorite Bike Accessory that We've Acquired on the Road

Runner-Up: My white biking sleeves and new Patagonia white long underwear pants. (Lindsey P, that's a Patagonia shout-out just for you!) I picked up the sleeves (Craft "compression arm coolers," if there are any bike-gear junkies reading) at Allegro Cycling in Walla Walla, WA, and was skeptical about how much they'd actually cool my arms or prevent sunburn. But I'm a big fan so far! I'm equally excited about the sunscreening ability of my new long underwear pants, which, while they make me look like I'm biking in my PJs, do one heck of a job of keeping the sun off my legs.

Hands-down Winner: Jugsy!
We bought this 1-gallon hard blue plastic water bottle on a whim at an Army-Navy Surplus store in Lewiston, ID, since we knew we had some hot, isolated stretches of road ahead of us. Never did we dream that we'd come to worship Jugsy in all of his icy glory. On hot days like today, there's nothing like cooling down at lunchtime with a glass of freshly melted ice water from Jugsy. We fill him with ice in the mornings when we can, and we're amazed at how long Jugsy stays icy during the day. Today we rode 40+ miles through isolated prairie, and yet we still had ice all day long. Sigh.

Funniest Road Sign

Second runner-up:

Littering signs sure do show a state's personality. Compare these two, for example:
Washington: "Litter and it will hurt."
Idaho: "Idaho's too great to litter."
You can bet I kept a good eye on my Clif bar wrappers in Washington!

First runner-up:
Along Highway 83 in Montana, between Missoula and Glacier National Park, we spotted not one but two signs that called our attention to the "University of Montana College of Foresty." Try reading that again if you're wondering why we laughed.

Winner:
Highway 83 sure was a gem in terms of road signs. One of our few regrets is that we didn't get a picture of this sign, positioned right alongside the highway:
No Motor Vehicles

Most Memorable Quote

We've heard a lot of funny things from people along the way, but the winner of this contest is clear. Whenever we need a laugh, we just repeat her words to ourselves. This quote comes from a sweet woman somewhere in Washington, who offered us this greeting after we told her we were from California:

"Welcome to our country!"

Now it's your turn to participate! How would you have responded to this dear Washingtonian? We've spent the last month joking about all the ways we could have responded to her, and now we want to hear what you think. Also, feel free to suggest other categories for future rounds of Bike Trip Awards!