Life Spoke

I'm in Shoshone, ID! Wet weather for three days now. I'm doing well though. Moving slowly across Idaho.

It's been slowly sinking in that this is going to be a LONG trip. There is nothing fast about riding a bicycle across the country. Now that I've realized that my spirits have lifted considerably.

I came upon the freeway (I-84) yesterday. First insterstate I've ridden next to so far on this trip. It was sobering to see and hear cars and trucks blazing down the highway at 65+. It helped put my own speed in perspective.

The interstate also opened my eyes to how incredible this journey really is. I'm riding on roads that would be ridiculous to travel on if you were driving from Oregon to New Jersey. You basically want to stay on the interstate to get from A to B in a car. Even for local trips, if given the option to take the big road or the small road and both take the same amount of time, a person often chooses the interstate.

Yesterday I travelled along 'Old Highway 30' that loops a few miles north of the interstate. The 'old' designation must have been tacked on when the road was realigned and made part of the interstate system. What a nice road, though. In 15 miles I saw six cars. It was relatively level and mostly straight but it wasn't the straight line that engineers so desire, so it was carved out of the insterstate system.

On Old Hwy 30 I came upon a herd of cattle being driven down the road by a cowboy on a four-wheeler. I moved over and they nervously passed. The new-age cowboy waved and smiled.

Lots of eagles out here. I'm sad to say that I pass close to a dozen beautiful big birds, dead on the side of the road every day. I pass lots of road kill, hundreds and hundreds so far, I almost ran over a porcupine in Oregon, but the big birds are really sad.

The live eagles have been riding the winds a hundred feet above the road. Yesterday I saw one dive into the sage brush and come back up with a big snake coiled in a hoop, hanging from it's talons. Amazing. I think the Aztec's reviered this as the sign on where to build Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City.

Lots of waves and a few honks over the past few days. One rancher was out in a field and yelled, "Gettin' yer excercise?" Me, "Yeah, all the way to New Jersey!" "New Jersey!?" Smile and wave, keep riding.

Chronologically:
Saturday, 9/16 -
Cairo Junction to Mary and Lester Scott's house, the site of my last update.

Sunday, 9/17 -
Had a great breakfast with Mary and Lester. Lester really wanted me to "abort this trip and go fishing for a week up on the Owyhee." Mary tells him he's too old to take the boat out by himself and I think he's itching for a fishing buddy before the weather gets too much colder.

53 miles to Marsing, ID. I pass the state line without too much excitement. I was really really tired this day. Lagging so much, just couldn't get my fire stoked up very hot. This was my eigth day in a row of riding and the effects were apparent. I was just plain fatigued, Mary had fed me a huge dinner and a big breakfast so available food energy wasn't the problem.

So I pulled into Snake River Mart in Marsing and met Jolyn Green and her.

I followed them to her parent's house outside of town on Hwy 78. What a nice place. Jack and Joann Thomspon had raised their kids in one of the houses down the hill and have since built and lived in two separate homes on the hill that used to be their farm. They sold the first and built the second a year or so ago. I don't know if they saved this home site for a special purpose or not, but it had an incredible view of the surrounding Snake River Valley, just off the crest of the hill.

I can't thank the Green's and the Thompson's enough for their hospitality. Between the noise of the kids and the home cooking and the honest conversations about real things I felt as if I had known them all my life. They truly made me feel like family and for that I will never forget my time there.

We talked it over and they agreed that I needed to take a day off. So Monday, 9/18 (Tracey and my second wedding anniversary!) I hung out with Jack and Joann.

Jack was happy to let me use his shop to work on the stove. I got it working relatively well and it hasn't had much trouble since. I also took the drive train off the bike and degreased it. The bottom of the cleaning pan was coated in black dirt with sand from the beach rolling around. Everything is working well now.

Again, thanks to the Green's and the Thompson's for their hospitality and great conversations.

Tuesday, 9/19 -
I left the Thomspon's and headed southeast on Hwy 78. Slow to get charged up this morning. I had spent three nights in a row in a bed, in a warm house. As nice as it was, I think it softened me up some.

Through Murphy to the Owyhee County History Museum then on down to Grand View. In Grand View I got a map for the C.J. Strike Recreation Area and rode 8 more miles to a campsite. I had been getting rained on off and on all day so when I got to Black Sands Resort I was ready to relax for a minute. 73 miles, 13.5 mph avg.

Luckily there is a bar on the lake there. I got ice and a beer and went out to set up camp. The tent was up, the bags were off the bike and I was just putting the last bit of dinner together when the sky opened up. Lighting made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and then the hail started. Cherry pit sized ice balls fell from the sky as I hustled the gear into the tent and zipped it up. Before I could make it to the bar with my pot of dinner I was soaked down to the skin.

After an hour it stopped and cleared; sharp, bright like sliced through from the west and splashed the surrounding bluffs in a straw yellow that made them gleam against the black clouds in the backdrop. It was refreshingly calm for the first time all day. My stuff stayed dry in the tent and the stove didn't get harmed by the rain.

Wednesday, 9/20 -
It rained again during the night but I was still dry. My dad lent me a little one-man tent that has held up well to the weather.

It took the usual hour to pack up camp, cook and eat oatmeal then get in the cockpit. The morning was similar to the preceding evening. Sun ripped through the fabric of clouds and made the irrigation spray in the fields glisten bright white.

I think a night out in the weather hardened me back up. This morning I met a few long hills through driving crosswinds that slowed me to a crawl. When I got the tail wind I flew at 18-20 mph on the flats. I felt good.

I blew into Glenn's Ferry after noon and rode down toward the Snake River to Three Island Crossing State Park. If you drive through here, get off the interstate at Glenn's Ferry and drive down to the Park, it's worth it. It's a nice modern museum and interpretive center that gives you a very good understanding of what it was like to ford the Snake River in a Prarie Schooner back in the mid 1800's.

Up at 4am to tend livestock and cook breakfast over a buffalo chip fire. Three hours later you're driving a team of oxen pulling all your earthly belongings across the desert. Then you get to this spot and have to get across a big river. Wagons capsized, teams of oxen drown, Indians had to be contracted to help drive livestock across...you had been on the trail for four months and still had the hardest month of travelling left.

That was grit.

I guess that also helped me put my own speed in perspective because at 70 miles a day I'm flying compared to those old-timers.

After the museum, I went to the Post Office and mailed a package back home to Tracey. A T-shirt I don't need (only need two), the pair of gloves that got chewed up by packrats, some maps of my trip so far and a pair of bike shorts. When people warn you to bring only really high quality bike shorts, listen to them. I have a bit of saddle rash and am pretty sore on my butt.

Eventually I made it to Bliss, ID after 69 miles at 13.2 mph avg. I spent the night next to the firehouse out of the gusty wind. It rained last night again. I didn't realize I had set up my tent under the eave of the building with no gutter- heavy drops pelted the edge of my tent all night sounding like the distant popping of a top-fuel dragster. pop...pop-pop-pop...pop-pop.....all night. I was so tired I slept through most of it.

I woke up and started to dress but couldn't find one of my leg warmers. So dissappointing. I must have lost it in the wind yesterday somewhere near King Hill, ID. If you see it, mail it to Tracey for me. I have the one leg warmer left and regardless of how rediculous it looks, I wear it on my left leg with nothing on my right. When I get to the bike shop in Pocatello I'll buy a new pair. I had grown so attached to that leg warmer...oh well.

Wet foggy morning has given way to dappled sunshine. The strong easterly wind has been pushing me along at my typical average speed of 13-14 mph. I hope to make another 45 miles today to somewhere near Minidoka, ID. Then tomorrow I'll be in Pocatello, ID...maybe Wyoming by Tuesday next week!

I'm nervous about this weather. I have a feeling I'm going to see snow before I hit the plains. The only thing I can do is keep riding and keeps my chin up. I bought a pair of headphones today to replace the ones that broke, so I'm back into the tunes! They really help the miles fly by.

Imagine me...a guy on a bike, white helmet, black sunglasses, yellow vest - one leg warmer, one bare leg, nylon shoe covers, headphones on, head bobbing to raggae or rock, Fuggies or Incubus...teeth gritting against a sore ass and pedals spinning away.

Underneath it all I'm so psyched to be out here, out there, doing this ride for the people that need it. Doing this ride because I can when others can't.

Keep the comments coming guys, they really hit me deep and help me through all this.
-Drew