Bike Across America – Day Ten

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Start: Boise, Idaho
End: Mountain Home, Idaho
Mileage today/cumulative: 53.5/694
Elevation Ascended: 1,589
Weather: Sunny, 64° at start;  sunny, 80° at finish
3D Video

There’s a saying that any day on a bike is a good day. If so, then 54 miles on flat, open roads with fresh legs and a 10+ mph tailwind for the entire ride is a really good day. After a slow, six-mile warmup on a greenway bike path, the pace picked up and we sailed to the finish, happy to have the wind at our backs. Leaving  Boise, we climbed about 500′, giving us a nice view of the valley looking back at the downtown skyline. Then it was 12 nice miles on Interstate 84 East and our only SAG stop for the day at a truck stop. I got a few questions about our funny looking shoes and some truckers said that riding our bikes across the country was a great idea.

We enjoyed our two nights in Boise but we were itching to get back on our bikes after a rest day. We were ready to roll and spent the morning singing On The Road Again. As we left our room at the Courtyard by Marriott, we passed a room full of people attending a training session, eyes already glazed over at 8am, staring at their binders of material. I thought “I’m so glad I’m riding my bike another 3,000 miles to the Atlantic Ocean instead of sitting in that room.” One has an element of suffering but the other would be torture.

Today’s route was bigger skies, open roads, and lots of sagebrush. We also come across something odd. In the middle of a landlocked state, in the middle of nowhere, with no signs of civilization nearby, we saw a street sign for Ocean View Lane. It was a real sign, perhaps placed by a climate change believer or a seismologist with a crystal ball. Or maybe someone just had a good sense of humor. Regardless, we took a photo of it.

Because we finished the ride so early and it appears that the wind never stops here in Mountain Home, Idaho (another misnomer because there are no mountains to be found, probably created by the same person who named Ocean View Lane) , we were able to hand wash our shorts and jerseys and dry them in the relentless wind. This worked quite well and Bev even got creative, drying our socks by clipping them to the outside of our room’s A/C unit. It was a total white trash look but it worked.

Tomorrow we move on to Twin Falls, Idaho and the route promises to be more scenic. It’s a 91 mile ride, eventually crossing the famous Perrine Bridge that spans the Snake River Canyon, nearly 500 feet above the river and near the site of famous daredevil Evel Knievel’s unsuccessful 1974 jump across the canyon. It should be another epic day!