Day 18

It is hard to believe that this was just one day, when we got to the hotel tonight around 7:00, it seemed as if we had been on the road much longer. It was like 3 different rides, the morning started smooth enough, leaving Boise on a Saturday there was little traffic to deal with, and soon we decided to abandon the interstate for a while to ride back roads. This would add some time to our day but we agreed that the slower pace would be worth it. We rode along side some river or maybe there were several along the way but I never got a name. We stopped at a park in Burley Oregon for lunch, children playing on one side, two homeless men hanging around nearby... but it was really a nice little town with lots of trees, older homes but not much else.

We continued to ride on this road (highway 30) and stopped again half hour later at a country store to wait out a small rain shower. We were sitting outside when a 5 year old boy came out side and began talking to Debbie. Seems his family owns the store and they live there as well. In the few minutes we talked he told us all about his family, he starts school this year... sometime after the fair comes through town this month. He was very smart and well spoken for his age and not afraid to strike up a conversation. After the rain we headed back toward the freeway for a gas stop at Flying J Truck Stop... When I went to get the map from the bike, I found the lid to the saddlebag had come off in my hand, this is not suppose to happen so it required another half hour delay to make repairs.

Finally back on the road I realized we were getting closer to the mountains that cover much of southern Idaho / northern Utah and Wyoming, and it appeared we would need to cross these somewhere on our way to the hotel. As we crossed into Utah and then Wyoming the winds picked up with gusts particularly whipping through the mountain passes. There was really no place to take shelter and we would have to make the trip before we were done so we decided to ride through it and get done as quickly as possible. We ended up stopping about 90 miles short of our goal, largely due to our earlier delays and in hopes that winds would be calmer in the morning.

Our bartender/waitress explained to us that the winds are a typical thing here but that today was the first with severe gusts lately, maybe tomorrow will be calmer. So we are here, cold and a bit exhausted from hanging on. Looking back the day was a good one but seems the be overshadowed by the last hour fighting the elements.