Canada, and Back to Boise

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I was so proud of arriving at the Canada Border by midday, I figured I could get back to Boise in 24 hours. After all, the roads were paved. So checked in at a truck stop in Bonners Ferry and adjusted the bike for road riding: lower the handlebars to sitting position, pump up the tires to road pressure, reset the GPS from off-road mode, and eat. Then I set off South down state route 95 through Coeur d'Alene, Moscow, Lewiston and Grangeville -- through a different country. Its still Idaho, but here I was riding through rolling wheat and barley fields, under harvest. Combines, tractors and trucks were making clouds of dust across the half naked fields. What a spectacle. The fields were enourmous, rolling over the hills in huge waves. What a rich country ! Its as if the forests I had struggled through for days didn't exist.

It was dark by the time I made McCall, and collapsed in the motel. Up early the next day in the early morning mist to ride Idaho state route 55 from McCall to Boise, another very beautiful route.

And then my luck broke. Pride goeth before the fall. The day I arrived back in Boise I collapsed with fever and chills, which lasted into the following week. I tested negative for Covid, which was a relief, but I wasn't getting better very fast -- and my doctor had diagnosed a pretty serious infection. So I packed the bike, my bags and myself and headed back to Arlington on October 7, 2021.

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