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Published: September 18th 2012
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This is a little longer than usual because I have a lot more time to write it. We got a late start because Bill and I shipped some things home that we weren’t going to need to free up space and the UPS store didn’t open until 8 am. I also shipped all of the souvenirs I have been buying.
Iowa falls seemed to be a nice small town with a population of 80,000. Everyone was friendly. That’s pretty much true of everyone we have met since leaving the east coast.
While I was planning this trip, and trying to imagine what it would be like I thought that I would be talking with a lot of different people and spending a fair amount of time reading. Neither is true. I haven’t even looked at a book, and the conversations we have with the people we meet are short. We spend a lot of time talking to each other in the evening, though, usually with Bill and me entertaining Rick with our arguing about politics and religion.
We drove a little over 300 miles between Idaho Falls and Nampa, Idaho (just outside of Boise) through what I would describe as a desert interspersed with huge wheat farms. Except for one small mountain and a few curves, the road was mostly straight and flat. There were times during the day that for as far as you could see, there was no sign of civilization other than the road we were on. Miles and miles and miles of absolutely nothing. It was actually pretty (in a deserty kind of way, according to Rick). A sign at a rest stop described the area as steppe.
I found out that the farms in Idaho are irrigated, so they have not been hurt by the drought. The water is collected in reservoirs in the mountains. I’m told that the farms and ranches are huge – some as large as a million acres.
About halfway between Idaho Falls and Nampa we visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It was interesting to see, they are craters created by lava flows 15,000 to 2,000 years ago. Because we were so weary, we didn’t go into any of the caves, we just rode through the park, taking only a few pictures. There were some unique looking trees that I now regret not photographing.
Occasionally we encountered windy conditions, being really, really flat meant that there was no relief. The wind really wears you out.
We had planned on taking a route through the mountains to get to Boise, but because of time constraints and our weariness we decided to take the interstate instead. The ride on the interstate was across a flat prairie with the usual nonsense from trucks and wind.
We got to Boise around 5 pm and ran into a lot of traffic.
A note about perspective. A lot of traffic here is nothing like a lot of traffic in New Jersey. It seems like a lot to us because we have been riding in the middle of nowhere. Distances and heights are different as well. In New Jersey to travel 30 – 40 miles is a long trip. Out here when we have 50 – 75 miles to go it is “only another 50 miles”. In some areas out here the towns are hundreds of miles apart and the farms can be 30 miles from their nearest neighbor. What we call a mountain in New Jersey would be considered a hill out here and a hill in New Jersey would seem like a little bump in the road here. It is difficult to comprehend, unless you actually see it. It is amazing how huge this county is.
For much of yesterday and all of today we have seen the smoke from the prairie fires further north, it looks like a haze all across the horizon, and even obscures the mountains.
After we checked into out motel around 5:30 we went to the liquor store to restock our rum and vodka. We asked the clerk where we could eat dinner and he told us where Olive Garden, and Applebees were. I told him we tried to avoid the restaurant chains and he recommended the Brick 29 Bistro. The place was fabulous, the service was superb, and the food was delicious, although it was pricier than we were accustomed to.
After dinner we went back to the room and drank rum and vodka and argued politics.
We decided to stay in Nampa another night so that I could get my oil changed and we could all rest for a day. I have discovered that you can’t drive a motorcycle 300 - 400 miles a day every day without a break once in a while.
Other than a few minor equipment malfunctions (my microphone, bills handgrip, and Rick’s Zumo) everything has been working perfectly. And we have been getting along great. I was fairly certain that we would be able to get along with one another (otherwise I wouldn’t be here), but there haven’t been any issues between us at all. After 12 days that is rather amazing, I think.
When I planned the route for this trip, I broke it into lengths that I thought we would ride each day based upon how much sightseeing we would be doing, the type of terrain, etc. Basically it was a wild ass guess that I figured we could use as a sort of guide. I never intended it to be a rigid schedule, knowing the route and timing would necessarily have to be adjusted based upon weather conditions, traffic conditions, what we felt like seeing, how far we felt like riding, advice from the locals, etc. I did not even guess that a major determinate of routing is lodging. It’s fine to lay out a 400 mile route through the mountains, but if it doesn’t terminate somewhere you can get lodging, you can’t take that route (Bill and Rick are adamant about not sleeping on their motorcycles).
I have been told that that there are those who really like this blog and that it makes them feel like they are traveling along with us. Occasionally someone leaves a comment on the blog for one of us, commenting on some aspect of this trip. Just as the blog makes you feel as though you are a part of this trip, your comments make us feel as though you are sharing this experience with us. Just letting you know that we really like your comments, thank you.
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Tom Cole
non-member comment
tell me more about the souvenirs, any for me