Day 12 June 30, 2010 Continued

Flat tire #6. We had 21 miles of highway today that was closed to traffic but Deb and I used it as an enormous bicycle path. It was all recently cemented and wonderfully smooth.

DAY 12 June 30, 2010

We heard a news report this morning that interstate 84, south to Salt Lake City was partially closed because of wildfires. We did not want to be stranded on the highway with smoke saturating the air. We could see the smoke in the distance from where we were today. Our cycling route changed once again. We headed east to Pocatello, ID near the Wyoming border. We will head towards Southern Wyoming tomorrow. We cycled 91 miles today. It was a nice ride into a more scenic area of Idaho. We have ridden 750 miles and guess what, another flat today! There are these plants that grow just above the soil with massive thorns. They will go right through a tennis shoe and then they inject a poison. They are called Goat Heads.

DAY 11 June 29, 2010

On the road again! We headed away from Twin Falls, ID east on Route 30. The wind was coming directly out of the southeast, which was the direction we were heading. It slowed our progress dramatically. We took some remote country roads away from Route 30 and saw some magnificent potato farms. It only makes sense, we are in Idaho. There is very little agriculture once you get 1-2 miles away from the rivers because irrigation is essential to grow crops here. The annual precipitation for Southern Idaho is 13 inches per year whereas Freeport, FL receives 66 inches. Tomorrow we are off to Utah.

Day 10 June 28, 2010 Monday

We stayed in Twin Falls, ID today to tour the many scenic attractions in the area. We were riding by the Snake River Canyon when we saw a guy do a free fall jump from the top of the bridge into the canyon below 1400 feet! Yes, the parachute did open and he made a pinpoint landing. It is the only bridge in the USA where free fall jumping is legal year round. Evil Knievel attempted to jump this canyon with a jet motorcycle in 1976 but fail and parachuted to the base of the canyon unhurt. In this deep valley is a golf course. 18 holes, 177 dollars. We passed on it.

Day 9 June 27, 2010

We pedaled into Twin Falls, ID today. After riding 80 miles in temperatures of 100+ degree weather, we were told not to miss Shoshone Falls. Higher than Niagara Falls! (212 feet) We rode 2.2 miles into a gorge to view the falls. It was amazing, but the ride out took over an hour with a 9 percent grade. As we were riding back into town a couple stopped us to stay the night at their house. And yes, flat tire number five. For those of you not following this Blog, we only had 3 flats our entire 4012 miles last time we did this ride.

Day 8, June 26, 2010 Con"t

We took a wrong turn onto a frontage road that dead ended. We had our 4th flat tire on a tar road but were then forced to travel a dirt road with a 9 percent grade. Fortunatly, not a fifth flat tire. We kept crossing the beautiful Snake River on our ride. We ended our day in Bliss, ID.

Day 8 June 26, 2010Con't

We have seen hundreds of windmills on our trip. Several have passed us on semis on the highway and the size is astounding. One windmill is over 150 feet long. The push for "Green" is much more apparent that what exists out east and in Florida. We have not seen an oil spill yet!

Day 8 June 26, 2010 Continued

We spent the morning at Wingers Sports Bar watching the USA vs. Ghana play soccer. We were very disappointed with the outcome. We began our ride east with an awesome tailwind. It can make a 10mph difference headwind vs. tailwind. On a bicycle, that is huge. The scenery was monotonous with sage brush and more sage brush

Boise State University Bronco Stadium

Blue grass will be replaced with blue grass, clean looking

DAY 8---June 25, 2010

500 MILES!!! We began our day with an excellent breakfast at Capri's restaurant in Boise. It is known city wide for it's great breakfast's and especially their omelets. We toured Boise and visited the state capitol building and took a ride around Boise State University. We went into Bronco Stadium to see the blue grass. The university, BSU, and the company that installed the grass (DuPont) two years ago, are unhappy with the quality and are replacing it. It appears dirty and wet on TV. We were able to cycle 50 miles today despite leaving Boise at 2PM. We rode into Mountain Home, ID with an awesome tailwind. I had my first flat tire today. Total=3

Day 7, June 25, 2010

Weiser, ID to Boise, ID. We began our ride following the Oregon/Idaho boarder going in and out of Mountain Standard Time(MST). We rode into Onatario, ID and decided to push on to Boise, ID, another 57 miles. We nearly made 100 miles and arrived at our cheap motel at 11:00 PM. It was light until 10 since we are right on the time zone line in the north and we are near the longest day of the year, June 21st. Riding toward Boise we saw fields of hay, sugar beets, onions and oh ya, potatoes(spuds). We plan to tour Boise in the morning.

Snake River----Weiser, ID

Campground on Day 7Snake River

Day 6 June 23, 2010

Our 5th straight day of nice weather. The only complaint would be that we had a slight headwind from Baker, OR to Ontario,OR. We had to stop 15 miles before Ontario and camp out on the Snake River. The fisherman at the camp were catching 5-20 pound Channel Catfish. The river is featured on several TV fishing shows. At the campsite we charged 5 dollars (usually 22 dollars) to camp. Our cross country story left Jeff, the owner, in awe. A neighboring RV (Natalie) brought us supper(Cilantra Chicken with peppers and onions along with corn on the cob).Great!! Another neighbor, Larry, brought us a frozen cranberry cocktail. We passed on his offer of vodka. It was a great group of people!

Day 5 June 22, 2010

After an excruciating day of climbing we only road 48 miles today. Again, we road steep sections of Rt. 30 from La Grande, OR to Baker City (pop. 9788). We road east toward Backer City and quickly encountered an eight percent grade for 9 miles, ouch! Even though it was only 48 miles, our quad muscles are stiff tonight. We road through some beautiful country with snow covered mountains in the distance. People have been kind but especially the truckers driving the semi's have been more than accommodating with giving us plenty of room on the road. Baker City is at 3700 feet elevation. The tallest building in Eastern Oregon is found here. Nine story, 1911 elaborate hotel.

Day 4

June 21, 2010. It did not feel like the first day of summer here in Oregon. The day started with temperatures in the 40's. We did some maintenance on our bicycles and then went to Wal-Mart to purchase some fruit for the trip. We headed east on Rt. 84 leaving Pendleton at 11am toward La Grande, OR 55 miles away. We only went a couple miles and we came to a 12 mile climb at 8% grade(Wicked Steep and strenuous). We averaged 4 miles per hour with our 100+ lbs. of gear. When we reached the summit @ 4400 feet we continued toward La Grande with 12-15 more stretches of 2-3 miles of 5%+ grade. We were beat when we arrived in La Grande, OR at 9 PM. The pizza sure was good!

Day 3 June 20, 2010

Our first 100 mile day!!! We got up early to use the strong tailwind to push us down the highway. We followed Rt. 84 to Pendleton, OR. It was our first day of rising to an elevation of 2000 feet above sea level. The land features have changed dramatically. We have left the scenic Columbia River Gorge and have now ventured in the "heartland" of Oregon. Our decent into Pendleton was 8 miles down hill at 10% grade. It will be all uphill tomorrow to leave the town. We arrived at 9pm.

June 20, 2010

We began our second day by heading up over the highlands of the Columbia River and road the Columbia Historic Highway. We rose 1600 feet at an 8% grade. We were averaging 2.5 mph riding switchback after switchback rising to the top of the bluffs. We arrived at the top and agreed the grueling ride was worth the view. At 4pm we had only traveled 32 miles. We decended down the bluffs to the Columbia River and noticed a strong tailwind at 20-30 mph. We decided to continue the ride east. We rode on to Biggs, OR 27 miles away and basically sailed into town in 90 minutes!! That is easy cycling! It averaged out he other 7 hours of our day.

Columbia River Gorge

166 Foot Waterfall

DAY 1

June 18, 2010 We began our ride home leaving Portland, OR and headed into the Columbia River Gorge. The gorge was very similar to the Fiord's of Norway. We traveled through an area that was surrounded by 2000 foot cliffs for 55 miles. It was breathtaking! We stopped several times to view the natural beauty before us. I am finding myself appreciating the beauty moreso than I did 15 years ago on our first trip. We arrived at Hood River at 7PM and stayed at a hotel b/c of flash flood warnings. We rested well and are about to head out into the Oregon rain.

The Day Has Arrived!

June 18,2010 We spent yesterday, 6/17, riding around Portland to make a test run of all our gear. There were a few things we needed at the bicycle store. We decided to purchase two new cycling helmets after realization that our helmets were 7 years old. They age and deteriorate over time. Our safety is our first consideration(hear that mom and dad?). There was a huge plant sale in downtown Portland. Deb said, "good thing we are riding our bicycles." We could not pass up the "Portland" hats. 6:30 this morning we are watching the USA/Slovania World Cup Soccer Game and then we are beginning our ride along the Columbia River by 9:00 AM.

THE RIDE IS NEAR!!!!

JUNE 16, 2010---Both Deb and I are flying to Portland, OR today. We will be spending Thursday riding around Portland and then begin our ride home on Friday. We want to make sure our panniers and bicycles are in perfect working order before we head out to remote desolate areas of the country. Pictures and adventure stories will be blogging soon.

Ready or not.....5 days to go

Deb and I purchased the last few items necessary for the trip. This will be our last weekend before we begin our long ride home from Oregon. Even though we have both made this trip before, there are still many unknowns before us. We learned last trip, never count on anything to go the way it was planned. We are training several hours each day and we both know how important conditioning is to the success of the trip.