Just Another Day

This was a fairly standard day. I woke up on a stranger's couch, I groaned at the sun coming up so soon, I made myself breakfast, and then I got on my bike and headed on my way. Getting out of Boise was as difficult as it is escaping any city by bicycle. But thanks to the advice of my host last night I managed to get onto a road that gave me some shoulder (that sometimes vanished and others changed into a turn lane) even before I got out of the city.

Beyond Boise I passed through one small neighboring town after another along highway 44 before meeting up with the interstate. Of course by the time I started north on the interstate there was a considerable wind blowing from the north against me. I'm really hoping as I head into Oregon that my week of winds that I've experienced here in Idaho will come to an end. A constant high headwind is truly demoralizing on a bike, and does a lot to drain the enjoyment from a day's ride.

As I got off the interstate onto Highway 95, and headed into Fruitland, I was rather concerned to have my shoulder dry up. ...Funny, that's how I've come to think of it, as a sort of natural resource that broadens and dries up, like a river (which reminds me of how the old man in Mountain Home suggested I should simply raft my bike down the Snake River most the rest of my way). Anyways, thankfully as the shoulder faded, a decent sidewalk took its place, and right as the sidewalk came to an end at the town's edge, the shoulder came back. ...Then I came to Payette just a few miles on, and it was the same thing all over again.

But without too much trouble, I reached my destination this evening, a family orchard on the south side of Weiser. Not wanting to mess with setting up my tent and potentially cleaning rain water off it again, I've decided to just lay my sleeping bag out under the overhang of the barn. Hopefully that's not a foolish choice. And hopefully it's not too windy or rainy tonight. There's certainly plenty of wind at the moment, so we'll see.

I believe I am about to have a spaghetti dinner generously provided by my hosts, so I had best put the phone away. I didn't have a warm breakfast this morning, so I'm really looking forward to a hot meal tonight. I love how living on the road makes you truly appreciate such things and not take them for granted.

Update: Not only did I have a good and filling dinner made by my hostess, as well as a pleasant after-dinner conversation with my host (a father of three, a skilled farmer, and in 1985 a trans-Canada bike vagabond), I was even sent away with a bag of incredibly delicious honey crisp apple chips. This has turned out a much better evening than I could have asked for.