Sea-to-Sea NA Day 30 The word for the day – HOT. Thermometer is pushing 100 now (mid afternoon) and it promises to be this way for the next few days. The idea is to leave earlier in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. The slower riders or those who take more breaks end up riding in the mid afternoon heat. I was fortunate to get away just before 7 this morning,; which is ¾ hr earlier than normal but I only got up ¼ hr earlier so the morning duties are taking less time. I decided to ride straight through again today so prepared food and drink accordingly. The wind was onto my right shoulder most of the day. We had heard it was to be out of the west but it was not to be. From time to time it seemed like the wind was shifting but think now it was just the road changing direction. At best the wind straight on my side, a hot wind from the south. Funny thing is it doesn’t feel that hot while you are in it riding, but when you stop, oh boy it’s hot! Anyway I got here in good time, 5 hrs for 152 km, went to the subway for a milk shake and some cool ice tea. I broke down and went to the Wal-Mart and bought an adult size chair to replace Rita’s kid size I had bought for her earlier on the trip. We started to see trees along the roadway today but they were too far back to give any shade to the road but they could be used Rita just got in at 3:30 but Rita Beerda and Margaret still on the road. I wasn’t able to post again last night; coverage has been spotty. I don’t intend to post regularly anymore. Bye for now. Bill

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 29 The road stretched off to the horizon. Only a few grain elevators and communication towers reached into the sky. This is prime cattle-grazing country with some irrigated crops like sugar beets and corn. From time to time there are wheat fields; which by now have been harvested. Today I was on a solo ride and never unclipped from the start to finish of the ride, 140km. I take enough food, in fact more than enough to keep me going, and drink for the day, two bottles of Gator Aid and two of water. Once I get into the ride it seems I could go forever. The contour map says we are loosing elevation but there was still what seemed to be a lot of climbing. The wind was against us or from the side and that may have added to this impression. I finished the ride in 4:15 for an average speed of about 33kph arriving at our new camp around noon. At first this town like the others along the way seems pretty dead but a closer examination, after a piece of pie and coffee, revealed many nice well-kept homes. The swimming pool is exceptionally nice for a town this size with many fun water park type features. I toured around a bit looking for photo shots and found a few. Usually I just take pictures with the handlebar-mounted camera while I am riding but for these pictures I stop and dismount the camera. At present (3PM) the tents are all set up. Anne and others have gone to the pool while I write and wait for Rita to arrive. It is probably in the low 90s here now so physical exertion becomes more difficult as the day wears on. Just to finish a few details for yesterday; it did rain a little and the winds died down around 6:30. On a sad not Cynthia Aukema had a run-in with a box on the interstate and broke her pelvis so is in hospital preparing for the trip home. She like Tyler was set to go all the way and enjoying the ride immensely.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 27 & 28 Sunday morning we all biked to the open-air stadium for our Denver Celebration Service. This High School like most we have stayed at have a small stadium for their football games. The sun was out in full force; bottled water was handed out through the service. Despite the heat it was a lively service with an inspiring message on fighting poverty. In the afternoon bus rides to downtown were available so we went for a walk there. Denver is a fairly new city with wide streets and many sidewalk cafes, lots of flowers and a few parks. After that I had to dismantle the tandem for shipment back home and finish preparing the other two single bikes for use today. Right now the wind is blowing hard, I can see the rain in the distance. My tent and bikes are ready but some riders are still on the road. The wind is from behind so it should help them some. We have such a variety of tents it is interesting to see how they stand up to the strong winds. Mine goes convex in the strong gusts. The ride out of Denver was along a concrete riverside bike path through the city and out into the country. Canada Geese lined the path as if they recognized fellow Canadians. They did the regular goose salute along the path in some places. It was a good thing that I had my single bike so I could manoeuvre around the droppings easily. The river looked nice in the early morning sun but smelled like a sewer. Rita had left earlier with Anne. I completed taking down the tent and the other packing as well as loading my own bike. They were about 50km out when I came across them. I rode with them for a while until the SAG stop where they continued and I stopped for some personal relief in our Port-a-Potty which had hit a few bumps and somehow spilled some of it’s load. I never use the thing but thought I would be nice today since it was still in a built up area. Next time I will restrain myself. Anyway I caught up with the ladies a little farther down the road, rode with them for a few minutes and then said my goodbyes. A young rider, Aaron carpenter caught up with me shortly after and we rode together for the remaining 90 or so km. Much of the ride was along the I76 where the speed limit is 75 mph. We rode outside of the rumble strip where the pavement was smoothest. Because the road direction were confusing, the SAG ladies couldn’t find the road, we stayed on the I76 right to Fort Morgan, had something to eat at McD and before 1PM went to the high school. The ladies arrived after I had the tents set up and finished my shower. The road that couldn’t be found earlier was found and they had followed it to Wiggins where the restaurant owner would not let them pay for the coffee and pie they had, or for that matter any other riders who stopped there after that, because she was so supportive of our cause and journey. That’s about it for today. The wind is still blowing and most riders have been blown in by it. Supper will be inside because of the wind. Sorry, no pictures tonight, I accidentally erased the few I had.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 26 Today my team is on ‘sweep’ which means that we served dinner yesterday, breakfast this morning, load the gear truck and that a few of my group sweeps any slow riders in or in other words are the last on the road. Today a bunch of the hard riders went of tour and rode up an extra peak to 16,000 ft. When they depart from the set route they are basically on their own but before they got that far Tyler went down while the pace line slowed down and broke his collar bone. This is the worst injury so far and as a result of it he will not be able to ride any longer and will go home. The climb today was long, probably 30 km and we climbed about 2800 ft. The road had 2 lanes in our direction and there were not many trucks. The sky was overcast and temperature cool if anything all ideal for climbing. It was 8:40 before we left camp so it was a little warmer already than when the first riders set out at around 6:30, just as well since I forgot to take my jacket and would have been very cold at the top. For most of the climb I was able to use my second lowest gear or higher so it was not as steep as some others had been. Reaching the top at 11,300 ft was a little anticlimactic since there was not even an elevation sign. From the top, except for a few hills - one of which was serious – it was down hill for 100 km and a 6000 ft drop. It consisted of two main sections, one from the top dropping several thousand feet into a village where many of us stopped for a coffee and Danish. For this section I pretty well had the road to myself since George VK, our riding partner for the day had dropped over the edge a few minutes before us, I throttled our speed with the drag brake and by Rita sitting up straight with mouth open wide (yelling at the same time) as we entered the hairpin turns. This pattern of accelerating to 75-80 kph on the open straights and slowing for the hairpins repeated itself 5 or 6 times on the 15 km decent. We were about to pass George when he stopped to take a picture. I checked his tires as we flashed by to make sure he was all right. He joined us and others in the coffee shop a few minutes later. The second special section was through a canyon on a nice curvy road with a small river and rock wall on both sides. Here again I took full advantage of the whole lane with enough speed that the cars were not bothered. George was drafting in the wake of the Rumba and Rita leaned into the curves like a pro. Another local rider took advantage of the draft too. I was busy shooting pictures of the canyon and alternatively applying the hand brakes as we entered corner after corner for what might have been 20-30 minutes. A beautiful ride it was. As we entered the outskirts of Denver we passed by a CRC church and downed 3-4 glasses of water and Gator Aid before continuing the last 10 km of our 145 km ride to the local Christian School where we will spend two nights. As we entered the street it was a festive atmosphere, cheering and music, water and a small care package. Here we met up with old friends Joe, Margaret, Rita and Peter. The two ladies will start to ride in Denver and the men make their way back to Hamilton by car. They have kindly transported our single bikes to here and will take the tandem back home. We had a nice dinner, ice cream social and even free haircuts so far. Tomorrow promises to be another special day.

Here are the pictures for day 25

We just finished a long farwell meeting for the 15 or so riders leaving in Denver concluded with celebrating the Lords Supper.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 24 We both said it at the same time, “oh what a beautiful breeze”. The fresh cool pine scented breeze came out of the woods; which lined both sides of the road. This we had not experienced in a yet on this trip. We were one hour into our main climb of the day, the sun was out in full force but the elevation had kept the temperature a little cooler than it was in the past few days but still after an hour of climbing in the second lowest gear we were both hotter than is pleasant. The climb originated in the ski resort town of Steamboat and was a full 11 km long at a steady slope of 6-7% and a climb of 2500ft. One hour and twenty-two minutes later we arrived at the end of the main climb and took a well-deserved break at the SAG wagon. The 80 km prior to the hill had been a slow climb with the wind in our back. When we were over the top there was a few up and downs before we reached the Continental Divide at about 9500 ft. After that an 11km downhill drop of 1400 ft for which we had the full road and because this was a highway the corners were manageable without the use of the drag brake except for a few. This allowed a maximum speed of just less than 80 kph. For the remainder of the 150km ride the wind direction changed a few times and the there were more downs than up but too many of each. Camp life has pretty much settle in, who tents were and with whom. Some get up early just after 5, others late sometimes after breakfast time is over at 7:30. Despite more precautionary measures than the 2005 tour people are getting sick, some with colds others the flue. Many have saddle sours, including me. We have several riders out due to injuries and the altitude affects others. Aching muscles heal at night, soar joints come and go during the day depending on the riding conditions. Despite some very busy roads we feel blessed that there have been no serious accidents. Every day except one people have fallen off their bikes for one reason or another but so far getting off with only scraped skin. Two more days until we reach Denver, and a lot more climbing and soaring to come. Stay tuned.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 23 Dry! Dry, dry despite drinking enough on the road when we pulled into town and stopped at an ice cream place, you just want to eat or drink everything. After a milk shake and a ½ lemonade we went to the grocery store and bought a chocolate milk, drank that too. Then an hour after arriving, we had to bike up the hill to the high school in Craig, my belly was so full we hardly made it. Then a bike bottle with iced tea and still feeling thirsty but I had better stop and let it absorb into my body. The ride today was hot as usual; cloud cover at first but sun in the mid day, a rear wind onto my right shoulder for part of the ride was helpful. The countryside was up and down with 4300 ft of climbing but only 426 ft of elevation change from where we started. Some hills were steep others less of a grade, the one leading up to the town was almost 30km long but a gentle slope. Total ride 140 km at 25.3 kph. We are getting tired of these desert conditions and looking forward to a change of scenery soon but we have to go over a few major climbs before then. Tonight we have a view over a big valley with a coal fired generating plant on the other side. The coal source is on the large hill behind the plant. We can see the tower for the dragline moving around just over the hill. The train runs through the valley, something we haven’t seen or heard for about a week now.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 22 We had a large rock outcrop on our right for over half an hour. That is the nice part of riding a bike through this big country; you have time to observe the sights along the route in detail. The downside is that you don’t see many sights off of the route. This outcrop was an interesting change from the same old sagebrush desert we have seen for so long now. There had been other land formations for the last few days, mostly sedimentary rock, glacial deposits and erosion. This one looked like solid rock and the clouds hung nicely behind it. Having the rock at our side gave some relief for the mind which otherwise concentrated on the fact that we were working hard, much harder than we should be, and going nowhere. The contour map had shown an 1100 ft climb up to our overnight stop in the town of Dinosaur, but it was not discernable, many times we thought we were going down hill but could not get up to any appreciable speed. The wind was blowing at my right shoulder now, the worst place for a tandem. Our speed was under 20kph and towards the end of the climb had dropped to12-14 kph. The cloud cover we were to have eluded us and hung over the rock instead. Earlier in the morning the conditions, both physical and mental had been great putting the first 40km and a lot of riders behind us in 1 ¼ hour despite some long gradual hills enroute. We had lunch in a town called Vernal and talked to a local who informed us about all the oil industry activity in the area. This he said also explained why the highway had so many trucks on it. We had a paved shoulder but the ever-present rumble strip meant you had 1 foot to ride on between the white line and the strip or ride on the shoulder side and risk a flat because of all the garbage in this area. We did some of both depending on the conditions. The road consisted of tar and course gravel making for a rough ride until the boarder of Utah/Colorado close to Dinosaur where it got smoother and the rumble strip finally disappeared. Sad to say but the town here has few redeeming qualities on the surface. At one time it appears that they expected great things to happen here based on the finds in the area but there is little activity here, most seems to be in the previous town of Vernal. Ride for the day was 145 km at an average speed of 25.6 kph, with 3625 ft of climbing. Tomorrow we are in for another ride of similar length. I don’t know any more details at this point.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 21 Walter’s stop suddenly appeared around the corner, one of the many on the climb. We had been climbing steadily for about 10-15 km. The clouds were a blessing, rain threatened but held off. This was already 45 km into the ride for the day. Climbing out of camp, back onto Hwy 40 and a long downhill ending at a stoplight at the end of the reservoir we had camped on. From there we climbed with only a few breaks for the next 35km to Walter’ stop. One steep section had a lot of people walking, but we made it up in our lowest gear. Ed was not able to drive the entire route for the day in the winter because the pass was closed so we had no idea of what lay ahead. Loading up with water and after a quick bite to eat we were off again. Andy H., our riding partner for the day, was able to go faster on the uphill. Marty had tagged on behind us coming up to this stop but decided to drop back shortly after we started this second part of the climb. An hour and a half longer and we were approaching, what was to be the final top of the climb at 9458 ft above sea level. When you can’t see any more trees or you can see sky through the trees you think that is the top, but this was the third or fourth time that the top had eluded us. Pumping in the lowest gear for over an hour at speeds between 7.5 and 6.2 kph, each turn brought another disappointment. It really was time to reach the top. A lot of riders had stopped to take ‘pictures’. I can’t use that excuse (?) since I have the camera mounted on the front of the bike. The top, 3.5 hours after starting out, 3700 ft above the stoplight and only 58km into the ride, was a welcome sight. I put my rain jacket on in order to keep warm on the decent. Just after starting out there was a big bank of snow just above us. The next 30 km were covered in about ½ hour down a winding road. Other riders reported having to stop for sheep on the road but we didn’t have to do that. Andy got a flat near the bottom of the main grade. An 8% slope is steep enough to need some serious braking. I played the drag brake as required to hold the speed at 65-70 or slower if a corner looked sharp. Rita could sit up straight if needed to slow the bike and I did the same in several places and even used the calliper brakes a couple of times. Maximum speed was over 72 kph but the potential was much higher. A couple of more major hills and two breaks saw us within 30 km of camp and back on Hwy 40. The after burners kicked in at that point and we rolled along at over 40 kph and up to 55, Andy hanging onto my rear wheel for a good tow. A couple of riders we passed tried to hitch on too but with no success. We are camped in the town park of Duchesne tonight; the hall next door has one shower for the males and another for the females so the line-ups were rather long. I must mention the park and service yesterday. The walk was about a km from the eating area to where the tents were set up so the trip between the two took a lot of planning. The church service was held in the dining pavilion after the evening meal was provided by a number of people from several churches. It was an enjoyable evening. Every day this week will be a long ride but one. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy again so that will help with the sun exposure. There is much more I could write every night but time does not permit, I’m sorry.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 20 Eighteen-wheeler up ahead stopped on our shoulder, 4 ways on and steaming. How to get around him on this busy I80 highway, 3 lanes in each direction and other big rigs slowly working their way up the mountain? Rumble strip to cross and out into the inside lane. Rita gives me the ‘all clear back’ and I swing the Rumba across the rumble strip giving an extra spurt of energy from a hidden reserve to get past him a little quicker. That makes 5 overheated trucks we have passed on this climb. The traffic noise from both tires and engines is almost deafening. Rita comments that this is no fun only "grunt work". The temperature at the service station showed about 85 F in the shade but the heat reflecting of off the blacktop from the afternoon sun as we heading uphill toward the east, plus the massive amount of heat thrown off by every passing truck and a light tail wind made this the most gruelling climb of the ride so far. This 8 km uphill took nearly an hour to complete and by the top I had worked my way up to my granny gear, because both of us were pretty well spent. This was the second of 3 major climbs for the day; the first had started in Salt Lake City right about 100km into our ride for the day and right after leaving the First CRC there. Well actually Rita and I had backtracked some distance to ride around the center of the city to see the government and Mormon head office complex and temple. This also gave our legs a chance to recover after the refreshment stop. Anyway that hill was some 17 km long but was not a constant climb, was on a nice winding residential road with hardly any stoplights. The trees gave shade from time to time; in other works it was as pleasant as a climb could be on a hot Saturday at noon. The third climb was on Hwy #40 and only a couple of km long. We encountered this after passing through the area where many of the Olympic ski and bobsled events had taken place. The thing about this one was the downhill of 3 km with two rumble strips, one next to the traffic lane and an older one reaching 4 ft in from the edge of the shoulder. This meant a strip of about 12" wide was the only place to ride. I couldn’t go out into the traffic lane anymore when the way was clear because we had too much speed and I didn’t want to risk loosing control. The drag brake held the speed to the 50s and I was able to pilot the bike past any garbage that was in our path. I released it just before the bottom so we could coast up the exit ramp to our final turn. The last surprise of the day was when we pulled into camp. The gear trucks were in one parking lot but the campsites didn’t have road access and were about 500m away. The showers are in a different area again. Thankfully the park provides transport for the bags from the trailer to the camping area. A lot of people had to swallow hard when presented with this unexpected challenge after riding 160 km, in 7 to 10 hours and 5700 ft of climbing. Rita and I started around 6:30 and our riding time was 7 and ¾ hr for an average speed of 20.4 kph. I did manage to find a nice camp spot overlooking the lake with a little oak tree to give some shade to the picnic table platform. This will be home for the rest of the weekend. After that I hear there is another pass and a very long riding week ahead.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 19 Finally we have a lake to swim in at our overnight campsite. Part of the Great Salt Lake they tell me but it is not salty! Rocky Mountains behind and lake in front, nice you say? Only the I84 and the seemingly ever-present main railway line right beside us to spoil the evening. Better that than ride an extra 20 km into a nice secluded site in the mountains, I suppose. It has been another day of 95 F, the light wind mostly against us, down straight country highways with hardly anything on them. One sight we had today was a very large industrial lot of many building spread out all over several 1000 acres. I already suspected some kind of explosives operation and when we came to the front entrance, some 5-6 km later, it turned out to be a ATK company operation making rocket engines and I suppose charging them with fuel as well. There was only one small town 80km into the ride and we had a late morning coffee there along with our early lunch. After that it was hard to get back up to cruising speed for the last 25km. Passing through Bingham City along a cypress tree lined street was nice, the first shade we had biked through in over a week! Average speed 25 kph for 105km. Tomorrow we won’t talk or think about, Salt Lake City and the high mountain pass to finish the week, until tomorrow.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 18 I was busy prying my lower lip off of my bottom teeth with my upper teeth (if you can imagine that manoeuvre) when looking up I spotted what looked like Walter’s motor home off in the distance. The hot dry desert wind was against us and the sun was beating down on us. There was only sagebrush for miles along both sides of the road, not a leaf anywhere to give you shade. The only thing of interest was the long straight road ahead and the possibility of a water stop. We were running low on water and then your mouth starts to feel like you have taken a good a shot of Elmer’s finest glue. We were about 100km into our ride for the day; about to cross the Utah state line. With another 40 to go this would be our last stop. We had something to eat, the third time we had done this and refilled all our bottles and set off again, the serious climbing behind us. From here there was a gradual downhill but the headwind pretty well cancelled any advantage that that afforded. It was cool when we pulled out of camp at 7:30. We dodged the sprinkler systems that sprayed the road in order not to get any colder. How we longed for just a little of that spray latter in the day. The two major climbs came fairly early in the morning and were not steep enough to require our granny gear (I’m not complaining). Going down was a 5% grade but with the headwind I couldn’t get the bike over 68kph. Pulling into Snowville around 1:30 the local Café already had some bikes leaning against the wall. Cold water was set before us the moment we walked in and homemade pie and ice cream was the order of the day. The camp tonight is the most primitive to so far in the trip. This town has a population of 175 and exists only because it is near the I84 and has a Fly J at the intersection. The camp is in the local park/baseball diamond. Our shower consists of a garden hose surrounded by a tarped off area. Straight cold water splashing on us sure cooled you down in a hurry. Tomorrow is a shorter day again, only 100km, stay tuned.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 17 Last night the ever-present train whistle was augmented by a choir of dogs; barking all around the town. The tracks were pretty close and since it was a double main track there were lots of trains. At least the sprinklers behaved. Rita and I were on ‘sweep’ duty so we had to be on duty at 6AM to set up the breakfast stuff. This gave me an opportunity to observe the early risers. At 10 to 6 they had most of the breakfast and sandwich stuff set out so they could eat and prepare lunch and leave before 7 AM. This made our work easier. We didn’t leave the site till just before 9 (which is early for a sweep team) and broke into two groups. Our first stop was a huge dairy farm, one of many in this area Idaho is close to the 3rd largest milk producer in the USA. This farm was medium sized at 1700 milking cows. The local RCA church supplied a nice lunch and cool drinks for all the riders, much appreciated on another hot day. Today we crossed the Snake River Canyon in town of Twin Falls. The depth of the canyon is about 500 ft and the Snake River drops over a 210 ft ledge there making it higher than Niagara Falls. We were fortunate that they had turned up the volume of water going over the falls a few days earlier. Remember that most the irrigation we have seen all over this area takes the water from the Snake so in low snow melt year it is almost dry. In addition they tap a huge aquifer deep in the ground (also dropping in level). In order to get to the falls you have to follow a winding road at a steep grade. The hairpin turns made it impossible to attain any significant speed and the surface roughness played havoc with my camera but I shot a movie of the decent anyway. After the falls we had the remaining half of our tour for the day to finish. The wind was in our back most of this time but the temperature continues to rise until reaching its peak of the mid 80s at 5 PM. Although the day started with a few clouds they were long gone by mid morning. We have noticed the cooling effect that the field sprinklers have on the air. This gives us some relief for a few seconds as we pass by. A shot of water down your back also helps cool the body but you have to wait for a refill station before doing that. The Rumba with George VK in tow pulled into Burley (also the name of my bike manufacturer) just after 5. The designated street to turn on was not signed so we asked for directions in the local establishment. They very nicely offered us some refreshment; which we could not turn down. Distance 139 km at an average of 23.1 kph including cruising in town and around the various sights Tomorrow is a day of the same length but more climbing. Our first break will probably on the top at 6800 ft elevation.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 16 Remember what I said yesterday about the sprinkles? Clear communication is very important. It is not enough to say that the sprinklers are off. The janitors assume we will be in one area but inevitably we take more space. So last night just as most of us had finished eating the sprinklers came on in that area. Rita got it right in the back; others had books and lawn chairs soaked before we could find things to put over the heads. Others took advantage of the nice cool shower. Last night Ad, our rider representing the CRWRC, who lives in Haiti, told us about the work they do there and the living conditions. It was interesting. The time of reckoning has come. Pay-up time. No more lazy days. We work into it with a 100km ride today. Tomorrow is 130, then 138, then a shorter day but Saturday will be a killer day at over 150km combined with a lot of climbing over an 11,000 ft high pass. Of coarse there will be the downhill from the top of the pass too. The sky had clouds in it this morning for the first time in about 2 weeks. A welcome sight because we knew they would give us some protection from the relentless sun. There was a headwind for much of the morning as we rode through sagebrush areas and then prime crop-growing areas. We finally saw a field of the famous Idaho potatoes. As always the fields are irrigated using any of the methods I’ve described earlier. Even though we ended up only 500 ft higher than we started, we climbed 1000 ft over a pretty steady grade over the last 40km of the ride. Such a climb is not difficult but it does play tricks with you. You know how hard your working but don’t necessarily see that you are climbing so you wonder why you’re not going faster. The head wind didn’t help either. In the end we did the 100km in 4 hours of riding and had several breaks along the way. A lot of riders took wrong turns, which can lead to a lot of extra riding because cross roads are few and far between, but they did find there way back to the route. Gooding is a small town of about 4000 people but they have a nice new school for us to use.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 15 A new week, clear skies, a little wind in the back, and cool temperature makes us all a little more energetic than other days. By 7:50 most others have left camp. A major grocery-shopping trip on the weekend meant that there was orange juice again or maybe I was a little earlier in the breakfast line. In any case it tasted good, as did the cinnamon raisin bagel along with my standard Raisin Bran with extra brown sugar and raisins. The ride zig-zagged across the country side a little to avoid I84 but eventually we ended up on it anyway. The wind direction was almost perfect and we rode up a long hill at 30+kph and down the other side at 45+ with George VK in tow. At that rate it didn’t take long to cover the 11km. Before we knew it we were at our exit and a truck stop for a cup of coffee and a piece of blueberry pie. After that we set off again thru sagebrush country on a long straight road with I84 along side but a ¼ mile away. We pulled into the school at Mountain House around 11:30 had some lunch as others continued to arrive. Some had already explored the town. Only because the Tour de France is on we searched out a refreshment stand that had TV coverage. Most riders ended up there because it was along the route and some bikes attract more bikes. The middle school we will call home tonight is nicely positioned, only a little shade from the building, main train track close enough so we can easily hear the whistles and tonight for variety we have the rope of a flog pole beating against the aluminium pole sounding like a gong. Don’t get me wrong; by the look of all the cyclists who are sound asleep it isn’t all that bad. The showers were warm and plentiful, the sprinklers have been turned off; two matters of great concern for us. There has been more than one night when people have been soaked by the ever-present sprinkler systems in this part of the country.

Sea-to-Sea NA Day14 Sunday July 15, two weeks into the ride, everyone is tanned or burnt because of the constant sun. This is most evident when we change into clothes other than cycling attire such as bathing suits. Stripes of brown and white are revealed everywhere. A sense of community has developed that reaches across the traditional age barriers. Church in the park this morning was hosted by the local CRC, Valley Life Community Church. Putting on a service such as this is quite an undertaking for a small church especially when it included a burger, hotdog and salad lunch. The service also attracted some of the many people who were in the park at the time. We have also had several guests from Alberta and Ontario, riders from the 2005 tour, support people from 2005 and parents of riders in this tour. We rode our bikes to church and after lunch scattered all over the city. We went for a ride along the bike-path beside the Boise River and were tempted more than once to jump in. The river is a few feet deep in most places and has low dams to control the flow rate. We heard about river floats, an activity here where you drift down river through the city on all sorts of floating devices. There is a bus shuttle; which will take you back to the starting point. This river like all the others we have encountered was very cold but since we were to late to rent a raft some of us laid on our backs and floated in the swift current for a few hundred feet. Believe me that was long enough to cool down. The ride starts to get serious from here on in. We have to pay for the short distances we have had the last two weeks. I have not looked at the climbing involved but have heard that it comes later in the week. Stay tuned.

A better view of the tandem on day 11

Sea-to-Sea NA Day 13 For the last few nights it has been cool enough inside the tent for me to open up and use my sleeping bag. It was in the 50s outside. That also made it cool in the morning especially today when it was really more like 7 AM than 8 when we left. We switched from the Pacific Time zone to Mountain Time yesterday. We crossed into Idaho soon after the start of the ride. Rita had a flat on Anne’s bike yesterday when we left the coffee shop, just a small pinhole but it had to be fixed. This gave me a good opportunity to teach the ladies how to change and patch a tire/tube. Before that was finished we rolled the bike from the tent to the parking lot and we picked up another thorn in the rear tire. This was also a pinhole and we decided to go on to the Internet café anyway. I posted from that sit since our own equipment is totally unreliable. The ride was tricky today because of the complex route. Many people missed turns and ended up with many more km than necessary. We made one wrong turn but caught it right afterward. Sometimes the street names don’t agree with the directions other times the road name changes and you don’t notice it. It doesn’t take much. The support crew sometimes puts arrows on the road at tricky junctions but not always (and some states don’t allow it either). Although you can hardly notice it while riding, we were going uphill today, increasing our elevation by about 600ft. There was either a head or side breeze today since we kept changing direction. The temperature in the morning was not all that bad, probably 80 something. It might have been because of all the irrigation going on along the route. Farmers either sprinkle or have a kind of flood by gravity system in which the water is siphoned out of a ditch at the high end of the field and flows to the other in little trenches. Each row has it’s own hose and can be started or stopped at will. We saw wheat, corn, garlic, swiss chard, and many other crops growing this way. It is quite interesting to see how these canals start at a high spot (water is pumped to there) and then how it is channelled in all directions along the edges of the fields. Some of you have asked for pictures of the Rumba, and I will try to post some of those today. The ride stats; 105km, average speed was 25.3. A somewhat slow day, I guess I should have had a whole cinnamon bun at the coffee stop instead of ¾ of one.