Today was a nice break from our routine- we got to sleep in and didn't load until 8:30AM, a good 2-3 hours later than normal. I really appreciated the extra sleep and the dandy sleeping accomodations we had at the Ameritel Inn in Twin Falls. Following a nice dinner at a Mexican Restaurant with the Millers and Joel and Allison, I crashed fairly early and slept soundly. We ate, loaded and got our scavenger hunt directions (not so interesting to this reporter) and were east bound by 8:30 AM. Though this is one of the shortest days (38 miles), we added about 9 miles by taking in detours to see Shoshone Falls (worth it) and Twin Falls (not worth it- plus it came with a tough 14% climb that kind of zapped me for the rest of the ride).
The ride today brings my monthly ride total to 1340, which is a record for me (May was my previous best at 1298. with two days yet to ride in June, I expect my total to be nearly 1500. But back to the ride.
The weather this morning was clear and downright warm by 8:30 AM, with the day promising to settle in around the mid 90's. In spite of that, my group decided to visit both sets of falls and as I said earlier, Shoshone was cool,
Twin not so cool (I felt we got hosed on this one since there was only one falls-or is that Fall?-, not two-or "Twin" as I have come to understand the meaning of the word). The climb out of Shoshone was not bad- maybe 7-9%. But coming out of Twin Falls touched 14-15% and it set me back a tad. The rest of the ride into Burley, ID was very unremarkable- mostly flat and agricultural with little to see or comment on. I did get a good shot of Will, Kelly and their daughter aboard their triple
at a scenic pullout along the Snake River Canyon. They've been real troopers given that an 8 year old is one of the crew members. Maybe heroic is a better word. Don't see how it's possible to keep a youngun' bolted down for that long.
One of the more interesting encounters of our trip came as we approached the McDonalds in Burley for lunch. As we tried to enter, an elderly couple was coming out and so we paused to let them come out and they began asking what we were doing. As we engaged them about our exploits, the man began telling us that he'd retired from The Ringling Circus as a "Master Clown". His name was Frosty Little and he gave me a card that was a copy of a JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) cover from July, 1981 that featured a copy of a painting that had been done of him and had ended up in a museum in France. Whew, that was a mouthful. Anyway, he was a neat old guy and we enjoyed making his acquaintance here in Burley, ID.
Whoda thunk it?
Tonight we prepare for a long and hot day as we stretch out for 110 miles and about 2,000 feet of climbing. The day is clearly not a big climbing day, but we're inching towards the Rockies and it's ahead of us, no denying it. Bern Miller and I were remarking today about the freakishly kind weather we've had- reasonably mild for the circumstances. No bitchin' from me. May have some more later, but I'll sign out for now.
