Day 10
Something about the name...MOUNTAIN Home

DAILY REPORT: I think the riders had a good day off yesterday.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the change in routine although we still saw lots of people walking in 'pace lines' on their way to dinner or to do some shopping.  Days off are filled with a lot of different activities: washing clothes, bike shop shopping, reading, tubing, sightseeing, or just relaxing by the motel pool.  The staff even got a couple hours to relax after prepping the vans and shopping for SAG food.  Barb did the books and I tidied up the website and did some bike shop shopping myself.  By mid afternoon, we held registration, bike assembly, and orientation for our 6 new riders we picked up for this leg...Mike, Naomi, Roger, Tracy, Al, and Lois.  From the looks of this group, they are ready to ride.  They sure picked a tough section to do, but I'm sure they will do fine.

Today's ride was one of the easiest we've had so far...at least it was the shortest in distance.  Since the route was a mere 51 miles, we decided to load the luggage later than normal (7:00) and eat breakfast before loading.  We were staying in two motels in town so logistics for loading and arriving for breakfast was a bit challenging.  We pretty much swamped the kitchen staff when all 75 of our hungry bikers showed up in the food line.  But they seemed to be on top of the tidal wave and they hustled to keep the feed bins filled with eggs, pancakes, various meats, and beverages.  In spite of all the challenges, we were off in good form and on our way for our second leg of our journey.

As we left Boise, we picked up a bike path (right) and rode adjacent to a game reserve and the Boise River, which made the departure very enjoyable before getting on the interstate.  I think everyone enjoyed our stay in Boise...it's a "bike friendly" town with cyclists everywhere...They also have one of the best bike shops I've seen since we've left the east coast...Georges.

Everyone got out of town without incident except for one of our new riders...Naomi.  She was given the title of "Goathead Queen" after she ran through a dry patch of foliage to get on the bike path where she picked up about 60 thorns in both her tires...of course they went flat immediately.  Jim, our mechanic, was riding sweep and called me to come back to help him pump them up after he spent the better part of an hour picking out the tiny needle like thorns from her tires.  I was already headed down track on the interstate so I called Karen in the box to go help them.  It took about 45 minutes, but they finally were back on track and rolling.  It was an auspicious start for Naomi, but she wasn't the only one who had "air problems" today.

As I said before, we rode on the interstate a bit today.  This usually means that we'll have more flat tires than normal...today was no exception. We had a smooth, clean shoulder on the interstate until shortly after a rest area, at which time it turned to rough chip and seal and was littered with the ubiquitous pieces of wire and tire bits.  I spent most of the late morning driving back and forth on the interstate fixing flats.  My hands are pretty sore right now, but I'll live.  We don't have too many days on interstates on this ride, but anytime we ride on them, we have more flats than we need.  Our record in one day 135 with 7 more motel flats in the evening.  We weren't near that number today, but my hands are pretty sore from all the ones I changed.

We had one other ride stopper maintenance issue today.  Big Mike's rear wheel broke.  We were trying to get him back on the road tomorrow with our spare wheels, but his bike is so big, he uses Mt Bike spacing on the rear wheel...we don't have anything like that.  We even thought of unlacing one of our wheels to use a rim of ours, but he has 36 holes in the hub...we only have 32 hole wheels.  He'll  have to ride with us until Burley when his new wheel gets to us...hate it when we can't solve a problem immediately out here, but we get stumped sometimes.

After everyone got in and just before dinner, I offered a "Care and Feeding of the Drivetrain" clinic.  Well attended and lots of questions.  Afterwards, many of the riders were lined up along the front of the motel cleaning their bikes.  I didn't assign any homework, but I guess some of it sank in.  There sure were some pretty bikes with clean chains parked in the hallway.

Tomorrow we pedal to Twin Falls.  It's about 97 miles and it's going to be a pretty hot one...well into the 90s.  We'll be scrambling I'm sure to keep everyone full of water and out of trouble...but that's why we get paid the big bucks.  Tune in and see how we do.  See you then.

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