Who Da Ho?

Idaho. Those sort of corny jokes litter our cue sheets these days. You guessed it, we're back in Idaho, a gnarly little state that is definitely not all about potatoes. Well, I mean I'm sure part of it is. But not where we are. No, it's more about awesome scenery, mountain passes, and quaint little towns that I'll be pressuring my parents to retire in. Wallace Idaho, check it out. Seriously.

We left Montana for good this morning, riding some sixty miles from Superior MT into Wallace, a beautiful mining town nestled between pine covered hills. We also finally entered into Pacific Standard Time. I'm now three hours behind all you suckers on the east coast! In short, today's ride was awesome, with a little bit of mayhem thrown in there. We climbed another mountain pass by the name of Lookout. I wouldn't call it easy, per se, but an elevation of only 4860 feet does make it one of our lighter climbs. The descent, however, was a gorgeous and moderately hairaising one all the way down in Wallace. Let's just say that there were a lot of aptly named "death grates", those are big vertically oriented grates that would easily cause us to flip over our handle bars if we hit them. Not good news when you're going about forty miles an hour in traffic. But now that it's said and done, it's only fun, not frightening.

We've got a lot of beautiful rides to look forward to. Our next, into Cour D'Alene, will take us about twenty some miles down a beautiful bike path, and ultimately to a lake that is plastered all over the state's postcards. I'm looking forward to booking it into town tomorrow so I can get a little time to even out my rider's tan. Thankfully, the ride should only be about fifty miles, so getting in some lake time won't be much of a problem. Yeah, fifty miles is a short ride these days. It's weird, I know.

We're pulling up to the home stretch, only a few days away from the Washington border. I think it's safe to assume that we all have mixed feelings about finishing our little pilgrimage. I for one am looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and all. Then there's my mini vacation in Seattle. That'll be epic. Still, it'll be weird to not be spending every single day on the back of a bike. I keep wondering what I'm going to do to fill the hours of my day. Bike? Eat? Sleep? Well that's what the last two months have been filled with. Pretty simple life, ehh? I guess it's true what you hear, that a simple life is the best life. I have a feeling the transition's going to be pretty tough.

So all of you, wish me luck as I gear up to gear down. Way down. Because soon I'll be back to my sleeping in a bed, going to class, hanging out, and maybe getting in a thirty mile ride every few days. If I'm lucky. I'm going to miss this experience terribly. Just like my legs and my tan lines. But like they also say. All good things...

Peace out hombres!