Riding into Idaho and the Sawtooth Mountains…

jmlen

July 17, 2017

19248

189

Day 6

Dear Family & Friends,

Before I get into todays events I need to respond to the usual few emails I get commenting about my creative spelling…
Here are my three excuses.
1- I never claimed to be very good at grammar or spelling. My degree is in engineering.
2-The spell check I use often tries to complete the words for me before I am finished and I don’t always catch it’s mistakes.. Like road versus rode.. I know the difference but spell check doesn’t. Or one of my favorites “friend chicken” instead of “fried chicken”..
3-And finally I generally write these after a LONG day on the road, a big dinner and several glasses of wine.. I am barely awake. Even I see the multitude of mistakes the next day when I read the posts, but by then it is too late.
So just accept that mangled spelling is part of my charm and hopefully you can still understand my storyies.

Speaking of long days, this was the longest of the entire trip! Salt Lake City has been experiencing record heat so today we thought we would beat the heat by leaving early. We were on the road by 7am and even then it was 80 degrees. We rode several hours along northern Utah on a fast freeway and by noon we were in Idaho. It was just fast freeway driving (the speed limit here is 80mph) and the scenery was wide open valleys full of rich farms that are beautifully maintained. You have to appreciate how hard these people work living off the land.. They have a completely different mind set from coastal people. They want DC to stay out of their lives and out of their business. I can understand it.
At noon we got off the freeway and decided to cut north on back roads. Around 1pm we stopped in Sun Valley, ID for lunch. What a wealthy, cool ski town. You know there is money there by the local airport. Full of very fancy private jets…And large fancy chalets and homes everywhere you look.
After lunch we headed up into the Sawtooth Mountain Range.. What a great ride! Fantastic scenery and nice twisty, but slow roads.. We rode all afternoon and finally got into Nampa, ID around 6:30pm. So 11 1/2 hours on the road and over 500 miles covered! Now you now why my brain is fried by the time I right these stories..
The Sawtooth mountains are full of dramatic snow capped peaks, meadows, creeks, lakes , and small villages. Many villages had Sunday arts and crafts shows going. Pretty good size events. I wish Bonnie had been with me to stop and look.

Here is video that Brian took while riding down the Sawtooth pass. Gives you a small taste of todays ride.

Riding down from the Sawtooth Mountains..
We came to one small town and stopped in a small road side store for an ice cream cone. A young girl of I would guess about 14 or 15 was so friendly and just happy to talk to anyone from not around there.
The other good thing about today was we got out of Utah before the heat really got going so most of the day was mid 70s to mid 80s weather. Great for motorcycling. Oddly when we came out of the mountains into Boise around 6pm it was still in the 90s there, so I am glad we missed most of that heat. We ended up in Nampa, ID because I had read about what a great WW2 air plane museum they have. Unfortunately it is not open on Mondays so we will sleep in and have another easy 5+ hour ride to Bend, Oregon tomorrow. From there my ridding buddy Brian will start heading south to home and I will head north to Tacoma to visit my cousin.

That’s it for tonight!

Jason
“Creative Writing uninhibited by grammar or spelling”

Our first stop, JC’s Country Kitchen. Some real local food.

My attempt at healthy eating. Their morning special, blueberries, yogurt, and bacon … not my combo just off the menu.

Some more road side knowledge.. Some say I have already mastered this subject…

One of the local golf courses.. but good shot of the valley

Entering the Sawtooth Mountain range. Great scenery

We spent hours riding up this twisty mountain pass. So much fun!

Brian looking in charge at the top of the mountain pass.

After almost 12 hours on the road and 500+ miles it is time for some “Manly” food.. 🙂

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