Idaho City..with Rachel and Patrick

this ones for you, dad.

a really, really, really old tree

Today we went to the Hot Springs way out in Idaho - about 2 hours drive from Boise.  We went with Rachel and Patrick Hugens - you can see their amazing touring photos here .

After the hot springs, we had lunch in Idaho City and saw the sights - what an amazing little town.  ..and then we came back to boise and ate baked potatoes made of ice cream!  so good!  photos coming  later.

there were a number of water falls coming down into the pools of hot water

this one was REALLY HOT

I wasnt so daring to jump in the FREEZIGN cold river after the hot springs.. but they were..and they went all the way under.

Yesterday we rode from Fruitland, Idaho to Boise.. it was about 65 miles.. a pretty easy ride. In the beginning, we just kept a good 20-22mph pace with the wind mostly at our backs. We decided to stop in Emmet, Idaho for lunch. Yet another town with loads of closed storefronts and few places to go. Durkee is awesome becuase it only has the one place to go and its very worth it!  However, in Emmet we ended up eating at Subway as we took a wrong turn away from town and it seemed easiest. We later rode back to look into the main street area (2 blocks) and didnt find any food places open. On our way into Emmet, we passed a sign that said RACES TODAY. We were all very curious about what kind of racing this was and well, we want to see every little town thing there is to see. So we asked around.. HORSE Races at 1pm. Sweeet! We had some time to kill so we rode around a little and then went over to the track. We missed the first race by about 40 seconds -  1 minute 3 seconds was the winning time.. but we saw the next two races which were just 200 meters or something like that.  The flying 200 on a horse, sorta.  Anyway, it was awesome. We got some beers and sat on the bleachers with all the town folk - boy do we stand out. Some 8 or 9 year old kid came over and asked Ken if we were jockeys. ha! andy and i are both over 6ft tall.. hard to tell sitting maybe, but definitely not jockeys. anyway, he sat with us for the races and was just so thrilled about the guys.. i dont think he really even noticed i was there, but i just took pictures and laughed. so awesome.

after the races, we decided to get back on the road and ride the remaining 30 miles to Boise.. we had wind to fight for a while, but it was a beautiful day. we all take turns pulling (when not uphill) but with the wind, and Andy in front, we were peddling hard downhill. Or at least I was. I need to pedal hard downhill with the wind behind me to keep up with Andy.  :) The harder it is, the sooner i’ll be able to keep up going up hill!

We arrived in Boise around 4:30/5pm where we met our new Warmshowers friends, Rachel and Patrick Hugens. They are amazing - they treat us like gold and they have so many awesome stories to tell too!  They have toured all over the world.. Africa, Tibet, Mount Everest base camp, all over the U.S…  their home is decorated with amazing things from all of their travels and we got to sit and go through some of their tibet/everest photos after dinner.  Really impressive.  They cooked us a fantastic dinner and we all got a good night rest.  Today is our first actual rest day and it started with a huge breakfast and lots of coffee!  In a couple hours, we’re going to head to the Hot Springs with some Champagne to celebrate Andy’s 27th on the 27th!  Then we’ll see more of Boise and relax till we get back on the road tomorrow morning.    I couldnt possibly ask for anything better.  Warmshowers has treated us so well!  As I type, Ken and Andy are playing Mario Cart on their Wi.    ummm, yeah!  you wish you were us, don’t you. 

one of the jockeys was thrown the first race... that's him walking down the track. his horse took off and kept racing.

if we had more time, we probably would have been betting. This kid told us that his 16yr old sister was betting on the horses... i guess you dont have to be very old to bet. i never knew.

In North Powder, Oregon we ate some greasy food. This was one stop on a long list of awesome places on our first easy day. After three straight 100+ mile days, it seemed like a good idea to chill out a little bit and ride something like 50 instead. This let us hang out at Hot Lakes, diners, historical towns and the like.

Oregon has four condiments!

In Baker City, just about everything seemed awesome. Including Bev from Bella’s, who we regrettably do not have a picture of. Just keep in mind that her wine store sponsors the annual Elk Horn Classic stage race in Baker City so that the female racers get equitable prizes to the men. Bev, you seriously rule, and if you check out this blog, we want to tell you something: “You seriously rule”.

Bev recommended motels and food for us. It was sub-freezing that night, so not camping didn’t feel like copping out. She also pointed us to Barley Browns, who’s home brews and ample meat selections had us at near-food-coma status by the time we were ready for dessert. Our server recommended the giant chocolate cake. We acquiesced, easily. Andy then suggested she prepare it however she saw fit. So she brings out this heaping mound of chocolate awesomeness, smothered with whipped cream, a shovelful of vanilla ice cream, and a whole patch-ful of strawberries.

nom nom nom. We'd already had steak, wings, and ribs...

Moments later, it was gone.

We had to skip karaoke at the shady bar on the wrong side of the tracks, because we were too stuffed to even get our legs over our bikes

Nice Illustration!

Bo, Center, from Croatia, got lost in the middle of Oregon and has been cooking for truckers ever since.

The tiny town of Durkee Oregon can’t have more than 50 residents, but it’s got the “Redneck Cafe”, owned by a Croatian dude who was sitting at the counter the entire time. We got our 30-mile morning coffee there. The guy, “Bo”, his two regulars, and his waitress talked us up for 45 minutes. How does a Croatian guy end up running a greasy-spoon trucker joint in a tiny town between two 10,000 person towns? We…we’re really not sure. He claims he got lost, and just stayed. We wished we were hungrier. 

this dog, sissie, was HUGE! she sat in the bag of the truck.. the truck owned by the folks inside the redneck cafe. They passed us several times on the road.

Durke maybe has 50 people living in it.. maybe. One thing that every town of every size has, is a post office. and this was the one at durkee. so small, so awesome. i put some postcards in thier mailbox so they would have something to do on monday.. hopefully the mail actually goes out there.. :)

Finally, we have made it to our west coast destination.  Portland, Oregon.  The City Of Roses.  Everyone talks about how dreary and dismal Portland and Seattle are but every time I have been here the weather has been beautiful.  Now, for example, it is in the 70s and will reach the 80s by the end of the day, sunny, not much wind.  Ideal.  Hopefully we’ll take it with us when we leave.  Saturday we didn’t do much.  re-cooperated and ate.  What i wanted to eat was burritos.  All the wrong-coasters are always coming to New York raving about West Coast burritos and how superior they are to East Coast burritos.  Like the Biggie and 2 Pac wrapped in a tortilla.  So I wanted to see what all the hubub is about and Jill recommends a place called Por Que No Taqueria.  We go there and I’m immediately pissed.  With a name that translates to “Why Not Tacos?” I should have known, they don’t serve burritos.  But the tacos were good and last night she redeemed herself by taking us to Santeria? that had amazing and huge and cheap and authentic burritos.  Then Sunday was pretty much spent eating and riding places to sit.  After a couple hours at Tin Shed restaurant for “breakfast” (over here they call brunch breakfast. wierd i know.) we rode to watch some polo in Alberta Park.  Ken played a couple games and i didn’t heckle him.  Then we went to VooDoo Doughnuts where “The Magic Is In The Hole.”  Know what I found out is in the hole?  Pure deliciousness.  Bacon Maple Doughnut.  Ta Die For.  This is where we split off and Ken went with Bjorn to nerd out at a bookstore.  Quinn and i went to the waterfront with Jill to meet some of Jill’s work friends.  They played bocce ball and i ate their chips, strawberries, and drank one of their beers.  We all met up again and went to The Bluffs (aka Makeout Point according to Jill) to watch the sunset.  A fantastic end to a relaxing day.  Then we went to eat burritos and watch Baby Mama.  Pretty funny but i slept and snored through most of it.  

The Bluffs (Makeout Point)

Bacon Maple Doughnut!

Jill's beautiful new apartment

Like fat kids in a doughnut shop

pdx polo

We were never supposed to be in Sacramento. We were never supposed to cross the state of California at all. But sometimes weather does some unexpected things, and the intrepid traveler has to make do with what’s available. Lemonade can always be made from lemons. I guess Canada had some massive snowfall this year, and all that stuff’s melting down the Red River into Montana & North Dakota. Since Amtrak hasn’t yet figured out how to navigate their trains underwater, they detoured us under the flood completely.

This turned out, at points, to be massively awesome. First of all, lets recollect that the United States of America has a whole lot of nothing in the middle of it. And if it feels expansive by train, at 60-80 miles per hour, it’s immense to imagine how it’s going to feel by bike, at 60-80 miles per day.

Amtrak’s California Zephyr picks up in Chicago and terminates in San Francisco. We got off in the capital city of Sacramento with an 8 hour layover, but not before passing through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the astounding terrain of Nevada and Northern California. No doubt Minnesota and Montana are just as spectacular by rail, but everything we saw out of our window - at least westward from Denver - was phenomenal. Also, if you ever think about taking train trips, a great segment is from Reno to San Franciso. The commentary by the train staff picks up a lot after Reno, to appease the commuters, tourists, travelers, or whoever happens to have to take that route. And there’s no shortage. The coach section had something like two empty seats after we hit Reno.

like those sculptures on the L train 6th ave stop!

In Sacramento, we had 8 hours to kill. We hadn’t heard very many flattering things about the city, so we figured we’d see a movie, to sheild us from the depressing reality of a capital city rivaling Albany in lameness. Keeping with our efforts to make our trip as epic as possible at every turn, we found the IMAX theater. And we saw Monsters vs. Aliens. In 3D. On IMAX. With a large popcorn with free refills. And some twizzlers, M&M’s, and Junior Mints from the Rite Aid up the street. Epic.

Not actually the IMAX, but a far cooler looking theater

That finished up by 8pm, and we had at least three more hours to kill. It was bar time on Friday night, so we figured we might find something worthwhile. A little while ago, I had declared my interest in finding Karaoke bars in as many places we visited as possible.We asked a waitress at a local brewery to recommend something - anything - for us to do. And if it had Karaoke, all the better. She pointed us down J Street and at one point mentioned “The Streets of London Pub”. So we went there on her recommendation.

Our recommendation is this: Don’t go there. First of all, as a 32 year old man, I wasn’t in the slightest bit flattered that the bartender asked me for all three of our IDs when I ordered beers. Secondly, I was not just a little bit stunned & aggravated to find out that Andy’s passport wasn’t acceptible as a valid form of ID. This is true. In California (and Ohio, allegedly), a federally issued passport that allows you to cross international borders and get on airplanes is not legitimate enough of an ID to get a glass of beer. I’m not clear why Andy only has his passport, but I think it involves losing a billfold. Irregardless, wtf? He’s 27, and no one in their right minds would mistake him for anything under 24. Except the douchebags at The Streets of London Pub.

We sucked up their electricity to charge our phones and moved on, quickly, having given them a crappy tip. A block or so down the street, in front of “Hamburger Patties”, we heard a boisterous crowd gurgle incoherent ramblings that I was pretty sure included something about Karaoke as they debated where to spend their Friday night. Maybe it was just me who heard this, because I turned away from Andy & Quinn to ask these strangers more about this rumored Karaoke. Apparently, it was happening right there, inside Hamburger Patties. I went in to confirm, and it was true! Karaoke! There, starting in a half an hour. Sweet! But wait, second question: was this passport mumbo jumbo for reals? Yeah, it was for reals, the bartender reinforced. “But wait a second…you guys? Yeah, you’re clearly 21. Go ahead & sit down.” Yes. Thank you, Hamburger Patties. Way not to Suckramento. (see what I did there?)

Hamburger Patties redeemed Sacramento, at least a little bit. For my next cross-country bike tour, I’m going to string along a huge series of Karaoke bars and sing “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” by Neil Diamond at every place, as long as they have it. Hamburger Pattie’s version was whack. It didn’t have the middle section where Neil Diamond freaks out & preaches about raising your hand to God and what not. That’s definitely the best part of the song, and I was forced to adlib. It pretty much worked out, and was the one non-depressing song of the evening, compared to “Cry Me a River”, “Womanizer” by Britney”, and some awful song that literally encouraged you to “cry on the inside, and keep your feelings hidden, and if you fail, remember that you ALMOST had it all.” Yeah. Almost. Except you’re a total screwup and can’t do anything right. But don’t let anyone know you’re bummed about that. Just pretend everything’s alright. Just pretend everything’s alright, Sacramento. We’re outta here.