Day 28: Doctor doctor (Boise)

Nothing better than waking up in a house you feel totally at home in. I loved staying with the Gallinats; I need to make a Warm Showers account just to acknowledge their incredible skills as hosts. 

Ca$h, the regal guard dog (dollar emphases my own)

We finally got to work on the website today, something we've been meaning to do for a while. I really wanted to try coding one by hand -- and I did! -- but it has become far too limited for our needs. So here we are Squarespace, hey hello.

Hard at work on my overedited bicycle

Rachel took her bike into George's and I tried to fix my in the garage. The front disc brake is rubbing up a squeal whose pitch hits right at the range of pain. I was marginally successful, but now the front brakes are way looser than they should be. I think I need to retrue the wheel or straighten out the disc or something because i don't see how I can get the disc brakes any closer without the banshee screams start up again.

The Gallinats -- add dad and another sister in there; they rode across the U.S. last year in just 10 weeks

Headed to the doc's at 3 to check out my knee, which is also been screaming, but in pain, instead of outloud. Hills are killer at this point. I'm not crying when I'm riding but I'm just a point or two on that smiley scale short of it. Anyways the sports medicine guy says it's probably my meniscus acting up again, the scar tissue or something catching on the bone. He shot me up with cortisone and warned I should probably get it "scoped" out when I finish the trip. Whatever, from here on out it's just pain management, nothing to be done now except keep riding.

After requisite visits to REI and Target, we loaded up and headed back over to Neal's. He made tacos. He and Shannon cook mean Mexican. The ground turkey had five kinds of peppers in them and the strawberries for dessert were sprinkled with sugar.

Oh, my mom sent us two more pounds of chocolate of course. Eat up. 

Day 23: McCaw/McCall (Boise to Council)

The beds at Neal's were a five thousand dollar scratch lottery ticket, the present you didn't expect, a piping cup of coffee brought to you by the park ranger at 7 am. Ten pillows, five blankets, a mattress that fits each ache and pain. When I finally climbed out, there was coffee already hot. We had another breakfast of fresh eggs. This trip has changed the way I look at food. More on that later.

We decided to meet Becca at the local bike shop, and in the mile and a half there, I got my second flat. But George's took care of me, showed me some goats head. The mechanic, cute blonde young guy with an arm in a sling, told me my tube had been folded over. It had been losing air quickly. It survived over a thousand miles like that, surprisingly. Reminder to check next time I leave on a trip like this.

Met Rachel next door and bought a blackberry scone and with blackberries sweet, smashed and concentrated in the center, it was the best pastry I've had since those $1 boysenberry? scones in Portland (every Wednesday morning when I interned at The Oregonian).

After Becca arrived, a couple walked in in spandex and asked about ours bikes. Last summer, they biked across the country with their two daughters, from Maine to Oregon. The lady reminded me of Kim, a family friend, warm, sarcastic, and sharp. We might stay with them on Wednesday night. 

The three of us drove to the farmers market. The first was a bust but the second was alright. Saw Ron from the orchard again. With the market closing up, he gave us the rest of their tasting chips. I bought some goat cheese and got half a tub of Herb du Provence (their tasting tub) for free. We cleaned out the cheese on dried apple chips from the Kelleys  before we reached the Salmon brewery in McCall. Their beer was just alright; 10 Barrel had a much better IPA. The fish tacos were good though. 

Becca and Forest are watching his parent's place, a wood cabin in the mountains with ten acres of forest, desert and farm. Apparently Forest's dad mail ordered the cabin. You can do that? One of their goats, about to give birth, was mauled and killed by a bear last week. But this cabin, it's so full of life. There's jars and boxes and food and dust stacked everywhere. No septic, just an outhouse attached to the house. Fresh eggs every morning. Rabbits for stew and for compost. Rows of vegetables and inside baby seedlings are nurtured under hot lamps before the soil. In the same room, a mouse took its last breath in a mousetrap, smushed in half.

We got in around 7 or something, sat around the kitchen table for a good while. Elk that Forest killed and some stirfry for bellies that weren't quite hungry yet. Never had elk before. Went to bed full, in a cold room that made sleep easy. 

 

Day 22: City girls (Weiser to Boise)

I woke up with the sun after waking up all night with the wind too. Ron was already up, warming sausage and hash browns in the kitchen. We boiled water for coffee, and Josh helped me crack eggs straight from the coop to complete the meal. The egg shells were tan, pink, green and speckled. Aaron, the youngest, liked Taco Bell mild sauce on his breakfast. 

We thought we were just going to head out and meet Becca on the road, but we ended up staying at the orchard all morning. Ron, Kimmy and Aaron gave us a tour of their trees. The apple trees tended to have four big branches spindling upward with thin branches that looked like vines kept close to their mother trunk. They're putting in new pears too, and new peaches, I think. I might be wrong. Aaron held tightly to a clump of dirt he found at the beginning.

We ended up buying five bags of apple chips from their stores -- if you're ever in Idaho, go visit. Find their apples. Eat as many as you can stomach. Ah their food was good. Kimmy let us take some raspberry plum jam with us too. 

Rachel drinks a pint of their darkest; we're all shocked  

We were eating apples and peanut butter for lunch when Becca showed up. The bikes and bags mostly fit in the car, though sitting in the back was a squeeze. We drove to Boise so she could pick up some necessities from REI, the she dropped us off at 10 Barrel Brewing in downtown. A couple asked us about our bikes, then a guy from Seattle struck up a conversation and his buddy in a Taco Bell Arena joined later. Everyone - everyone - in the brewery was white. I know we're in Idaho but it made me feel lucky, spoiled even, to have come from Sunnyvale and the ethnic diversity there's still pretty limited. But the beer was good. 

Hi mom

My mom's friend Neal kindly took us in last minute. He made the best Mexican food I've had outside of California. Beans, tamales, salsa, requires. Guacamole! He's got a full blown tiki bar in the backyard with maybe 50 hats all pinned up in neat rows and the Giants playing on TV. Shannon was great too. She told us stories about being BB King's nurse for a summer, and about caring for some of the more rural patients around Boise. 

Local automotive shop taking a hard look at our education system 

Also mom sent five bars of chocolate with the package of stuff I asked her to ship, so it was a good and comfortable night.