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)

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

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

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 25: Teach to the kids (Cambridge)

Woke up with the sun to go to Becca's school today. We've got to stop doing this four hours of sleep before teaching thing.

We were late getting to school but not for school. We had a full day ahead of us: all five of Becca's 7th-10th grade science classes and a technology careers class to wrap up the day. Each lesson went a little differently- we focused more on 3D printing applications in one class, on renewable energy in the next. We tried our a new demonstration Rachel came up with to explain how a solar panel works. Rachel definitely took the lead on today's, my stomach was still roiling from whatever had me going yesterday on the way to the hot springs. I feel distended, bloated, burned and nauseous. At least we weren't riding.

But they look cool

But they look cool

The kids were good, curious, at least willing to give us a shot. Becca had given us an extensive overview of her kids - many come from broken homes, most won't make it to college, as opposed to the two schools we taught at before. But the kids surprise you, always. Some of the ones Becca least expected to speak up did, like the kid with the mullet (they're bringing them back) who tweaked the bike and compared it to RC cars he'd played with in the past. 

Their tech class printed quite the pretty Sol Cycle! 

Their tech class printed quite the pretty Sol Cycle! 

With just a lunch break to pause the day, we collapsed exhausted in Becca's classroom at the end of the day, and we all left early to go find a package my mom sent with extra sol cycle parts for the tech careers class, which 3D printed their own bicycles.

Tonight we dehydrated about 7 tons more food: mangos, strawberries, veggie tikka masala for another dinner (recipe below). Tried to make beat chips, those didn't go that well. Bagged veggies and quinoa for the road. I cleaned, sorted and packed, I can't sleep if I don't. We'll go with Becca to Cambridge tomorrow and head back down to Boise from there. 


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  

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

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 

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. 

 

Day 11: What we don't know won't hurt us (Susanville to Madeline)

After yesterday, we needed a better day. Just a day with distance; on this trip, when you're not moving, it feels like you're losing space. Where would you be if you had moved? Not in Susanville.

If they're not busy, highways are the safeways: guaranteed to be paved and with a greater chance you'll find towns and/or water along the way. We rode passed the Walmart and out onto 36, toward 395, taking the long way around (not directly passed the state prison, as Google suggested). The first bit was busy and for a while after we merged onto 395, we had little-to-no shoulder. But the high mountain farmland was verdant, the mountains austere in their distance, the birds content with the bugs in the ground.

Our last stop for water for 50-some miles was the Lichtfield general store. It was too early but we had hot dogs for lunch. Moving on, a dead donkey stank by the side of the ride. Pretty much as soon as we summited the first hill, leaving Susanville and the valley behind, we entered high desert. 

And for miles and miles and miles that's all it was: high desert. Kind of like the bits of Mojave you drive through to get to Joshua Tree from the Bay Area. Flat and shrubby, with more life than you'd assume, with grey rocks pouring upwards out of the earth in the distance. 

I love the desert. Despite my best attempts to claim the forest or the mountains as my favorite ecosystem, I feel most at peace in the flat dusty vague sands of the high desert. Mmm. A kind of quiet and balance you don't find elsewhere.

We made it to the rest stop with a fountain of non-potable water just in time, just as we were running low. We filtered and refilled, then pushed on. We didn't think we would make it to Madeline, 72 miles from the Diamond View Motel. In the final few miles, two quarters of a circular rainbow framed the sun. We made it by dusk. Madeline, pop: 22.

We knocked on one of the.. five houses in town and Stan, balding, red-faced, in a ripped orange shirt, answered. He acted like a startled bear: wary, confused, ready to attack. But we're pretty harmless. He warned us we should be carrying shot guns. He let us sleep in the yard across the street from the house, under two big trees. He told us he'd rather live out there, poor, than in New York City, rich.

Rarely have I been graced with a prettier sunset.

Listening to: Steady Rollin' by Two Gallants

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