Day 10: Boise, ID to Burns, OR
NB: no photos today, I didn’t take any good ones. As you’ll see, I kind of had my hands full.
Today was supposed to be an easy day. Three or four hours’ ride and I can relax in a nice room and chill. Somehow it never works out that way.
Woke up this morning to a stomach ache; I ate a bunch of rich food last night, so I thought it might be that. Just like, over-full or bloated or something. So I got everything together and got coffee from the lobby coffee bar; it was actually really decent. I didn’t feel much better, but I decided that I would see if riding made it worse or not, and once I was on the bike it was pretty OK.
Stopped for gas on the way out of Boise, took a slightly deranged route through some back roads to get to 20 west without hitting the interstate, and then I was off. Western Idaho is a bunch of farm towns, a lot like the midwest. Except there are always mountains in the distance, and there are a bunch of onion farms, for flavor.
Stopped to rest and have a snack in Parma, and the snack seemed to settle my stomach a little. I went on, crossed the Snake River at Nissa, and turned west just shy of Cairo. Then the wind picked up.
I don’t know if eastern Oregon is particularly windy, or if I caught it on a bad day (there was at least some of the latter) but there was a 30mph cross wind that was gusting around, so that I couldn’t go faster than about 45 for a good hour and a half. Bucking that wind was exhausting. In a car, you have power steering, so if the wind pushes you around, you can gently correct it; on the bike, you have to lean into the wind just right or you’re all over the road.
So anyway, I was tired, and going slow, and I pulled into a turnout to take a break and let the traffic behind me go ahead (the giant monster trucks everyone drives out here didn’t seem to be having issues). I notice that there’s a guy working on his truck, so I go over and say hello, ask him what’s wrong. Turns out he picked today to replace a fuel filter and one of the fittings broke, so the return hose from the injector manifold (I think?) couldn’t be reconnected, and that meant that if the engine was turned on, fuel sprayed the inside of the engine compartment. No bueno. And we were in a dead spot; about 20 miles back I saw a sign that said ‘Next fuel 68 miles’. No cell service either.
So, we sat there trying to macguyver the hose onto the connection; the hose was too small to stretch over the part it connected to (the broken part was what adapted one to another). So, finally, we gave up and I rode out to where there was cell signal and called the guy a tow truck. That was my good deed for the day, all done.
I was still fighting the gusty crosswind, though, and trying to get out of the hills to Burns and my waiting hotel room. I noticed the horizon was awfully dark, and the temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees, so I stopped again, and put on my rain gear, and began sprinting towards shelter. This explained the violent winds: I was dealing with a cold front.
Riding in the rain isn’t so bad. It’s the cold that really will get you. I don’t have rain pants, so my riding jeans just get wet. My Jacket has a waterproof layer that can go outside or in; if it’s outside, it catches the wind terribly so usually I put it inside, on top of any other layers. The rain goes right through the outer jacket, which is made for airflow and abrasion resistance, not to keep water out. So the cold rain was right next to my skin, just a thin layer of waterproof material to keep me dry. At least I was almost done.
I stopped at the oddest gas station I’ve ever been to, only two pumps, and somewhat confusing, but they also had a food truck type deal so I got some chicken strips hoping that would settle my stomach. No dice, but I was at least fed for what came next.
Which was 20 minutes of racing through another rain storm. I was behind the frontal boundary now, so the wind wasn’t so terrible, at least. The road from the end of the foothills to Burns is about 17 miles with no curves, bends, or even a hill. Just a straight line.
Got to the hotel and there were piles of junk sort of laying around the place; I was somewhat dubious but went ahead with check-in. Then the room smelled of cat pee and the stuff you use to try and get rid of cat pee (Nature’s Miracle), and so I just loaded up what I’d unloaded and went down the road to another motel.
Got checked in, wrote the first half of this post, fell asleep for a few hours, woke up and my stomach was worse, so decided to go get it checked out. There are no taxis in this town, so I got to ride in the ambulance to the local ER. Took a couple hours, but my CT came back clear, so it’s probably just some GI issue. Glad for once it was nothing. Also super glad I have really good insurance so an ER visit won’t wreck my finances; another way in which I have the freedom to do this kind of trip.