83 miles ridden – 1841 feet climbed – temperature 32C.

Today was a day of firsts. My first long ride in 30+C temperatures, my first non-flying time zone change, and my first Dairy Queen milkshake. As you can see it happened rather innocuously on a quiet road at the county line which at least theoretically meant that the town’s petrol station and diner were in a different time zone to the town’s campsite. Not sure how that works? If you worked at the campsite and called home which was 400m away on the other side of the line to say you were going to be ten minutes late would you in fact be one hour and ten mins late? So many questions.

We cycled through an incredible mix of land from arid scrub through riverside greenery and incredibly well-irrigated farmland. Absolutely enormous fields with constant watering courtesy of the Snake River meant that with the heat you could smell the evaporated moisture in the air. Dead straight roads stretch on forever into the heat shimmer in the distance with no reference point to gauge progress. 15 of the last 20 miles comprised of 4 or 5 straight lines with bends in between – very different from anywhere I have cycled before and unusually awesome and boring at the same time.

My Aussie and Texan chums taught me a lot about coping with the heat especially pouring water down the back of your neck to wet your whole back – worked a treat – but we were all very pleased to arrive at the hotel and get cleaned up and out of the sun as the temperature continued to rise peaking a couple of hours ago at 34C.

Ontario has points of interest but if you are on I84 and don’t need gas I wouldn’t bother!

Can’t load any pictures right now – I’ll try again early tomorrow.