64 miles ridden – 1604 feet climbed.
Yesterday a time zone change, today a state line – welcome to Idaho.

Not sure if it’s relevant but for a state line that was a really cheap sign – it was made of plywood nailed to an old fence post. Before today there were only two things I knew about Idaho: 1 – they grow a lot of potatoes and 2 – the B-52s have a song called Private Idaho. The landscape is very similar to yesterday although we managed to travel on some quieter roads with more turns and because we only had 65 miles to cycle today it was a little slower and more sociable.

Today was hot. When we left Ontario about 7am it was about 18C and when we arrived in Boise at around 12:30 it was about 33C with the temperature rising! At 8PM this evening according to one display I saw it was over 100F/37C and while there was no way I was going out cycling I did manage to walk 3 blocks to the bike shop. Boy did they do some good business today – most of the riders either are or are planning to get something changed. I have today shown tremendous constraint but will make up for that tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a day off so some folks are going for a bike ride. I suspect that I will not. 

I was second in line for the only washing machine in the hotel so all my stuff is now clean and positively fragrant although Ron got one of the staff to clean, dry and fold his laundry for $20 while he went for lunch so maybe I got it wrong.

This was the final day of stage one of the ride. Over the last 9 days we have cycled 639 miles and climbed over 29,000 feet – higher than Mount Everest. The physical side has been relatively manageable aside from my buttock problem which by the way is VERY slowly improving but the mental side is proving much harder. While there has been plenty of discussion about blisters, athletes foot, and saddle interface friction issues (or SIFIs) only today – probably because we are getting to know each other better – have I found out how many people have been wondering why they are doing this which I have found very reassuring. I must admit to having been very worried about my mental state when I found myself thinking that maybe running edit suites wasn’t too bad after all – however a little tiger balm instead of sudocream soon changed my focus.

The difficulty is working out how to switch off on the boring or hard bits, zone out if you like, and grind out the miles until the next interesting bit. Sometimes 20 mins seems an eternity because in that time you only cycle past 2 or 3 cornfields with no turns whereas at home that time would get me from Chorleywood, through Mill End, along Tolpits Lane and via West Watford up to Croxley Green. Plenty to think about but now time to sleep.