June 11, 2017

Today was interesting to say the least!  We left at 7:00 a.m. with the temperature high 30’s.   Deb joined us for the first five miles. The wind was almost non-existent at the beginning.  Within four miles we were climbing.  After several short climbs, we could feel the wind picking up.  We had both a head wind and a cross wind.  We could pick up pretty good speed as we rolled downhill toward “Lost River”.  We stopped at the visitor center to warm up.

When we got back on our bikes, the wind was picking up and now we needed to climb out of the river bed.  For most of the day we had an 18 mile an hour wind pushing against us.  They had said we would experience gust that were stronger than 18 miles an hour.  There were times where all we could do was 8 miles an hour.  At one point Titus said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!”  Yesterday we experienced the gift in the wind behind you, today was a different story.  The wind was taking away today.

Since there are no services between Arco and Idaho Falls, at about 40 miles in, Deb brought us sandwiches.  As we sat in her car to eat, I could feel my face stinging from warming up.  We were both stiff when we got out of the car to start up again.  For most of the day we road around 10 miles and hour.  It really was a grind today.

At 15 miles from our destination, it began to rain, sleet… snow.  It was cold!  We could see the city in the distance and I think that gave us both energy to finish.  Over all, we covered 67 miles. 


We did a lot of looking over our shoulder today.  The snow-covered mountains in the distance, were magnificent.  We also drove through flat prairie land with huge buttes in the middle of the prairie.  At one point, we rode our way through thousands of acres that are owned by the government for research on atomic and nuclear energy.

Tomorrow we will ride our way to the small town of Victor.  Our hope is that the rain and snow hold off so that we can ride all day.  In the afternoon things are supposed to get interesting.  We are still going to try to climb over the Tetons.
 
Although today was probably the hardest riding that either of us has ever done, there is a sense of accomplishment when you just keep pedaling, regardless of  weather conditions.


Good to be alive!  


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