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Louie and I had only been riding together for about 3 months. We were in Salem, Oregon doing a nice flat spring ride when I lamented to him that I would have to go to Idaho on my single bike because Nellie backed out. Louie was quiet for a while and then said very softly, "Maybe I might like to go." We had never been together for more than a few hours at a stretch once or twice a week so how would we do for a whole week? The problem would be that if we did not get along we couldn't exactly cut the tandem in half. Louie is Portuguese and I am Italian. We both own the temperament of our ancestors. Need I say more! Oh well, it wouldn't be dull so we made the decision to go for it.
We drove to Driggs, a small town on the border of Idaho and Wyoming, with the Blueberry attached to the back of my van. I spent most of the time on the phone with my work solving the problems of the world while Louie drove. Work problems solved, we left the van and joined the tour group, this being a fully supported bike tour, for the bus ride back to Boise. We played Zitch, a game where the first person to see a white horse says zitch and earns a point, to keep ourselves occupied. The thing with zitch is that if you zitch a horse with spots it is minus one point for each spot. If you zitch a cow or a llama it is minus 5 points. If you zitch an object that isn't alive then you may as well just hang it up because you are so far in the hole you will never get out. Soon everyone on the bus was helping us play. I dozed off at one point only to be shaken awake by one of the other riders who was gleefully pointing out a white horse for me to zitch!
We got to Boise and set up camp with time left for a bike ride along the Boise River Greenway. The neat thing is that here they have this wild river that runs right through the middle of town and they have created this lovely bikeway that runs for miles along it's bank all the way to a dam way out in the desert. There are bridges that cross over the river that are gated so you cannot go all the way to the other side. People fish on them and just hang around on them looking at the river. We met another couple pulling a baby in a trailer. We chatted a while and then took off back to camp since it was getting late.
All at once Louie stops the tandem. He says, "Dinner!" then runs back and picks up a $10 bill just laying on the path waiting to be picked up. No one was around to give it back to so we decided it was a gift and to go have dinner. We stopped an upscale restaurant that had tables outside close to the river and a country music singer strumming away on his guitar and crying in his beer. We stayed long enough for it to get dark and us with no light. Silly us. We made it back to camp in time to get scolded by the other bikers.
Day one was to take us to Kirkham Hot Springs. Hot was right. It was 95 degrees in the shade and there was no shade. Wow! We had not ridden in this type of heat yet so I was having trouble keeping with the program. The route had us climbing along side a stream in the sun with no shade. I tried to drink enough water but the supporters of the ride did not put water out for us so we were getting low. All around us even next to the stream the grass was as yellow and wilted as I felt. The heat reverberated off the barren hills. I felt dizzy so I asked Louie if I could get off and walk a bit. I started to walk and next thing I know Louie was standing over the top of me saying, "Bec, what are you doing laying in the street? You can't be laying in the street like that." I was wondering why he was asking me that because last thing I knew, I was upright and walking. I had to get cooled off so we went down to the river and jumped in. I felt better but we still did not have enough water. Other riders came by and shared theirs as we limped in. My daughter and family, who live in Nampa, Idaho, had been out looking for us since it was getting late but we didn't meet up with them until just a few miles from camp. Once we found each other we all went to dinner then played in the Hot Springs with the grandkids before they had to beat feet back to Nampa. The campsite was nestled down in a canyon only wide enough for the road, the river, and a campground. The hot springs showered off the rock wall of the canyon into a shallow bowl in which we could all sit.
The next morning Louie and I wanted to start out early to beat the heat but the Tour Company did not want to cooperate. Finally we got some peanut butter sandwiches out of them for the morning ride. As it turned out that was what they were serving for lunch too so we had a peanut butter day. I like peanut butter so I was happy, but it was hardly enough to keep Louie going so we had to find other food to supplement.
Day two took us from Kirkham hot springs to Redfish Lake. We started in the cool dark of the morning. It was very pleasant. We climbed up to 7200 feet before dropping back down to the lake. Other bikers went swimming in the lake, but I was tired so I just napped on a picnic table while Louie wandered around investigating things until dinner.
Day three took us from Redfish Lake to Haily. We woke up early again but, Boy Howdy, it was cold! We were going from one extreme to the other. Louie did not have the proper gloves with him. His hands were so cold they hurt. We stopped the Blueberry and I had him put his hands on my chubby little tummy under my coat to warm them. A couple other bikers came by and tried to invite themselves to the party. Though I am sure I had enough tummy to go around, I decided these guys could get their own tummy and sent them on their way.
We had the most incredible climb up to 8701 feet over Galena Summit. It is the same route that the Woman's Challenge (the tour de France for women) takes. It was breathtaking. We looked down on the valley for most of the climb. We alternated between sitting and standing each taking a turn and then standing together. Louie is amazing in the way he climbs. He can stand up and climb forever. Halfway up we stopped for the tour groups lunch which was lunchmeat sandwiches. I burped my way up the rest of the mountain! Oh well, the view made up for it. The valley below was checkered yellow and green. We were up so high it looked as if we were in a plane. The road down the backside was steep and winding. We picked up speed as Louie leaned the Blueberry into the corners. I began to have an anxiety attack because it felt as if my knee was going to scrape the pavement. "I can't do this. I am to scared!" I screamed to Louie. He said, "Ok. Hold on and do what I do. We'll do the other kind of turn." We scooted our hinnies off to one side and pushed the bike over so my head felt like it was up straight, my weight was on the outside pedal, and the bike was leaning over. What a thrill! It was spectacular. We got to the bottom and I felt as if I was 15 years old again.
We rode on to Sun Valley and into Ketchum. There were some very fancy houses along the way. We scoped out a donut shop for breakfast and tanked up at a small café along side the road. Ketchum was a happening town with lots of traffic and touristy stuff to buy. We rode on to Hailey where we spent the night at a high school lot. This was Ok except for one small detail. The swim pool where we showered and used the facilities closed down at dark. We were left with an outhouse in the field behind the school. Still not too bad except that the sprinklers came on at dark and stayed on most of the night. The sprinklers sprayed water directly at the outhouse. Even if you could get in to do your business before the sprinkler made it's designated round; it sprayed water into the outhouse through the cracks in the door! It was a wet proposition no matter.
The next morning we were set to take The Blueberry to the moon. It was certainly the most interesting day of all. We rode through miles and miles of lava fields. We stopped at Craters of the Moon national monument to read all about the lava fields. We saw all kinds of different lava. Some of it rolled and bubbled along. Some of it was big chunks spit out onto the landscape. Some of it flowed along like a big black ribbon of a river. It looked all black and barren until closer inspection would reveal bits of vegetation peeking up here and there. We spent the night in Arco, home of the first nuclear facility in the United States.
We had a ride through the dessert in the morning to Heise Hot Springs so we broke camp at 4:00 AM. To the east was a mountain range that rose above us in stair step fashion as we rode along. Coyotes howled in the distance as the sun rose over one of the mountain tips. Orange, pink, and all the colors of the rainbow reflected in the sky above us. We rode on as the sun fell behind the next mountain soon to peek up again in all its glory. The sun played with us in this fashion for five mountaintops. After treating us to five sunrises in one day, God continued to smile on us by sending our way a few cooling desert showers in the middle of the day.
We stopped in Idaho Falls and followed a green way built along the Snake River. We came to the Falls and noted that they looked man made. The green way was a linear park with lush green grass and huge shade trees. We found a spot where there was a babbling brook that spoke softly to the river and a group of trees whose leaves rustled in the gentle breeze. Louie took off his shoes and cooled his toes in the brook. I took off my shoes, lay down on the cool grass and promptly went into snoring mode. A couple hours later Louie shook me awake, draped me over the bike, and rode me through the sprinklers to wake me up. We got into camp just a bit before the others in the tour were going to mount a search party for us. Dinner that night was not even tolerable. They were serving beer sausage, which turned out to be hot dogs boiled in beer and served with sourcrout. I could not even begin to eat it. Ugh! We found Pizza.
The next morning was our last day. We were to ride from Heise Hot springs to Driggs. We rode through a valley nestled below the Sawtooth Mountains. We stopped for ice cream at the Swan Valley Commissary where Louie cheated and zitched two white horses that were in a horse trailer. I guess there is no rule in Zitch that says the white horses have to be in a field. This was the start of what has turned out to be very creative zitching practices. (Now we zitch white mustang cars, white horses painted on anything, white horse statues, and even white horse heads!) We no longer care how many points anything is worth as long as we can argue over the validity of the zitch. Louie thinks I zitch mules, but I know better. I have been zitching since before Louie was born. I think he zitches cream colored horses. He insists they are white. Humph!
We stopped in a small town that specialized in water rafting. We drank our coffee sitting on a bench gazing up at the Sawtooth Mountains. After coffee we found a bike path that ran alongside the road and followed it back to Driggs. The ride was done, but we were not ready to quit. We said our good-byes and headed towards Yellowstone National forest. Yellowstone was all I thought it would be. The pools of water were alive with bright blue, green, and yellow pigment. Sulfur hung in the air. We unloaded the Blueberry and took off towards Natural Bridge. After inspecting the Natural Bridge, Louie found what looked like single track that went down the side of the hill we had climbed to get to Natural Bridge. It was very narrow and technical. Louie did a great job. When we got to the bottom we found a sign that said - no bikes. Opps! Well, we didn't see one at the top.
We had a great trip. The scenery was nothing short of spectacular. For me Galena Pass, five sunrises in one morning, and Yellowstone were the highlights. We had such a good time that we decided that we would have to do more tours in the future. We were hooked!