Another great day today. We were advised at breakfast that the road we planned to ride on today was closed due to forest fire smoke but we thought we would go anyway and check it out. There were plenty of alternatives.
We were a little late getting away from Hailey this morning due to a misplaced Karen but once she was found we were away. Kiwi also wanted to check out the swimming pool. Apparently kiwis aren't great swimmers.
Kiwi said goodbye to our GS friends in yellow.
Here's Diana's photo. Note the great panniers (Jesse)
We were ready for the hot weather so were a little surprised when the temperature began to fall and we could smell rain in the air. It was so distinctive, that smell of rain when there hasn't been any for some time. It was delicious. The road was quite wet but we only got a few splatters.
Off to my right i could see a huge herd of black animals. They couldn't be bison could they? They weren't. Ok.
The sun was shining on the mountain range to our left.
But further on the light was crimsoning with smoke.
We rode on and up Sawtooth Pass. The temperature steadily dropped to 11 degrees C and the wind picked up. It blew so hard that Ebony was rocking on her sidestand when I stopped for a photo. There was also a brief shower of icy rain.
We pulled in to Stanley and had a hot drink and carried on. The town was rich with smoke and our eyes were stinging.
A little along the road, I stopped to take a photo and Diana took this one.
This is one of mine.
We went past the fire camp where I presume the workers fighting the fire were living.
All the time the temperature was steadily climbing. We drove along an area called Ponderosa Pines Highway which was lined with trees. Not quite sure what kind of trees they were though.
I had a lovely duel with a Harley rider a bit further on, passed him on a corner and then let him go by as I stopped where DD had stopped. I went on and came round another corner and nearly ran into him stopped for roadworks. There were no warning signs so it was all a bit abrupt. There were a few of us there waiting. One bloke sitting on the tray of his truck was wearing a handgun. I wondered why, but I didn't ask him. He and his wife are coming to NZ soon to shoot stags. I told him he'd have to leave his shooter behind and he wasn't so sure about that.
We stopped for lunch at a tiny town called Idaho City where apparently Calamity Jane was born. Or lived. Or died. Or something. Kiwi checked out the waitress. Seemed ok.
He then checked out my BLAT. Seemed ok.
He had a go at reading about Calamity Jane from a poster on the wall but couldn't decipher the words cos they were too small.
We then rode down a lovely pass with the temperatures getting back up into the mid-thirties. Too hot to be much fun really, especially once we hit the freeway and the 70mph limit. I keyed a Boise Best Western into Karen and she took us straight there. Quite good too. A reasonable price, air con and a pool. Tumeke!
I laid out my damp laundry in the swimming pool sun to freshen up a bit - especially my gruts. Not terribly elegant but very effective. I had a lovely swim but quite a short one because it is an outdoor pool and very sunny. And I burn.
Off now across the road to have a beer and a bite. The restaurant was called the Kopper Kettle (sorry about that!) but we had some lovely beers, lovely service and three huge ginormous veddy veddy big racks of pork ribs. Even Dick was defeated! We brought two doggie bags home - lunch tomorrow? The waitresses were really nice and good fun. I didn't even feel bad about giving them a tip. (I told them that no.3 Lady Chatterley racing in race 7 at Ellerslie was worth a dollar on the nose. They seemed to appreciate the trouble I went to on that.)
But as we came out of the restaurant we were confronted with Oscar Wilde's blood red moon from Rome Unvisited! So hard to photo!
Fantastic. Or maybe....
"Did we stand here, my love?
Here, hand in hand?
Did we share the sadness
of a blood-red sun"
We said goodnight to the girls and that, pretty much is that.
Tomorrow maybe Wells or maybe as far as Bonneville. Burt Munro, here we come!
Today's ride: 321kms
Cumulative: 12,552kms
Tipovers: 2
Location:Boise, Idaho, USA
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