100 miles to Boise

Our amazing host in the small town of Fairfield sent us off with an enormous breakfast of pancakes,sausages,scrambled eggs and fruit smoothies. Our goal was the state capital Boise, located 100 miles away. We knew the goal was ambitious, but we just had a rest day and felt quite able. The first twenty miles went quite well. The wind was calm, sometimes indiscernible, the land mostly flat. The high sun valley plane which we had been cycling through the past few days turned into rolling high desert. Because the wind was calm, the temperatures began to rise. By the time we reached the top of any hill, sweat was pouring from our foreheads. Soon though, we encountered descent after descent. This was exciting because it helped us immensely in our goal for a century ride. I had not realized that we had been at such elevation before we started to descend. For around 10 miles we hardly even pedaled, reaching high speeds and watching my odometer tick upwards toward a hundred. We reached the city of Mountain Home around 1 o'clock, an impressive 57 miles from where we started at 9 o'clock. Filing up with food and water from Mcdonalds, we hopped on I 94 North to Boise. The last 45 miles were long but much more comfortable than I thought it would be.

So here we are in Boise, accomplishing 100 miles for the fourth time on this whole ride. Our hosts are Patrick and Rachel. Patrick is from Holland, back in the 90's, he cycled around the world. both he and his wife enjoy hosting many touring cyclists and touring themselves. We had an amazing supper here with them and their parents, and were able to clean up after a hot and grity ride. I noticed today that my rear tire is worn down from rolling over thousands of miles of pavement. We hope visit a bike shop in the morning to find a replacement before we head into Oregon. We should be in Oregon by tomorrow. The last state. The finally stretch.